I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that RME
still has some reliability challenges (long term) where PSUs are concerned. My UFX which I replaced my failing FF800 with is now also failing. Both units stayed powered on most of the time and thusly I have observed the following:
FF800: Somewhere around 4-5 year mark, it began to emit a loud whine, I ended up ordering and replacing all the caps in the PSU which fixed the issue.
FFUFX: Somewhere around the exact same time in service, my UFX now does this which began as intermittent and now can't seem get to go away:
Based on
this thread and other similar threads I found by searching around as well as discussions with our fellow member cyrano. I'm 99.9% sure their power supplies tend to be substandard (I know the FF800 one was third party). I suppose there is some room for being powered on all the time and 5 years of use comes with some risk but I have had plenty of other electronic devices last far longer while also being "always on" and at this price point I do expect a little more.
I really wish they would up their game here, I'm getting a little tired of either repairing myself or spending roughly 2k ever ~4 years to keep my RME gear running. I don't know for sure if this issue is the PSU but it fits the scenario and is a tiny bit, well a lot frustrating.
Yes I expect many to reply "WOM" works on my machine which I understand, but I'm telling you that the problem exists in these devices and it's not if but when.