So, I never replaced the fan in my DA-7. It would periodically make hissing and/or light grinding noises over the last several years but, they always then went away before they became so bothersome that I had do a replacement.

A couple of days ago, it finally started making a pretty loud and consistent report of a bearing failure. Loud and long enough that I finally decided to unpatch the desk, pull it out of the "studio" and finally tear into it and check out what it takes to replace the fan or if I could rebuild it.

As a side observation on that: The guides to doing this project here on the DA-7/Audiotalkback site are woefully inadequate. I'd be happy to do a more comprehensive write-up (w/pictures), if anyone thinks it's worth it (i.e. am I like, the last person with a DA-7 that has yet to replace the fan?)

Anyway, the part number listed for the fan here on the site (in a post by Justin) returns a part classified as a "motor" when searched in the Panasonic parts locator website. It may be the right part and just described poorly, I don't know. In any case, it's now up to like, $92.00 or some ridiculous price.

I wanted to see if I could rebuild the old fan for the time being and source a good (hopefully better quality) fan, as a replacement. I opened up the DA-7 and took the fan out and noticed it is a 60mm x 10mm 5v fan - mine is made by a company called "Shicoh."

I took the sticker off the fan, revealing the little circlip at the end of the fan shaft holding it all together and took the whole thing apart. It's not that hard to do - just pretty small parts in a tight package. Inside, the fan has a tiny little roller-cage bearing that the fan shaft sits in so, it is pretty difficult to "rebuild" it on the spot. I did the best I could to try and pack some bearing crease in the tiny little bearing through the gaps around the cage covers, I also put a little more grease on the shaft and the plain bearing that it sits in and put the whole thing together. It's noticeably quieter than it was but, it still make s slight hissing-type sound so, it's not good and will need to be replaced.

Which leads me to - I also searched for replacement fans and found quite a few sources for them. Average price for a 60mm x 10mm 5v, 3 conductor (positive, negative and "speed") fan (i.e. essentially a "direct replacement") is about $10.00 from various suppliers found on the internet.

I ended up finding a source for the EXACT fan that is in my DA-7 - the Shicoh A0160 - through Amazon. They sell them in two packs (why 2-Packs, I don't know, but...) and I bought a package of two for $9.99 - total of $15 w/ shipping. They should be here next week.


Question for those of you who got the part from Panasonic and did the fan replacement - Was the new part you got just a replacement (perhaps even the Shico brand fan that is in my DA-7) or was it an upgrade? I'm wondering if the known problem is with the OEM Shicoh fans being shitty and I shouldn't waste my time simply replacing with the original OEM fan, but upgrade to a better fan, now.