Reply to: Hi Fi repair... anyone?

[Platypus]

a bit of Hawkwind.

[RichardCranium]

Those spiders are a real pain...

Would that be the spiders from Mars?

[gingerjedi]

I disconnected the lower frequency turned it on a set the volume to near max, I heard the fan kick in and go into overdrive.

Seems alright now? Must have blown a few cobwebs out??

[xoggoth]

Agree with 1st commenter, a capacitor, specifically a large electrolytic. They age.

[pzz76077]

Id put my money on defective electrolytics or cracked potentiometer.

PZZ

[vetran]

Most likeley thing to fail is anything that moves, volume control, switches, speakers etc. see if the fault changes when you operate them.

Caps could be the issue but moving parts fail most often.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

....
Is it worth fixing CD players? My Pioneer one that I bought with the amp has started skipping and refusing to play lots of CDs. I've been playing CDs in my DVD player as a backup.

I figure I could probably get a Tesco Value replacement for £5 in this day and age.

I remembered my ex Bro-in-law used to mend his (he had loads as he ran a string on mobile discos - he told me that the little lens thingy often sticks - so I did a quick Google and voila!

http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_cdfaq4.html#CDFAQ_020

[FarmerPalmer]

I have a Technics amp that’s about 15 years old but in good condition apart from one fault, the volume momentarily drops and sounds a little muffled every 30-60 seconds then returns to normal?

Any experts have an idea what’s going on? It would be a shame to chuck it out if it's just a simple fix.

Probably the electrolytics have shot, normally noticable residue can be seen on the board - I bought an old NAD 3020 about 5 years ago and replaced the electrolytics, putting life back into it - and gorgeous it is too.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/nad3020e.html

[s2budd]

OK. Good luck. They close at 5pm but are open on Saturday.

[gingerjedi]

Cheers, I'll make detour one day on the way home if I can't see anything obvious.

[s2budd]

Take it to Triangle TV in Redland. There experts at component level faults and I know the guy who runs it. Their address is: 124 Coldharbour Road, Redland, Bristol BS6 7SL

[gingerjedi]

Better than that I'll disconnect the upper range and see what it sounds like.

Gone are the days when a student with a multimeter would fix it for a fiver.

[gingerjedi]

It's much greener to repair and more satisfying too.

My system has a Bi-amp so the speakers don't have crossovers, the other components all connect via a unique Technics ribbon cable so it would mean 6 boxes in the landfill if I can't fix it.

[_V_]

It's much greener to repair and more satisfying too.

[VectraMan]

My old Pioneer amp was doing similar things out of one speaker, but there's A & B speaker outputs on it and switching the pair from A to B and now both work again. I originally thought it was the speakers (which are even older).

Is it worth fixing CD players? My Pioneer one that I bought with the amp has started skipping and refusing to play lots of CDs. I've been playing CDs in my DVD player as a backup.

I figure I could probably get a Tesco Value replacement for £5 in this day and age.