Vintage Stereo Repair

The original woofer installed by the name-brand manufacturers is designed and tested with many years of research and fine-turning. The original woofer matches the crossover, mid-range, and tweeter. The best way for speaker restoration is by rebuilding your original woofer. Rebuilds are the only way you can get your original speaker back. The same reason applies to the mid-range or tweeter as well.

Unplug the power cord of the subwoofer. Unplug the input cable on the subwoofer input. Plug in the power cord of the subwoofer and switch the off/auto/on switch to the on position if your subwoofer has this switch. If your subwoofer doesn’t have the power on switch, then you can use a 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA cable connects a cell phone or iPod to the subwoofer input. Slowly turn up the volume control on your cell phone or iPod until the subwoofer detects the signal and turns on the power.

If the subwoofer is making a hum noise after power on without the receiver connected to it, then we know the problem is the subwoofer. But if there is no hum noise after the subwoofer is turned on, then the problem could be that the receiver or the RCA cable connects the receiver and the subwoofer. Try a new RCA cable. The problem should be the receiver if the new RCA cable doesn’t fix the hum noise.

It depends if you are planning to use it to listening to music or movie’s soundtrack. If you are using the receiver for music, then repairing your vintage Hi-Fi receiver is the way to go. The vintage receivers designed in the 70’s to the early 90’s was mainly designed and built by the company selling the receiver. A lot of the engineers were also musicians as well. The fully analog amplifier circuits allowed the engineer to fine tune the sound quality. They referred the receivers as Hi-Fi (high-fidelity sound reproduction) equipment. Most of the vintage receivers have very excellent sound quality and extremely low distortion. However, if you are using the receiver for home theater, then you might want to look into the latest model surround sound receiver with the HDMI inputs, digital-to-analog converters, Dolby and DTS surround processors, etc. These receivers are designed with great sound effects for movies. But for all the components in the surround sound receivers added for the sound effects, the more noise and distortions will cause by those components. Most of the younger engineers understand more about computer and software. They can design great D/A or A/D converters, and excellent digital surround sound processor. But the engineers in the past were better at designing receivers for the music.

1. Confirm all of the speaker wires are connected and the balance control set on the center.

2. Test your receiver with at least two input sources, e.g. the radio and CD player.

1. Swap the left and right speakers after you turn off the power on your receiver. Turn the power back on to test the receiver again. The problem is in the receiver if the same channel has no sound, or if the same speaker has no sound after you swapped the left and right speakers.

1. Check the TV, receiver, DVD / Blu-ray player manufacture web sites for firmware update.

2. Replace you old HDMI cables when you replaced the TV, receiver, Blu-ray player or cable box when necessary. HDMI specification changed many times from the first released in 2002. But HDMI cables use the same connectors today. The old HDMI cables can plug into the new equipments, but may be not about to keep up with the speed needed for the latest HDMI specification.

3. Disconnect the HDMI cables. Turn off the TV, receiver and DVD / Blu-ray player. Reconnect the HDMI cables, and turn all the power back on at the same time can fix the problem. Most of the equipments sold in North America are HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) compliant. If your equipments detect a possibility of intercepting digital data midstream between the sources to the display, then it will cut out the sound or the picture or both. Disconnect the HDMI cables, turn off and on the power will make your equipment HDMI “handshake” again. This might take care the HDMI no sound or picture problem.

4. Try another HDMI port. Connecting the HDMI cables to another HDMI port will also make your TV, receiver, DVD/Blu-ray player or cable box “handshake” again.

5. Connect the DVD/Blu-ray player or cable directly to the TV without the receiver in between. If both the sound and picture come back by connecting the HDMI cable directly to the TV without the receiver, then it means the problem is in the receiver. If you already checked the firmware in the receiver is up to date, then contact the receiver’s manufacture or a repair shop to have your receiver checked out or repair.

Maybe, maybe not! Most of the receivers have the speaker protection built in. If the receiver detected any one of the speakers are connected to the output speaker terminals are overloaded or shorted, then it will disconnect all speakers’ output, and try to protect the receiver from getting damage. You can do the following to confirm if the problem is in the receiver or possibly something else.

1. Check and make sure all speaker wires and input cables are connected, and that the speaker wires are not touching each other. Fix the wiring or replace it if you have questions about the cables. If the wiring looks good, then go to step 2.

2. If you can turn on the receiver. Try at least two input sources. Check your receiver with the FM / AM radio, CD player or cable box on HDMI input. If you have no sound on all inputs, you cannot turn on the receiver, or the receiver has only one LED light blinking, then go to step 3.

3. Unplug the power cord of the receiver. Wait a few minutes. Turn the volume control all the way down. Plug in the power cord again. Try turning the receiver power switch on. If the power turns on. Wait for 5-10 seconds. Slowly turn the volume control up so you can just hear the sound with the FM / AM radio or cable box. If you have sound, make sure all speakers have sound and no distortions before turning the volume up. If you have a speaker distortion or no sound, then check the speaker wire and / or the speaker. If you still have no sound or power doesn’t turn on after it is unplugged and plugged in the power cord, then go to step

4. Some of the newer receivers have system reset and / or firmware update. Check your owner’s manual or the manufactures website for the information of how to reset the receiver or instruction of the firmware update.

5. Bring or ship the receiver to a repair shop to repair if the system reset and the firmware update don’t fix the problem, or if the receiver turns on and switches to protection mode right away.

The turntable has come back to the stereo market very strongly in recent years. Many new turntables are on the market with outstanding performance. Getting a new design turntable isn’t a bad idea. However, some functions and features may only be available in the vintage turntables, or the turntable is part of the matching system. It may also be custom installed in a stereo console. You may be like to repair your vintage turntable instead of buying a new one. Our Vintage Stereo Repair Department has repaired many vintage turntables. Please let us know if you have more questions!

The answer is a question: What is the purpose of using your receiver? The new surround sound receivers are designed with the latest technology for home theater with HDMI and Digital Surround Sound Processor installed. It is perfect for enjoying a movie. Unfortunately, the analog to digital converter and the digital to analog converter will have more distortion than the vintage super low distortion fully analog solid-state or tube amplifier/receiver. We have called it a HiFi (High fidelity) system in the 70’s/80’s. Many tube amplifiers built in the 60’ are excellent choices for music lovers.