AV amp repair-is it worth it?

[Covenant]

Looks like my Yamaha RX-V2600 AV amp has gone tits up:(. It won't power up and I can hear the relays clicking inside. Even though it was expensive when new, I wonder if it's worth getting a repair done as they are so cheap second hand on ebay.
Any thoughts?

[Reid Malenfant]

Unless you know someone that'll take a look on the cheap I'm not sure in all honesty :scratch:

There is so much to look at & it'll take time, on a rather expensive hourly rate you'd need someone to know exactly what they are doing & preferably know the unit itself, or it might cost more to fix than replace :rolleyes:

It just takes one amplifier to be faulty out of the complement of either five or seven to prevent it powering up. That's a lot to get around in the confined space of a typical AV amp & the thought of possibly £50 per hour or more & the components on top (typical price) makes it often uneconomic.

[synsei]

Take a look inside and check all the fuses, you never know ;)

[Reid Malenfant]

Take a look inside and check all the fuses, you never know ;)
Good point Dave :)


:doh:

[Covenant]

It will take about an hour to disconnect all the cables as I will need to label them! Think its a job for another day.....

[synsei]

Us non technical personnel tend to come at problems from t'other end, you'd be surprised how often the problem is down to a fuse.

It's a similar thing with CD players. When CD's begin to 'stick' many just throw the player out or technical bods will tell you the laser is fooked. Years ago an engineer friend told me that more often than not the problem is down to shite on the rails that the laser assembly runs on. The fix? Take tut cover off, clean rails with IPA, run pencil along rails, close up, put CD in, run through track selection to end of CD and back, after which 9 times outta 10 the CDP works just fine. I've resurrected many a CDP this way ;)

[JimC]

These have a strange Standby circuit which fails with a Capacitor changing value. The set usually dies totally though so it is doubtfull it is this if relays can be heard.

More likely a supply is missing or the Output stage of one or more channels has failed causing the protection circuit to operate immedialtely.

If you were closer I'd have a look for you.

JC

[Covenant]

Thanks Jim, I think a cheap second hand av amp off ebay will sort me out for a while.

[Covenant]

I have decided after looking at the cheap AV amps to get mine repaired. Attached are a few photos showing the innards. There is white stuff at the bottom of a big Nicholson gold cap. Is that to hold it in place or has it blown?
If there is nothing obvious I will take it to Richer Sound as they will assess it for £40.

[istari_knight]

I have decided after looking at the cheap AV amps to get mine repaired. Attached are a few photos showing the innards. There is white stuff at the bottom of a big Nicholson gold cap. Is that to hold it in place or has it blown?
If there is nothing obvious I will take it to Richer Sound as they will assess it for £40.

That white stuff is glue to keep the capacitors from pulling away from the board.

According to the service manual your can boot the amplifier in diagnostic mode by pressing the master on/off button while simultaneously pressing A/B/C/D/E button + Preset/Tuning > button.

If it detects a fault it will display a fault code before turning itself off, if it wont turn on at all using the above method the power supply has failed at some point.

[istari_knight]

Can you confirm if the largest capacitor in picture 4 is bulged on top or flat ?

[Covenant]

Cheers James-I hadn't spotted that in the manual but I suspect a power supply problem as there is no click from the relays when switched on. I will try it later on tonight. The large capacitor hasn't bulged, the top is flat.

[istari_knight]

Cheers James-I hadn't spotted that in the manual but I suspect a power supply problem as there is no click from the relays when switched on. I will try it later on tonight. The large capacitor hasn't bulged, the top is flat.

Oh okay, it looked bulged on my screen!

I've fixed a few AV amps [Pioneer & Arcam] and they all seem to share the same weakness - Capacitors on regulator outputs are usually poorly specced [16v cap running at 16v] which is basically a timebomb, after 2-3 years but often less if well used they just fail... Meaning the customer has to buy a new one. I'm sure they wouldn't do it deliberately... would they !? :rolleyes:

[Covenant]

Tried the fault code procedure but didn't get anything showing. So I will run it into Richer Sounds later in the week.

[Covenant]

Richer Sounds are brilliant-they have just phoned to say it was a very minor fault-just one capacitor needed replacing so I will pick it up tomorrow. It only took them 3 days to sort it and they had to transport it from Liverpool to Bristol where their repair place is.
Very impressed!