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Help Requested - Clock Radio with Fuzzy Sound

I just found this group. Sorry to ask what is probably an elementary question for you folks.

I have had a clock radio (digital tuner and cordless phone) for several years. I believe that it is a "Frontgate" label - but don't know who the manufacturer is. Pretty much all of the sudden, the sound has gotten very fuzzy soft - and even if I crank up the volume it is still on the softish side.

Is this normal for a (not so expensive - but not cheap) piece of consumer electronics? I seem to recall an earlier digital clock radio that also seemed to go "fuzzy" after several years. I got rid of that for the radio/phone combo (in order to reduce the clutter on the night stand).

If this is "normal", is there a better manufacturer of clock radios out there that won't have this behavior? Or should I just plan on replacing my clock radio every 5 years or so.

thanks doug.

Reply to
Doug
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Unfortunately, this is the case any more with many consumer electronics... In some respects, you are lucky it has lasted as long as it has. We are living in a throw-away society, parts for repairing that type of electronics are more costly than replacing the entire unit, assuming you can even get the parts any more.

I use Consumer Reports as a somewhat reliable source of reliability information, but for the no-name brands, you are taking a crap-shoot.

Good luck with your next thow of the dice.

H. R. (Bob) Hofmann

Reply to
hrhofmann

Well stuff like that is a crapshoot, though fuzzy sound could be something simple like a cracked solder joint if it happened suddenly. You might also check to see if some bits of crud fell down into the speaker, they usually face up and a few crumbs of something can make it sound nasty.

Reply to
James Sweet

**Mechanical switches and electrolytic caps, would be my first suspects. 
--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au
Reply to
Trevor Wilson

Or the speaker itself. If it has an earphone socket, might be worth plugging one in just to see how it sounds on that.

Arfa

Reply to
Arfa Daily

It could just be the loudspeaker or a bad connection and they are both worth checking out. If it's relatively new, then most of the electronics is probably one or two chips.

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Reply to
Sam Goldwasser

Thanks to all of you for resonding.

I have taken some compressed air and blew out any dust (especially off the speaker) to no avail. I'm not too electronically inclined, but I have been known to heat up a soldering iron on one or two occasions. I'll check for loose connections tonight.

doug

Reply to
Doug

Doug-

As Trevor suggested, there could be a leaky electrolytic capacitor in the audio amplifier, possibly one connecting the speaker to the amplifier.

Could liquid have been spilled into the speaker? If the speaker cone had warped, the voice coil might be rubbing against the magnet's pole piece. It is possible to apply pressure to a speaker cone in such a way that you can feel it rubbing (or not) to see if that might be what causes the fuzzy sound.

Fred

Reply to
Fred McKenzie

If you have any sort of small loudspeaker kicking around (like a PC speaker), it would be worth substituting it or even just jumpering it in parallel with the internal speaker to see if sounds any better.

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Reply to
Sam Goldwasser

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