Home audio amplifier failure

I kinda' givin' thought that maybe an AC spike/outage may have caused the problem. Although all the equipment is on a strip, I can't see any other cause, unless it's faulty, as you mention.

Gary

For others if not yourself the owner manual can be downloaded here

Is the display panel and/or any other indicators alight? If they are on, could it be something stupid like the mute button on the remote activated?

Ross Herbert

PS. If I had read ALL of the other posts before posting myself I would have seen this point has already been covered.

I have a PDF service manual. If you would like it, and can take an attachment of 1.5 meg or so, you can e-mail me direct at:

snipped-for-privacy@labolgcbs.net

and reverse the domain name.

Mark Z.

Well, that's kool, I do that sometimes myself....

Yeah, it appears that the amp is in permanent mute mode.

I did just speak with the amp repair friend(guitar/instru- ment amps), and he said he'd need a schematic. Over- all, it just seems like it will require extraordinary effort as opposed to a ~$300 replacement.

Thanks,

Gary

It may be in mute mode for a reason - perhaps solvable by reading the owner's manual?

N

Well, I have read the owner's(aka instruction manual), both in hardcopy & online. Very little is said concerning the mute specification, other than: (paraphrasing)

Mute can be initiated via the rc transmitter(which I never used since the unit was new, >10 years ago).

Mute can be disabled via the rc transmitter, or by offing the amp. I've pretty much proven this power cycling of the amp will not de-mute.

I'll agree though, mute is probably on for a reason, it's just a matter of whether the reason is valid(reversible), or invalid(irreversible, without internal intervention).

Because of its long periods of service(it gets left on >24-

36 hours sometimes), I had just been wondering how this might affect its health, and what I'd do if it failed.

But, I expected an amplifier breakdown, not a false mute mode interruption. I am going to try one last thing this afternoon, as soon as I can dig up a couple of AAA bat- teries. I'll replug the rc cable, arm the remote, and see if the rc operation has any effect.

But, I hold little optimism.

Pending results....

Thanks,

Gary

I've been following this thread, and am wondering if the mute function on this amp is different than most I've used.

In every one I've owned, the mute is really a -10 to -20 dB attenuator as opposed to an absolute silencing of all audio. In fact, I usually use my daily driver in mute mode because it gives me finer control over the volume, especially given the 'stepped' nature of the remote operation. With the mute off, I don't turn the knob past 10 o'clock or so in normal operation. With the mute on, I get up to maybe 3 o'clock before distortion set in. (Of course, this mode occasionally 'bites' me when someone hits the mute button with the volume up.)

jak

Well, to everyone here following the saga of this thread, the Onkyo amplifier muting problem now seems solved.

Many details exist, but basically I got the rc transmitter from the original plastic bag, dug up some AA batteries, re-plugged the components rc cables, and started push- ing buttons.

Not really much happened at first. Interestingly, the amp has a huge volume knob right in the middle of the front panel. Testing the rc volume +/- activates some kind of small motor that actually advances/retards the knob.

But, on to the real problem. I couldn't even find the muting button on the rc unit at first. Unlike the other buttons, it's printed in red on the black background. Being color blind I had to resort to one of those lighted magnifiers made for old people.

Pushing the mute button did easily disable the status on the amp's display. However, power cycling the amp, seems to guarantee initialization in mute mode. But, now that I can disable this, that's ok. Again, I now have the full amplificaton restored.

Thanks again, to everyone that forced me to explore all possibilities. I held little optimism for this last diagnosis, but I was certainly proven wrong.

Thanks,

Gary

That's a weird one, but motorized controls are going back some.

N

Well, don't know much about attenuator etc., but the amp seems to work like this.

It has an on/off button(stay with me here....). when one chooses to operate the amp via rc, only the rc on/off should be used. The amp's on/off should remain on.

Next, this mute function, as I described earlier, doesn't completely eliminate all audio. But, I think that's what is intended. Like you, I hardly ever operate the amp at anywhere past the 9-10 o-clock range.

However, with mute activated, the volume must be in- creased to 100% just to hear even the most faint sign of audio. Don't know, but I suspect this faint audio is what I would term bleed through/crosstalk etc.

I did review attenuator meaning, and if that's the inten- tion of this amp's design, then the definition should be changed from reducing to 99.50% elimination.

Thanks,

Gary

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