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Equipment cleaning?


EM3

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Today I received a nice gift from a friend. He knew I was redoing some Heresey speakers and he knew I needed something to drive them. In his closet he had a Kenwood KA-601 Amp and a KT-605 Tuner. After I hooked them up to the speakers they seem to work ok but I notice that the left channel seems to cut in and out. I am 90 percent sure it is in the amp because I can "peck" the balance knob and the sound comes back in sometimes and sometimes the sound comes in on it's own. Also, if I put it to the left channel only sometimes it will play for a while and sometimes it won't or if it does the sound is diminshed.

Now since I'm new at this how can I clean the switch so it works properly? I only have a Radio Shack and Wal Mart near me so it needs to be something I can pick up there. Also, some of the other controls pop a little when I use them so any help would be appreciated. Remember I am new to this stuff. If there is a thread about this please point me in the right direction.

Thanks

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First thing you want to do is unplug everything. You should go to Radio Shack and see which products they have from Deoxit. This is what you should look for. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=341-200

With that product you want to spray the knobs and turn them back and fourth for a minute or two then let them sit. You might want to do this with some rags under it and make sure that you watch what you are doing. Also you can you this for any knobs but never use it for the tuner knob. Let it sit for a day and be careful when you hook everything back up. You might want to use some different speaker from now on to test used equipment, nothing like blowing your good speakers on some gear that you just picked up.

I am sure others will be along to help you out also.

James

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The knob cleaning would certainly be the first step. There are some other minor diagnostic steps anyone can take to determine where the problem lies. You can switch the left and right inputs on a source to verify the problem is not a connection or source issue. If you can find the schematic, usually you can trace to see where the output meters are in the chain. If the output meters are indicating the cutting in and out as well, it is most likley in the preamp sections, as most of the meters are before the output section. If not, then you are looking at the amp section, which is not as fun. Could be output transistors, most likley junk at that point, or driver boards, which are usually fixable with some new caps. I would say test the offest and bias with a multimeter, but if it is completely cutting out, that is probably not the case as I have not seen a protection circuit that protects channels individually, usually it will cut out both. Good luck and listen to James...De-Oxit is a vintage solid state reveiver's best friend. ACE

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Thanks guys I will definately look into the De-Oxit route. I forgot to post this am but the left channel started working so I worked the knob back and forth about a couple dozen times. I let it play for about 45 minutes and there was no more problems. I hope this evening it will work fine. I figure a good cleaning is in order for it. First time attempting that job. I found some good instructions at Audiokarma.org.

I don't know how the radio receiver sounds yet but It sounded real good through the Aux input and an IPod.

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