Your having audio issues? Maybe the troubleshooting flowchart is the solution.

Pioneer SA-7100

Just received a SA-7100 and the Tone Defeat Switch has to be on to hear anything. I am a beginner and not too versed in repair. Any suggestions? Thank You
 
This chart says that if a power amp hums or hisses when nothing is connected to its input, the amp is broken, which is often going to be wrong.
Additionally, if it is NOT humming with the music but the music is distorted, oh yes, your speakers are defective. :yes:
Conclusion, according this flowchart a distorting amp always has bad loudspeakers.

I was reading this flowchart for fun.
In the real, going by it does not work for me.
Somehow, I am always stuck in the very first loop.
 
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Hmmm. I have a Pioneer Elite VSX27TX receiver. Just before I went on vacation two weeks ago I had decided to clean out the rats nest of wires behind that unit. Disconnected many speaker wires..I had A and B connections for speakers in two rooms. Didn't really need that and other similar such wiring decisions were made. Reduced the rats nest but a few days later the receiver went dead after 15 years of faultless use. There was no action when turning on the power switch--the standby light did not come on. Of course I checked the obvious-- unit plugged into AC etc etc. Now I used the flow chart (seen while I am still away from home on vacation). I still can't see how fooling around with speaker wires could ever cause the problem but I will certainly recheck when I head back to Canada. Thanks for the chart though...great idea.
 
Just had a thought re the Pioneer VSX problem in the previous message. If I r ember correctly, when you have speakers plugged into both A and B speaker connectors you gave to set certain impedance settings depending on the speakers in use. As reported previously I had recently disconnected the B speakers--but neglected to do anything about revising impedance settings. I can't really see how that would make the amp lock up as it now is but......?.?? Will check back in Canada. Anyway, a thought to consider.
 
I once thought that I burned out a part of my JVC R-S55 as it 'Didn't work anymore.' I was really pissed at myself. it ended up to be that both speaker set selector switched were off XP
 
Basic troubleshooting 101... Start with the simple stuff, and rule out all the components that reside between your chair and your stereo first. People get annoyed when you ask questions like, "Is it turned on?" or "Is the tape monitor on?" or, as mentioned earlier, "Are your speaker cables connected properly?", but, more often than not, it seems, these take care of the lion's share of the issues. The Pareto Principle at work!

Actually, it reminds me of a bit of contract work I did for a local utility. They were installing a bunch of enterprise-wide applications, and had taped all their systems' flowcharts up on the wall. There was a central element of that flowchart that fit on maybe a D-size plot, and took care of probably 90% of the issues that might arise. The rest of the flowchart was probably 40 feet wide and three feet high, and took care of the other 10 percent of the issues.
 
They should include that chart as resource material for newbies.....as a link up top right linked to our names !

Like, dude...check out the chart !
 
troubleshootchart.png


Here is the chart.

Wayner
Audio by Van Alstine Associate.
 
Oh;, Lord. I have a Sony ST6800 SD receiver, and it is down on the left channel, not dead,but much lower output than the right. Cleaned the balance pot and switched the speakers, left to right. Left is down in output, but not distored. Any ideas? thanks, ron

Look up "how to clean speaker relay" on YouTube. That's the next step if you had a flowchart.
 
Just had a thought re the Pioneer VSX problem in the previous message. If I r ember correctly, when you have speakers plugged into both A and B speaker connectors you gave to set certain impedance settings depending on the speakers in use. As reported previously I had recently disconnected the B speakers--but neglected to do anything about revising impedance settings. I can't really see how that would make the amp lock up as it now is but......?.?? Will check back in Canada. Anyway, a thought to consider.

Check to make sure that when you reconnected the speaker wires that there aren't any strands shorting the two speaker posts. Just one tiny hair thin wire strand across both connectors can send the amp into protected mode or blow the main fuse.
 
Seriously, though... it looks pretty good. I sold a receiver to a guy once who called me later in the day, fuming mad. Claimed I'd deceived him and sold him a broken piece of junk, that he was getting no sound from one channel.

He called again a little later to explain that he'd forgotten to connect a speaker wire...

Gene Ween? Dean Ween?!?! Never thought I'd see this avatar on this site! :trebon:
 
I found this over on the Van Alstine site. Frank has put this "Troubleshooting Flowchart" together for your audio problem solving needs. It would be interesting to put it to the test and see if he has it all covered.

RC
That is surprisingly very good. Thank you for sharing.
 
Not sure if this is on the chart, but I learned this one through trial and error. Newly purchased Marantz unit was having problems with an intermittent cut off on the right speaker. Jiggling the volume control know would bring the sound back, briefly, then it would go off again. After taking it to a tech, he said the issue was fixed. got it home, still happening! Took it back to the tech....worked fine for him. I thought the problem might be in the right speaker I had tested the unit with.....switched the speakers out.....BINGO....problem solved! :jump:
 
Unfortunately, the flow chart totally omits problems with the sound caused by room acoustics and the like (e.g., suck outs, hot spots, rattles, buzzes, etc.)
 
Folks, if you are a true audio enthusiast, then all "trouble shooting flowcharts" are already (or should be) in your head. You follow them naturally. :eek::music:
 
looking in this old thread, this flowchart a few posts back has two errors already, maybe I read it again and find more.

Now, for actually FIXING something, you need to have all possible failures in the flowchart, so basically flowcharts for troubleshooting are pretty much totally useless if beyond the newbie level.
 
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