markallen
Luddite Tendencies
Got ahold of a one-owner CA-810, my first ever Yamaha integrated. Immaculate condition, clean, original box, manual, everything a person would want in a vintage amp. Of course it had been stored for awhile, and on power up it had all the usual signs of dirty controls. So, the usual suspects were addressed: cleaned volume and other controls related to the tone section as well as the speaker switch. Audio muting was the most stubborn, but after a couple of cleanings that was no longer a problem.
Okay, both channels play w/o distortion, but there's still issues.
First, the volume control must be turned way up - 1 or 2 o'clock - to get even medium volume. Is this a characteristic of the volume control on this amp?
Second, there is a constant low level hiss on both channels, clearly louder on R. I think that channel also has slightly lower volume. Time to narrow down the problem.
First I ran the preamp from a Marantz 1060 into the Yamaha amp section. Wow, sounds good, channels even volume, don't even have to turn the knob up as high. Reversing this, ran the preamp from the Yamaha into the amp on the 1060. There's the hiss, same sonic problems. So now I know: the problem is in the 810 preamp.
I will mention that I did NOT clean the function switch for a simple reason: access is ridiculous, and before I go there, I came here to AK. HOWEVER, I did input signal on several of the sources (tape, aux, tuner) and all performed exactly the same, so I'm doubting the function switch is the culprit.
From those that know the 810 preamp section, is there any particular place you'd start? Any known weak components prone to failure that might be causing this unit to act this way? Not finding much on AK about this particular situation. Thanks!
Okay, both channels play w/o distortion, but there's still issues.
First, the volume control must be turned way up - 1 or 2 o'clock - to get even medium volume. Is this a characteristic of the volume control on this amp?
Second, there is a constant low level hiss on both channels, clearly louder on R. I think that channel also has slightly lower volume. Time to narrow down the problem.
First I ran the preamp from a Marantz 1060 into the Yamaha amp section. Wow, sounds good, channels even volume, don't even have to turn the knob up as high. Reversing this, ran the preamp from the Yamaha into the amp on the 1060. There's the hiss, same sonic problems. So now I know: the problem is in the 810 preamp.
I will mention that I did NOT clean the function switch for a simple reason: access is ridiculous, and before I go there, I came here to AK. HOWEVER, I did input signal on several of the sources (tape, aux, tuner) and all performed exactly the same, so I'm doubting the function switch is the culprit.
From those that know the 810 preamp section, is there any particular place you'd start? Any known weak components prone to failure that might be causing this unit to act this way? Not finding much on AK about this particular situation. Thanks!
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