Comments on: Up in smoke

By: AlexWetmore

AlexWetmore — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:10:29 +0000

Since this is the stereo that gets used in our house more than any other (probably 10x more than any other, and primarily by Christine) I did end up replacing it. I bought a Marantz SR7002 that was on sale for a very good price. It isn”t quite as nice, but it’’s still pretty good. I sold the dead receiver on craigslist.

Mike — I do have some kits amps too. Our kitchen and outdoor speakers are powered by a 41hz.com AMP9 (4 channel amp built around a tripath chip) and my office speakers are powered by a 41hz.com AMP6. The kit amps are a lot of fun and the tripath chips are nice for this sort of use because they are very efficient and don”t burn up power when there is no input signal. For our living room though we really just need something 100% reliable and which works.

By: Alex Yip

Alex Yip — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:42:30 +0000

Hi Alex, if it really is a capacitor, you might be able to find it just by looking around on the board. I had a electrolytic cap blow on a monitor once. It was pretty obvious. The cap had a flat top with an X crossed on it, and the top was puffed out like a dome. Replaced it 6 years ago, and the monitor is still running. Another option is to sell it. I”m sure someone would buy it on ebay. Maybe for more than you expect.

By: Jon Cameron

Jon Cameron — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:29:19 +0000

Hi Alex,

I”m in the Hi-Fi biz for more than 20 years now…….take this unit to a qualified electronics repair tech. Even if NAD is no longer supporting it with service, a quality tech has a reasonable chance of fixing it. ( After all, it is ONLY five years old ) Please don”t lose faith in it over what might be a simple repair. You think nothing of rebuilding a wheel because these are skills that you possess. From reading your blog for awhile now, you seem like a pretty independent fellow. Don”t let yourself be intimidated by one of the few things that you can”t fix yourself. Accept some help on this one, and we might be able to keep it out of the landfill for another fifteen or twenty years. Thanx, Jon Cameron.

By: Jimmy Livengood

Jimmy Livengood — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:47:22 +0000

Ouch. There must be stereo geeks in the same vein of bike geeks who could do something about this, or at least help it avoid the landfill?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:48:27 +0000

I really like reading about the tinkering you do. I”m surprised you aren”t listening to some home-made vacuum tubed equipment. I”ve made some equipment from these guys http://www.bottlehead.com/ and it sounds great – and is easy to repair if needed.

By: AlexWetmore

AlexWetmore — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:14:56 +0000

I have. It is somewhat a matter of trust, I don”t want to get it repaired then have another component in it die and go up in smoke.

It also looks pretty complicated to disassemble. There is a huge heatsink in the middle with a lot bonded to it, including the part that died.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:56:12 +0000

Have you considered taking it by one of the audio repair shops on Roosevelt? Sadly, its probably cheaper to just replace it than repair it.