D.I.Y HIFI REPAIR DISASTERS – WHY NOT TO D.I.Y.

From the Technician’s Bench – Why not to D.I.Y your HIFI and Audio Equipment repairs

Why not take on your own D.I.Y. HiFi repairs? You have an understanding of how it works, you like to dabble in electronics. There’s Google and You Tube. How hard can it be?

YOU TUBE VIDEOS – A quick note on YouTube videos showing you how to fix your model or one similar. We all know that if it’s on Google it must be true, right? If only life was so simple. The limitations of YouTube means the “expert” will show you one cause of your symptom and then with “authority” show you how to fix it yourself. You think you will save big $ and learn a new skill.

However, be assured there is often more than one cause of any one symptom in any model of electronics. The reasons are varied, and not limited to (a) different climates affecting the ageing of equipment. For example, audio equipment in Queensland ages much faster due to higher temperatures and much higher humidity. (b) Dust exacerbates the ageing process as does animal hair (c) the unit being left on unnecessarily (d) the unit being jammed into a too tight space in a cabinet causing it to run even hotter than it otherwise would. (e) playing too hard too frequently. (f) not repairing a fault when it is first experienced which then causes other faults (g) guests (housesitters particularly) unfamiliar with the equipment (h) children attracted to the shiny bits (i) removalists…..

Rarely do these causes just affect one component in your equipment, therefore there is almost always more than one problem to sort out.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 044 NOT AN AUDIOPHILE the PODCAST – A discussion including the risks, myths & realities of AI “advising” on HiFi purchase & repairs.

I get it. Your little internal voice says “There’s probably nothing much wrong with it, just a fuse or something immediately obvious when I lift the lid”. I understand the desire to get your equipment going again (a) right now and (b) inexpensively. However, I can assure you that from my experience D.I.Y repairs are almost always a disaster.

As a qualified audio technician with 40+ years experience, I can occasionally think I’ve seen it all. Then another job comes in accompanied by the statement “I just had a quick look myself, but couldn’t see anything obvious”. Upon first glance the experienced eye immediately notices the carnage caused by the innocent “quick look”. This carnage may not be obvious to the casual observer as the nature of electronics is not really a visual fault-finding exercise. Almost always the cause of the symptom – be it a crackle, intermittent sound or no power are a component failure invisible except with a multi-meter, more time than you would like, and years of experience.

Standard D.I.Y. carnage can consist of damaged flat wire looms or missing and incorrectly placed screws. Or loose screws rattling around in the bottom of the chassis randomly shorting things out either on the quiet or with loud cracks and smoke. Components are being replaced that don’t need replacing, incorrect components are used or components are returned into incorrect positions. Wiring is a fire hazard and soldering doomed to failure.

Now, I don’t want to cast aspersions on everyone who lifts the lid on their own audio gear. You may have some experience with pulling things apart and checking for the obvious. You may be able to do this without leaving a trail of destruction, and that’s fine. My question though is what were you going to do once you identified the visually obvious possible cause? The pain with electronic repairs is that they are not repaired until they are repaired. There can be an obvious problem such as a burnt resistor or blown fuse. You can replace the resistor or the fuse but it will just go again. We have to find why it’s burned or blown. Replacing the damaged part is really doing no more than fixing the symptom, not the cause.

Although I am an advocate for trying new things, I believe a person also has to know their limitations. I service my own vehicles to a certain extent. I don’t open the hood and start pulling parts out to see if I can figure it out myself then put the car on a trailer and drop it off at the mechanic to finish.

Some of the complex repairs we have had recently would have otherwise been quite straight forward if the owners had not tried to make their own repairs. I include in some of these cases, owners who have taken their equipment to friends who had the best intentions. I also include those who have had repairs done by people from enthusiast forums with You Tube degrees in “technicianing”.

The sad D.I.Y. story of a beautiful vintage amplifier.

Once upon a time… A beautiful vintage amplifier came in where the main circuit board had unnecessarily been removed and refitted so many times that wires had been broken off – In some cases invisibly – then roughly resoldered back on in the incorrect positions.

Original symptom – The original fault/complaint in this case was a super simple fix we have seen many times over the years.

In a lot of cases the service manual for vintage equipment consists of a PDF of a fax of a photocopy that has been used as a coffee coaster for years. This often is the only reference for where the wires really might belong. The fact that all the components are in the incorrect place makes the repair of this machine difficult, frustrating, expensive and ultimately, not always possible.

Result – amp written off as the incorrectly positioned wires had done so much damage it was simply too time consuming to sort out.

A 5 minute fix became a 3 hour turntable DIY repair disaster.

The owner of this turntable had decided that the reason the arm was not tracking correctly had something to do with the bearing adjustments. They proceeded to undo screws all over the arm and generally create a multi-hour, re-calibration of the arm from the ground up.

Original fault – The actual fault was just that the cueing lifter was set incorrectly so it was touching the lower edge of the arm tube.

Result – A 5 minute fix became 3 hours and a costly repair bill.

A DIY screwdriver screwup.

An obviously frustrated owner tried to take apart a rather smart and cool-looking receiver with a large blade screwdriver. The cabinet has many hidden screws, sliding panels etc which a technician would be aware of. What was immaculate was a mess by the time it came to us.

An intermittent crackle went up in smoke

A well meaning D.I.Y’er unnecessarily changed the speaker relay because the internet said they always play up. He actually did quite good soldering work during the process. However, the output transistors were unnecessarily removed to enable access to the underside of the circuit board. Upon reassembly they were put back in the opposite locations. When it was brought to us, the owner reported quite a lot of smoke.

Original fault – a simple intermittent crackle. At worst, this would have been an approx $600 repair.

Result – repair price tripled as so much time had to be spent fixing the D.I.Y. mistakes as well as the initial fault.

THE FICTION OF RECAPPING!!! – This is not the quick fix for all ills. Apparently, according to the internet, the cause of almost every issue in older, perhaps “vintage” equipment is electrolytic capacitors.

‘Electros’ cause no more problems in most electronics than transistors, other styles of capacitors, resistors, dodgy soldering, general wear and tear, transport damage, playing the system into distortion etc. Recapping is the most silly, over-used term I can think of in audio electronics.

Sure there are a few “eras” of gear that tend towards having faulty electros as manufacturers were supplied faulty and sub-standard batches. Most notably early SMC electros, Chinese filtering caps of the early 2000’s and probably quite a lot of small value caps of the late 90’s as well. Rarely does this require a “recap”. If you have any technical knowledge at all, you will just trace and replace the faulty ones, usually of just one particular value.

Vintage gear of the 70’s and 80’s, with the small signal transistors of the era are much less reliable than the Japanese capacitors that rarely play up. No one is talking about a “re-transistor” of everything though. One sure fire way to ruin the sweet sound of your beloved older amp is to “recap” it willy-nilly. It’s just not that simple.

We want what you want. We just want to fix your amp, turntable or speakers as economically and reliably as possible. The hardest fault to trace is the man-made fault.