Hi. I inherited a busted up old pioneer vsx-9500s a/v reciever from my parents. The problem is with the output...it's way too quiet. With the volume knob cranked to 11, the sound is barely audible far in the back of the speakers. This is why my parents replaced the thing, it worked fine for them for years and then one day... you know how the story goes.

So i'm convinced i can fix it to replace my piece of crap 1986 fisher unit. i opened the pioneer up and besides a lot of dust, i see nothing out of the ordinary except what looks like a possible blown fuse (marked 10A and all cloudy lookin'). Am i drunk, or could this be the problem?

If not, what's the deal? Can i fix it? Should I fix it?
I'm not experienced with such things, but i think i would trust myself with some freshman/sophomore level ee projects. I wanna learn.

Thanks,
tymk

 

OK lets change the fuse first. Same fuse type voltage/amperage. Probably 250 VAC @ 10 AMP. What may have happened is the output IC has failed or could have been a power surge and the fuse caught it. Mom and dad have Johnny Cash cranked up one night?Sorry, this particular stereo should be easy to fix and not too expensive, around $40 to $50. So replace the fuse, with the "can" lid off watch the fuse and have someone plug it in. If the fuse doesn't blow ASAP then turn it on. What you are looking for is if the fuse blows "Hard" or flashes bright when/if it blows. Bright flash means a shorted IC and we go from there... Look on the large black plastic looking 60 pin, 1/4 thick IC. It will be mounted to the large aluminum heat sink. Get the nummbers off the pack and I will tell you what to do next...

 

OK, the fuse is now fine. It doesn't blow when plugged in or turned on. So the thing turns on fine and acts fine except for the whole being too quiet bit. I'm not sure about that output IC. The only IC i found that looks like it's got 60 pins says this: Pioneer / PDG042 / 5098H-004.

Thanks a ton for your help!
tymk.

 

OK, sorry to take so long to get back to you but things got ignorant in California and took me longer to get home than I expected... Do you have an Ohm Meter? If so, set it on the lowest or about 12 VDC setting, turn the stereo on, make sure the volume is all the way down or set the function switch to CD or such where there is no input. Now probe the Speaker outputs, left/right, Positive/negetive. If you see high voltage the outputs are blown. Now if you don't see a reading start running down the voltage setteings on the meter untill u get to 200 MvDC setting. What you are looking for is a voltage no higher than 175 Millivolts. If you see above that the outputs are questionable. Check this and get back, I will be home until this comming Saturday...