Volume issues with RX-A1080

[wayneb64]

I actually have two RX-A1080s now, one I bought new (and dropped when unboxing) and a refurbished one I bought when the original exhibited mysterious audio failure for about 45 minutes. When I got the audio failure again I setup the refurbished one. Now it's giving me issues with unstable sound. It 'mostly' works but occasionally the sound from the HDMI audio processor spikes up or down in volume or the center/front channels go mute or nearly so. Skipping ahead on my DVR seems to trigger this also.
I have tried using optical cables for sound as well and the same issue persists whether I am sourcing from HDMI or Optical.

Since I had dropped the first one I figured that had broken the optical/analog inputs (could never get them to work) and maybe some card was loose causing the HDMI audio to fail but now that I am using the undropped factory refurbished one and STILL I am having audio issues I am wondering if these things are error prone? This should not happen at these price levels.

I have tried every setting in the various menus but nothing seems to make a difference. (HDMI control is OFF) I normally use Surround Decode but I have also tried Surround AI.
Most of the spiking/fallout audio are from my old DVR but I think it has happened on my Roku as well.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I actually have two RX-A1080s now, one I bought new (and dropped when unboxing) and a refurbished one I bought when the original exhibited mysterious audio failure for about 45 minutes. When I got the audio failure again I setup the refurbished one. Now it's giving me issues with unstable sound. It 'mostly' works but occasionally the sound from the HDMI audio processor spikes up or down in volume or the center/front channels go mute or nearly so. Skipping ahead on my DVR seems to trigger this also.
I have tried using optical cables for sound as well and the same issue persists whether I am sourcing from HDMI or Optical.

Since I had dropped the first one I figured that had broken the optical/analog inputs (could never get them to work) and maybe some card was loose causing the HDMI audio to fail but now that I am using the undropped factory refurbished one and STILL I am having audio issues I am wondering if these things are error prone? This should not happen at these price levels.

I have tried every setting in the various menus but nothing seems to make a difference. (HDMI control is OFF) I normally use Surround Decode but I have also tried Surround AI.
Most of the spiking/fallout audio are from my old DVR but I think it has happened on my Roku as well.

How do you know the refurbished one wasn’t dropped before you bought it or wasn’t already becoming defective because it was REFURBISHED?

BRAND NEW NEVER-DROPPED Yamaha are often regarded as being among the most reliable.

Refurbished is luck of the draw.

 

[wayneb64]

How do you know the refurbished one wasn’t dropped before you bought it or wasn’t already becoming defective because it was REFURBISHED?

BRAND NEW NEVER-DROPPED Yamaha are often regarded as being among the most reliable.

Refurbished is luck of the draw.

Well they don't make these anymore and I preferred them to the newer models. I could not find a new one when I looked to get a backup for my dropped one. Any suggestions to improve my situation or am I just screwed?

 

[TLS Guy]

Well they don't make these anymore and I preferred them to the newer models. I could not find a new one when I looked to get a backup for my dropped one. Any suggestions to improve my situation or am I just screwed?

I suspect you are screwed. They are five year old receivers. Since you have two, with a service manual and the right equipment I suppose one good one could be made from the two.

What does the dropped one look like, a "cocked hat" or respectable?

 

[Trebdp83]

So, the issue they have in common occurs with the DVR. Factory reset both units and use another source device to see if the issue persists.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Well they don't make these anymore and I preferred them to the newer models. I could not find a new one when I looked to get a backup for my dropped one. Any suggestions to improve my situation or am I just screwed?

Hopefully a hard reset did the job for you.

If they remain defective with all sources (Roku, DVR, others) after the hard reset, not sure what else to do.

These AVRs are so complex.

I recommend not buying any AVR refurbished and buying something with good warranty.

 

[cpp]

screwed unless the hard reset corrected something.


Yamaha REFURBISHED STOCK

 

[wayneb64]

I suspect you are screwed. They are five year old receivers. Since you have two, with a service manual and the right equipment I suppose one good one could be made from the two.

What does the dropped one look like, a "cocked hat" or respectable?

I intend to take the top off and have a good look inside at some point but no, there is no obvious damage from my little accident. What happened was when I took it out of the box I stood it on it's side to be able to slide it out of the plastic bag. I then planned to carry it to the living room and realized I didn't have a clear flat surface to put it on so walked out to clear a spot. My weight on the carpet next to it started it tipping over and as I rounded the corner to the next room I heard the horrible bang of it falling flat on it's feet. I assumed it was f'ed but was thrilled when it tested fine at first. Then I realized no optical inputs would work nor the coaxial or analog inputs. Only HDMI worked and I had figured I dodged a bullet. It was months later that the HDMI went out for almost an hour.

I am hoping to find a loose daughter card when I get a chance to get inside it.

 

[wayneb64]

So, the issue they have in common occurs with the DVR. Factory reset both units and use another source device to see if the issue persists.

The two units both have audio problems but very different. The new one ONLY processed HDMI audio, until it decides to not. The refurbished one does process optical inputs but goes wonky when skipping ahead on the DVR or sometimes just when watching a show normally. By wonky I mean sudden drops or spikes in volume and the volume adjustments get ignored for a few half decibels or spike up or down.

I did get a firmware update last night and the sound was fine all night from the Roku and I watched CNN for a while on my DVR without issue. I will test the DVR skipping in a little while. I am hoping the firmware update did the trick as doing a factory reset will cost me way to much time getting it all configured again.

 

[wayneb64]

So I started watching Squawk on the Street on taped delay this morning on my DVR and was able to skip ahead five minutes or so and the sound was fine. I then heard noises outside so I pressed pause to listen. When I clicked pause again my left front speaker erupted in a blast of sound at what seemed like full volume so I quickly paused again. When I un-paused the sound was normal again. What could possibly cause behavior like this? It makes no sense to me.

Later on I skipped through some commercials and again on one of the skips I got a blast of full volume sound again. I would think something physically damaged would not work at all so this would seem to be software but how could it get so confused? This never happened on the new receiver and never on my prior Yamaha receivers.

 

[TLS Guy]

I intend to take the top off and have a good look inside at some point but no, there is no obvious damage from my little accident. What happened was when I took it out of the box I stood it on it's side to be able to slide it out of the plastic bag. I then planned to carry it to the living room and realized I didn't have a clear flat surface to put it on so walked out to clear a spot. My weight on the carpet next to it started it tipping over and as I rounded the corner to the next room I heard the horrible bang of it falling flat on it's feet. I assumed it was f'ed but was thrilled when it tested fine at first. Then I realized no optical inputs would work nor the coaxial or analog inputs. Only HDMI worked and I had figured I dodged a bullet. It was months later that the HDMI went out for almost an hour.

I am hoping to find a loose daughter card when I get a chance to get inside it.

When you take the top off, make sure that both you and the receiver are grounded. You will need to purchase a grounding strap. ICs are easily ruined by static charges.

In terms of your volume thinking, you are wedded to old analog thinking with variable resistance potentiometers. Volume controls have been digital for some time now. Sourcing analog pots for vintage repair has become a huge problem and limiting factor.

Later I will see if I can find an online service manual.

 

[TLS Guy]

When you take the top off, make sure that both you and the receiver are grounded. You will need to purchase a grounding strap. ICs are easily ruined by static charges.

In terms of your volume thinking, you are wedded to old analog thinking with variable resistance potentiometers. Volume controls have been digital for some time now. Sourcing analog pots for vintage repair has become a huge problem and limiting factor.

Later I will see if I can find an online service manual.

Sorry, no service manual is available, and many seem to be looking for one. So, without one, I can't help you any further.

There needs to be a change in the law. No one should be allowed to bring anything to market until a full service manual is published.

Receivers generally do not have cards, but preamp board, mother board, HDMI board, power supply/regulator board and amp boards.

So the one you dropped possibly has a broken board, or a component that has come away from the board. Even the latter will be a problem because of robotic surface mount installation.

Without instruments to find the board at fault, you will be lucky to make progress, unless you can see visual damage.

I suspect your refurb has an intermittent fault and was classified as open box and not touched. It likely left the factory with that fault.

There is another wrinkle, in that changing a broken board for a working board may not solve your problem as the board change may need initiation via firmware, that can only be done at a service center.

I ran into that servicing a Panasonic BD player once, but I persuaded them give me a connection to the firmware I needed. That was a can of worms, I wish I hadn't opened for a while. Things are just not like they used to be, and its a disgrace, as it leads to greater pollution from discarded electronic junk.

 

[wayneb64]

Would this lack of a service manual mean that if I took it to a local authorized Yamaha repair shop they could not diagnose/fix it?

 

[TLS Guy]

They would have access. That is your only hope of salvaging those units.

By the way, unless you are lucky there will not be a local authorized repair center, so more likely than not, you will have to ship it. Often times these centers are backed up three months or so.

 

[wayneb64]

I just popped the cover off quick and had a look around from every angle. I was expecting something more like a PCI style interface between the boards that might have gotten knocked loose but every board seems to be screwed down solid with multi pin cables running between them. Only the 'side' card seemed to have some kind of connector I was not familiar with joining it to the main board. Disassembling this is way more effort that I think is worth it to have a better look at every component.

I plan to hook it back up again as it's failure mode was much simpler, either it worked flawlessly (minus optical inputs) or it inexplicably just stops producing sound like some software has crashed. Maybe just a simple unplug for 10 seconds or so would reset it enough to go back to normal operation. If so far better than being blasted out of my chair by these audio spikes from the refurb unit if I happen to pause a DVR show. Also it had a new symptom today with the Roku, the rear levels ramped way up for a few minutes causing the surround to be louder than the dialogue.

Almost forget about one symptom only the new unit exhibits is sound dropouts watching certain Disney or Prime content. The refurb unit actually didn't do this but then all the other problems showed up.

 

[TLS Guy]

I just popped the cover off quick and had a look around from every angle. I was expecting something more like a PCI style interface between the boards that might have gotten knocked loose but every board seems to be screwed down solid with multi pin cables running between them. Only the 'side' card seemed to have some kind of connector I was not familiar with joining it to the main board. Disassembling this is way more effort that I think is worth it to have a better look at every component.

I plan to hook it back up again as it's failure mode was much simpler, either it worked flawlessly (minus optical inputs) or it inexplicably just stops producing sound like some software has crashed. Maybe just a simple unplug for 10 seconds or so would reset it enough to go back to normal operation. If so far better than being blasted out of my chair by these audio spikes from the refurb unit if I happen to pause a DVR show. Also it had a new symptom today with the Roku, the rear levels ramped way up for a few minutes causing the surround to be louder than the dialogue.

Almost forget about one symptom only the new unit exhibits is sound dropouts watching certain Disney or Prime content. The refurb unit actually didn't do this but then all the other problems showed up.

It is not a good idea to use units that are not working correctly. That is a good way to cause trouble in other units. I would find the nearest authorized repair center and ship one or both, probably the new one and not the refurb. If you ship both then you would have one to sell.

I would also strongly recommend hard resets for both units before sending for repair. Do it three times to each unit before giving up. Hard resets often work miracles.

 

[wayneb64]

So I performed the factory reset on the refurb unit (3 times) and I lost left front, right front and center channels. Surround and subwoofer still worked. WTF?
(Test tone feature is what I have always used to verify no loose speaker wires and have never had an amp not work if cables OK)

Now I am back on the new unit and sound is working fine, for now anyway.

 

[TLS Guy]

So I performed the factory reset on the refurb unit (3 times) and I lost left front, right front and center channels. Surround and subwoofer still worked. WTF?
(Test tone feature is what I have always used to verify no loose speaker wires and have never had an amp not work if cables OK)

Now I am back on the new unit and sound is working fine, for now anyway.

Well, that is progress. I suspect that refurb has been a dud from the get go. I do not recommend those. If you are lucky enough to get one that was just open box you win the lottery, if not misery.
Far too many recommend that route here. On a quick search, I now see that "every man and his boy" are offering refurb receivers. I think that really is testament to what an unwise investment a receiver truly is now.

 

[wayneb64]

So I am dropping off the refurb for warranty repair at a local authorized repair shop, no shipping costs but it will take two months probably. In the meantime my original 'dropped' unit is working perfectly so far and I even got the optical inputs working so I am guessing I must have missed a configuration point on my initial setup. Fighting with the refurb taught me a new configuration point. The only question now is why has the audio died 'temporarily' twice in the year and a half it's been in use?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I suspect that refurb has been a dud from the get go. I do not recommend those. If you are lucky enough to get one that was just open box you win the lottery, if not misery.
Far too many recommend that route here. On a quick search, I now see that "every man and his boy" are offering refurb receivers.

Trying to save a few dollars more? Do you feel lucky?

It’s all fun and games until someone loses their sanity.