Nad 7175 Noisy Volume Pot

[BeerBellyBill]

I bought a vintage Nad 7175 from Ebay this Summer. I hadn't tested it because I had no speakers. I recenty bpught some nice Klipsch KG4's and I have some questions for you guru's.

1) when moving the volume and balance knobs I get some static. Im auuming I need to clean them somehow. I know radio shack aells a spray. What is the bedt method for cleaning and the best spray.

2) when I turn the volume up with nothing playing I can hear the radio ever so sligtly in the background, of course when i have a source connected you cant hear this, but is this normal?

3) this is a stupid question Im sure but I bought dome monster cables and monster banna clip ends for the wire. The ends fit flawlessly into my speakers but dont with into my amp, they are a tad big. Currently im using the bare wite to my amp, is this the correct way or should I find a thinner connector for my amp.

Many thanks. This was my setup over 20 years ago and regreted selling it. Now in my 40's I tracked down my system on ebay

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on picking up that system again!

1) There are different sprays out there to clean dials and contacts. I've seen people here talk about DeoxIT, but I don't have experience with it. Hopefully someone else will chime in.

2) Do you mean that you can hear a hiss in your speakers when you aren't playing anything?

3) Using bare wire is just fine. Banana plugs and other termination systems are mostly for convenience. You could get some pin connectors, but the way that you have it is fine.

 

[PENG]

I bought a vintage Nad 7175 from Ebay this Summer. I hadn't tested it because I had no speakers. I recenty bpught some nice Klipsch KG4's and I have some questions for you guru's.

1) when moving the volume and balance knobs I get some static. Im auuming I need to clean them somehow. I know radio shack aells a spray. What is the bedt method for cleaning and the best spray.

2) when I turn the volume up with nothing playing I can hear the radio ever so sligtly in the background, of course when i have a source connected you cant hear this, but is this normal?

3) this is a stupid question Im sure but I bought dome monster cables and monster banna clip ends for the wire. The ends fit flawlessly into my speakers but dont with into my amp, they are a tad big. Currently im using the bare wite to my amp, is this the correct way or should I find a thinner connector for my amp.

Many thanks. This was my setup over 20 years ago and regreted selling it. Now in my 40's I tracked down my system on ebay

IMHO the best way to do it is to remove the part so you can really get at it and do what you want. Being lazy by nature I just used the best spray I could buy from an electronic store, sprayed the heck out of it, turned the volume know back and forth while doing it and then when it dried up I vacuum the heck out of it. I actually repeated the process twice before I got consistent result. Had it not worked, I was going to use compressed gas too, but that last step was proved not necessary.

If I were to try again I would use compressed gas and vacuum first, then use the spray, and then use blow and suck technique again. The way I did it may seem tedious but for me it was still much easier to do than to remove and reinstall the part. Having said that, it may be easier or difficult in your case, depending on the specific gear you have.

 

[slipperybidness]

IMHO the best way to do it is to remove the part so you can really get at it and do what you want. Being lazy by nature I just used the best spray I could buy from an electronic store, sprayed the heck out of it, turned the volume know back and forth while doing it and then when it dried up I vacuum the heck out of it. I actually repeated the process twice before I got consistent result. Had it not worked, I was going to use compressed gas too, but that last step was proved not necessary.

If I were to try again I would use compressed gas and vacuum first, then use the spray, and then use blow and suck technique again. The way I did it may seem tedious but for me it was still much easier to do than to remove and reinstall the part. Having said that, it may be easier or difficult in your case, depending on the specific gear you have.

Always try the quick and easy fix first. It might save you a whole lot of time or waste a little time. If that doesn't do the trick, then you have to come back and be more intrusive and thorough. That's advice for working on anything in general.

Furthermore, 80% of the time the fix is simple. It's that other 20% of the problems that take all the time to troubleshoot.

 

[BeerBellyBill]

Noisy Pots

Well I still have to pick up some contact cleaner but decided to take apart my Nad 7175 and as feared the Volume and balance pot was burried between 2 boards. Maybe my problem was I blew out the dust b4 i played qith it. The pots are pretty open and not sealed. I'll give it a go tomorrow. I hope its normal if the pots are dirty to hear drop outs.

 

[BeerBellyBill]

Ohhhh No!!!!

Ok I took my Nad 7175 apart and cleaned all switches and ports with Detox it. I put everything back together and it was like magic. No more noisy pots of drop outs. I still had one switch that had a lot of noise and static so I disassembled and tried again. Put her together and no change, still a noisy switch! Ok now fetting discurraged I took her apart for a 3rd time, but this time I got stupid and powered on and worked the switch with the cleaner. Good news is it worked, bad news I grounded a lead to a resistor snd the amp shut off. It did come back on again, im guessing a thermal fuse. The resistor in question had a slight burn mark on it but everything seems to be working. Any chances I did dome real damage?

I cringe at the thought of replacing that resistor as its burried between 2 boards.