I purchased an Onkyo TX-SR503 several weeks ago on eBay. It was a refurbished unit to begin with, but according to the seller it was working just fine. Initially I had two problems with the unit. First, the receiver would click every few minutes while in use. This was the exact same sound that it makes when you turn it on or off, or switch between input sources. This was pretty irritating when listening to soft passages in music or movies.
Second, I was getting a fair amount of audio "snow" from the center channel. I thought this might be due to some sort of electromagnetic interference, but I do not know. I did determine that the receiver must be the culprit by 1st switching out the actual center channel speaker, and later by switching the center channel output to other speakers around the room which I knew were operating properly. None of this eliminated the noise, so I figure the receiver must be to blame. Any ideas on how to isolate or eliminate this problem? I've tried repositioning cords, etc. and this seems to have an effect. Not enough of an effect, however.
The biggest problem arose yesterday. The "Amp Protection Circuit" was activated somehow (we were experiencing some foul weather over the past couple days, but I am powering the receiver through a Monster Power HTS-3500 MKII Power Center), and now the unit will not stay turned on. The Amp Protection Circuit is designed, I guess, to protect the unit from shorts or whatever. I'm no electrical engineer, so I don't understand a lot of these things. In any case, when the APC is activated, the Standby LED light blinks rather than being lit constantly, and the unit turns back off a couple seconds after it's turned on. The instruction manual loosely explains this in the "Troubleshooting" portion. Once the APC is activated, you're supposed to disconnect ALL cables/interconnects, etc. and unplug the receiver. After an hour, you're supposed to plug in the receiver, set the volume to MAX, and hope it stays on. Well, mine didn't. Anyone else ever have such a problem? I hope the advice I receive isn't "Don't buy AV stuff on eBay."
I hesitate to call Onkyo because I doubt I'm eligible for warranty work having purchased this receiver from an unauthorized dealer (private sale). I do believe the original seller was honest with me about the original condition of the unit, and I wonder if some damage wasn't incurred during shipping. The seller will likely help me with warranty stuff (I send it to him, he sends it to Onkyo or whatever), but I thought I'd see if anyone hear at AH has any advice. Thank you for your help, and sorry for such a long post!!
