What the... you've got to be kidding me

[agarwalro]

After powering my setup for a little over a year the receiver has crapped out on me. I came home from work and tried to turn on the receiver. It came on in Pure Direct mode. So I pressed the Pure Direct button and the receiver shut off. Thats strange I wondered, and tried to turn it on but it would'nt.

So I disconnect the power cable from the back, left it lying for a few minutes and plugged it back in. It turned right back on... but all my settings were lost. What the... I thought it had one weeks memory even when disconnected? Whatever... a minor inconvenience. I should have known that it was just a sign of things to come. So for the past week I had been doing this, the receiver wont turn on, so I'd disconnect it for a couple of minutes and retry. After any where from one to five trys, it came on and stayed on till I shut it off.

Today however I was watching TV (after the receiver turned on finally) and it just shut off. Now it wont turn on. You have got to be kidding me... How can something go bust just sitting around. No lightning storms, no mischief by kids, or tweaking by untrained relatives, nothing.

Any ideas on what might be the problem, or the solution to the problem or how how much it might cost to get it repaired?

Any response will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers...

 

[Geno]

Sounds like upgrade time to me!

 

[Daz3d&Confus3d]

That really stinks......especially if the unit is only a little over a year old.....I bet you wont be buying another Yammy.

Really sorry to hear it though

 

[tenacious ender]

hope it's under warranty.

 

[JMO_PWR]

Have you checked at the back of the receiver for possibly your speaker wire touching the rear panel that could be shorting it, and causing it to safly shut off instead of damage the curcuitry. Is the fuse sitting and in position correctly? just take it out and ensure that it is sitting correctly (unless it is still under warrenty and this avoids it.

 

[agarwalro]

Thanks for the condolances and the recommendations to upgrade. My thoughts exactly till my fiance threatened to leave if I bought the Denon 3806.

It happened again. I was watching TV, very low volume and BAM. It shut itself off. The only thing worth note is this time, the fans came on and stayed on till I disconnected the unit. Sounds like it is going into protection mode.

When this shut down happened for the second time, I tore the receiver out of the rack and redid all the connections at the back, checking for exposed strands of speaker wire. Further, if there was a short, it would have shut off as soon as I powered it up. In my case it shuts off about 0.5 to 1 hour into operation.

What I will do just to make 100% sure is take a continuity tester to the speaker terminals. If I get a short, I have my problem. But that does not make sense since they all sound perfectly normal (no crackling, popping etc. associated with an intermittent short).

I too am starting to feel that it is some sort of loose contact or short, but I feel it might be inside the unit rather than outside. The only saving grace is that from random the problem has become fairly reproducable. So a repair shop should not have a problem isolating the cause. I think after making sure that there are no shorts in the speaker wires I will call Yammy tech support. Will keep you all posted.

 

[JMO_PWR]

I tend to agree, by the sounds of it, it sounds like a faulty unit. Is it still under warrenty? To me it sounds as if it's shorting inside, if it is shutting off after approx. the same running time it could be a fault.

Does the receiver run unusually hot or hot at all when it does this?!

 

[MACCA350]

Have you tried without any connections plugged in except for the power cord? This would definitely rule out any other equipment or cabling and you would know for sure the fault lies within the receiver unit itself.

cheers

 

[agarwalro]

Regaring the warranty, it should be. The website says 2 years for purchase from authorized retailer. So I should be good there. It does'nt run hot at all, infact barely warm to touch when it went into protection mode last night.

Never thought about running it without any connections. Will try and report.

 

[Ben Diss]

Are you in a dusty environment? Could dust have settle on the heat sinks causing it to over heat? Blow some air around and see what comes out.

 

[Geno]

Sounds like you need to upgrade the receiver AND the fiancee...

 

[Geoff]

I was looking at Yamaha when I was about to upgrade. The salesman quite pointedly told me that they were'nt made in Japan any more (nudge nudge wink wink). He steered me away, saying that they'd started to use lower grade items in certain areas. I know it doesn't help now, but it may do in future....

 

[Daz3d&Confus3d]

If you wewre looking at the 3806 why not consider the 3805 for bout half the price...not that much difference...you do lose the hdmi connectivity though but still an awesome receiver that can be had for around $700!

 

[jcPanny]

Receiver reliability

Geoff,
Hate to break it to you, but almost all mass market electronics are manufactured in China. See a related thread: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22066

Also, I think that manufactures like Yamaha and Denon have much more R&D and engineering resources to put into new product design. This allows their products to have the latest features and makes them more reliable than some of the low volume audiophile manufactuers. Since their volume is 10x to 100x that of the high end guys you hear about a few more problems in forums such as this.

 

[agarwalro]

It is the receiver. Confirmed. I unplugged everything and took the receiver out of the rack. Used a new power cord and powered it on with some difficulty. Sure enough, after about 0.5 hrs of sitting idle it went into protection mode. Nothing was connected but the new power cable. So no external shorts. It was actually cold to touch, so no question of overheating.

Tomorrow I take it to the service center. I will try my best to make them give me a new one or let me put the cost of the amp towards an upgrade. At the very least it will have to be fixed for free since it is obviously a manufacturing defect.

Thank you all for your suggestion and humor to help me throught this difficult phase.

 

[Geoff]

JC

I agree most stuff is made in China (even bits of the Mac I'm typing on!!!).

I think that Onkyo, Denon, Fujitsu and a few others still manufacture and assemble their higher end stuff in Japan. The boxes for my gear all says "made in Japan".

I was told by the salesman that put me off Yamaha that they are now made in Malaysia.

Still, as you imply, if the R&D and quality control are right, it shouldn;t matter (but it seems to )

 

[agarwalro]

Final update.

I finally took the receiver to the authorized repair store. It will take 2 weeks to fix. I have made the warranty claim, whether I get it is suspect.

The tech who checked in the amp recommended I check my speaker wires for a short. I told him that I did and they are not. Completely ignoring my comment, he went into this painfully long lecture on how to tell if they are shorted. Basically take a cell to the speaker wires and make the diaphram pop. I felt like telling him, I used the continuity tester function on my multimeter (a remnant from my MS EE days) to verify, so I KNOW that the speaker wires are not shorted. But it was in my interest to have him think that I was a dumb fool who killed the amp because the speaker wires are shorted.

Here is the scoop.

Yamaha will cover the first cost of repair for the speaker wire short protection circuit even if it is the USERS ERROR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So even though the repair tech "knew" that my speaker short caused the problem, he is fixing it under warranty.

End result is the same from my end.

I am upgrading since I dont have the patience to wait 2 weeks or more. So look out for my amp on the buyer-seller forum.

 

[jcPanny]

Made in Japan

Geoff,
I pretty sure that they can label the box "Made in Japan" if all of the parts are made in China and the final assembly is done in Japan. Same goes for "Make in the USA".
This is why a new car will list which percent of the vehicle is manufactured in which country.

 

[JMO_PWR]

Correct higher model Denon, Marantz etc are made in Japan however as Gene (i think it was) suggested that the reason why they are made in Japan, as all the parts come pre constructed so by doing this there is not as much labour meaning manufacturing in China doesnt save much or any money at all.

I am aware of Marantz quality control being very strict same with Denon (low - mid range, that are made elsewhere). As for the other brands unless anybody else has inside info i havnt really heard anything

I would personally recommend Marantz, Denon.

Hope you dont have to go to too much trouble mate.

Goodluck & Happy Receiver Hunting