Strange issue with my first Marantz 2230

skeewiff

New Member
Hi, I bought my first marantz 2230 on ebay for a good price from France, I live in Madrid Spain and arrived on Wednesday with a problem crackle / pop / in the left channel during on / off and intermittent recurrence during playback in all the inputs and tuner too. The noise has nothing to do with the pots or buttons although I had planned a cleaning with deoxit, I sent a message to the seller and he claimed that it was in perfect condition. The thing is that I have been listening yesterday and today for several hours and it seems that the problem has diminished to the point that today I have not heard any crack, pop or static. My question is: Could it be that in the transport in the hold of the plane during shipment has suffered some sudden change in temperature that has made these problems?, it may be temporary? and is it fixed at all? Thanks in advance.
 
Sure sounds like oxidation. Since it's sounding good now I'd just exercise the controls through the full range of motion and hit the push buttons multiple times (while powered off of course). If it recurs and you go the deoxit route please be careful with the rotary pots if using D5 - very small squirt is all it takes. There is damping grease that can easily be washed out with a "deoxit bath" and you'll lose that silky feel.
 
Thanks for answering, as the seller just told me that the amp was ok but no more I assume maybe it has been in storage or maybe it´s the shipping that caused the issue. I will continue the test and maybe I´ll just deoxit the push buttons cause the rotary pots work smoothly. I´ll spray the main in and pre outs and rca inputs too.
 
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The oxidation problem can be sneaky and some random areas you'd never think of could cause intermittent problems. Even if a control seems to be working fine it can be the source of the problem. Pretty much any area that you can control or plug something into could benefit (input selector, pots, push buttons, rca connections on the rear, even the dubbing inputs on the front).

If it sounds good, just listen and enjoy for awhile. Just using it can sometimes eliminate minor oxidation problems.

Here's a nice thread to read while listening to tunes:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/the-idiots-guide-to-using-deoxit-revisited.207005/

Edit: I personally wouldn't spray the rotary pots for a full one second count though as suggested in that thread. A small fraction of a second is all I would use. You can't replace the damping grease (easily). You can be more aggressive on the push buttons and input selector. Put some deoxit on a q-tip and hit the rca's on the back and the head phones and dubbing inputs on the front.
 
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First off welcome to AK and a 2230 is a classic receiver to get your feet wet with.

But the design of these capacitor coupled receivers will make the speakers pop when first turned on and make some noise briefly as the big caps charge up; completely normal. But this happens really fast and once on it should be quiet. Shutting off the unit can cause a pop or thump sound as well.

As advised above cleaning and exercising all the controls will help. Then if you still have some random noises you can go from there.
 
Fairlane, thanks for the welcome I understand this is the normal behavior in this class of amplifiers but the noise was during playback too in a random way without even touching the controls.

I have this equipment since wednesday and today was the first day that that no distortion or noise occurs, yesterday I cleaned the main in and pre out connectors with a bit of isopropyl alcohol, don´t know if this was effective in any way.

I am worried if it happened again since being an ebay purchase I can still claim the seller that´s why I´m asking if do you think it may be because the amplifier took time without turning on or some extreme change in temperature during transport and now that I've been powering on this three days for many hours the amplifier has warmed a little and stabilized. I´ve uploaded a video of the noise the first day the amp arrived, as I said before today I have not heard any noise.
 
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It’s possible that if it was not used regularly for some time that the capacitors got “lazy” for lack of better term.

Electrolytic capacitors degrade over time, that’s why we recap vintage gear. Variac starting an old unit to ease up capacitors to help them reform is a common practice. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors have a self healing property when used.

Thus, there is a chance that it is OK for now.
A proper recap would be a wise move.
 
Hi, it happened again I´ve just made a video of the cracking noise I´m pushing the tape monitor while the cracking noise happens to verify if its caused by this button:


To post more information I´ve crosspatched the left pre-out to the right main-in and the right pre-out to the left main in with an RCA cable and the problem swaps channels, So I think the left preamp is bad. I have not done the cleaning since I have not bought the deoxit yet.
 
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I doubt the seller tested it fully. Think I’d document all of this in eBay communications and offer to give deoxit a try. If that doesn’t solve the problem then send it back or ask for a partial refund. Tape monitor seems to be a culprit for many.

You have what appears to be a very nice 2230 that survived shipping. Think it’s worth a shot to give deoxit a try.
 
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In order to get the deoxit into the best spot you need to carefully remove the knobs and the faceplate. Borrowed photo from: @1978_DREAMER

CC528D25-335B-4254-AC27-86FA61BE0762.jpeg
 
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Thanks tomorrow I'll get the deoxit and a compressed air can and I hope the seller will be kind to a partial refund to afford the amp to be serviced.
 
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Hoping for the best!

All is not lost if deoxit fails. There are some amazing techs on this forum (I’m not one of them). A noisy transistor I would think qualifies as a significant problem to let the seller know about.
 
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Hi, an update, after two days of the deoxit cleaning the noise seemed to vanish, but today after a long listening session it seems it´s back, the seller agreed to refund me 100 euros, now I have two options profesional repair or try to fix by myself, Will you guide me a bit about the preamp transitor that could be replaced? Thanks in advance.
 
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Bummer. So sorry to hear that.

Any good techs around you? Seems like a full restoration would be worthwhile.
 
Can you provide a picture of your pre-amp board at least? Do you have any experience with soldering? Any equipment for soldering, DMM? If you're complete beginner, may be starting with measuring and replacing some caps on that board is better idea, before messing with the transistors. Here is a 2230's pre-amp with some replaced capacitors:
20141109_104202.jpg
 
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