Sansui 9090 strong noise.

divu

Active Member
Hello everyone.Yesterday while listening to music(Tapedeck), suddenly the amplifier began to make a very strong noise (vuuuuuuu), independent of the volume level. Even though I changed between Tape, Aux, Radio, the noise remains.If I put the volume to zero, the noise is the same. Moving the potentiometer above 10 o'clock, the music starts to be heard.Where should I first check? Any advice are welcome.
 
If not cold soldering joints it might be transistors known to get noisy with age. Looking myself right now to find part numbers...my AU-9500 just started having noise in one channel. I placed short RCA cables to switch channels in the pre-out/main-in connectors and the problem moved to the other side. Definitely an issue post volume control but not in the power amplifier.

I'd say 45 years was a pretty damn good run!

EDIT: Found part numbers, these from poster "Stevie's Hifi" on Hifi Engine where you can locate a schematic.

2SA726R replaced with KSA992 (note: base and emitter are on opposite sides from original)
2SC1313R replaced with KSC1845 (note: base and emitter are on opposite sides from original)
2SC634A replaced with BC546B (note: base and collector are swapped from original, use sleeves to prevent shorting)
 
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I recently found a strange problem on a 9090 or 9090db not quite sure, but could be your issue if the noise is a hum rather than a static noise. On the underside of the unit, you can see the main power supply board in the center back. You need to remove the bottom cover to see. One of the mounting screws is used as a main Ground point for other boards including the preamp and tone amps. The screw is supposed to grounf that point of the circuit board to the chassis, and then they had soldered the top of the screw to the foil trace on the board. The problem I found was that the screw had loosened a bit ober time, probably from oxidation, but you couldn't tell it was loose to the chassis because it was soldered to the board. I had to desolder to screw from the board, and then tighten the screw, and resolder the head to the board trace.
You will be able to tell if this is your issue by removing the bottom cover and flex the chassis a little to see if the hum comes or goes away. Then you can get a piece of wire with an alligator clip on one side, or just screw down onto the ground terminal on the back used for TT ground. Then get the other end of the wire and touch it to that screw underneath in the corner of the board, that has a lot of small black wires soldered to the board traces right near it. If the screw is not tight to the chassis, doing this will stop the hum, letting you know you will have to unsolder the screw head, tighten the screw, and then resolder the screw head to the board
 
Hello again, Tom B.The problem as you described, it's not my problem.I followed all your steps, but hum remaining.
 
Probably needs new capacitors in the power supply. Also on the small power supply board on the left side near the front.
 
Agreeing with others, it looks like you have bad filter caps. I would suspect the 2 large ones mounted in brackets that sit under the FM/AM section. But as these units are over 30 years old, you may want to check the others on the main power supply board as well as the small tuner regulator board that sits with the AM/FM section.
 
Thank's dr.Audio and Tom B.In the principal power supply board i did the recap, one year ago.I will check the caps in the small power supply board (F-2431).
 
The caps in question are the 2 large ones hidden under the AM/FM tuner assembly. Usually they are 6800 to 12000 uf at 77v
 
Hello, everyone. Problem solved. Replacing C 01 capacitor in F-2546 board. This cap only had a year of use....Thank's a lot a Tom B., dr*audio and safebet. My unit it works again.
 
Hello, everyone. Problem solved. Replacing C 01 capacitor in F-2546 board. This cap only had a year of use....Thank's a lot a Tom B., dr*audio and safebet. My unit it works again.
This is one of the reasons I don't replace all caps when doing a restore. The original 1000uf capacitor ran fine for ~40 years, but the new replacement only lasted 1 year. While I always check value, ESR and visual appearance, I usually don't replace DC caps unless they are out of tolerance, or appear to have overheated as in the regulator sections.
 
I don't think I have had a new cap fail in the 40 years I've been repairing audio, unless I put it in backwards. If you use Panasonic FC or Nichicon caps they should last a long time.
 
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