Luxman R-115 Help! What have I done?

[Grimmer1]

Hey folks, I am in a quandary and have no where else to turn and hope the brain trust here can help me. I recently reached out tothe audiokarma intelligentsia when I re-entered the vintage audio market. I purchased a Luxman R-115R and a pair of Paradigm Me7 Mk 3 speakers -and life was beautiful. I loved the rich Luxman sound and the speakers seemed designed for the receiver.
Unfortunately... very quickly the left speaker became very distorted and "scratchy". Was it the speakers or the receiver? Well, I picked up a cheap Sony receiver and the speakers were fine -thus it must be the Luxman.
Fair enough. I then learned about DeOxit. I purchased DeOxit and tried it first on my two old scratchy AM/FM radios. Miracle of miracles within moments -no more scratchy.
With trepidation I moved on to the Luxman. (Please insert the Jaws shark music here). I blew what little dust was on the unit off after removing the dust cover. I also moved the face plate out of the way. I then sprayed the Deoxit very lightly into the small opening for the volume control, the cd direct button, the balance control, and the on/off switch. That is it.
I waited awhile (10 mins.) and turned the unit on. The scratchy left speaker.... gone. Works perfectly.
I am the man. A genius. A techno wizard in a spray can.
Except (pause and exhale heavily) now my entire tuner section and my cd direct light is gone. I am suspecting the juice on the cd direct has mucked things up. Thoughts? I am going to give it time for the DeOxit to entirely dissipate.
Further, if I try to switch to the AM section, it immediately reverts to FM, but I cannot change channels in any way.
Happily, I will mostly be listening to CDs, but this is going to really bug me until I fix it.
Sorry for the lack of brevity: If anyone has made it this far, any thoughts, recommendations etc.
Much appreciated. Cheers.

 

[tjohnusa]

If your comfortable, tap the circuit boards with the handle end of a screwdriver to see if the symptoms go away....all while it is on (if your comfortable) It sounds to me that something loosened or you may have a bad solder joint, actually, before poking around with a screwdriver you can just wiggle some wires even before you power it up to see if there is anything obviously disconnected. Good luck and hope its simple and head smackingly obvious...hehe

 

[Grimmer1]

Thanks, that's the kinda repair I might just be capable of. Have to say, it is remarkably clean for an old machine. Fingers crossed.

 

[62vauxhall]

You just sprayed on the cleaner and that was it?

You're supposed to exercise controls (lock to lock) and push/flick the switches a lot. My magic number is 50 times before cleaner and 100 times after cleaner.

Could be that if you just wet the insides of that CD Direct switch, all you did was liquify the contaminates enough to coat the contact surfaces. Maybe another application of cleaner then some knuckle grease will do the trick.

 

[Grimmer1]

OK, I definitely way underperformed the task. Thank you for the advise. I will go after it more aggressively. Clearly, I was way too timid. Cheers Vaux!

 

[62vauxhall]

FWIW, I got a Pioneer PL-630 turntable last fall from a shop that included a one year warranty. It had speed stability issues (in my case, slowed down when the Quartz Lock was on) which I'd read was not unusual. Searching forums, I read about component failure on the speed control board being a likely candidate. Even though it had that warranty, I knew the shop owner was hideously busy and felt I could do the job myself. Before diving in with both feet. I did a little more reading and found a fairly extensive thread here on AK about a total restoration of the same table. According to the thread's author, the "cure" was working the 33/45 speed button and Quartz Lock on/off button 300 times, applying contact cleaner, then 30 more times with the buttons. I thought it worth a try before starting to take things apart and it worked like a charm.

One thing about cleaning controls and switches is that the problem is likely to return sooner rather than later. I've come to believe what's needed is exercising everything periodically, whether the unit is in use or not. I have two APT Holman pre-amps with input source selector switches that seem to frequently go intermittent on one channel.

Vintage audio is like similar to vintage motorcycles and sports cars in that respect. You always seem to be fiddling with something.

 

[Grimmer1]

Hey, I don't mind the fiddling, but this information really helps. And you're 100% right. It does remind me a bit like fiddling with old British sports cars -except pieces aren't falling off all on their own.

 

[Grimmer1]

Hey guys: With some righteous suggestions, I mostly have the R-115 up and running, except for the cd direct switch. Yes, I have been diddling err fiddling with it. To my old eyes it appears the bi pin bulb may have gone. What should I replace it with?Same or led? The bulb certainly does not light up and appears the filament is gone. Do these just unplug or am I in for a little adventure? Also, where would I get a replacement? Cheers.

 

[62vauxhall]

There is no service manual oh HiFi Engine but there is on electrotanya

https://elektrotanya.com/luxman_r-1...-fm_stereo_receiver_1988_sm.pdf/download.html

Judging from a front photo of the receiver, I'm going to guess that it's an LED already. Since my understanding is that LED's are long lived, I'm also going to guess (and I could be absurdly wrong) that it's not getting power. If it's possible to get at, check to see of there's any power present at the spots on the PC board (if that's how it's mounted) where that LED is soldered to.

 

[Grimmer1]

Vaux, that makes good sense. Thank you for the suggestion and also for the link to the service manual. I appreciate you doing this. Cheers