LXI Series 9300, Repair or Replace?

[NameBrand]

Hello!

I'm new here, nice to meet you all.
I'm on a bit of a quest, and for the first time ever, ebay has failed me.

TL;DR: Does anyone know where I can purchase an LXI Series 9300 Amp, or of someone who can repair mine?

The long story:

I have an LXI Series 9300 stereo system, with all the options including the original standing speakers. I purchased it a couple years ago at a local thrift store.
I've been mainly using the turntable and the aux input.

Recently, when listening via the Aux input, both speakers made a loud crackle and went completely silent.
The system still had power, the graphical EQ still showed the audio movement, and all the other functions seemed to behave normally, simply no audio coming out of the speakers.

I tried swapping the speaker outputs to the B outputs, no results.

I took a look inside and couldn't find anything obviously wrong with the two amplifiers. Neither was showing signs of heat stress, burns or cracks. I saw one blue coax had some corrosion at the termination point which I cleaned. (seen below)



I took it to a local marine electronics repair shop (the only electronics repair within 200 miles) and they said that many of the caps had leaked fluid, causing the corrosion and likely the failure, and said it would require replacing all of the caps, and was something they wouldn't do (since they're marine oriented.) They said it would most likely be cheaper to purchase a replacement.

I took to ebay, but I can't find the 9300 model specifically. Only models above or below, and even then very few and I'm not positive that they're cross compatible with the 9300.

Does anyone know where I might find an LXI 9300 amp? Or know anyone who does repairs on amps like this, specifically with aged out capacitors?

Thank you for any help you can provide!

 

[Dswankey]

.. for the first time ever, ebay has failed me.

..Does anyone know where I can purchase an LXI Series 9300 Amp, or of someone who can repair mine?

I took it to a local marine electronics repair shop (the only electronics repair within 200 miles) and they said that many of the caps had leaked fluid, causing the corrosion and likely the failure, and said it would require replacing all of the caps,...They said it would most likely be cheaper to purchase a replacement.

Does anyone know where I might find an LXI 9300 amp? Or know anyone who does repairs on amps like this, specifically with aged out capacitors?

Not trying to be a jerk or anything but I agree that it's not worth repairing as to finding one be patient and keep checking ebay

 

[swechsler]

FWIW, this amp was made by Sherwood ("Inkel" outside North America), and it appears to be equivalent to the Sherwood AD-2220CP. This was pretty decent mid-range gear for the time. So if you don't mind it saying "Sherwood" instead of "LXI" on the front panel, that might be another avenue to pursue. However, since the problem with the capacitors is most likely due to age rather than abuse, there's a good chance that any replacements you find will have (or will shortly have) the same issue.

ETA: pretty much any integrated amp will be compatible with the system. The only reason to stick with this particular model is for appearance.

 

[KingBubba]

I think what you might be seeing on the board is capacitor glue, not leaking. Take a closer look.

 

[NameBrand]

FWIW, this amp was made by Sherwood ("Inkel" outside North America), and it appears to be equivalent to the Sherwood AD-2220CP. This was pretty decent mid-range gear for the time. So if you don't mind it saying "Sherwood" instead of "LXI" on the front panel, that might be another avenue to pursue. However, since the problem with the capacitors is most likely due to age rather than abuse, there's a good chance that any replacements you find will have (or will shortly have) the same issue.

ETA: pretty much any integrated amp will be compatible with the system. The only reason to stick with this particular model is for appearance.

Thank you! That's a great lead. I'll look into that Sherwood option. I don't care what it says as long as it works.

Yeah, age was a discussion, and I'm sure I'll run into this problem again eventually when working with older systems like this. (New ones just cost too much.)

As for replacing it with any other integrated amp, I do have another amp I could use, but I'd be sacrificing the ability to hook up any of the other components, like the turn table, cassette deck, CD player and EQ. The LXI seems to have what looks like proprietary connections (at least to my untrained eye.) And those options were the big selling point for me, and I replaced my old one with the LXI for that reason.

For now though I'll get my old one (Sony STR-DE545) hooked up just for the aux input until I can get the LXI running again.

Thanks again, I'll look into that Sherwood option. It's a good lead at least.

 

[swechsler]

As for replacing it with any other integrated amp, I do have another amp I could use, but I'd be sacrificing the ability to hook up any of the other components, like the turn table, cassette deck, CD player and EQ. The LXI seems to have what looks like proprietary connections (at least to my untrained eye.) And those options were the big selling point for me, and I replaced my old one with the LXI for that reason.

Hmm, post a picture of those connections. While the front panels seem to be identical, from what you're saying, it's possible that Sherwood made a custom version for Sears (the owner of the LXI brand). Here's what the back of the AD2220CP looks like:

 

[swechsler]

Found a pic of the 9300 amp. Seems identical, and I don't see anything proprietary.

 

[NameBrand]

Bummer, yeah it does look different.
Looks like you've got an LXI DK 5023 and AM 4023 in that second pic.

Here's what I've got. These ribbon connections go to the tape deck, CD player and EQ. The turn table has a dedicated power output, but I suppose at least for that, I could just use a 12v wall adapter and solder it into the existing power cable. Even so, I'd still be missing the others.
Now that I think about it, If I really wanted I'm sure I could potentially make some of the components work with a standard amp. I doubt that the conductors are anything other than standard analog signals and power, and would simply need to be wired to RCA plugs and power. Just a matter of finding the pin-outs. (in theory.)
Not sure how the EQ would work though. :/

 

[swechsler]

Hmm, OK, not sure where I went wrong, but obviously that's not the same model. Looking a little more, I don't think your system was made by Sherwood after all. Actually, definitely not Sherwood, since Inkel is a Korean company, so they wouldn't have been manufacturing in Japan. Possibly Sanyo; it's similar to a lot of Fisher rack systems (Fisher was a Sanyo brand in the late 1970s and 80s). You might do some searches based on that to see if you see anything similar. Using ribbon cables was a pretty common way to connect components in rack systems when they were sold as a single unit - it allowed the manufacturer to use a single power supply for everything and it could also do some automatic switching. I don't know if there was any interchangeability; pretty unlikely between brands, but possibly within the same brand made in the same time period.

 

[Mike_S]

Do you own a soldering iron? Do you have a volt meter? Might be a good candidate to DIY. The caps do look like they have leaked. Swapping them all out is not that much work. Since it's already broken, you got nothing to loose, but $30-50 in new caps.