MCS 3233 No Left Audio

[tonerbaloner]

Hi folks,

I'm 100% new to any sort of even semi-serious audio; I haven't had an amp/tuner with good speakers... ever. I've always used computer speakers of some sort plugged into, well, a computer. I loved the old Sansui amp/tuner, tape deck, and record player we had when I was a kid, and wanted to get back into it. Anyway, I'll cut this short.

I was given an MCS 3233 (with a Technics turntable on the way) from a friend of a family member. I bought some decent loudspeakers. No sound comes out of the left channel when testing via the tuner.

In order to ensure it's not the speaker or the cable, I swapped right for left; same result. I also tried the B outputs (I had been using A) and even tried A+B - still no audio on the left channel.

I was hoping one of you fine people could point me in the right direction for next steps troubleshooting. Aside from most of the switches and knobs causing the audio to crackle a bit when tweaked, I have no other complains. I opened it up but didn't touch anything - just tried to make sure nothing was obviously burnt out. I didn't see anything obvious, but I didn't examine things too closely.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling - thanks for reading! Let me know if I can provide any other information that could help.

 

[cademan]

I would first check for any fuses either on top of the chassis or underneath. An output transistor could be bad but you wouldn't see it. You would have to use a meter to know for sure. Sometimes an obvious sign would be a burnt resistor.

A simple cure (hopefully) would just be a dirty pot or switch. Wishful thinking I know, but it is the simplest thing to check.

 

[tonerbaloner]

No, those are great places to start - thank you. I checked the fuses and they looked immaculate - should have mentioned that. I will check for burnt resistors, though!

 

[goodolpg]

Since you say you have "crackling" I'd suggest cleaning all the controls (volume/balance/source, etc)...that just might restore your left channel.

 

[tonerbaloner]

Since you say you have "crackling" I'd suggest cleaning all the controls (volume/balance/source, etc)...that just might restore your left channel.

Makes sense! I figured giving it a thorough cleaning might help anyway - I'll add that to the list!

 

[tonerbaloner]

Well, cleaned the pots but unfortunately the problem continues. I don't think I have the skill to do anything past this point. Thanks for all your advice, though - this is a great community!