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New to Audiokarma, looking for advice on repairing my Sansui 9090db

teddyfreddy

teddyfreddy

New Member
Hi, I picked up a Sansui 9090db for really cheap. A lady bought a house with everything left in it, so she wanted to sell everything. So I ended up buying this beast.It powers up and the circuit protector light turns green. It does produce audio, but it is heavily distorted. So far all I've done is spray deoxit in the pots. I noticed underneath there is a board with a relay and some ceramic resistors and two fuse holders. Someone has jumpered across those fuse holders with wire. I have downloaded the manuals and schematics already. I am planning on recapping I just want to figure out the audio issues first. I would like to here from people with more experience on what I should look out for on this unit in particular. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Elijah
 
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Its hard to saw what it is, but you can try tapping on that relay underneath to see if the distortion changes. Also want to flip all the switches and controls to see if any are causing the distortion. Lastly, the driver boards usually have issues with fusable resistors increading in value, but this usually results in not coming out of protect. But wires across fuse holders can be a real bad thing, and you could have amplifier (Driver board or outputs) problems.
Good luck
 
Hello and welcome to Audiokarma.org

You should make a new thread in introductions forum so you can receive a proper welcome.
 
teddyfreddy said:
Any advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Before recap,Remove the jumper wires and install fuses, try to find out wheres the issue. for example... you could plug a phone directly to the amp input on the back with a cable and see if the sound is distorted.
Do you have test equipment and have some electronic experience?
The 9090db is a nice receiver, if you take your time and work in sections, you will enjoy it a LOT.
 
I don't have any test equipment beyond a multimeter. My electronic experience is fairly limited. I've recapped some old amps and tube radios before and other minor repairs on other various electronics gadgets but nothing too complicated.
 
teddyfreddy said:
I've recapped some old amps and tube radios before and other minor repairs on other various electronics gadgets but nothing too complicated.
Click to expand...
Good thing that the 9090db is very serviceable and I think is the most documented receiver here, don't get too hang on the recap thing... that is mostly preventive work and while it helps usually do not solve problems.Try to find and fix the problem first

./ Study the service manual.
./ Look for the posts from tnsilver (they are gold)
./ Look for F-2624 board (is very delicate board so be careful with it)
./ Take it good pictures and try to post them on good resolution.
./ Work just one section at time.

There are some folks here that knows that unit EXTREMELY well, and they will probably will chime in

Maybe you can build a DBT first just in case, it helps a lot specially when you are beginning.

Any question post it... we will do our best to help you.
 
teddyfreddy said:
I don't have any test equipment beyond a multimeter. My electronic experience is fairly limited.
Click to expand...
Welcome to AK. Do the smart thing and let a pro handle this. This forum has the false tendency to make vintage gear repair seem easy and casual and to encourage eager enthusiasts to bite more than they can chew. Success stories are common and easy to spot around here but the numerous failures are usually obscured in the faint fading of long threads, if reported at all. It's easier for a tech, and cheaper for a customer, to handle a unit that wasn't subject to novice tampering. Just my two bits.
 
Hipocrates said:
Before recap,Remove the jumper wires and install fuses, try to find out wheres the issue. for example... you could plug a phone directly to the amp input on the back with a cable and see if the sound is distorted.
Do you have test equipment and have some electronic experience?
The 9090db is a nice receiver, if you take your time and work in sections, you will enjoy it a LOT.
Click to expand...
Very good advice, and highly suggested that you get the proper fuses back in, and find and repair the distortion issue before you go about recapping, and or major parts replacement, which can create additional obstacles to getting the unit running.
 
True that it's a big job, even for an experienced person. It depends if you want to DIY to save $ or really want to get some satisfaction out of it, and if doing it for yourself then I say go for it. Otherwise it could be cheaper for a tech to take it on and save any potential rookie mistakes.
Best
 
AnalogueBen said:
True that it's a big job, even for an experienced person. It depends if you want to DIY to save $ or really want to get some satisfaction out of it, and if doing it for yourself then I say go for it. Otherwise it could be cheaper for a tech to take it on and save any potential rookie mistakes.
Best
Click to expand...
Money is something I don't have a lot of. Another issue is that there really isn't anybody that works on electronics in the area.
 
tnsilver said:
This forum has the false tendency to make vintage gear repair seem easy and casual and to encourage eager enthusiasts to bite more than they can chew.
Click to expand...
This is a great point...
Some people are not wired to learn this kind of stuff.

As a stubborn self-taught muppet that many times was told to ''leave stuff to pros'', I would say that it depends of 3 things.

./ Condition of the unit, if the unit is in very very bad shape, I would say leave it to someone with experience.
./ If the person have a tech oriented mindset, is patient and it is willing to learn, it can be done. (communication is key here)
./ People willing to teach

That said, those 9090db are very modular with nice access, but they can have some of those sansui documented ''peculiarities''.
Who knows, maybe we have a future Sansui luminary :rockon:.
teddyfreddy said:
Money is something I don't have a lot of. Another issue is that there really isn't anybody that works on electronics in the area.
Click to expand...
That's why I started... post some decent pictures to see what we got. Maybe something can be done... I'm not an expert by any mean, but I have done a couple of basket cases here and there. Maybe I can lend you a hand.
 
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