Pioneer QX8000 FM Tuner problems

[Andrew Dowd]

I have a Pioneer QX8000 receiver that I’ve had for nearly ten years. Recently the FM tuning started to go bad. It’s not a reception issue- I live in a area where FM reception normally is excellent without an antenna. The problem started out with the station coming in perfectly clear - then suddenly I’ll hear static and a “pop” and this combination repeats for about 15 to 30 seconds. Now I only get static all the way through the FM dial. I’m assuming that the FM board (or is it a chip?) has gone bad. Is this repairable? Horribly expensive? Aside from this, everything on it works great (save for a bunch of blown display bulbs). Oddly, my other receiver (A Sansui 5500) is in the repair shop for the exact same problem.

 

[AE Bob]

Are you sure something in the vicinity of the units is not intermittently arcing and radiating the noises (since both seem to present the same symptom)? I have seen things like a bad timer on a cloths dryer, and a bad aquarium heater thermostat radiate tremendous RF hash noises intermittently.

 

[Andrew Dowd]

Are you sure something in the vicinity of the units is not intermittently arcing and radiating the noises (since both seem to present the same symptom)? I have seen things like a bad timer on a cloths dryer, and a bad aquarium heater thermostat radiate tremendous RF hash noises intermittently.

I'm absolutely certain that it's not that. I say that because I recently got my old Sansui 5500 out of storage to use as a backup replacement, and the FM reception on that worked great for about a week when the FM went out on that one. And this was a completely different problem where I got nothing.

 

[larryderouin]

New appliances (TV's, etc.) all put out RF hash, with cell phones, tablets, or laptops being the worse in my case. I've found over the years that I have to move them away from my consoles(at least 5 ft away), or components just to receive a decent FM or AM signal. No TV's, cell phones, laptops in the basement.

Best bet to use a 75ohm shielded cable to your antenna. Use a grounding lug (similar to that used on cable tv Run), and a 6ft ground post.

 

[john stumpf]

my house is a hot bed of made in china crap that i used to play pure with hell on AM/SW reception. ive had to add filters even to the power supply of my desk top computer. everything even chinese led light bulbs can cause issues wall warts too i solved all that by erecting a proper outside random wire antenna with a coax rg58 lead in and water pipe grounds to my sx42 and sx62 hallicrafters. i have NEVER had an issue with fm reception using either the factory wall hanger dipole or even a wire in my workshop that goes outside to the concertina wire on top of the wall. i was told and read that fm is much clearer than AM by virtue of the way the signal is processed. i hate disagree in public as i dont pretend to even approach your level of expertise.but i do. my advice to andrew is if any doubt exists all you need to do is take it to a friends house with a set of headphone's this will positively eliminate the environment or confirm it. my guess is you will need a signal tracer to find it if im correct. it was not my intent to ruffle any feathers here.