Please help me fix my Onkyo receiver

[jcandcat]

I'm hoping someone here will be willing to help walk me through troubleshooting my receiver. I have an old Onkyo TX-1500 MKII that I found for $80 on Facebook marketplace hooked up to my vintage Sony turntable. When I first bought it, the left channel sounded staticky and was much quieter in volume than the right channel. The left channel's quality of sound would improve at certain points when I adjusted the volume dial. I found this forum and followed the Idiots Guide to Deoxit and cleaned all the pots and switches. It sounded amazing for about a week and then the left channel was back to sounding wonky except this time the sound quality didn't improve no matter what dials I turned. I figured it just needed a second round of Deoxit and now.... no sound of the left channel at all.

How do I go about troubleshooting from here? Replace the pot? What's a good place to find replacement parts? Could the issue be somewhere else in the receiver?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[KingBubba]

At this point, I would wait for a week or two and go back every once in a while to see if you have regained your audio. Sometime Deoxit will affect devices by making them temporarily disconnected. I had this happen to me just recently with some RCA cables in my Sansui G8000. After a bit over a week, after applying Deoxit, they dried out and connection was made. It would be worth the wait. Let us know how this comes out.

 

[jcandcat]

At this point, I would wait for a week or two and go back every once in a while to see if you have regained your audio. Sometime Deoxit will affect devices by making them temporarily disconnected. I had this happen to me just recently with some RCA cables in my Sansui G8000. After a bit over a week, after applying Deoxit, they dried out and connection was made. It would be worth the wait. Let us know how this comes out.

Oh interesting! Is it okay if I still use it in the meantime? The best part of my morning lately has been putting on a record while I make my coffee haha

 

[cabby]

I had relay issues on my 4500mkii. It ended up being replaced. Good luck.

 

[KingBubba]

Using is always better than not using.

 

[cademan]

Also check/clean all your switches and buttons.

 

[Semanon]

As everyone here is saying, the moving parts are the first parts to suspect. The switches, pots, and relays normally need cleaning, and sometimes multiple cleanings.

The 1500 MKII does not have a relay, so that is not going to be the problem.

Does it have the same problem with all your inputs? Same issue with the tuner and playing from a streaming source?

 

[jcandcat]

As everyone here is saying, the moving parts are the first parts to suspect. The switches, pots, and relays normally need cleaning, and sometimes multiple cleanings.

The 1500 MKII does not have a relay, so that is not going to be the problem.

Does it have the same problem with all your inputs? Same issue with the tuner and playing from a streaming source?

Yep I cleaned all the switches too (the buttons right? Sorry, very new to this!). It has the same problem with the radio and also has the same issue no matter what speaker channel I use.

 

[Semanon]

Yep I cleaned all the switches too (the buttons right? Sorry, very new to this!). It has the same problem with the radio and also has the same issue no matter what speaker channel I use.

The good news is that is more likely to be a ‘cleanable’ part rather than one that needs to be repaired. If it sounded great in the recent past, it can sound great again without soldering (fingers crossed)

 

[jcandcat]

The good news is that is more likely to be a ‘cleanable’ part rather than one that needs to be repaired. If it sounded great in the recent past, it can sound great again without soldering (fingers crossed)

I hope so! I just find it so weird how it seems to get worse with every cleaning lol

 

[krautmaster]

My 4500 MKII gets a bit "wonky" like that on occasion, It is ALWAYS cured by pushing the buttons on the front IN/OUT a bunch of times until the sound comes back- it is almost always the TAPE 1 button, sometimes TAPE 2 that is causing the problem (the switches are way up in the back on the bottom and are hard to get clean- all you can really see is the plastic rods that go from the buttons to the switches.)

 

[newenglandj]

I second the tape monitor switches, I've had pieces that had intermittent sound in one or both channels resulting from monitor switches with dirty contacts.

 

[jcandcat]

My 4500 MKII gets a bit "wonky" like that on occasion, It is ALWAYS cured by pushing the buttons on the front IN/OUT a bunch of times until the sound comes back- it is almost always the TAPE 1 button, sometimes TAPE 2 that is causing the problem (the switches are way up in the back on the bottom and are hard to get clean- all you can really see is the plastic rods that go from the buttons to the switches.)

View attachment 2582624

Hold up wait I'm super confused, haha. Why do the tape buttons interfere with the left channel regardless of what my audio source is? I think I remember leaving those switches alone when I was cleaning because I don't have any kind of cassette player so I thought they were irrelevant. I'm just curious as to how they affect the sound coming from each channel? Like, how does that fix it?

 

[krautmaster]

All the inputs are relevant whether you use them or not: I don't use the three tape inputs on mine either, but they are the cause of my channels occasionally dropping out (I haven't had a cassette deck since the very early 1990s, and I don't need an equalizer).

 

[jheu02]

The signal routes through the tape monitors. So, if the contacts are dirty, you can have channel dropout regardless of whether anything is connected to the tape monitor, and whether the button is pushed in or not.

here’s the block diagram…. Notice how all the sources route through the tape monitors before going to the volume pot.

 

[jcandcat]

So I cleaned all the contacts again and the left output is still not working D: I also plugged a little bluetooth receiver into the tape inputs and it's more of the same, with both of those working but no left channel output.

On the plus side, the right output sounds *amazing* lol

 

[ghamilton]

I had a BIG problem with a friend's onkyo receiver. The problem was in the speaker selector switch. I had to really work on that switch! It took more than just spraying it with deoxit!

 

[petes'picks]

Take out the speaker fuses F501 and F601 and clean them and the fuse holder using deox on q tip. I have had to reset fuses a couple of times on weathered units. If your getting the deoxit or faderlube into the switch and pots properly you shouldnt have to do that more than twice, my experience anyway and I just lightly spritz and never soak and have done many basket cases that were improperly stored.

 

[jcandcat]

Take out the speaker fuses F501 and F601 and clean them and the fuse holder using deox on q tip. I have had to reset fuses a couple of times on weathered units. If your getting the deoxit or faderlube into the switch and pots properly you shouldnt have to do that more than twice, my experience anyway and I just lightly spritz and never soak and have done many basket cases that were improperly stored.

Thank you! I'll look into this soon hopefully!