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Realistic STA-80 Help

R

Rhetor

Active Member
Pick up a lovely little Realistic STA-80 last week and a pair of Energy Pro 1.5 speakers. Thought I would do a little setup for the porch.

Speakers work great.

STA-80 clean with nice walnut cabinet. All but one of the lights work too. The problem?

The Left channel works fantastic--great volume. The Right Chanel . . . I have to turn it up all of the way to get a tiny bit of scratchy volume out.

Can anyone who knows these Realistic units out there tell me what to look for to troubleshoot this right channel?

There was some scratchiness is in the selector, but DeOxit took care of that. shot some DeOxit in the volume sliders . . . no scratchiness there, just virtually no volume in the right channel. I opened the unit up and could not tell anything by eye.

I have never worked on one of these, but it was so yard sale cheap, and even ion the best condition not very valuable, I thought this would be a good piece to DIY my first time.

All help appreciated.
 
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I would clean all the controls, exercising them a couple dozen times. Sometimes controls need a good cleaning to clear up.
 
Shot all of the controls with DeOxit and worked them I think this might be a cap issue. Found this old thread . . . http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=396615

I am going to try to replace both caps. First try to replace caps on a circuit board for me.

So, where is a good place at a reasonable price online to purchase the two 2200uf 35V caps?

I figure it is worth a shot, and not a bad time for my first time, though I have done numerous cap replacements on Klipsch crossovers.

I really like the sound of the left channel. ;-)
 
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Clean & exercise ALL switches, including the speaker selector switch. The tape monitor switches are often the least used of all, so be sure to check them too. BTW, I've got the STA-90 and like it a lot.
 
So . . . While cleaning the switches . . . I see a "Mono/Stereo" button. It is out, which I assumed was stereo. So, I push the button in . . . Low and behold . . . Now I have amazing stereo from two speakers . . . both right and left channels working now!

I guess I should have looked for an owner's manual instead of the schematic (which I did find).

Well, at least I can say I finally opened up and examined a vintage amp.:scratch2:
 
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