Audio channel broken?

[Candrence]

I have a Pioneer VSX 405 A/V Receiver that was given to me by my father. I've had it for a couple of years now and my older sister had it for a few years before that. When I was first given the receiver, it worked perfectly. It has the A and B speaker setup on it and I used that to my advantage by having the A be for the set of Bose speakers in my bedroom and then the B was used for a second set of just some cheap speakers I set up for the bathroom right next to my bedroom at the time (I enjoy my music in the shower, :-) ). This was nice because by simply pressing a button or two, I could change where I wanted my music.

Now, this is where the problem comes in. It used to work where I could have either both on or simply one or the other. But now, only A works at all. The moment I press the B button, no sound comes out of any speakers. So, I was wondering if this is a fixable problem and if it's worth fixing (aka, is it going to cost less to simply buy a new receiver since I've lost the manual and remote for it too, lol). Everything else about the receiver works perfectly from what I can tell.

PS On a side note, I was wondering if anyone had some kind of downloadable file of the manual for this particular receiver or if someone with this kind and still has theirs could remind me about what the manual says about the placement of, I think, a tape deck in relationship to the receiver. To clarify, I remembered reading somewhere in the manual when I still had it, that 3 out of the 4 sides of the receiver (sides as in top, bottom, left, and right) radiate interference against tape decks. I think it was either the left or the right side that's safe, but I can't remember.


Sorry for the long post, :-(

[recoveryone]

on your first question: its more of damn if you or you don't. Many repair shops start their cost around $25-50 just to start working, so you could get off cheap if the repair is under $100 or go out and buy another low end receiver for around $100-150.

Question 2: the Pioneer site has most of the manuals in PDF format on their site.

[Resident Loser]

I have a Pioneer VSX 405 A/V Receiver that was given to me by my father. I've had it for a couple of years now and my older sister had it for a few years before that. When I was first given the receiver, it worked perfectly. It has the A and B speaker setup on it and I used that to my advantage by having the A be for the set of Bose speakers in my bedroom and then the B was used for a second set of just some cheap speakers I set up for the bathroom right next to my bedroom at the time (I enjoy my music in the shower, :-) ). This was nice because by simply pressing a button or two, I could change where I wanted my music.

Now, this is where the problem comes in. It used to work where I could have either both on or simply one or the other. But now, only A works at all. The moment I press the B button, no sound comes out of any speakers. So, I was wondering if this is a fixable problem and if it's worth fixing (aka, is it going to cost less to simply buy a new receiver since I've lost the manual and remote for it too, lol). Everything else about the receiver works perfectly from what I can tell.

PS On a side note, I was wondering if anyone had some kind of downloadable file of the manual for this particular receiver or if someone with this kind and still has theirs could remind me about what the manual says about the placement of, I think, a tape deck in relationship to the receiver. To clarify, I remembered reading somewhere in the manual when I still had it, that 3 out of the 4 sides of the receiver (sides as in top, bottom, left, and right) radiate interference against tape decks. I think it was either the left or the right side that's safe, but I can't remember.


Sorry for the long post, :-(

Might be dirty contacts on the switch/button...you could try depressing/releasing said control rapidly multiple times to clear the problem...contact cleaner would be the next logical step, but you will have to open the unit to spray the stuff >>>>with the power off and an extension tube to direct the spray only on those contacts<<<...switch could be broken...and of course we have made the assumption the second set of wires are intact, yes?

An alternative to any expensive repairs (should it not be a dirty, but in fact a defective, switch) would be an external A/B switch...

jimHJJ(...it's a place to start anyway...)

[Candrence]

Thank you both for such quick replies, :-) I will try the cleaning like you said, RL, and hope it fixes. I doubt it's simply dirty because why would a dirty contact completely shut off the connection to the A set by simply pressing the B button?

As to the Pioneer Home page having the PDFs of manuals, I guess my receiver is too old, :-( The closest match is like a VSX 415 and I'm already seeing that the manual is for a much newer system. *sigh* Not a huge issue, just would be nice to have.


Oh! On a second note, does anyone know of either a cheap replacement remote for my receiver? I have been looking around online and the cheapest I've found is $42 and that's a little much for just a remote. My next move is to simply buy (I'm expecting much cheaper than $42) a universal remote that would work with it. What do I even look for in a universal remote to know if it will work for my receiver?

[hydroman]

The external a/b switch is cheap at RadioShack.