A fatal blow to my reciever

[Mania]

Well,

I was gone for the last week, and while and while I was gone, the wife was watching TV during an intense storm. According to her, as she was reaching to turn the system off, the lights flickered, and a horrible sound came from the speakers. After that, the sound was all messed up.

I have a sony str v333es receiver which delivers sound to a set of mirage frx speakers. After coming back home and experimenting, I've decided the problem is with the receiver, not the speakers, because the sound distortions are different for left and right, but are speaker independant. I assume the amps in at least the fronts are blown (the center and surrounds may be slightly affected, but I can't tell right now).

I paid $600 for this reciever 3-4 years ago, and can't decide if it makes more sense to try to fix the problems (headaches and possibly a lot of money) or simply replace the reciever and count it as a loss. What do you guys think?

mania

[kelsci]

Mania; I think you should replace the unit. It sounds like a whole lot of stuff got blown internally. It also could take time to repair if it went into repair. It is possible that the repair shop might miss something during a repair that could leave you in the lurch.

[Geoffcin]

Well,

I was gone for the last week, and while and while I was gone, the wife was watching TV during an intense storm. According to her, as she was reaching to turn the system off, the lights flickered, and a horrible sound came from the speakers. After that, the sound was all messed up.

I have a sony str v333es receiver which delivers sound to a set of mirage frx speakers. After coming back home and experimenting, I've decided the problem is with the receiver, not the speakers, because the sound distortions are different for left and right, but are speaker independant. I assume the amps in at least the fronts are blown (the center and surrounds may be slightly affected, but I can't tell right now).

I paid $600 for this reciever 3-4 years ago, and can't decide if it makes more sense to try to fix the problems (headaches and possibly a lot of money) or simply replace the recieverand count it as a loss. What do you guys think?

mania


Before you get a new receiver call an electrician in and have your circuits grounded properly.

[Slosh]

If you're in the US your receiver has a five year warranty so have Sony fix it. My friend had his Onkyo receiver damaged by a lightning strike and Onkyo fixed it under warranty, although he didn't tell them how it got damaged. If you have a surge protector they likely have some sort of warranty for connected equipment as well but in this case you're better off going straight to Sony. If you don't have a Sony service center nearby you'll have to mail the receiver to them but they'll cover the return shipping. Send a copy of the warranty and the receipt along with the receiver because some of the people I've talked to at Sony don't even know about the ES warranty.

[Beckman]

In the future you can pick up a surge protector at Walmart for $10 - $20 dollars. The one I have I think was around $10, and will pay for up to $10,000 worth of electronics if it fails. As for your reciever, look at the positive, this does give you a good excuse to purchase a new reciever. Yamaha has some nice ones, so does Dennon.

[Geoffcin]

In the future you can pick up a surge protector at Walmart for $10 - $20 dollars. The one I have I think was around $10, and will pay for up to $10,000 worth of electronics if it fails. As for your reciever, look at the positive, this does give you a good excuse to purchase a new reciever. Yamaha has some nice ones, so does Dennon.

Unless there's proper grounding. The surge protector shunts the current to ground when tripped. If there's a poor, or ungrounded condition then all the protectors in the world are not going to work. In the fine print you'll see that the insurance won't cover losses if hasn't been properly grounded.

[Mania]

Unless there's proper grounding. The surge protector shunts the current to ground when tripped. If there's a poor, or ungrounded condition then all the protectors in the world are not going to work. In the fine print you'll see that the insurance won't cover losses if hasn't been properly grounded.


I did have the reciever and EVERY other piece of equipment plugged into a surge protector. As far as I know, the surge protector didn't even turn off. I don't know if it is a crappy surge protector, or what you are talking about. I don't really get what you mean by proper grounding, and why that would make a difference

[Mania]

If you're in the US your receiver has a five year warranty so have Sony fix it. My friend had his Onkyo receiver damaged by a lightning strike and Onkyo fixed it under warranty, although he didn't tell them how it got damaged. If you have a surge protector they likely have some sort of warranty for connected equipment as well but in this case you're better off going straight to Sony. If you don't have a Sony service center nearby you'll have to mail the receiver to them but they'll cover the return shipping. Send a copy of the warranty and the receipt along with the receiver because some of the people I've talked to at Sony don't even know about the ES warranty.


thanks, I forgot about the 5 yr warranty of the ES stuff. I guess I should see if I can get it honored. Its going to be tough to live without a receiver untill I get it fixed, and who knows how long that will take??

[stevos2005]

I'll give my .02 about proper grounding. Yes, it is very possible to have all your equipment connected to a good surge protector without proper grounding and have it go. One easy way to tell if the surge protector is properly grounded is if you have grounded (3-prong) outlets to the surge protector. If you have ungrounded (2-prong) outlets, then the outlet is not grounded. Even if you have 3-prong outlets, the outlet may not be properly grounded, as the ground wire could have come loose, etc.

By the way, very sorry to hear about your loss. I had a decent Pioneer LD player I bought about 10 years ago, and about 4 years ago there was a bad storm and blew the player. This has happened before and cost $100 to fix. My place was ungrounded. Since then, I had commercial grade (20-amp) grounded outlets installed. No problems whatsoever since.

[Mania]

What did it take to ground the outlet(s) properly? Can I go to Lowes or Home Depot and pick something up or do I have to have an electrician do it? I am renting a VERY old townhouse (over 100 yrs) right now, so don't want to have to pay an electrician, as I may move in the next year.

Are there any other precautions that I can take to prevent this from happening in the future, besides the obvious unplug everything during a storm?