Quote Originally Posted by jimbo42
First, Thanks! to all of you who responded, and so quickly. Like you, I don't want to miss a note.

I bought a new Onkyo TX-SR304 AV Receiver ($170 Circuit City). Everything was plugged into the Onkyo and works fine. But, I prefer the Technics (saves me $170) and the Remote works for the Receiver and the 2nd Technics Multi CD Player.
....
A made a few phone calls and it seems everyone wants $50 just to put it on the bench so they can tell me that I'm only getting Mono & the unit needs to be repaired in order to produce Stereo. But, that $50 does not count towards the repair. If anyone knows what a typical repair would average, I may just keep the Onkyo as planned - and shelve the Technics.
Comments?
Jimbo, I agree with others that the Technics is pitch. Chance are 90+% that the repair will cost you $100+. And that's assuming it can be repaired at all; parts for for a 10 year old receiver can be impossible to find.

The irony is that it would be easier to find parts for a 35 years old receiver. Components of that vintage used almost entirely discrete components that are still made today or for which workable substitutes can be found. Equipment made after the late 70's contained more and more ICs, (integrated circuits, i.e. chips), and proprietary parts that became obsolete and unavailable after a very few years. Many lower cost components today contain "surface mounted" rather than plug-in ICs, (as do computer mother boards), and even if the IC were available it would impossible remove & replace it.