Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I have a sound system at home which goes to every room. Bit like a hotel
one. 4 radio services.

Was installed many years ago - long before Alexa and similar. But as
decent quality as the amps and speakers used in each room.

Used to have a mixture of tuners. AM, FM, and DAB. To get all my favourite
stations. Now, since FreeView has them all, Sony VTX-D800U TV tuners, used
audio only. And like a lot of older Sony stuff, very well made. Likely
about 20 years old and on 24/7. Bought used from likely a hotel system.

Last summer in the heat, a couple died. PS faults. They are in a roof
space which gets pretty hot in the sun. Turned out to be the SMPS IC.
Bought a few spares and got them going again.

One died recently. Thought I still had a spare IC but couldn't find it.

Looked on Ebay, and some complete tuners on offer. Put in a very low bid
on two of them, and won them both.

Should have enough to see me out. ;-)


By coincidence the topic of old audio kit came up in my weekly chat with
some American friends yesterday. One of them has a collection of old ( he
thinks 40 ish) Sony kit most of which has developed faults- the multi CD
deck, cassette deck, and record deck. In his case the faults seem to have
been mainly mechanical- drive belts slipping, although a set of contacts
needed cleaning on the record deck.

He was able to order new drive belts for the record and cassette deck. The
Multi CD deck is more of an issue- it seems the replacement belts arent
available. He is going to try and make some, apparently it isnt uncommon.
Being a radio amateur and retired engineer, he isnt afraid to tinker ;-)

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