"bigtom" wrote in message ...
: found it, open junction on one of the small transistors (C556)
: had to take it out to test it properly.
:

One trick is to look for approx .65 volts on the
base emitter junctions while the unit powered up.

Almost all of the transistors in most "vanilla"
SS power amps will be biased "on",
so, you can usually expect to see this forward junction
voltage on almost all of the transistors except for the
two over-current protect transistors which would be
biased off in the abcense off an output over-current
protect condition.

This sort of check probably would have sniffed
out that open junction




:
: Mark D. Zacharias wrote:
: bigtom wrote:
:
: KENWOOOD KA-31 Amplifier
:
: the left channel on this amp sounds distorted at lower volume and cuts
: out at med to high volume.
: i tried swapping the speakers but its definitely the amp
: ive esr'd the caps on the main board but theyre ok.
: there are 4 big transistors on heatsinks and 4 small ones next to them
: they all test ok on a dmm set to diode test(readings are not exactly
: the same, but close)
: what should i be looking at first?
:
:
: Solder connections, relay contacts, speaker switches...
:
: Maybe a transistor has an open junction.
:
: A 'scope would help. Often these types of problems are intermittent, and
: pushing, poking, tapping around can lead to a suspect...
:
: Mark Z.
:
:
: