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Receiver has a hum - Harmon Kardon 230A

C

Chuck

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'd try jumping the 3 470uf and the 1000uf capacitors with new good
caps. If this doesn't work, I'd sub the electrolytic caps on that
stand up board. If you have an esr meter, it would speed up the
process. Chuck
 
J

jakdedert

Jan 1, 1970
0
JohnC said:
Tim,
Yes, when I plugged a source into the monitor input there is no hum. All
controls, bass, treble, balance, volume work for the monitor source.
Another item of interest- one of the channels begins to cut out after about
half a minute while using the monitor input. I can unplug the RCA jacks and
reinsert and both channels come back, only to have one of the channels drop
out again after about half a minute.

John
This is starting to sound like the possibility of either bad solder
joints, corroded internal connectors....

Also, it's been reported here that some older stuff develops loose
circuit board to chassis connections which can be solved by merely
backing off and reseating any screws which hold them down.

Clean EVERYTHING--controls, switches, jacks etc. Pull and reseat all
connectors. Then, with the amp
 
J

jakdedert

Jan 1, 1970
0
Sorry, hit send too quickly....
Tim,
Yes, when I plugged a source into the monitor input there is no hum. All
controls, bass, treble, balance, volume work for the monitor source.
Another item of interest- one of the channels begins to cut out after about
half a minute while using the monitor input. I can unplug the RCA jacks and
reinsert and both channels come back, only to have one of the channels drop
out again after about half a minute.

John
This is starting to sound like the possibility of either bad solder
joints, corroded internal connectors....

Also, it's been reported here that some older stuff develops loose
circuit board to chassis connections which can be solved by merely
backing off and reseating any screws which hold them down.

Clean EVERYTHING--controls, switches, jacks etc. Pull and reseat all
connectors. If the problem still exists, poke around the inside with an
insulated probe and see if you can cause any change in the amplitude of
the hum...or in the case of the tape input, can get the bad channel to
either cut out or in.

Check back....

jak
 
My Harmon Kardon receiver recently started to hum.  It does it regardless of
which input is selected.  The hum varies with the volume control. I opened
the unit and tapped on various components with a wood stick. This had no
affect on the hum.

This is an old unit that I have owned new since early 70s. Perhaps this
might not be worth getting serviced by a shop?  I'm good with tools but lack
electronics skills. No scope either. What could be the cause of the hum?  Is
this something that is fairly easy to replace/repair?

Here is a pic of the circuit board:

 http://home.everestkc.net/upperquad/HarmonKardon/HarmonKardon.jpg

Thanks
John

what you should do is if you have a tester meter check the voltage
regulater and capasitors
 
M

Mark D. Zacharias

Jan 1, 1970
0
My Harmon Kardon receiver recently started to hum. It does it regardless
of
which input is selected. The hum varies with the volume control. I opened
the unit and tapped on various components with a wood stick. This had no
affect on the hum.

This is an old unit that I have owned new since early 70s. Perhaps this
might not be worth getting serviced by a shop? I'm good with tools but
lack
electronics skills. No scope either. What could be the cause of the hum?
Is
this something that is fairly easy to replace/repair?

Here is a pic of the circuit board:

http://home.everestkc.net/upperquad/HarmonKardon/HarmonKardon.jpg

Thanks
John


Gads. I worked on one of these once. Had these really unusual Sanyo output
transistors.

Does it have some sentimental value or something?

Mark Z.
 
J

jakdedert

Jan 1, 1970
0
jakdedert said:
Sorry, hit send too quickly....

This is starting to sound like the possibility of either bad solder
joints, corroded internal connectors....

Also, it's been reported here that some older stuff develops loose
circuit board to chassis connections which can be solved by merely
backing off and reseating any screws which hold them down.

Clean EVERYTHING--controls, switches, jacks etc. Pull and reseat all
connectors. If the problem still exists, poke around the inside with an
insulated probe and see if you can cause any change in the amplitude of
the hum...or in the case of the tape input, can get the bad channel to
either cut out or in.

Check back....

jak

Sorry (again)...should have read the OP more carefully and looked at the
picture. My advice about probing was not very timely, having already
been attempted by the OP.

That said, to be clear, it should have been done with the unit powered
up. It's not obvious whether that was the case, although I'd assume so.
I didn't make that clear in my post, either.

Having looked at the pic (finally), it's striking just how old this
relic is. It obviously wasn't all that well-built to begin with, IMO.
I'm surprised by the diminutive size of the power transformer and lack
of heat sinking (Just where are those outputs, anyway?)...not to mention
the amount of point-to-point wiring employed.

Nonetheless, my advice is reinforced by the view. There's a lot of
potential for problems caused by strictly mechanical aging. While I
wouldn't expect this unit to develop a lot of heat; heat-related
electrical issues could still develop. Those would manifest as dried
out capacitors, or fatigued solder joints...possibly defective transistors.

I think if this one crossed my bench, I'd look at it as much a
'restoration' as a repair. It's from an time where both mechanical and
electrical design were still in flux from the tube era. Looking at it I
would guess it to be older than stated. It looks more like something
from the mid-60's, as opposed to early 70's.

jak
 
J

jakdedert

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mark said:
The outputs are those little black bridge rectifier-looking things attached
to the rear panel. I once subbed a set of 2SD313's for them, but the basing
is the reverse of a TO-220 package, if memory serves. This model was one of
my earliest "wiz-bang" repairs where I had to improvise to get the thing
running. Even in 1985 or thereabouts there was no support from Harman on
this model.

Which goes back to the question, is there some compelling reason to want to
fix this thing? It's probably not even worth the effort unless you just need
it to fill out your HK collection - they were pretty rare.


Mark Z.
The OP stated that he's had it since new, so I'd guess a fairly strong
sentimental attachment.

jak
 
J

JohnC

Jan 1, 1970
0
jakdedert said:
The OP stated that he's had it since new, so I'd guess a fairly strong
sentimental attachment.

jak

Thank you all for your assistance and suggestions to help me with this hum
problem. I opened it up again today and removed the front too to better
inspect connections on the front panel. With the unit on, I tapped all over
the unit with a non-conductive tool. I was unable to have any effect on the
hum. I loosened and tightened many screws. Especially those that appear to
provide some grounding. No change. I found no connections that appeared
suspect.

I suppose the next step is to test the caps with an ESR meter. This is
probably beyond my ability and will involve the purchase of such a unit. So
I think I will button the unit up, and for now keep it on 'Monitor' and use
an external tuner on the monitor inputs. There is no hum when using
Monitor.

Yes this unit is a relic and in fact purchased by my wife new in the early
70's. Perhaps not worth the service fee for repair, but it provides a
connection to the past so I'll keep in for her a bit longer.

Thanks again.

John
 
M

Mark D. Zacharias

Jan 1, 1970
0
JohnC said:
Thank you all for your assistance and suggestions to help me with this hum
problem. I opened it up again today and removed the front too to better
inspect connections on the front panel. With the unit on, I tapped all
over the unit with a non-conductive tool. I was unable to have any effect
on the hum. I loosened and tightened many screws. Especially those that
appear to provide some grounding. No change. I found no connections that
appeared suspect.

I suppose the next step is to test the caps with an ESR meter. This is
probably beyond my ability and will involve the purchase of such a unit.
So I think I will button the unit up, and for now keep it on 'Monitor' and
use an external tuner on the monitor inputs. There is no hum when using
Monitor.

Yes this unit is a relic and in fact purchased by my wife new in the early
70's. Perhaps not worth the service fee for repair, but it provides a
connection to the past so I'll keep in for her a bit longer.

Thanks again.

John

Was the hum only on the (FM) radio section? That would have narrowed it down
somewhat...

Mark Z.
 
J

JohnC

Jan 1, 1970
0
Was the hum only on the (FM) radio section? That would have narrowed it
down somewhat...

Mark Z.

Mark,
The hum is there for phono, AM, and FM - so all source inputs.
John
 
T

Tim Schwartz

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mark said:
Was the hum only on the (FM) radio section? That would have narrowed it down
somewhat...

Mark Z.
Mark,

As I recall from a question that John replied to earlier, his hum
problem was on all sources EXCEPT the tape monitor switch. I suspect a
pre-amp power supply issue, or a ground fault of some sort. It would be
nice to have a print of the thing, but I don't.

Regards,
Tim Schwartz
Bristol Electronics
 
M

Mr. Land

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mark,
The hum is there for phono, AM, and FM - so all source inputs.
John

Didn't you report earlier that you tried connecting a separate audio
source into the tape monitor inputs and the hum went away? Did you
mean completely, i.e. no hum problem at all in this case? That really
sounds like a (mechanical) grounding problem to me. Especially since
the volume and tone controls worked for this test, which would
indicate that it isn't a problem with preamp/tone power supply
ripple. Good luck.
 
J

JohnC

Jan 1, 1970
0
Tim Schwartz said:
Mark,

As I recall from a question that John replied to earlier, his hum problem
was on all sources EXCEPT the tape monitor switch. I suspect a pre-amp
power supply issue, or a ground fault of some sort. It would be nice to
have a print of the thing, but I don't.

Regards,
Tim Schwartz
Bristol Electronics

That is correct. Hum is present on all sources EXCEPT the tape monitor
switch. I can pug in an external tuner on the tape monitor input and there
is no hum when switched to MONITOR.

John
 
M

Mr. Land

Jan 1, 1970
0
That is correct.  Hum is present on all sources EXCEPT the tape monitor
switch.  I can pug in an external tuner on the tape monitor input and there
is no hum when  switched to MONITOR.

John

(Assuming you haven't fixed this yet...)

Does this have AUX input jacks? If so, and you connect your external
audio source to those, do you get the hum? If so, with the unit
unplugged,
what is the resistance between the ground terminal of the TAPE IN (aka
monitor)
jacks and those of the AUX jacks?

Alternatively, if you hold a jumper wire between the ground of the
monitor
jacks and the AUX jacks (assuming there is no large potential between
them),
does the hum go away?

Apologies if all this sounds too simplistic.
 
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