Talked to a guy at a component shop in Denver and it messed with my head

I was grabbing some caps at this little hole in the wall on Colfax last Tuesday, and the old man behind the counter asked me what I was fixing. I told him it was a blown power supply from a 90s stereo receiver, and he just goes, "You sure it's the caps?" then pointed me to check the solder joints on the transformer first. He was right... there was a hairline crack hiding under some glue. It got me thinking about how I always jump to the obvious fix without stepping back. So now I'm wondering, how do you folks decide when to stop and look deeper on a repair?

2 comments

2 Comments

milestaylor1mo ago

That old timer at Colfax is probably a wizard with tube amps from the 60s, but I gotta push back a little. Jumping straight to caps is usually my first move for a reason on 90s gear those things dry out and fail like clockwork. Nine times out of ten checking voltages on the secondary side of the transformer tells me if it's got a crack or not without scraping glue off the primary. Are we saving time by second guessing every cold joint before checking the obvious failures that hit those units all the time?

-1

ruby_patel271mo ago

Those secondary side voltage checks saved me hours on a 90s Yamaha receiver last month, the caps were shot and the transformer was fine. I’ve pulled bad caps out of gear that looked perfect, so I always start there too.