I have an old analogue Amp, model above, which has been great since new. Yesterday I switched it on and played some music from the PC through it. OK for a few seconds then the sound disappeared, although the amp was still visibly powered up. Nothing, not even a hiss, from any speaker or the headphones, and the same on all channels. I've checked everything but no loose connections. Any ideas?
"OK for a few seconds then the sound disappeared, although the amp was still visibly powered up."
"Visibly powered up' as in there were one or more LED's glowing? Or "visibly powered up" as in the d@mn thing was jumpin' an' shakin' an' knockin' into furniture on its way across the living room floor like a whole shee-bang full of Mexican jumpin' beans set on fire and you had to throw your cat on top of it - twice! - to quiet it down so's you could yank the plug out from the wall outlet?
There's a substantial difference between the two.
If the latter, call a Catholic priest.
If the former, call a technician.
If you need the services of a technician, you might want to ask for an estimate of repair costs before proceeding with any further actions - and then call the priest to pray for you and your amplifier. If the unit is utterly dead to sound passing through, the repairs are very likely going to be more than the unit is worth today.
There's no way to diagnose absolute failure of a component over a forum but there's a good chance a portion of the power supply that feeds the entire unit's operational controls has failed and the repair will be mostly the 1 1/2 hours flat rate for repairs rather than the cost for the part that needs to be replaced. Consider anything under $100 to be getting off lightly for such a repair. Also consider this amp would probably sell for $25 if you threw in a $15 gift card to WallMart and a six pack of half way decent beer.
I assume by now you've unplugged the unit from the AC outlet and allowed it to sit quietly to compose itself overnight after all that hoppin' 'round the room and scaring the bee-jeebers out of the cat. If this morning you had no luck reviving the amplifier after its short respite, you can let the unit sit for another few hours to slowly drain the power supply capacitors and then look inside the unit for any blown fuses. Keep your hands out of the unit if you don't see any blown fuses (there's still a few of them jumpin' beans that can be in there waiting for you to do somethin' stupid) and remember that in 99% of the cases of blown fuses it was not that the fuse was deeply depressed and just decide it could no longer go on. There are reasons why fuses blow and, if one fuse blew, then another might follow its lead. Fuses are like that - yeah, they are, real follow the idiot that jumped off the cliff type devices!
You should consider any audio component of this vintage to be disposable in most cases. You might even have difficulty finding a service shop that cares to take on an older component like the Akia as most shops don't care to be tied down to equipment that is very likely going to have more problems beyond what they can fairly easily diagnose and repair. Like anything else, the functional parts of any audio equipment will wear out and no shop wants to continue to see a unit make repeat visits due to problems not related to the initial problem other than the whole thing is giving out piece by piece.
Yes, the cost of the replacement part is minimal as far as the part itself goes but the cost of the labor is what you will pay for and not many people could even point you in the right direction of what needs replacing at this point. It needs to be put on a service bench and spend some alone time with a good troubleshooter. You are paying for the knowledge and facilities of the service shop and in total that is more than likely going to come to more than you should reasonably put into an aging Akia amplifier.
Consider how much you paid for this unit new and then amortize how much you got for your money over the many years it has kept you company. Then head out to find a new amplifier.
Love that answer! I would kind of prefer it if it was possessed by a devil, but the stony slilence and glare of the green leds unnerves me!
I know its not worth much but it's seen me through some times and I don't want to chuck it if there's a way of getting it singing again. I'll try what you say then probably go to our local Oxfam where I can buy a vintage amp for £20 working.