Arcam XETA 1 - Repairs

Hi - I've just purchased an old second hand Xeta 1 - I bought it in supposedly working condition - but surprise surprise it's not working. The unit powers on fine, but on any input there's only very very quiet sound from speakers which is very distorted. Two questions - 1) Is there anything obvious that I could check (I can just about tell one end of a soldering iron from the other but that's about it), or 2) Does anyone want to offer a cheap repair service (on site for preference or a collect and return) - I live in Wimbledon? I only paid £25 for it so not worth spending much on - but I'd love to get it to work....

Nick

 

contact arcam ..they have a good service dept.

Its very hard to diagnose a fault with out the beast sitting in front of me

 

I would send it back to Arcam - but my guess is that the repairs would cost £100's more than what I paid for it in the first place (heck - the courier would cost more than what I paid for it!)...it't such an old unit, and one can get a decent 5.1 or 7.1 Arcam receiver for £250-350 second hand - so it just seems kind of hard to justify...thanks for suggesting it though.

 

As its only prologic it hardly seems worth it.

 

I had a similar problem with a DJ mixer and it was a chip on the power input stage. Mind you that was stepped down already to 15v DC via wall wart.

I reckon you've got nothing to lose so you may as well use this as a learner if you fancy it.

Start by looking closely at the circuit board for anything that looks damaged. Check all of the caps and then if they aren't too expensive have a look into switching out some of the microchips on the input.

If not then punt it back on E-Bay as a faulty and you'll probably make your money back from a budding DIY'er (note to self: avoid!).

Best of luck!

 

thank you for all the comments - yes, you're right it's only pro logic so it's not worth spending much on - but from everything i've read other than the decoding, the xeta series were pretty good - so if i can get it to work I would love to.

I may try using it as a learner - there's a chap in brixton i've spoken to who's said he'll have a look at it for me. i'll may try him too. thanks for all of the suggestions - first visit to this forum - very friendly - so thanks all round.

nick