Audio Systems: Nakamichi Receiver1 has no output, volume button, stock parts

Question
An older Nakamichi Receiver1 I have from 1990 has damn near died. Here are the symptoms: Lights up when I turn it on, I here the usually "click" after a few seconds which used to signal the beginning of 'sound'; the receiver puts out no sound; the display does light up; I cannot change stations - it stays fixed on one only; I can however, change the mode but have not tried any other components; the remote does work, but only for lowering (not raising) the volume button and powering the receiver on or off - it's as if it doesn't want to add to the receivers woes; the past few weeks prior to losing all sound one of the speakers had intermittent output, with mostly no sound at all. I'd like to keep the system if you think it wouldn't be too difficult or expensive to repair. And I have a fair degree of component troubleshooting but do not know my way around a Nakamichi Receiver1. Can you help?

Answer
Nakamichi is complicated stuff - circuit wise.  They are not easy to repair and it is almost impossible to find manuals and schematics for them.  The older they get the more difficult it becomes.

In your case it would seem you need a general overhaul.  Being this old there are probably two sets of capacitors that need replacing: All electrolytics, especially those in the power supply, and all coupling capacitors (to keep dc from getting into the following stages of amplification).  These replacements would fall into the category of tinker bug level skill; removing the old ones and finding replacements that will fit and have the right value.  But, replacing them is a time consuming job; probably take 8 to 10 hours to do them all.

Then, after replacing all the caps it may be necessary to repair the IR receiver; since parts are no longer available from Nakamichi for one that is so old (they stock parts for about 7 to 8 years only; maybe 10 if you are lucky) you would have to trouble shoot it and find component replacements.  Maybe an IC will be needed to get the IR working again.

Then, there may be a damaged power output transistor or two in the audio amplifier sections.

The tuner may be defective OR it may just not be getting the dc voltages to drive it. If so, replacing the caps as mentioned above would bring the voltages back to normal.

There may be other things to do, but this could get you started.

C

PS: While I have no objection to Nakamichi and inspite of the fact they are well engineered and have a very prestige name, they are not any better in true performance than other good quality products. You could probably replace this with new generation models for less then you can repair this one.  Why do I say this?  Because audio products have improved greatly during the past few years due to technology and prices have come down dramatically.  You can equal the sound and performance with even superior feature sets for around 1/2 of what the Nakamichi cost back in the early 1990s.