Hi Alan, Steve here from the US and I'm new to the forum. I'm hoping you can share some of your jukebox wisdom with me. I recently purchased a Rowe CD100 C. I pretty much have all the issue sorted out (and there were many) except for one that's making me crazy. I have very low, distorted sound coming from the left channel. Originally I found the upper left midrange speaker missing and a driver board on the amp with blown 8 amp fuses. I replace the pair of shorted driver transistors associated with the blown board, the speaker and the fuses. No more blowing fuses, but that’s when I discovered the faint distorted sound from the left channel. Flipping the mono/stereo switch on the preamp board produces sound from all speakers, so I assume I do not have a wiring harness issue. I then swapped driver boards to see if the problem would move from left to right; however, the problem stayed in the left-- no change, so I assume both driver boards are okay as well. At this point I thought I had a bad preamp board. I purchased one off eBay that was advertised as "tested good". I replaced preamp and still had the same issue. This leads me to believe I have a good preamp, what’s the odds of having two with the exact same issue, plus I purchased it from a reputable seller, so I’m assuming it’s fine too. So... I decided to replace the other two driver transistors, why not. No help, same issue. Using a spare speaker, I connected it direct to the speaker package terminal and nothing on the left side produced sound, right side worked fine. Thinking it may be left channel transformer on the speaker package I swapped them around but the problem remained. I probably didn't need to even do this step, in retrospect, I don't think it proved anything. Oh, and early on in the process I also used different audio sources (iPod) to take out the possibility of the CD player being the issue, and I swapped left and right inputs to the amp...only sound in the right.
So now I'm grasping at straws, but I feel it has to be the amp still, right? If I'm looking at the schematic correctly, it appears that the left channel E7 and E1 terminals on the speaker package are feed directly from the amp’s speaker connector and if I'm not getting any sound there then it's not coming from the amp correctly, right? I have also pulled both driver boards and reflowed all the joints on the connector pins and checked for dry or cracked joints with a magnifying glass elsewhere on the boards. I've also tested continuity from the plugs to the driver transistor sockets and the amp wiring in general. Also, checked for 40v on the two filter caps and that all checks out too. I'm frustrated...any ideas? I was hoping to have this working for my Christmas party, but at this point it may have to be in mono. Thanks, I appreciate your time.