Rowe Ami R87 Sound low

[CHRIS-F]

Hi Everyone, I was wondering if anyone can help me, I've been helping my dad tidy up his Rowe-AMI R87 Jukebox, we fixed the corrosion that the leaking NiCad batter caused to the CCC board, and soldered a new battery in, I also changed the 3 caps on the board one was popped. The control board is working as good as new now, my first question is how high can you go with voltage when changing caps originals were 16v but I could only find 25v for one type and 63v for the other type, capacitance and temperature were the same, I know you can go higher but how high is acceptable? second question is a few days ago my dad turned the volume up but nothing happened, he said the knob felt like it turned too far, so I bought a new 10k linear audio pot from maplin and soldered it in, but the problem is still the same, you hear no sound for 3 quartars of the turn then the volume goes up a little at the end of the turn, sound is there but seems like there is not enough power to go louder, I tried a spare Amp same type of an R90 and also a spare power supply, still the same problem remains. Any ideas what is causing the low volume? what can I try next.

Thanks in advance,
Chris.

[ami-man]

Hello Chris,

Welcome to the forum.

Rowe Ami jukeboxes volume controls are 10K LOG, not linear. You may need to check the volume control wiring as per your manual, also which E1 to E7 tappings the phono speakers are connected to on the output package.
For maximum volume output the black cable wants to be on E1 Right, and the pink & violet wants to be on E6 Left & Right.

If the above is corrected and the volume is still low, pull the mute plug out as a test, if the volume increases then you may still have a fault on the CCC or there is dry joints on the amplifier circuit boards.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

[CHRIS-F]

Hi Alan, Thanks for your reply, I had a quick look at the output package, last night, I took two photo's sorry there not much good the light was rubbish I had to use a torch, see attachments, I was only expecting to see 3 wires but there are a few more does this look normal?

Also when I replaced the 10k pot the old one said linier, that's why I replaced it with the same, someone must have swapped it in out in a previous repair, will it make much of a difference if I swap it out for a true logarithmic one? before the volume control went funny the sound was working ok with no problems, all output package wires were the same as in the pictures and it had a 10k linear pot on, this new sound problem also seems intermittent at the moment the sound seems quite normal, but you have to turn the pot quite a lot before any sound comes out at all is that normal?

Thanks again,
Chris.

[ami-man]

Hi Chris,

It is as you say difficult to see your picture, but from what I can see the jukebox is only wired up on one side of the output package.

It could be that the previous owner had a fault on one side of the amplifier or that it was in a bar where they wanted to control two rooms (one with the jukebox in it). You have got a couple of grey wires on the left hand side of the output package plus a Red (wall box or extension speaker). On the right hand side I assume you have black, pink, violet & brown (the other extension speaker)

The black should be wired onto E1 Right and the Pink & Violet should be on E6 Left & E6 Right for maximum volume. Red & Brown are usually on E4 Left & Right.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

[CHRIS-F]

Thanks Alan,

I am a bit reluctant to change the wires around, (you know what Dad's are like if you mess things up "I told you not to touch it") Ha! Ha! but I will give it a go, do you think it will be worthwhile changing the 10k pot to a true logarithmic one? will it make much difference? the old linear one was working fine. Since my last post the sound has almost returned to normal, my dad said he took the wires of the cartridge and when he put them back on it went louder again, but it still think it's not as it was before. is it normal for the volume control to turn over half way before any sound is heard? or as you say is that something to do with the wires not being set on the maximum power on the output transformer? I don't know how far it turned up before there was sound before it went funny.