Hi Paul,
Know what you mean with regards to the eyes, when I work on boards I use my inspection lamps to light and magnify, without them I would have to put the tools down.
It sounds as if the mute is the problem, pull out the mute plug.
What is the digital input in millivolts? I would suggest that you do not plug into the phono input but plug into the auxiliary input. It is next to the volume connection.
The shop manual you need covers the CTI-2, CTI-3, R-84, R-85, R-86, R-87, RI-3, RI-4, RI-5 and the HML (hideaway). The part number for the manual is Rowe Ami 3-65355-07.
One of the above was on Ebay a few weeks ago so keep checking it out, I doubt if Rowe Ami will still stock them.
Regards
Alan Hood
ami-man
UK
alan-hood@datex.co.uk