Gut it?

[ryoshu]

So I just had a busted Harman Kardon AVR100 dropped in my lap (Not literally, that would hurt). The previous owner had somehow left speaker wires twisted together with the receiver turned on... Needless to say, it's having issues and he's had it sitting around for a couple years with no desire to repair it.

I replaced a few of the fuses that were blown, but the amp blows the fuses and shuts down (protection) after being powered on. I'm not really interested in trying to fix it, and he doesn't want it, so should I gut it?

The transformer is massive and has to be good for something (7 channel gainclone? ;). There are a couple of large sized caps, and the chassis is pretty solid too. If I do gut it, any suggestions on finding out info on the transformer? It's really sexy and I'd hate to pass it up.

[pinkmouse]

Well, the first thing to do is to measure the voltage of the rails, you should be able to do this by just measuring across the caps on each rail to ground.

To get the VA rating, you can estimate it by two methods- firstly, most of the current used by an amp is in the power section, so just look at the value of any fuses and calculate from there. The other less accurate method is that most manufacturers, especially in budget kit, spec. their traffos for the maximum output, with little or no headroom. So, an amp with 5 x 50w channels will probably have a traffo of about 250/300VA.

Good luck