Some background. I was asked to repair this CA-1000 integrated after the current owner bought it pretty much in pieces, along with a pile full of blown output transistors. Not a good omen.
😱 He did a decent job of putting Humpty Dumpty back together again, though it's hard to say if he introduced any new issues to those that apparently already existed. Among those issues, the owner found that R626 on the left amp board was a charred ruin. He replaced it with a new 330 ohm resistor.
When I got it on my bench, I found that a fusible resistor on the power supply board had drifted very high, drastically reducing the B+ to the left channel. All the outputs tested ok. After replaced the fusible, I was able to power it up and set the bias for both Class A/B and A (this has a switch to toggle between the two), set the DC offset, and dial in what the service manual calls the Primary Stage Differential Amplification to 15V. So far, so good. As a little preventive maintenance, I recapped the power supply (but not the two main filter caps), replaced the two bias trimmers on each board, and also replaced C603 and R607 on the two amp boards as there was some glue that had turned corrosive around the cap that also affected the resistors. Powered up, rechecked and tweaked bias, DC offset, and differential amplification. All good.
Until it wasn't. All went to hell when I went to test the amp with an 8 ohm load and R626 on the right board released the magic smoke. Very spectacular

As a reminder, this is the same resistor that had combusted on the
left board before the amp found its way to me. Whatever caused R626 to go this time on the right board also took out a number of other components, including the outputs.
Here's what was damaged and the replacements:
- R626 (replaced with 1/4W 330 ohm)
- D602 (replaced with 1N4148)
- R628 (replaced with 1W 4.7 ohm)
- TR608 (2SA561 replaced with KSA1013Y)
- TR610 (2SA566 replaced with NTE2667--note that TR609 is still the original 2SC680 driver)
- TR611 (replaced with NTE280)
- TR612 (replaced with NTE281)
It was suggested that I test the repaired board with TR606 linked out. I did, and here are the voltages I recorded on the amp board inputs. This is with a 150W bulb in my DBT. Parens was after a few minutes. Bold is what the service manual specifies.
Right
A: -0.222 (-0.148)
-0.28
B: -0.172 (-0.148)
+1.15
C: -0.172 (-0.148)
+1.15
S: +2.47
+3.9
-50: -50.6
+50: +50.0
-B: -49.3
+B: +49.3
It wasn't damaged by I also replaced TR606 (2SC458 with KSC1845) and the two micro switches for the Class A/B - A toggle, as my understanding is that these get damaged from arcing and can cause bias issues.
Earlier today, I powered up the amp again, this time with a 100W bulb in my DBT.
TR606 no longer linked out. Bulb dimmed almost completely and the protection relay clicked. The left channel bias was low but steady, whereas the right channel bias fluctuated significantly, i.e. tens of millivolts. I didn't like what I was seeing, so I shut it down. The left channel bias voltage went to zero, but the right channel voltage did not. In fact, it starting rising to over 100mV before finally going to zero. I did a quick check of the components damaged last time, and everything seems ok, with one exception: R626 is now open.
Sorry for the long, epic post, but I figured more info is better than too little. Lacking any better ideas, I'm probably going to check every component on the right board. In the meantime, I could definitely use some input. What the hell is causing R626 to die on these boards and, left unchecked, kill outputs?