Surround sound stops working on Kenwood VR-615 (1 Viewer)

[Lutorius]

Hi, I'm having an issue that I'm hoping someone can help me with. As the title says, I have a Kenwood VR-615 receiver and it seems the surround sound has stopped working. The display is detecting the incoming signal is Dolby Digital or DTS with surround sound, but the receiver isn't outputting the sound. It has worked intermittently and both speakers have fired when it does, so I don't think it is the speakers themselves. At one point, I did have 20+ gauge speaker wire used over runs of 20-30 feet. Would this have caused too much impedance and burned out those channels on the receiver?

 

[JohnRice]

You say it works intermittently. Would you elaborate? Do they come on and off during playback, or do they play with some things and not others? Are you certain it's showing channels on the display that aren't playing? I can think of a lot of places the problem could be coming from, ranging from a dying receiver to a configuration problem. If they always come on and off in pairs, then it shouldn't be the speakers.

Using too small gauge wire really shouldn't damage anything... unless... you play it really loud a lot. But even then, it would happen regardless of the wire, and it would likely destroy the speakers before the receiver's amps.

 

[Lutorius]

No, last night I tried it and they worked briefly, 20 minutes maybe while my optical cable was hooked up to my Samsung TV, then I couldn't get them to work the rest of the night, Powering everything off completely, resetting settings and nothing worked. Early this morning, I switched out the thin speaker wire going down to 16 gauge as I ready that is preferred. I hooked the optical in up to my blu-ray DVD player and put Star Wars Episode 3 in and found I was now getting output again. I then swapped the optical connection back to the TV and it worked briefly, again 20-30 minutes before the TV stopped recognizing that it had support for Dolby Digital and the speakers stopped outputting sound. Even swapping back to the DVD optical input didn't help. It's almost like their is something that heats up and then they stop working and a significant several hour time span brought it back. Maybe a capacitor is on the fritz?

 

[Raymond lee Leggs]

I would replace that AVR if it turns out to be not economical to do a repair.

 

[John Dirk]

No, last night I tried it and they worked briefly, 20 minutes maybe while my optical cable was hooked up to my Samsung TV, then I couldn't get them to work the rest of the night, Powering everything off completely, resetting settings and nothing worked. Early this morning, I switched out the thin speaker wire going down to 16 gauge as I ready that is preferred. I hooked the optical in up to my blu-ray DVD player and put Star Wars Episode 3 in and found I was now getting output again. I then swapped the optical connection back to the TV and it worked briefly, again 20-30 minutes before the TV stopped recognizing that it had support for Dolby Digital and the speakers stopped outputting sound. Even swapping back to the DVD optical input didn't help. It's almost like their is something that heats up and then they stop working and a significant several hour time span brought it back. Maybe a capacitor is on the fritz?

Does this happen at all volumes or only when you crank it up? Is the receiver hot when the channels start dropping out?

 

[Lutorius]

I haven't put my hand on the avr to see if it is hot, volume does not seem to matter.

 

[John Dirk]

I haven't put my hand on the avr to see if it is hot, volume does not seem to matter.

Possibly a bad optical [Toslink] cable? They are susceptible to sharp bends. On the other hand, the time-based part of your issue [fails after 20 minutes or so] makes me suspect some sort of overload problem in the receiver. If it's in your budget, replacing both will almost certainly solve your problem.

 

[YANG]

...As the title says, I have a Kenwood ...but the receiver isn't outputting the sound. It has worked intermittently and both speakers have fired when it does, so I don't think it is the speakers themselves. At one point, I did have 20+ gauge speaker wire used over runs of 20-30 feet. Would this have caused too much impedance and burned out those channels on the receiver?

This scenario reminds me of my good old Sherwood RV6030 prologic surround receiver where it's amplification stage have problem "waking up" from sleep. When it does, it needs a certain hours of operation to keep the system "awake" or else it would shut down by itself...

I couldn't say your case could be the same as mine. But there's a tendency for old gears to behave so... should your budget allows, it's probably time to change a new gear with advance processing capabilities... for future readiness...