Lafayette quad repairs?

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gvl_guy

1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
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1,049
Location
Greenville, SC (via NJ, Philly, ATL & SoFL)
The Lafayette quad receiver I recently purchased at an estate sale is having some issues....I assume it's with the decoder. Other than that, it's in very nice shape. Clean, sounds wonderful through 4 speakers in the 2 channel mode, no crackling controls and all the buttons work.

I can't seem to find any information online about this one. The LR-5000, although the decoders, both SQ and "RM" were listed as some of the best at the time in a blog of someone who used to work for the company.

Does anyone know of a repair person that would know about these units? I'm willing to ship it to get it repaired....but if it's even worth it. I only paid $100 for this.

(FYI, symptoms are: perfect through 4 speakers in 2 channel mode. Left front speaker is much lower than the others when in RM, Right front speaker doing the same in SQ mode. Right rear speaker is dead when playing 4 channel direct source -in this case, my Oppo- in Discrete mode.)

Pardon the morning dust in the bright sun. ☺
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ation on

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Did I post this in my sleep.. :ROFLMAO: I bought the exact same receiver about 2 months ago with similar issues. I paid $100 I think.

par4ken, let me know if the manual was a worthwhile purchase. I might need one too.

I've found that most of the issues seem to be around the SQ board and switch for the different quad modes. Straight in from the 4 channel tape inputs bypass all of that and it's mostly clears up all the issues.
 
Did I post this in my sleep.. :ROFLMAO: I bought the exact same receiver about 2 months ago with similar issues. I paid $100 I think.

par4ken, let me know if the manual was a worthwhile purchase. I might need one too.

I've found that most of the issues seem to be around the SQ board and switch for the different quad modes. Straight in from the 4 channel tape inputs bypass all of that and it's mostly clears up all the issues.
Exactly the symptoms in mine! I haven't done anything about it yet and I, personally, am not one to attempt repairs on my own.
 
Exactly the symptoms in mine! I haven't done anything about it yet and I, personally, am not one to attempt repairs on my own.
Either we all are selling the same receiver to each other for $100 or it’s an extraordinary common problem.

It’s an extraordinary common problem. 🤣. I don’t have the time or need to dig into it now but I’ll be sure to post what I learn when I do tear into it.
 
Can anyone post a photo of the top of the boards? I am about to send one of these back to a seller and the user manual came with it, I will see if I can post the images here. It's having horrid sound issues, I would say no matter the setting, AUX2, Phono, FM, all sound like it's stuck in between an FM channel. Say listening to a record, I can turn up the volume and start to hear it but it's low volume and staticky. I'm just getting into this and not sure how to troubleshoot. Any advice appreciated.
 
Not sure if there's a manual section to upload these, if so let me know and I'll post there.
 

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Here's the rest.
 

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Here's some photos of the boards on the top inside of the 5000.
 

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And more of the top inside of the 5000, I think of the demodulator? I say this as there was a guy doing a video of trying to fix separation issues and was adjusting those "pots" you can see here are the 4 round metal parts with a turn hole in the center labeled on the board as RV201, RV202, RV203, RV204.
 

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I would start by cleaning the selector switches and pots with a good contact cleaner or DeOxit. Bad (dirty) contacts can cause noise and loss of signal. Visually check for any swollen blackened/brown capacitors, while you are at it.

After that check if the low level (preamp) section is working OK. Patch the tape out into another amplifier, to see if it sounds OK. Likewise
feed a signal from an audio source into the tape monitor to see if the amplifier plays OK. That simple procedure should help narrow down any trouble area.

I wouldn't start playing with any adjustments until your main problem is identified/fixed.
 
I would start by cleaning the selector switches and pots with a good contact cleaner or DeOxit. Bad (dirty) contacts can cause noise and loss of signal. Visually check for any swollen blackened/brown capacitors, while you are at it.

After that check if the low level (preamp) section is working OK. Patch the tape out into another amplifier, to see if it sounds OK. Likewise
feed a signal from an audio source into the tape monitor to see if the amplifier plays OK. That simple procedure should help narrow down any trouble area.

I wouldn't start playing with any adjustments until your main problem is identified/fixed.
From the looks of it he clipped the wire going to the fuse. I would assume/ guesstimate that an attempt was made to wire this directly up bypassing the fuse. There's no telling with these estate sellers on eBay who say "it's perfectly working and sounds great. I've been listening to it for 12 hours." Shrug. The first time it came it wouldn't turn on at all and I don't recall seeing any wires clipped. I looked around in there but I didn't see it. That doesn't mean I didn't miss it. I sent it back and the second time he put it up for sale I asked what was wrong with it and he said "There was a loose wire and all he had to do was fix it." So I inquired about selling it to me one more time and he said sure. Looking at it now, there's a piece of electrical tape holding an orange wire together going to the fuse, it was cut like by a wire clipper then twist tied back together. The fuse assembly is broken. It's loose now. It was not loose before but it does hold the fuse. I now know that the fuse cap is metal with a plastic cover and is the only reason it still works. Shrug. The only reason I could think somebody would cut the wire going to the fuse would be to hotwire and bypass it. I can only imagine the damage this could do to all the internal circuits. Seeing as this is supposed to be working as advertised without needing to spray the pots, I filed for a return and the seller replied accusing me of clipping the wire and recommending I spray the pots. Now between it has been working great for me for 12 hours and perhaps you need to spray the pots and a wire clipped inside and a broken fuse sadly I believe I have a lemon. There's still a few of these out there that are in working order, I really don't need to have a giant brick sitting around my house that has a promise of not being a giant brick. Unfortunately, this one to me could be a great learning experience, I think I'm going to spend that time learning about artificial intelligence to make my job give me a raise so I can invest a little more into one of these that actually works when the seller says it works.
 
It looks to me like it’s been sitting in a damp basement for ten or twenty years, and needs to have every connection cleaned (and that fuse holder and wire replaced).

But I can certainly understand if you don’t want to take on a project like that for something that’s supposed to be working.
 
It looks to me like it’s been sitting in a damp basement for ten or twenty years, and needs to have every connection cleaned (and that fuse holder and wire replaced).

But I can certainly understand if you don’t want to take on a project like that for something that’s supposed to be working.
I feel posting the manual here will help the community as a whole. So that's one positive out of this experience. I'm going to return it as much as I feel I should send it off for repair, It will likely wind up for sale again, the seller puts Funko Pop musicians on top of their item photos so beware when you see those as I have had a bad experience. The search goes on!
 
And more of the top inside of the 5000, I think of the demodulator? I say this as there was a guy doing a video of trying to fix separation issues and was adjusting those "pots" you can see here are the 4 round metal parts with a turn hole in the center labeled on the board as RV201, RV202, RV203, RV204.
That looks like the FM stereo demod for the radio, there's a 10.7Mhz filter, that's the IF frequency for FM radio, I don't know that that was used for CD-4, CD-4 demod might be underneath.
Is the dial cord for the tuner missing? There's a flywheel that would typically drive the tuning cap, but I don't see a string on it. Does the dial pointer move when the tuning knob is turned?
Also, I couldn't find the picture of the fuse and wires.
 
That looks like the FM stereo demod for the radio, there's a 10.7Mhz filter, that's the IF frequency for FM radio, I don't know that that was used for CD-4, CD-4 demod might be underneath.
Is the dial cord for the tuner missing? There's a flywheel that would typically drive the tuning cap, but I don't see a string on it. Does the dial pointer move when the tuning knob is turned?
Also, I couldn't find the picture of the fuse and wires.
No CD-4 module installed with this one. Here's the fuse pics. This was not loose or broke when I first sent it back.
 

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