JVC SR-W5U - problem with hi-fi audio

[robjv1]

I've sent a PM to Gshelly61 about this deck, but I thought I would post this here for advice from any other potential owners. I picked up one of these decks on eBay and am having an issue with the hi-fi audio.

I can put it in the NORM audio mode by pushing the AUDIO-OUT-SELECT button, and it shows the volume levels on the display and I can hear the audio just fine. If I switch it to the hi-fi modes (HI-FI LR, HI-FI L, HI-FI R) then I get nothing, no meters and no audio coming out of the speakers. If I turn up the sound really high, I can hear a light static and upon toggling through the hi-fi modes, I can hear the static switching from the left channel to the right, etc.

I thought maybe the tape was just defaulting to the linear audio track because of the auto tracking not being able to lock on to the hi-fi signal, but I played with that while in the hi-fi modes and I still couldn't get any audio out of it.

Could I just have a bad hi-fi audio head? Other then that, the VCR seems to work great. I do notice that overall it seems to produce a baseline sharper picture then my JVC SRV101US as well.

Thanks!

[Bix]

Just to make sure, is this with all tapes or just some? NORM mode fixes some issues that are only audible in Hi-Fi.

[robjv1]

All tapes. I tried a number of different videos with hi-fi audio tracks that I recently converted on my JVC SRV101US. Besides the visual confirmation on the display, I could tell I was listening to the norm track as it was not impacted (no noise) by adjustments to the manual tracking.

[robjv1]

Well I never got the hi-fi thing squared away, so I sent in my JVC SR-W5U for service and got my estimate.... $772!! Always be careful with eBay folks lol.

[orsetto]

It could be the audio heads or it could be a circuit board/wiring issue. $772 is outrageous, but unfortunately the mfrs DO gouge on repairs for the exotic, obscure, "no one in their right mind but Paul Allen or the Japanese would pay the $5,000 asking price for this thing in 1999" models. The slight performance increase over more-common SVHS or DVHS units is nice, but not at the risk of insane repair costs. eBay beware, indeed: I got fooled myself a few years back when I bought a similarly-exotic Mitsubishi for $300 only to discover it was a much older model than I thought, parts were discontinued, and it would cost $400 to get the part from Japan and fix it. It became my first (and last) eBay disaster, but a good lesson: if I can't fix it myself or know someone who can, I don't buy the item. Also the slicker the eBay listing format, the slicker the seller: watch out.

[robjv1]

yeah, the main reason it surprised me was that the only problem is the audio -- otherwise, the machine works great! I wonder if they found something else wrong with it, but I won't know for a few days. I never did test the WVHS functioning of it, so perhaps that wasn't in working condition -- though I don't care one bit about that as this was strictly intended as a VHS-->DVD machine. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. They gave me a pretty good repair price (I thought) for repairing my JVC DR-M100 recorder, so I was more then a bit surprised.

[robjv1]

So I opened this beast up to clean the video heads and while I was in there I poked around the circuit boards and such. After I closed the thing up and went to test out the heads I discovered that my hi-fi audio suddenly works! I was prety shocked. Upon further poking and prodding, I found that if I put a little bit of pressure on the right side of the unit (from the outside with the case on) that the hi-fi audio would come in and out. Is it possible that there is just a wire that is loose in there? There are a ton of circuit boards and wires mounted on the right side of the deck, so I very much doubt that I would be able to take it apart and put it back together again, but I thought it was very interesting.

[orsetto]

Welll, that could be considered good news, right? If the audio comes in and out from pressure on the cabinet, then most likely there is a loose solder joint or connector that got jarred in shipping. You have nothing to lose: try opening it up again, and locate the exact pressure point that locks in the hifi audio. Figure out which spot inside the cover is closest to that area, and see if you can attach something inert like a styrofoam block to that spot inside the cover, so that when you put the cover back on it maintains pressure on the audio section. It may not work forever, but if it works long enough for you to dub your tapes to DVD you'll have gotten full value from the unit.

[robjv1]

Yeah! Given how much I paid for the unit, it would be nice to get it working "good enough". I will see if I can pinpoint it this weekend. There is SO much on the right side though, I just hope I don't have to take it apart to figure it out, but it's worth a shot. Maybe I'll post some pictures after I get in there and am unsure of where to go next.

[robjv1]

Well you were right on the dot Orsetto. I finally had some time to open it up and work on this and I isolated the problem to two boards (and one of them has a cord that goes directly from it to the audio heads, makes sense why the hi-fi comes in an out). Strangely enough, guess what was already on top of the board? Two pieces of foam... So it looks like someone else already had the same problem and tried to fix it via the very method you suggested. Putting some pressure on it seemed to fix all the problems I've been having with this deck. Looks like I'll just have to get a bigger piece of foam!