ALL Remote Buttons Turn Receiver Off And On - ???

 

New member
Username: Tman202

Post Number: 5
Registered: Feb-08
I love my Luxman R-117 receiver (1980's vintage) but lately when I press any button on the remote, the receiver will turn off and then on. This happens with the original receiver remote AND just about every button on the programmed universal, including the cable buttons. Very aggravating. It does NOT happen when I use the buttons on the receiver. It started happening once it a while and only with the volume buttons but now happens all of the time with any button. Does anyone have any ideas on what this could be and if it's repairable?? Remote capability is a must for me.
 

Gold Member
Username: Magfan

USA

Post Number: 3198
Registered: Oct-07
This is just a WILD guess. You might have either a capacitor or small battery on the 'mother board' which has gone south.
Replacing the battery / cap may restore function.
 

Platinum Member
Username: Jan_b_vigne

Dallas, TX

Post Number: 17993
Registered: May-04
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Well, this will probably be the most insignificant reason for replacing a receiver that I've come across. However, if remote control is a necessity, then the Luxman probably - actually, not "probably" but definitely - has to go.

Since the problem exists with both the original remote and any other remote, you can safely assume the root of the problem is in the receiver and not the remotes. A thirty year old receiver has given you good service so there's no reason to grieve over this but it would be highly unlikely you will find anyone who wants to or even could repair your Lux. Thirty year old remote technology was not very sophisticated by today's standards but, like today's receivers, it is all contained on one chip. Some supporting components around the chip but the main functions are contained within the chip itself. That chip is very likely unavailable today. Without that chip, there is no repairing to be done.

More to the fact, there are no Lux repair centers and certainly not for a receiver of this age. No shop who serviced Lux at any time would still have service manuals for the 1980's line - which hasn't been in the country for about those entire thirty years - which means no tech has the information required to do a repair. Nor would I expect any of today's techs would care to be tied to a thirty year old receiver with parts that are largely unavailable. So this is not a case of finding a bad capacitor or even a bad solder joint. The techs simply don't have the information available which would allow them to troubleshoot a 1980's receiver. At today's hourly rates for bench time, no tech getting paid on output will want to hunt and peck until they stumble across a problematic component which they can't verify without total replacement of the part. Replacement could mean quite substantial disassembly of the front of the receiver which would be eating up your bench time hourly rates. If the repair is unsuccessful, you'll be handed back a disassembled receiver since the tech won't waste time putting everything back together. Now you'll have a pile of parts that are good to no one.

Even if they did try to service the receiver, your repair charges would far outstrip any logical reason to pay for the bench time required and the chance the tech is wrong in their assumptions. Repairs are achievable when the tech can measure against a known value provided in a service manual - which no longer exists in this case. If the counter person at any repair shop didn't try to talk you out of going ahead with repairs, I simply wouldn't trust that shop to begin with.

In all likelyhood, even if you contacted the current distributor for Luxman products, they have never dealt with the 1980's Luxman products and have no need or desire to get tied down to a product they didn't sell. In today's audio market where repair shops are virtually a thing of the past, the advice would be to scrap any receiver this old and step into today's line of products. Not what you wanted to be told, but that is the reality of the situation.

If this were my receiver and remote was a necessity, I'd pass the receiver along to a young relative and go looking at the current line up from NAD, Cambridge, Harman Kardon or Rotel. The two channel stereo receiver from Outlaw is probably the best of everything available in two channel receivers. If it fits your budget, that would be my recommendation; https://www.outlawaudio.com/products/rr2150.html


IMO your one chance to salvage the Lux is to unplug it from the wall outlet and let it sit for an hour powered down completely. If this doesn't reset the receiver, then you should proceed with a plan for replacement.

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Gold Member
Username: Magfan

USA

Post Number: 3202
Registered: Oct-07
Too bad, too. The owners of those receivers loved 'em and got good service from them.
30 years MIGHT be a record.

There MIGHT be a vintage repair service for this piece if it continues to have a following like many of the 'golden age' Marantz Receivers do. The 23xx and 22xx receivers STILL command reasonble used prices and can be restored to near-new condition.
 

Platinum Member
Username: Jan_b_vigne

Dallas, TX

Post Number: 17996
Registered: May-04
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"There MIGHT be a vintage repair service for this piece if it continues to have a following like many of the 'golden age' Marantz Receivers do. The 23xx and 22xx receivers STILL command reasonble used prices and can be restored to near-new condition."



Which was pretty crappy IMO. I sold those receivers and I actually picked one up from a yard sale a few years back to check my audio memory. Yep! Pretty lousy sound. But they do have blue panel lights and that horizontal tuning dial. These receivers were built long after Superscope had acquired the Marantz company from Saul Marantz. The original Marantz company never designed nor built a receiver and the Marantz receivers of the 1970's were Japanese junk designs IMO. Superscope cleaned out the parts bins of the original factory and at times their decisions for circuit designs were rather dicey in their effort to use up parts. The amplifiers couldn't drive low impedance loads and, again IMO, just didn't sound good. No salesperson I ever worked with thought much of the Marantz receivers. To give you an idea of the market Marantz was after in the 1970's, I once took in trade a 22something receiver which was sold through a tire shop.

Not to disparage the op's Luxman but it too was not what Luxman built their reputation upon. These receivers were the "re-introduction" of Lux to the US market and they were competing with Yamaha and Denon at the time. As with many of the original Luxman amps and pre amps which came into the US, they had a good deal of features to sell. The difference being the original Luxman line of products were aimed at the McIntosh buyer who wanted features; features such as their sliding drawer of controls. To their credit, Tim deParavinci designed several of their tube amps and they offered very good performance though realiability was questionable and Lux didn't do a good job of backing up their products, choosing rather to withdraw from the US market and leaving a number of Lux dealers hanging with very unhappy clients. In other areas of performance though, those 1980's receiver were fairly middle of the road products.

Not long after their re-introduction to the US market, Lux once again disappeared into the night and hadn't been heard from until a few years ago when they once again brought to market several "high end" components. This version of Lux has nothing to do with the 1970's or 1980's products. Sorry to say and it's difficult to predict what any listener will find interesting, but I simply wouldn't mourn the loss of this receiver.


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