Sony’s Death Plan
Sony’s STR-DE### series home theater receivers were very popular in the 1990s, but buyers might have been less eager had they known that Sony designed these stereos with a built-in time bomb sure to prevent long life. The output amplifier transistors are hefty and well protected from overheating by a massive aluminum heat sink, but the drivers are hybrid modules with no provision whatsoever for heat dissipation. Inevitably they overheat to the point of melting their solder connections. At first the sound will just shut off occasionally, but over time more serious problems will arise, ranging from failure of the module to smoke and flames emanating from the chassis. Here is an example of the initial, least catastrophic, failure due to melting of the solder connections.
The module’s pins are the ones arranged diagonally on the horizontal in the photo. Notice the obvious circular breaks around every pin. Here is a photo after removing the old solder, cleaning the board, and resoldering the pins.
Repair cost was under $75. Customer was happy to pay!
