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So I have a vintage Pioneer SX-450 Amplifier, basically just like the one in this ad: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1018874087/pioneer-sx-450-receiver-works-needs

It has a phono-in, and multichannel out stereo speaker hookups (A, B, A&B)

I have it wired all over the house. It is an old house, and I repurposed a lot of existing wired connections to play the sound in multiple rooms.

However, for a while now, the left stereo channel doesn't play, and the sound is out in most of the rooms. Sometimes if I turn the sound way up, a connection will suddenly jump back to life.

I was going to just replace it, until I found out how much getting another setup with the same functionality would cost! So I disconnected everything, and reconnected it. When I turned it back on, everything worked perfectly! I was so thrilled, I got a speaker splitter, and put my different rooms on different subchannels. It all sounded great.

It worked for a short while. Now, a month or so later, it's worse than ever.

But it occurred to me it might not be my amp, it might be my bootleg wiring. I don't know anything about impedances or anything, I just wired up everything with the wires I had on hand.

Is that likely to be my problem? And how should I fix it?

Chris Sunami
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    Plug in some headphones and listen for a while. If it happens with them it's a problem with the receiver. Those models used modules for the final amps, so if you can find one (not guaranteed for a 40 year old unit) they're fairly simple to replace. If it never happens with the headphones, then try swapping speakers. If the problem stays on the left side, it's either your wiring or a bad connection on the back of the stereo or the back of the speaker. – Duston Aug 27 '21 at 13:49

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