Hi @RichardV,

Thanks for sharing your parts choices and process.

I know we have a fair few people on the Community that have replaced components in their older products in the past, and hopefully this thread will help someone in the future. 

@RichardV  Do you happen to know if there are ‘lytics in series with the analog outputs?  Mine plays fine via the digital port but is raspy and chokes on both analog left and right outputs (both variable and fixed).  (I need the analog outputs as well because Zone 2 in my system amplifier does not support digital inputs).

Thanks,

Don

@RichardV  For some reason I can’t edit my original post any more.  But I found out that bad power supply caps, specifically C203, can also cause the issue I was having.  Temporarily bridging it with another cap eliminated my problem.  Now to go grab some decent Nichicon, Rubycon, etc. and do a p/s rebuild…thanks much for sharing not only the capacitor values, but even their sizes and lead spacings!

Don

Interesting to hear, Don, what happens when the PS capacitors really get old...my unit was still working fine at 12yrs..but in fact I found that the first capacitors (directly on the diodes) of both 3.3 and 14.8V rails had totally failed, meaning I had 1.6V pp ripple on the 14.8V output, and the 3.3V output had sagged and also had considerable ripple. Looks like I caught mine just in time, I can certainly imagine more damage occuring if these are not replaced in time. After replacing the major PSU caps, the ripple on the 14.8V rail was down to 60mVpp, just showing how much the capacitors had degraded over time.

I have to comment though that the process is a difficult one, I did swear quite a lot doing it. Not for the faint hearted or inexperienced.

I would say it is best to gently and in a straight line unplug the two antennas on the top board on the PSU side, before taking the PSU out..you virtually have to do this to get the PSU back in, so might as well start off doing it. Take care to line the antenna connectors up carefully and squeeze them gently back on, they are not designed for more than a handful of insertions, and break very easily, as I have found on many occasions in the past.

One has to mention that my unit has probably run for over 100,000 hours...similar to 3 million car miles, just to keep things in perspective.

Sorry for the delay, Richard, it’s been pretty crazy here lately.  Yes, the power supply PCB doesn’t particularly like to “let go” of the capacitor leads, even with semi-professional equipment (Hakko desoldering tool).  I’m sure a pre-heat would have helped a lot, but I didn’t want to go to through all the hassle of removing the PCB from the chassis.  For the same reason, I chose to just leave the 22 uF bulk capacitor alone, as it’s not subject to anywhere near as much abuse as those caps on the output(s) of the regulator.

I ended up just leaving the antennas connected.  Instead of fighting with the plugs (which seemed to have some hot glue or something retaining them in my ZP90), I unscrewed the antenna, mount and all, for the cable which was giving the most trouble and simply lifted it out of the chassis.  Careful handling allowed me to work on the supply at that point.

I have modified my HT setup slightly so the Sonos isn’t powered at all unless the amp is on.  That does, of course, come with its disadvantages, since you have to wait for the thing to boot before you can enjoy any music.  And of course it completely forgets whatever playlist was loaded.  It seems a pretty small price to pay for increased longevity...but if it drives me too crazy I’ll put it back the other way, lol.

Don