Ten years ago I bought an Onkyo stereo amplifier/receiver to replace the long-deceased Sansui 5500 I bought in 1973. It’s worked fine ever since, powering my turntable and my Pioneer CS-88 speakers, also bought in 1973.

Last week, though, something happened. I turned the receiver on to the radio channel and got no sound. I cranked the volume up and still nothing, not even a hissing from the speakers. I tried the CD function too with no luck. At first I thought it was a speaker connection, but upon reflection it seems unlikely two separate wires to two separate speakers would both fail at the same time. Now I’m wondering about the receiver itself.

The difficulty with troubleshooting this kind of thing is that most people including me don’t have a second pair of speakers they could use to test the amp. I’ve checked the connections at the back of the Onkyo and they seem to be solidly in place. I haven’t yet climbed up into the loft where the speakers are to check those connections, because it’s 8 feet up a vertical ladder to get to them and they each weigh 47 lbs.

If the connections appear to be good I’m not sure where I go from here.