No Sound From Speakers With New Radio

How do I fix speakers that make a static sound only when there is no audio output?

From your description, it seems that the circuitry which detects whether or not there is audio signal coming in is faulty. Many active speaker manufacturers feel the need to implement an auto on/off feature, that you can't even bypass! I'd rather have a simple ON (I want to listen to music, even with 2 minutes of silence in between songs if I so wish) and OFF (I don't want to listen to music). Simples.Sorry, but I don't think there's anything I could recommend to fix this, apart from the usual suspects: electrolytic capacitors gone dry. If you know a bit about soldering and electronics, open up the speaker - POWER CORD DISCONNECTED - and use your nose first. Does anything smell like it's burnt? Do any components, or parts of the circuit board tracks, look charred?Then use you eyes: do any of the electrolytic capacitors (cylindrical-shaped thingies) look bloated, either at the top - it should be flat - or on the sides?If so, then jot down the values written on the side (capacity and voltage rating) and go buy some new ones.You wouldn't believe the high percentage of electronics that fail because of cheap capacitors mounted too close to heat sinks - making them go dry prematurely. Poor design.Hope this helps!

I'm not getting sound to my speaker from my amp. The amp lights up and it's on, everything is brand new so it shouldn't be blown. Any help?

Check different inputs (tuner, CD?) for any sound, listen for even a hiss from a tweeter or a slight "pop" when you turn on/off the amp. If there's no sign of life at all from either speaker, you might try plugging headphones in to see if there's any sound at all that way. There are sometimes multiple speaker jacks on the rear for A/B speakers, make sure if they use bare wire connectors that there are no strands of wire shorting between any of the connections and that bare copper is connecting into the connectors tightly. Wiggling them a little can help find iffy connections there. A tape monitor switch on the front panel, if switched on, will keep any other audio (like tuner, CD) from getting to the amp except as crosstalk, (a very faint musical signal). Check the wires at the speakers as well, and hook up the speakers to any other amp just to confirm that they're not broken. If all this fails, you might actually have a dead amp section (can happen from even a momentary wire shorting at the speaker connecters) even if the amp lights up and CDs act like they're playing. There are sometimes speaker switches on the front for A or B speakers, obviously if it's on the wrong set nothing will come out.You should consider photos of the front/rear panel or model numbers or some such for better advice. Also, if it's brand new, take it back where you bought it, and make them prove that it works and have them replace it if they can't get it to work! Or call the company with proof of purchase to fix it or replace it. Warranties are useful!

Why is my turntable only playing sound from one speaker?

If everything else is working on both speakers, the problem has to be somewhere at or before the input switch - jiggle it a bit and see if sound comes out from the phono, even momentarily. If so, a little contact cleaner sprayed into the switch may do the trick.Failing that, there’s a phono preamp circuit in your receiver (or maybe you’re using an external one if the receiver didn’t include one). Turn off the stereo and switch the R&L audio cables going into the receiver from the turntable. If the problem is now on the other side, you now know it’s not the phono preamp. If it stays on the same side, you may have a problem in the phono preamp circuit. Switch the cables back. If this is the case, it’d be cheaper to buy a new external phono preamp and use one of your spare line level (aka aux or tape) inputs to substitute for the faulty internal one (unless it’s under warranty).If you can easily access jacks where the cables attach to the rear or underside of the turntable, try the same “rotate-to-clean” and channel swap there.Now comes the delicate part, if these didn’t solve it. The thin wires in the tonearm have clips that attach to the phono cartridge, and sometimes a removable headshell as well. Inspect these connections for any oxidation, and burnish the headshell connections with a pencil eraser if you can. If you have fine needle-nose pliers, then try gently rotating or pulling off and pushing back on the little clips on the rear of the cartridge for a little friction cleaning (power off for all of this, BTW). Be very gentle since those wires can break easily.One last possibility is that some turntables have some metal contacts under the tonearm base that mute the signal from the cartridge during tonearm cycling (return from the end groove), and these can sometimes also get dirty or (less likely) bent where they don’t make contact.The phono cartridge MIGHT have a faulty coil or internal connection, but this is rare. If so, replacing the cartridge is your only option. Needle Doctor is a good place to find a replacement (but if you get the same one, save the original stylus as a spare, it’s almost certainly just fine).There’s a free website, Vinyl Engine The Home of the Turntable that offers user guides and service manuals for hundreds of turntable models, you might want to see if there’s a known manufacturing problem or common issue in their forums as well.After doing all this, you now qualify as an expert (if you worked carefully and paid attention)!