Conion C-100F, reach it's full potential

Hey all!

Pretty new to the Boomboxery forum and boomboxes in general. I just picked up a pretty dirty C-100F for $130 in Brisbane, Australia the other week. It's copped a good clean and looks ok now. But for $130 it has some issues......tape decks don't work, and no sound from right hand side (tho the analog VU meters work both sides, no right side diodes operate). So being a complete electronics novice I'm planning taking it somewhere to get fixed I guess.

So my question is......while it's in the shop what else should I ask the techies to do? I'd love to get it sounding loud and incredibly good quality. I asked a local guy who specialises in re-coning and re-foaming of speakers and he said it'd be hard for him to better the originals(I have no idea if that's correct), and he said to get someone to look at the amplifiers. Does anyone have any advice on what I should do to make this box sound truly awesome? Surely with the advancements in electronics it can be improved upon? Different speakers? Replace capacitors as people seem to do? What's involved in upgrading an amp? etc etc? What should I ask to be done to get her sounding the best on my block???

Any advice would be great!!

(and if anyone has an idea on the no output on right hand side would be good too.....)

Cheers!!

No output could just be a very dirty switch. Usually function and band . Or the headphone jack has corroded


Bad Boy Bill

Hi,

Wow, no output on the right channel. - well that sucks.

Apart from cosmetic cleaning inside and out, have you used electronic switch cleaner/lube on the switches etc?

Have you tried it with a set of headphones?

A lot of boxes run power to the amps through the function switch. I've had numerous boxes with a weak/dead channel that have come to life with a little work. As Bill said, something as simple as a dirty head phone socket can stop an amp from operating.

Let us know what you've tried so far so we can go through the check list.

The truth is that there could be many separate issues that could result in a dead channel. I had a box I was working on last week that had no right channel - turns out it was the balance pot that was dirty - 2 squirts of cleaner inside the switch, turn the switch a few times and I had stereo!

You really need to pull that box down again and check things out.

The C-100F is a very powerful unit and should sound really strong when you have it sorted.
Grab yourself a deck belt kit/kits so you can get those dead decks going again once the right channel issue is sorted. My pet hate is much treasured boxes with dead decks or tuners etc.

James....

I agree with what Bill said. If that VU meter is swinging and you don't have sound out of one speaker, the headphone jack needs to be reemed out with a headphone plug/cleaned. The switches are REALLY finicky on the C100, so that could also be a problem being dirty. The best thing for that is spray in the switch with De-oxit and work the switch 20x each flipping it back and fourth.


Worst case, you could have a blown amp chip which isn't uncommon with this model.

Sorry for the extremely late reply guys......life got a bit seriously busy there for a while! Anyways I just put my headphones in -----> left channel fine, right channel just a humm. I'll get some contact spray and give the switches a good work out later in he week. Now I recall the guy I bought it off said the right hand side used to cut out......he'd give the box a hit and it would start up again, he said it got more and more frequent and needed ever increasingly harder hits to the point where he stopped hitting it (thank Christ, he was still in school and I **** you not he had to be 160kg+ of Afro sporting bulk with hands as big as my head) so maybe it is actually a corroded connection in a switch or the like???? Thanks for the great advice......I'll let you know how it goes......it's a mighty shame to have a conion sitting dormant, admittedly I'm happy listening to my GF-9000 but the conion lads is a conion !!

Check for loose/corroded pin connectors and broken solder joints. I had this issue with my C-100 when I first got it. The vibration from the bass would cut the right channel in and out.

Guess it exploded