He’s here again talking while I type. He says the power output ratings of the Sanyo boom boxes were as printed in the original product literature. I think the M9996 was 6000 mw rated as a trade off for the fancy AMSS feature which is why I went for the M9998. I wanted to say a word about cleaning controls and switches in boom boxes or any audio equipment. Use great care when cleaning anything near a band switch or tuner circuit. The circuit board and the base material of most brands is phenolic and can absorb lubricants this is not usually a problem but in tuning circuits capacitor values are very small and very critical. Lubricant residue soaking into the phenolic wafer where switch pins are closely spaced can create small capacitive paths and resistive paths that can cause everything from no stereo function to poor tracking. When the lubricant mixes with the existing grime the resistance problem becomes an issue. Keep fluids of all types away from coils and the small flat mica caps that are called padders or trimmers. Condensation on their very thin plates can cause damage or set you up for a time consuming front end alignment. Carbon pots can also be damaged by some cleaners. The carbon layer can be dissolved by some cleaning solvents. Most of the time a wee bit of alcohol is enough to quiet them down. Sometimes you have to take a pot apart but the most likely cause of the scratchiness will be the wipers contact with the lug not the carbon. That’s why on some you can spray spray spray and theirs no improvement…you have to clean the metal to metal contactor at the center of the pot. On the larger old designs it is a metal ring in the center on the later Alps types the wiper is actually a carbon print. These should be cleaned very carefully with like q-tip size quantity of alcohol. Petrol based sprays shouldn’t be used. CRC silicone sprays will dissolve most carbon pots and melt most plastics. The more modern pots are much more delicate. If you can find trichlor you can clean band switches and mode switches with an ultrasonic cleaner in a well ventilated area. When you do clean tuning related parts properly you may still experience odd performance like drift or poor tracking or a loss of one part of the tuning band. Cleaners like alcohol and some degreasers use a propellant that can reduce the temperature of the components to below freezing. Be sure to let the circuit board and parts dry and reach a normalized temperature free of condensation before you power up and test. I know this seems long winded but I’ve seen many problems caused by too much goo. Sometimes the glue used to hold larger capacitors to the circuit boards would become conductive and we were instructed by manufacturers to remove it completely. Toshiba was one brand that comes to mind and was mostly in televisions but you shouldn’t overlook globs of rosin/glue/tape or other foreign matter on circuit boards for when they are mixed with dirt grime and age they can create stray paths that some circuits do not take kindly to.
How many horror stories have you heard about no FM or stereo after cleaning up a unit? 
