Amp borked, what to do..

[benneh]

I'm just wondering really, my amp blew up earlier. It's just an old 80's Technics amp, but I'm quite fond of it - so I'd like to get it repaired.
Normally I'd have a go myself, but I've had it apart and I can't find any bulging capacitors or burned resistors etc (basically whenever I turn it on the VU meter for the left channel maxes out and I get an almighty hum/signal).

Firstly I suppose, is it worth me buying a multimeter and having a poke around?, how easy is it to fault find?. (I've built a couple of cmos amps in the past, but it was basically solder by numbers..).
Or am I best handing it over the the local tv/stereo repair man?.



As an aside. It happened when I switched (amp) inputs between my on-board sound card and my m-audio 1010Lt. And a mixer that the M audio was connected to has recently died a death too.. Could these things be related?. How much power could an AGP card muster through the RCA cables?, and surely there's some type of failsafe employed. Confuzzled I am.. Hmm

 

[benneh]

Cheers chap, also M. Sayyid 4tw.

M SAYIIIIDD

I should add, today I purchased a multimeter, found the schematics and signed up to diyaudio .

 

[benneh]

No problem, Beans and High Priest are also awesome...

If you have the schematics then this makes things a million times easier to fix... What do the chips look like which are bolted to the heatsink? If these have overheated then this is quite a common reason why an amp will fail.

If these look ok then it could be another component, what is the model number of the amp?

Firstly, for anyone reading this, always discharge your capacitors... Scary..

It's a technics SU-Z1 chap, and I can't visually find a single thing wrong grr. In terms of what's bolted to the heatsink there's just one big thing (see pic, the white stuff atop being thermal paste), which looks to be fine. I have no idea what that is lol.
The power supply is in a sealed 'unit', Sealed inside a solid metal housing with some type of hard waxy looking substance poured into it.. so I can't get a visual on any of that..

Hmmm, I've done a fair bit of reading but I'm finding it difficult to identify parts. More research needed ;p.

 

[benneh]

Thanks for the heads up dude, poking about atm, 37.5v across each capacitor, so here's hoping!. The investigation is ongoing..