Oh Jesus, what a mess!.. But it's not unfixable though.. Sadly, on the Elite pro, i have 4 individual stereo DACs, instead of the single CS4382.. so I can't help you :( But what I CAN say, is that you should clean the area as best as possible with alcohol, a soft brush, and some cotton...

I may be able to help you, if the layout in the damaged area is the same as the Elite Pro. Just upload a clear picture with the problem area, and draw on it, for which pin you want me to find the rest of the trace.

@ramachandra I too was a bit skeptical about the "overly complicated" design of the avr8500; but when i studied the service manual, i had the pleasant surprise to find that it also has a direct analog input (for all 5 channels) that COMPLETELY bypasses all the DSP, and shoots the signal...

I'm also interested in this answer!    P.S. @ramachandra you don't even know how right you were when you said my PIONEER will be next, & i just don't know it yet  :)) Replaced it with a Harman Kardon Avr8500 a few weeks ago... the sound is incomparable!! Thank you for pushing me into this...

After a look into the Electronic Diagram of the A1, i can see that it has a very direct path from the "external decoder input" to the actual amp! Even the switch and potentiometer are purely mechanical (not an switching Integrated Circuit) and the signal only passes through the tone controls...

@obobskivich many thanks for your in-depth posts about the Yamaha DSP-A1. You've pretty much steered me into having it on my top list :)   I've been looking far and wide, and the only other model that's truly even more outstanding from yamaha, is the DSP Z9 / RX Z9. But sadly i can only find...

-deleted-   (somebody had a yamaha A1 for sale right in my neighborhood.. turns out he screwed up the location on the ad)

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Wow! That's one good review! Thanks :D I'll note this down to be a good option; especially for the cleaner sound you mentioned! DSP-wise, i'm not that much into.. but raw clean sound :) I'll take a look over the internals as soon as i get a bit of free time. (The HK avr 8500 had some Toshiba...

@obobskivich how does the Yamaha DSP-A1 handle 5.1 ?? -- i'm also thinking of using the 5.1 capabilities for PC gaming.  (How easy is it to set up 5.1 on it? Does it have weird modes that make life difficult? etc..) Can you please share your experience with the unit in that regard? (and...

There IS one Yamaha DSP-A1 for sale in Romania.. for 225$, but it's it's pretty far away, so the trip will cost an additional 75$ , going to a total of 300$. I will look for more details on this model. (is it worth the prince?)   Regarding the H.K. avr 8500, i think this might be one of those...

Thanks 

Hi, I'm in search of good, older / second hand AMP that will not exceed 400$ The 1st priority is sound quality and transparency (but not to the extent where i need to pay 200% for a 5% improvement) 2nd would be analog 5.1 input .. Or at least 4 speaker output in stereo mode. 3rd.. nice tone...

no prob. 

Regarding Capacitor voltages, the opinions are divided..  Some people say that there's no harm in using larger voltage caps, other people avoid doing that because the fact that the larger voltage Cap might loose it's efficiency if it gets a voltage that is too small in comparison to it's...