[Sabrage]

My trusty, beautiful Yamaha CR-1020 is starting to get wonky when playing sound out of the left channels... I have it hooked up to my PC's line out via an RCA cable, and listening to unbalanced music like this is absolute hell. I haven't had the funds to buy a decent sound card, so I'm stuck with my onboard Realtek HD Audio. I don't have the money for a newer/better receiver at the moment, nor do I have it for a new sound card.

I don't have any computer speakers, though, so unless I can find a way to hook my speakers directly to my PC, I can't get any sound. I do not currently have any other way to play music, so this is devastating as I find it hard to sleep without music on (and general life is more enjoyable with it too).

I originally narrowed the problem down: It could either lie within the RCA cable (cheap from Radioshack), the receiver, or my speaker cable (old and cheap). I was able to get full stereo sound for a little while by fiddling with the RCA input, but it only lasted for 5 minutes or so, and then it cut out again. I'm completely lost as to why my receiver is refusing to play the left channel. I don't think I have any specific questions, but any recommendations as to how I should go about playing my music until I can fix my receiver (or, more likely, get a new one) would be welcome.

 

[brainsalad]

If fiddling with the RCA input made the sound come on or change, I'll bet dollars to donuts, its your cable. Go and buy a new set of cables and speaker wire and see if that fixes your problem.

 

[Sabrage]

That's what I thought too, but I tested it with my turntable and there's still no output on the left side. =/
I'll have to hook up a radio antennae to know for sure, so I'll do that tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure it's the receiver.

 

[Operandi]

Sounds like a physical problem on some level, though I doubt it's the cable. To rule it out simply switch the left side of the patch cable with the right (reverse the channels), if the left channel is still dead it wouldn't be the cable.

It could the RCA jack on the receiver however, if you know anyone into electronics it should be fairly easy to diagnose.