TASCAM VL-5S: attempting to fix, help?

[Johnny hunt]

Hey everyone. This is my first post. Actually first visit to this site. Thanks for letting me post.

I’ve had a pair of Tascam VL-5s monitors which I actually really like and get consistently good mixes from for about two years. Yesterday one got knocked off it’s stand in my studio and fell about 3 feet to a wooden floor. Chip in the wood on the side and but no other visible damage. Yet now when i plugged it back in I get no sound from it. It DOES power on, light comes on at front of speaker, volume knob is up at 7 where I’ve always kept it and I’ve tried various other cables. It’s probably worth noting that on my Universal Audio Apollo interface, both left and right output meters are moving as usual while playing back in Logic Pro X 10.4.4. Everything else is just fine. Just no sound.

I am very broke at the moment, so I unscrewed all the little screws on the back to look inside to see if I could fix it myself instead of doing the smart think and bringing it somewhere to be looked at by someone who knows what to look for and I do not. So far I see nothing out of order or unusual looking to me.

So it seems that I’d have to look further into the speaker to find the problem which means doing more unscrewing of screws beyond the ones on the back of the speaker. I am going down VERY uncharted territory here. So that’s what’s brought me here. Does this issue sound familiar to anyone? How bad of an idea is it for me to continue digging into the monitor without actually knowing what to look for? (Haha I bet I already know the answer to that one! )

ANY tips are VERY appreciated.

Thanks!

-johnny

 

[Johnny hunt]

Is there a way to upload images to this thread? Figured that may help to explain my situation as well, ... if I took some pics.

 

[Phil Tipping]

You used to be able to upload photos via the 'Upload a File' button, but this doesn't seem to work now... but I just happen to have one of mine apart to investigate an intermittent noise burst, so here's a few pics uploaded to the pCloud file server. They may be enough to show which bit has come loose. Let me know if you want better quality and/or different viewpoints.
As you've probably found, the outer screws release the back panel, then you can pull off the led plug at the pcb end, and the 2 pairs of speaker cables at the speaker ends - I found the red lead to the large speaker needed a small screwdriver inserted into the tag to release it - no amount of force was going to make it budge! All the others came off easily.
btw if you need to upload pics of your unit, there are other file sharing systems such as pcloud or wetransfer.com

 

[Johnny hunt]

Oh man. This is an amazing response. Thank you. I’m going to sign up for pCloud now so I can see the photos! I’ll let you know if I find something that could be the culprit! Thanks you again times a million!

 

[SkywaveTDR]

More likely you have a broken solder joint in the unit caused by the fall. This stuff is probably made in China and so has very little resistance to dropping or abuse.

 

[Johnny hunt]

So I don’t see anything unusual when comparing your internal pics to my open monitor. But also I don’t have an eye for any of this. I have little to no experience dealing with the internal parts of the gear I used, and am more afraid of doing more damage as a result. But I uploaded this pic, can you tell me, the piece that I’ve got the red arrows pointing to, is it a bad idea to go in there? There’s a couple screws that attach it to the back cover of the speaker, and I’m pretty sure I could easily get in there, but am I asking for it?

Pic:https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZWviJkZnfdzp3tUF685jM1XJOBgQ7717FO7

 

[Johnny hunt]

SkywaveTDR, yeah that sounds completely possible.

 

[Johnny hunt]

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZH0rJkZxmELhDv64N4zw5Ehw15IC4BIyncy

Just curious, these are the monitors fuses I presume?

 

[Phil Tipping]

...the piece that I’ve got the red arrows pointing to, is it a bad idea to go in there? There’s a couple screws that attach it to the back cover of the speaker, and I’m pretty sure I could easily get in there, but am I asking for it?

This is the main power transformer with flying leads to the sockets on the back panel. It may have come loose in the fall, but I doubt if the wires will have broken as they have quite a bit of 'play'. I would check the connections which go directly to the pcb. These soldered joints could easily fracture as Skywave suggested. I would be tempted to find a repair shop if you're not confident, e.g. if you did find a broken joint, have you got the gear to re-solder it?
There are a couple of push-in fuses, so have these popped out? ... update - we cross-posted! They look ok.

 

[Phil Tipping]

These pics have red circles round the bits I would check. One is where the sockets mounted on the back panel are soldered to the pcb. The other shows the heatsink - this could have moved in the drop. The power amp chip is mounted on it, so it could have stressed the joints where it is soldered to the pcb. Good luck!

 

[Johnny hunt]

Oh great. I’m gonna check that pic out now. I seriously can’t thank you enough for the attention you’ve given my little issue!

 

[Phil Tipping]

No problem johnny... welcome to the forum by the way! Hopefully more people will chime in - I'll be needing help with mine soon - the plan is to replace a few capacitors but I'm just feeling my way too I found a schematic for the vl-x5 model but not the vl-s5.

 

[Johnny hunt]

Thanks you! At some point I want to learn to build midi controllers (I’ve heard not too hard) and build some custom pieces for my studio.

Also just for the hell of it I made a folder on pCloud of a bunch of pics I took initially of the VL-5S’s insides. If you’re bored and want to maybe look at them and tell me if you see something weird! I’ll probably bring it to a shop later. It’s still early for those places to be open yet today. And also I’d rather not spend a ton of money I don’t have. Here’s the folder of pics:
https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=kZE2rJkZaugFwYXx327UOyggxrGQ8FguDfMV

 

[SkywaveTDR]

I would get a meter in the item and make sure power is going in. After that it is just tracing a signal through the circuits with a scope. I fixed a lot of powered speakers and sub woofer type devices over the years- lots of bad solder joints always.