Audio trouble with tascam dp-03sd

[Dave R.]

Hello everyone. I recently got a tascam dp-03sd second hand, and I finally got to sit down and play with it tonight. I got setup, recorded a test track, and noticed that I had no sound coming from the headphones, or the RCA ports. I looked through the manual, and did the best I could to try and resolve the issue, but I still can get any sound. When I plug in the headphones you can here that there is power there (usual pop), but that's it.

So, after many hours of googling, I still have zip to go on. Am I missing something? Is there a setting that I may have overlooked, or was I lucky enough to get a somehow broken unit? Thanks.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Hi Dave, welcome... and sorry for slow response. Did you manage to get it sorted? If not, you could try the Initialize function (page 56 in manual) in case it's a rogue setting. If this doesn't work, we really need more info, e.g. which signals can't you hear, the track playback signal or the input signal while you are recording. I don't have a dp03 but might be able to help via the manual.

 

[Dave R.]

Hi Phil, and thank you for the reply.

So, here is a rundown of what I have done so far:
I have gone over the tutorial in the manual step by step, no sound from either output (RCA and headphones).

I tried initializing it and still no sound.

While the demo was playing, I zeroed out all faders (1 - 8, plus master), and brought them up to the desired levels. No sound.

I'm not sure where to go with it from there. What doesn't make sense is that you can hear power in the circuit for the headphones both when you plug them in, and when it is powered on/off. One thing I have been curious about; is it possible for the circuit to fry if someone was to plugin an aux line thinking it was an input? Reason why I ask is I've seen someone talking about that happening. I personally didn't think such a thing would be possible, but what are the chances that it could be?

 

[Phil Tipping]

I guess you're seeing a signal on the meters? - just to confirm the demo song is ok. I may be wrong, but it sounds bad news. The block diagram isn't very clear, but suggests that there is no separate line-out amp or headphone amp from the D-to-A convertor (DAC), like the dp24/32. The DAC appears to go straight to the line outputs and also to the headphones via a headphone level control. If this is true then the DAC could be damaged by someone connecting output to output, and that would result in no sound from either the headphones or RCA sockets.
I read of someone replacing a faulty DAC chip, albeit for the dp24/32, but it was a surface-mount device so takes a lot of nerve (and steady hands!) to do it. Sorry can't be any more help.

 

[Dave R.]

That's okay. I appreciate the response back.

Yeah, the meters show there is something playing. It showed activity on both the demo, and anything I tried to record.

So, basically i would have to desolder the defective part off the board, and solder the new one back in? That would be tricky indeed. I assume it is a pretty crowded board as well, as it seems most electronics are pretty tightly packed these days. Talk about zero room for error.