5 Cheap Repairs That Turn Broken Audio Equipment Into Thrift Store Gems

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I like to think of myself as a professional saver. What was once a fun hobby turned into a small business that helped pay for college. My specialty was vintage electronics, buying them cheap, refurbishing them and flipping them for a modest profit. Because of this, over the years I have learned to spot broken audio equipment that can easily be repaired.

A number of repairs needed to bring vintage electronics back to life are often quite simple. Many repairs don’t even require specialized skills, unlike something more tricky like trying to fix a broken HDMI port. While you may not be looking to start a new side business selling refurbished equipment, you can still save a lot of money by repairing old audio equipment. And since vintage audio equipment is in high demand today, knowing a few simple solutions can really come in handy.

Here are some of the simple repairs you should keep in mind the next time you encounter broken or non-working audio equipment in the wild. These repairs are also very useful if you currently have old, partially functional audio equipment sitting around in the dust.

If you collect physical media, you will need some sort of drive to enjoy your content. From cassette players and turntables to VHS and Laserdisc players, many of these devices share one thing in common: a belt drive. Cassette players and turntables use these belts to spin the vinyl and feed the tape, while optical drives use belts to open and close the disc platters.

One of the most common problems is belts drying out after years of non-use. Rubber becomes brittle and may fall apart. And even if a belt isn’t broken, over the years it can stretch, making the sound sound like a horror movie. The good news is that belts are usually easy to replace on something like a turntable. You can usually lift this deck and run the belt over a few drive wheels.

The belts are also very inexpensive: a bag of turntable belts on Amazon costs less than $10. Cassette and digital players are more difficult to replace due to their compact size, but the process of running an appropriately sized belt over the drive wheels is the same. If you’re looking to replace the belt on something other than a turntable, it should be just as cost-effective: a bag of 100 assorted belts for electronics repair will only cost you about $7.

If you visit thrift stores enough, one thing you’ll start to notice about the electronics and audio equipment you come across is that they often come with a few broken or missing knobs and buttons. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come across a stereo amplifier missing its big master volume knob.

People often avoid collecting these pieces of equipment because finding new old stock (NOS) replacements can be expensive and difficult. And without all the different buttons, older gear can often lose some of the aesthetic that helps it stand out and sell. Fortunately, modern technology has helped solve this problem with the advent of inexpensive at-home 3D printing.

If you find vintage audio equipment with a broken button, you can simply enter the model into the search box of a 3D printing website such as Thingiverse. If you have a 3D printer, printing replacement buttons is a breeze. And if you don’t have access to a 3D printer, Amazon has an assortment of knobs like these Bakelite Potentiometer Pointer Knobs that can be used to repair vintage audio gear.

Tube technology often sounds like something out of the pages of 1950s science fiction. Vacuum tubes became central to early electronic amplification after Lee de Forest’s Audion in 1906, and they helped shape early radio technology. These vacuum tubes often have a distinct orange glow and help amplify guitar amps, old radios, and home entertainment amplifiers.

Although tube amps have a very complex and retro-futuristic look, replacing them is easy. On many amps, replacing a preamp tube can be as simple as removing the old tube and inserting the appropriate replacement tube, once the amp is unplugged and cooled. Some musicians have noticed that it is easier to replace a tube than to replace the strings on their guitar. Knowing how easy it is to replace a tube is why a vintage amp could be that thrift store gem you’ve come across.

Vacuum tubes come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, so it’s important to know the right type of tube you need for your given amplifier. You can expect to pay between twenty and eighty dollars for a pack of replacement tubes. And if that vintage amplifier at a thrift store sells online for thousands of dollars, a $50 tube is a steal.

The picture on my 65-inch TCL Roku TV went dark just before the World Cup, because life’s timing is impeccable. Having experience repairing LCD TVs and their common failure points, I knew it was one of two things: either the LED light strips were burned out or a capacitor on the power board was bad. Upon inspection, I discovered it was a faulty capacitor, which I replaced in just a few minutes.

Now, this repair requires a bit of skill and a few extra tools, including an inexpensive soldering iron. After unplugging the device and safely discharging the capacitor, you can remove a bulging or burst capacitor by heating the solder joints while holding it on the board and then removing it. You can then insert a new capacitor and solder new joints to hold it in place.

The YouTube channel How are you? DIY has a great video on soldering basics, breaking it all down and teaching you everything you need to know in just a few minutes. It’s a simple skill to learn, but one that can change your entire repair strategy. Many electronics sent to the landfill can often be given a new lease of life with nothing more than a pack of $5 capacitors.

A point of failure on older audio equipment can often be linked to the power jack. It’s not uncommon to see broken or bent pegs on vintage electronics, leading to damage, fire hazards, and other problems. It can also be difficult to identify power adapter issues because they don’t always show signs of physical damage to the naked eye.

Cable stress factors, age, etc. can impact a power cable’s ability to provide adequate power. And I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times I’ve encountered vintage electronics that had the end of the plug randomly cut off. Fortunately, most of the time, replacing a power outlet is a quick, easy, and fairly inexpensive solution.

You can buy a pack of replacement tips on Amazon for less than $10, and if you’re getting into vintage tech repair, it’s a good idea to keep a few in your toolbox. Getting a pair of inexpensive $5 wire strippers is also a great idea when attempting this type of repair, so you don’t have to fumble around with a pair of scissors and accidentally make things worse. Not that I have any direct experience of it.