AKAI S900 won't output any sound... any ideas?

so i recently shipped my entire studio overseas by boat... pretty much everything arrived fully functional, but it appears something happened to my S900 along the way... i can assume it was thrown around a bit, as that's how cargo usually gets treated, but it was shipped along with all my other rack equipment in a 12-space wooden flight case.

the S900 powers up fine, the floppy drive works perfectly as well... it receives MIDI signal, loads files, etc... it does everything except output any sound at all... not even the TONE PROGRAM will play from any of the outputs [despite it showing that it's receiving the MIDI signal]... none of my samples saved on diskette will come out of the outputs either...

so far i've opened it up and checked for any loose cables or roms... i didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but i disconnected and reconnected pretty much every single cable [including the ones that run from the board with all the audio outputs]... but still no sound at all... it's very odd and frustrating at the same time... last i knew, it was working perfectly before i traveled... however, one thing i'm noticing is that the OUTPUT volume knob on the front panel is just a little bit loose... since that knob sticks out the most it may have possibly gotten hit from the front along the way... i'm not sure to be honest, but is there a way to override the volume on the front panel and set it to full level so to speak? i'm running out of things to try out here... any other suggestions are welcome as well... thanks for your time...

If you're handy with a soldering iron, try resoldering all the pins on that knob.

the loose knob ended up just being a loose nut on the volume knob... i tightened that up real quick and that knob is now tight again... but still no sound coming out .

i've also tried switching the output configuration from the default ALL to CHANNEL-1, but it looks like the mono outputs aren't sending any audio signal either... i'm lost as far as what else i can attempt to do at this point... i don't want to give up on this sampler... these things are built like tanks and i'm sure there's a simple solution i'm overlooking here...

man i recently somehow in a really strange way passed a fairly large amount of electricity through myself while playing guitar while connected to one of my 950s also and fried everything. kind of sucked.

my s950 had no sound, opened it up, checked all the cables...still no joy
i left it in the cellar for a few months
checked it at the weekend...
now it works

well, sheeeit... would you mind if i leave this piece of gear in your cellar for a few months then?

^^^Happened to me, but I sold mine for $50 before the guy found it to be working again.

Seems like you have to open it up.
Take a look at this:
http://www.zshare.net/download/601754450de1feaa/
It is the Service Manual.
In it you will find a Description on how to Setup the Playback Offset. (Page 7)
Please try to do this following the Instructions in the Manual.

Could be just a Problem with one of the tiny Potis.
Maybe worth trying fiddle a litte on the Poti of the first Voice.
Also IC8 (i cant remember correctly, maybe it´s IC9) deserves some Attention.
It is the D/A Converter. This Thing changes ones and zeroes into the Sound you hear.
I must admit that some Checkup there would be a little more complicated.

Also make sure that it´s not a Problem with the audio socket itself. That could be the case and is often seen on those large Jacks....

good luck

well the problem is definitely somewhere within the voice board [top circuit board in the machine]... because if i disconnect the cable that runs from the power supply to the voice board and power it up, the s900 turns on and functions identical to how it is now... it does everything but output sound.

i've also used deoxit contact cleaner on the pins where the cables connect, but still no luck.

ultra auris wrote:man i recently somehow in a really strange way passed a fairly large amount of electricity through myself while playing guitar while connected to one of my 950s also and fried everything. kind of sucked.

hey... just wondering... if it gets "fried" you would most likely see something physically burnt or a blown fuse inside, correct? is it possible for a board to burn out without any visible evidence of it being fried?

Juppdich wrote:Seems like you have to open it up.
Take a look at this:
http://www.zshare.net/download/601754450de1feaa/
It is the Service Manual.
In it you will find a Description on how to Setup the Playback Offset. (Page 7)
Please try to do this following the Instructions in the Manual.

so the playback offset adjustment might bring the sound back?? i'm interested in giving this a shot, but i don't currently own a voltmeter for checking each voice... could the playback offset really cause the sound to stop coming out of even the Left/Right/Mix outputs? i had just assumed those would apply to only the individual 1-8 outputs...

I dont know exactly if it could stop the Output completely....

But Main Mix is pretty much the same as Voice 1 (or 1-8) if many samples were playing at the same time.

Please don´t try to fiddle around blind with the potentiometers.
Meassure at first und just fiddle if something reads not ok on the Multimeter.

In your case as had read through your problem description again i would assume, that the main Volume Pot is broken. I think this is the most probable.
Get a Multimeter and meassure Resistance of Main Vol pot.

Ohh wait and see what i found.
Might not be a faulty Pot, i think this one here could be your Solution:

http://sp1200.myfastforum.org/S950_Outp ... ut941.html