Do you know what is wrong with an receiver if sound does not come out of the speakers?

Question

Everything is hooked up. and it usually takes about 5 min turned on until the sound begins to come out of the speakers.

Answer 1

A couple of things for you to check out as possible causes: damaged or shorted speaker wire, damaged or shorted Speakers, mismatch of spkrs to receiver.

(assuming that this is not an antique vacuum tube receiver)

1.disconnect all speaker wires from back of rcvr, than test with headphones. If it works within 15-20 seconds, you may have a shorted spkr wire, or a blown sprk which is shorted out.

2. If above does not work, problem with rcvr. If above does work, check the impedance markings on back of spkrs. Most rcvrs will accept between 4 and 8 ohms with no problems. If you are using more than one pair of spkrs, this may be causing a mismatch and causing your problem.

3. check your wires carefully end to end for any damage (pinched wire, nicks from staples, etc) Make sure there are no strands at either end which are touching the adjacent wire.

4. Hook up just one speaker. If it works okay, pwr off, then switch to other channel and try again. If works, try second spkr. If works, try other spkr wire.

Good luck

Answer 2

The fact that it eventually works tells me the speakers, and wires are good.  I think you have an old tube type receiver.  It is normal for them to warm up slowly.  5 minutes is too slow however, tube type receivers should warm up in less than 2 minutes.  As the tubes age, the warm-up time increases a little, but it is not anything to worry about.

If this really is an old tube type receiver you might have a valuable antique there.  Tube receivers are getting valuable, a hot item on ebay.