TR Forums

I just got a used TB Santa Cruz I bought from ebay, and after setting it and installing it, no sound comes from the front speaker jack. I've checked the configuration of the control panel and it's corrclty configured for 5.1 audio. Since returning it is not an option (I got it from overseas, and the return cost is not worth it) I was wondering if anyone has any experience with something similar, and if it would be possible to fix it, perhaps by replacing the non working jack? I'm not afraid to do a little soldering of my own.

You should be able to do that, although looking at the back side of my retired TBSC I see that each jack has 5 solder pads, which is a bit confusing.

The question in my mind is whether the problem is really the jack, or the circuitry which drives it. You may end up replacing the jack, only to find that it still does not work. On the flip side, it is also possible that the problem is merely a cracked solder joint; simply re-flowing the solder connections on the affected jack might be enough to fix it.

I'll bet the extra 2 connections are just to give it more mechanical strength (probably redundant grounds).

just brew it! wrote:

The question in my mind is whether the problem is really the jack, or the circuitry which drives it. You may end up replacing the jack, only to find that it still does not work. On the flip side, it is also possible that the problem is merely a cracked solder joint; simply re-flowing the solder connections on the affected jack might be enough to fix it.

I'll bet the extra 2 connections are just to give it more mechanical strength (probably redundant grounds).

Sometimes it's also a switch that allows the card to detect that a jack is in use. Older analog hardware couldn't detect the jack load automatically the way modern hardware can.

At any rate, I would look for a cracked solder joint first. It's a common failure on audio and power jacks, particularly if they were connected and disconnected regularly and/or shoved against a wall.