Static! Noise! Simple Fix for a Vintage Receiver: Pioneer SX-440 Transistors

This problem is common with early-70’s Pioneer receivers. One day it was working fine, and the next it was making awful static-like noises! Knock wood, I have fixed the problem by replacing several small transistors, and this beautiful old Pioneer is making beautiful music once again. Bad transistors commonly cause problems with Pioneer receivers from the early 70’s. Symptoms include static and pops. The noises may start off relatively quiet but can quickly progress to being very loud. With this receiver, the problem started as moderately noisy static in one channel and progressed to loud static from both channels. I previously encountered this sort of problem with a Pioneer SX-828. In that receiver, bad transistors were causing loud pops in both channels. Transistors failing in this way may not appear as faulty in simple transistor testers, and the transistors needing replacement are typically inexpensive, so rather than tracking down the source of the fault, replacement of several or many transi