HITACHI Stereo - Power loss ?

Hi , I have a 3 year old HIACHI AX-M138 mini hi-fi system . It has been fine up to now , but it has stopped working suddenly , with no light coming on , on the sub woofer . I have checked the fuses and the connections , and nothing seems wrong .
I need to decide whether , given the relative low cost of the unit , I should take it to an electrical repair specialist for further inspection . Have you any advice which may be of use to me .
Thanks , Colin .

It seems to be a common enough fault with this unit that it's even showing up quickly on a Google search... So, the dilemma - pay for a repair that could cost as much as the unit (£60-£70) or cut your losses.

Personally I'd be tempted to have a look inside the sub to see if there's anything obvious like a bulging capacitor or blown resistor. Try a DIY repair, but if that doesn't work I would move on to something new.

I had a similar repair on a mini hifi stack, and it's mainly the intergrated power OP/Amp, that fails. The chip costs £17 or so, but fitting it is a nightmare, as it has 40 legs or so? On a laquered board, so doubly hard.

I managed to desolder, and repair broken tracks, and reinstall the chip, but the costs, and labour, mean throw it out.

40 legs sounds like a heck of a lot for an audio amplifier even if it's stereo.

If you need to replace a through hole chip (surface mount chips can be relatively easilly removed in one peice with hot air) it is nearly always best to cut the legs off the chip first. The legs can then be desoldered one at a time with minimal risk of damage.