The Sad Solved Saga of the Sony HT-SS370 Home Theater System!

UPDATE: This issue has been--tentatively--solved, and Sony is for the most part exonerated. Scroll to the end of the post for my solution.


[EDITOR'S NOTE: I've posted this as much for other owners of this system with the same problem, as for its blog value. I've included updates with tests for anyone else seeking answers.]

I know that I've talked a lot about my new home entertainment setup in the last couple of weeks. But when you've got your own web forum and you want to vent, there's no better place. And much of my time has been taken up lately, ironing out the kinks in the system.

I bought a new stereo to go with my new TV, mostly because my old stereo was barely hanging in there, and had no HDMI inputs. So, when Ultimate Electronics started their going out of business sale, I was ripe for the pickings. It turns out everyone had a sale on the Sony HT-SS370 home theater system, apparently, so my "deal" wasn't so special. But it does everything I wanted it to do, and it's super slim, and fit where I wanted it to go. So, great, right?

Well, when the TV arrived, we got everything hooked up, and I was showing it off to some friends. 10 minutes into the new Star Trek Blu-ray, the stereo kicked off, and thus the picture went out. After fumbling around, I got it back on. 10 minutes later, >blink!< out it goes again. After a little study, I found out that "auto standby" is a default setting, and that the stereo will turn itself off if it senses no action for 10 minutes. Okay, stupid feature, and even stupider that it can't sense the Sony Blu-ray player, but whatever. I turned it off. Problem solved?

Sort of. It no longer turns off when playing Blu-rays. It doesn't shut off when watching the cable box. It doesn't shut off when I'm playing music through blue tooth from my PC. But when I play CDs from my old Pioneer 300-disc player, it will shut off unexpectedly, sometimes after only a couple of minutes. When you get it back on again, it might last for half an hour, it might last for a minute. Or 10 seconds. Or two seconds. Maddening, right? And I couldn't take it back, because Ultimate Electronics is going out of business!

The Other Half suggested that I go buy a duplicate, swap out the receiver, and take it back for a refund. That way, I got what I paid for, and the rest is Sony's problem. Unethical? I don't think so under the circumstances. So, I did it. And I did it clean too, I didn't disturb anything else in the package, just swapping out the receiver. Then, one of three things happened: a) I got another lemon, b) karma bit me in the ass, or c) all Sony HT-SS370s do this.

I should mention that before I went the extreme route of returning it, I contacted Sony via online chat with a tech. The girl I talked to had never heard of the problem before, but she told me I should unplug the unit from my power strip, and plug it directly into the wall. As unlikely as it sounds, that worked. The first time I tried it. The next day, it was back to shutting off every 5 seconds.  And this one does too. So, either I'm going to have to phase out my CD player, or replace it with another, newer (possibly HDMI? Maybe Sony?) CD player. And I won't know until after I try it if that is going to work!  Short of that, the only think I can think of is to try a different cable or a digital one. I suppose it's worth a shot.

UPDATE: Though my Pioneer PD-F1009 CD player is very old, maybe 10 years or so, it is still sold by Pioneer Electronics. The exact same machine. So the age of the thing shouldn't be my problem, right? And the only other output is fiber optic, which the Sony receiver lacks. I'm stuck.

UPDATE #2:  Running a test. I set the player on random, at 11:10 pm. It is currently running with no issue. I have the volume at a moderate level, and am curious if turning it up has any effect, because the times it has cut out, the volume has been loud. 11:20, and the system is still on, so the "auto standby" can't be the culprit. If it makes it to 11:30, I may have to try turning it up. Sorry neighbors!

11:31, and it's still playing. Cranking it up a bit now. Frankly, "cranked up" is not very loud, at least with the CD player. No cut-out yet. Could this problem be daylight related? Some sort of stray infrared signals coming from somewhere? It seems unlikely. 11:40, and still no disruption, even at full volume. As for loudness, the left channel still seems weak, so tomorrow I'll check my wires. The difference between playing it today and tonight though is puzzling. The only difference seems to be daylight. More testing tomorrow.

UPDATE #3: It's 12:10 am--an hour later--and the stereo is still playing just fine. But after some tooling around on the internet, I did find something interesting. Each time the receiver has shut down, it has done so abruptly, and the power light has flashed red several times. I found out this is indicating "protect" mode. And protect mode indicates a short of some sort. The only place I could have a short would be in the speaker wires, which may be why I have a left channel problem. Why this would only occur with the CD player is a mystery though. Sigh.

UPDATE #4: Sunday morning, I turned on the system, and it barely made it through a song before it cut out. I turned it back on twice more, and each time it shut off again. Since my left channel speaker has always seemed weak, I decided to unplug it, and remembered my speaker switch box. Yes, I have an A/B/C speaker switch box that allows me to play music on speakers outside! So, I bypassed the box, and plugged the left front speaker wire directly into the speaker.

The stereo did not shut off! I left to run errands (including an unsuccessful search for a new switch box), leaving the stereo on for two hours. It was still playing when I got home.  So, most of the mystery seems to be solved. My switch box was shorting out, and causing a protection fault, pretty much like a GFI. Had I known to suspect a short, rather than the stereo itself, I could have avoided a heck of a lot of trouble.

Sony's troubleshooting and online techs could be well served to have this little nugget of knowledge. The blinking red "protect" light is not clear in the manual. So while I exonerate Sony, and put the blame on my Radio Shack switch box, Sony could have helped a lot by explaining what "protect" means!

I'm not ready to do cartwheels, and think all my problems are solved. For one thing, since this was an intermittent and oddly specific problem, I still can't figure out why it only happened when playing CDs, or why it seemed to only happen in daytime. Mostly though, if the problem is solved, I don't care!


And finally, since this seems to not be a Sony problem, then my ethically dodgy return of the first receiver is moot, because there was nothing wrong with it! No harm, no foul.