Cambridge Audio GO for £25 on eBay | What could go wrong? 

Stupid Spoiler Saver... Nothing to see here.

The vacuum to mostly pull out those domes was quite ingenious

About 10 years ago I was browsing ads and someone was selling a Cambridge Minx ( bigger and a lot more powerful version of what you got) . We agreed 90 euro and met the guy on dark winter night in car park of small town - dodgy as hell. Turned out the guy was fantastic and he explained he had bought it for 450 euro at the time. Took it out of box and wife said “ what’s that I don’t like the look of it , it’s not staying in my kitchen”. He never even turned it on. Put it back in box . Wrapped it all up and sold it to me for the 90 euro. I could not believe my luck. I still have it and still as good as day I got it . Play it every day and sound is incredible . Best thing I ever got from an ad.

"I don’t know what I’m doing and I am an idiot", spoken like a true professional. Thank you Steve 🎉 that is now my new moto in life.

Protected lithium ion cells will shut off the battery's output when the pack voltage drops below a certain voltage. That board in the battery pack probably has a battery protection IC on it that disconnects the battery below 9 volts or so. You have to apply a charging voltage above a certain level to reset the protection circuit.

Hey Steve! I’m going through a bit of a mental health slump at the moment and also struggling to sleep. Your videos really help me to find focus and relax my mind in the wee hours. Just wanted to say thank you :)

I wonder if the battery would have come up to full charge if you had just left it plugged in longer. Your external board charged it at 1A, but the internal charger may use a lower current and take a few hours to fully charge the battery. All in all, well done!

Zip-tied before testing? Someone was mighty confident in their repair

When I need to bridge a broken board like that I typically use solder wick fully saturated, bridges easier and is very strong 👍 brilliant content as usual 👌

What a dishonest seller to pull the grill off, smash the tweeters in and then hide that damage under the grill. Some people are just crap. Great video.

I love a) that you gave us an option to skip the rap, and b) that there is evidence of a lot of people skipping it.

Bought mine in 2014, it kinda died during the pandemic, so I changed the batteries , put in 3000 mah batteries, just enough space for them and the unit is running great since then! Still my everyday radio and bluetooth speaker . By the way, your tweeter repair skills are impressive!

cambridge audio, marantz and technics - all a part of my life in the 90s. oh b&w and kef for the speakers.

Someone may please explain to me why I enjoy watching this guy fixing different stuff so much. It is the kind of education I really enjoy, entertaining and always interesting. He makes me want to learn fixing stuff. You and thecod3r are the two repair channels I really enjoy. Best wishes from Germany.

I did the same repair on a Philips 8833 monitor that had been dropped. The main board was completely cracked in two right down the middle 😖 Probably 100 tracks. Worked in the end though 😊

OMG my buttocks were clenched when you upped the power to the vacuum cleaner... (I've just read that back and realised that without context to the video, that sounds wierd... so definitely just leaving it there.) Great video as always, thank you!

I have only the highest admiration for people who can fix things. Subscribed!

That fix on the board is very clean, far better then I could have done. Well done there. I'm betting that break is because of both an over tightened screw, and the force needed to plug the power jack in as it's right next to break. So maybe be a bit careful with plugging the jack in.

It's bloody incredible what ideas you come up with in order to fix stuff, Steve. Massive kudos!

"Hmm? Hairy flux." :D

The low battery reading is typically normal when charging a depleted battery. You won't get the same reading when the supply voltage to the battery is not under load. Once a battery is connected, the supply voltage drops while the charging circuit runs on constant current, and the voltage will slowly increase. With that being a 3S battery, and depending on the cells, BMS, etc, the lower voltage cutoff can be close to 9V and the full charge voltage can be around 12.6V. Just something to keep in mind before you go dismantling battery packs in the future. haha! But great video and really enjoyed the music track!

I am shocked and dismayed that people skip the rap in the beginning. That music pulls me into the world of this channel. Without it, I'm not emotionally prepared to experience the full restoration or failure of the content.

15:21 Nice! You replace the standard zip ties with the audiophile grade black zip ties. Going to have much sweeter transients now.

Steve..use strong double sided foam tape..the best is No More Nails on a Roll..carefully attach it to the tweeter dents and pull gently..i used that method on a pair of speaker cones with centre pressed in..practice first on an old crap speaker

Nicely done. I love finding discarded electronics and bringing them back to life. I always learn something new with videos like these. I gave my old Cambridge works 5.1 surround sound system to a friend and it's still going strong after twenty years. He built himself a micro-home, so it fits perfect for the space that he has.

Great lil patch job! Usually for jobs like this I will use the baking soda and super glue trick. I will then use wire and solder wick to bridge the tracks to make sure it is rigid. My concern is where there are jacks there is pressure, it is key to make sure you build up the area behind or around to make sure there is minimal flex in the pcb.

HI. Great video. May I sugest the following in your bag to tricks. 1. Use detal floss or string to saw throught the adhesives joing the battery cells. Put some grease on the string to keep the adhesive from sticking back together after the string passes. 2. Use wires on all the repaired traces for added streagth. 3. The battery protection board ususally will disconnect the battery cells from the power out to keep the cells from going too low and may not fully charge the individual cells to maximize the cell life.

Thank you! For an amateur or, I should say, an electronically curious individual, this kind of thing is gold! As someone who's just starting out in the electronic realm (meaning I haven't ventured beyond getting lights to flash), it's awesome to see you work through the troubleshooting process. Many of us who are just beginning wouldn't have had a clue where to start before stumbling upon your guidance. Especially since you take us through all the testing and re-testing of both the individual components and next steps.

I bought a Bose Soundlink 2 from an online charity shop, an that model speaker came out more than 10 years ago. The battery still not only works, but still works pretty darn close to original spec. I dont know how cause the thing was clearly well used. thankfully its very easy to replace the battery on it and because Bose is such a big brand and the speakers were expensive when they came out people have an interest in maintaing them, so you can still find new battery replacements online. Not from Bose but still, fresh battery cells in the correct configuration to fit the speaker is pretty incredible. I hope to have this little beauty a good long time. I love your videos because it shows people that these devices dont have to go in a bin after a few years and that we need to do whatever we can to keep them out of landfills.

20 minutes is nowhere near what's needed to charge a totally dead lithium battery, so you may have pulled that battery pack apart for nothing.

You ask "who does that"? Well since you asked, a 7 year old daughter does that to my Mordant-Short 442s.

I was amazed that you were be to resurrect those dome tweeters without damaging them further - and the high percussion in the recording you played indicated that at least one of them was still working so, all in all, an excellent repair job..

Love this sort of stuff. Many years ago I had a CA amp that someone cross wired the speakers to and blew one of the channels. I wasn't very experience with electronics but I got the multimeter out and measured all the components. A few of the ICs and resistors were blown. Changed them out and it worked again. Probably less than a tenner to repair a £300 amp. Always worth giving it a go.

Nice display of your excellent experience with fixing speakers, Steve! :D

I think that anyone that opens electronics without any experience or care (as shown here) should be jailed for a short period. Absolutely disgraceful to see those tweeters pressed in like it was handled by some 3 year old.

If you put a towel or a nylon over the end of the vacuum it works very well for tweeter repair. It won't pull the tweeter material through the end of the hose if that is a concern.

imho Cambridge Audio (Soundworks) is totally underrated. decent price-quality ratio and the products are reasonably sturdy, my 2.1 daily driver is still going strong in it's 3rd decade (tbh shielding sucks and the original line-cable with pot is only a vague memory now, but crisp sound and enough headroom for my use)

....."....inside my heart 💓 maybe breaking, but the shoe size 11 must go on!" Great work that technician, recovered that speaker from the grave, gave it life again👍.

I absolutely admire your tenacity and determination to get that speaker fixed, even when faced with odds that almost made you give up! Subscribed!

I’m completely in awe of anyone who can do stuff like this!

"These batteries are quite dangerous... but I don't care." that level of self-esteem!

Thoroughly enjoyed watching you do that. I thought about a vacuum for the speakers before you tried it. I learnt so much about basic electrical repairs watching, found it actually rewarding that you got it to work. What a good feeling that must be. Everything you used including your little hands free holder to help your soldering was just a great little technique. You have inspired me to repair £200 of remote controlled fishing alarm receiver which was ruined by battery corrosion. Now I think it’s doable, even by little old me!😊

I've been repairing stuff since 4 years old. Started with my Mother's mechanical timer on her washing machine. I took the cover off and millions of cogs and springs flew out everywhere. That began my life's challenge to figure out stuff and how it works and why it fails. My bank has never gone overdrawn like most folks who just keep buying new stuff which as we all know lasts as long as a cheese sandwich 🤬🤬🤬 Keep up your quest Sir 👍

The board in the battery was a Battery Management System ( BMS ). The BMS did its job and shut off when one cell reached a low voltage state to protect the battery which is why it was reading absolutely nothing on the DVM. As soon as you plugged the PSU in after the repair it woke the BMS which enabled discharge again and started charging the battery.

oh you made your own Holy Hand Granade at 23:00, Using a vacuum cleaner to get them domes out was a new one, I've used bluetack in the past.

Nice fix Steve. I like when they go so well and we see a good working product!

Came across this video by chance this evening, thoroughly enjoyed it so I'm going to stick around and watch the rest. thank you.

To answer the question in your thumbnail (I made a busking amp from car audio components and a wheelie bin) It's every single child of a single mum who comes up to talk. They ALWAYS push the speaker dust caps in. My vacuum cleaner was used more often to fix these than actual house cleaning.

Always calming to watch u fix things

I find a straw works perfectly as a device for pulling tweeter domes out. Smaller area and you can control the suction.

Nice fix! I enjoyed seeing the giant blobs of solder being applied.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, you remind me of a friend i lost contact with in Brum over 30 yrs ago, he was exactly like you, cool, calm and a genius with electrics. You questioned why there was no light when charging, yet when the battery wasnt charging the red light was flashing showing it was charging. Im guessing because you fully charged the batteries and then plugged it in was why the red light wasnt flashing because like most my devices, it only flashes when needs to charge.

I recently replaced the bulging non charging batteries in my 2016 Go V2. I wanted the same mAh and ended up with physically slightly smaller cells. (School boy error) The cells I bought had their own battery management systems which I had to remove before fitting. All good now and still a great sound.

Great repair you done there! Cambridge Audio make some decent stuff so worth fixing. Glad I'm not the only one irked by pushed in tweeters! You'd have thought they would have been safe as the grille was on! Oh well - the vacuum cleaner trick worked.

I'm actually watching this video whilst listening to the audio on my Go V2, which is still going strong with the original battery. For your info, the LED above the power jack should be Green when fully charged and Orange when charging. Not sure about the flashing, I've never seen mine do that.

Well done! I lifted a track on an 1991 Audiosonic clockradio whilst installing a new volume control (played at max ,no adjustment.),Luckily,found another trace without going under the tuning gang and dial string.

Who else thought he was just going to bin the battery? What a dude!

Bravo. With the tweeters like that and the broken board I would have given up. You did an amazing job.

Not a complete mess, especially considering the big black blobs next to your homefix. I wish I had your skills. I love your hits (and misses too)

I was looking for a brake after watching 2 episodes of Fallout back to back and this came up on RU-vid. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I never thought that watching someone fix electronics could be so enthralling, something to do with the pace and your voice. Back to Fallout.

I have found Shark vacuum cleaners to be very good for repairing pushed in tweeters. They have a variable setting on the nozzle handle, so you can apply varying suction directly.

The board in the battery has a cut-off when one of the cells falls below a pre-set voltage (usually 3.2v) - that is why you had 0v on the output. The cut-off is re-set the moment you try to charge them. The board is also probably a top balancer and should bring up the cells to an equal max voltage of about 4.1v before cutting charging.

Using a vacuum cleaner for those tweeters was actually a pretty brilliant idea!

always been a Cambridge Audio fan, decent Hi Fi for a reasonable price

I like this guy's chilled out approach! Retro background music is easy listening.

I’ve just discovered (and subbed to) your excellent channel. I loved watching the vid, entertaining, technically very competent, and you explain stuff really well. I look forward to watching your back catalogue!

Another great video and I am learning all the time. I have been in electronics/electrical from school and you make me realise how little I know. Thanks for making me feel inferior as I was starting to think i was good at this stuff.

Amazing job and the sound quality comes over on video too .Well worth the time ,fantastic repair

Cool, appreciate people with steady hands :)

Love the jingle lyrics. Repairs are always a detective case. The actual repair is only a small part of the overall work. Well done, mate, should be a detective constable.

25:00 I once had the same trouble with both tweeters of my stereo boxes and I fixed it a similar way. But instead using the full-size vacuum cleaner nozzle, I cut off a short piece of a PVC-hose of about 1 cm diameter and attached it carefully, manually on the tweeter dome. The other end I inserted into the nozzle. By widening and narrowing the gap between the PVC-hose and the nozzle, I could adjust the vacuum very well in order to prevent damage to the loudspeaker. Both cones popped back into their original positions without any trouble.

Very nice fix! Particularly with a board broken like that, I'd just toss it. xD Word of advice though - you'll wanna replace those battery packs soon... Well, I'm not a specialist really, but afaik it's usually not a good idea to restrict LiPo packs like that. They need a bit of airflow and space to expand when things go bad, because if they don't have the space to become "spicy pillows", the result is thermal runaway. :P Internal pressure will fight against that kapton tape restriction, and things might get a bit blowy... if you know what I mean. Never tested it myself though...

I love it when you find an obvious fault. I was doing the good old power check and found no voltage coming out the other side of a switch. Sure enough, fixing the switch and my device was working again. I've also found that it seems devices have a slow charge to bring low voltage batteries back. It can take some time before the device will turn on and charge normally. Always worth charging something for a few hours before binning the battery.

Super duper, Buddy! You're such a good hearted guy and well learned. I don't comment enough, I know, and I wish you all the best success in everything you do :)

Another great entertaining vid . My go to for dented domes is very sticky tape strips as pullers ..and I always use copper wire strands or solder braid to bridge all cracked tracks on bourds

I found the best way of getting the dome tweeters back to resembling a dome, was to get a small ball of "Blue Tack" and dab onto the dome and pull it back in to shape. Also works when the dome in mid range and bass drivers speakers have been pushed in.

That climbing and dropping thing... If you put a scope on the terminals instead of a mult-eye-meter (or whatever the yanks call them), you'll see pulsing voltage. That's because the charge controller has to cut off the charging current to take a measurement of battery voltage. Most feedback controlled chargers woll do that. Using my bench PSU on the other hand is an open loop process, relying on the voltage and current limiting circuits to ensure no overcharge. I've never seen any document pointing out a technological (i.e. chemical) advantage of either process, but from an engineering point of view, it's much easier to miniaturise the feedback-controlled circuit, it cuts down the component count by virtue of not needing current and voltage regulators like a bench PSU.

That was an awesome repair, really enjoyed watching this :)

Love the presentation and your patience combined with skill!

really cool that it didn't end up in landfill - we need to get the next generation into PCB repair so much good stuff gets thrown out for little reasons

I like the way that you do your patreon supporters in your videos. It's really neat how you do them and I really do like the timer so we know how long to skip ahead.

Felt a certain tightening of the sphincter when you started taking that cell pack apart. Lithium cells contain FIRE! Balls of steel mate! Thanks for the great vid!

Well, that was a good laugh when the circuit board came apart. And this is why I don't use power tools much when fastening screws.

The bigger the blob, the better the job. I used to do micro miniature repair while in the US Navy 30 years ago. Loved my Pace station. Good stuff.

Thank you for your work, it´s always a great to watch your videos. Keep going!! Greetings from germany 🙂

Better and way more interesting and exciting than 99 % of the programmes on TV & streaming these days - well done ;-)

After doing a number of wire splices, I started soldering the end of the wire first and then cut to length. I really like your microscope!!!

Use some hot glue on a q-tip to pop those tweeters back out, alcohol will remove the glue without damaging them.

Thanks for all your content ste, honestly provided me hours of tinkering satisfaction

Quality job as usual Steve! Loved this one

For structural integrity of the board, you can try gluing a washer on top (and back) of the broken screw-hole. That improves structural integrity to the screwhole so that you can reuse it without accidentally cracking the board or just relying on the adhesion of the tracks and big solder blobs...

Love this repair. Great knowledge transfer on similar PCBs.

I use a Cambridge Audio PC speaker+sub set for the last 15 years, it sounds great! It better, new cost was not friendly! ^^

Well done! Obviously you are a man with "excellent experience" fixing speakers.

Loved your post here, it's always great to see motivated people taking on tasks that others would just not even bother with. A few things to think of if I may be permitted. Looks like the DC socket has been given a hell of a whack inwards. It's an oddly clean straight break but maybe it was simply dropped onto the plug end while inserted. This would push that PCB inwards breaking it across that spot. With a PCB where the substrate is actually broken in two like yours I would suggest that there should always be a core of solid copper wire across the bridging on all of its major tracks. Mains twin and earth bare wire is great for this. That solder is not really solid enough to be totally reliable under all conditions. That "dropped onto the plug end" scenario may well not be a one off, we've all done it! Your batteries may accept charge but won't necessarily hold it for any length of time. That could explain your sort of random varying readings. Like you I would have replaced them as soon as I knew the unit was serviceable. But the tweeters!!!!! NO NO NO!!!! That isn't the way to handle them. Your vacuum head is bigger than the entire tweeter so it is pulling the entire dome outwards from the main body. The coil may even be stretched out of its gap and the whole dome is being stretched up against its glued surround. This isn't good for it at all. Using a vacuum device is fine, I've done it successfully on expensive Kef tweeters in the past, but what you should have done is get or make a cylinder which is a close fit to the outer circular dome outside of any crinkles, preferably into the first groove of the surround. You then fit it gently against the dome as near to where the true dome ends and the surround begins as you can and suck on that not allowing any overall pulling outwards of the whole thing. A piece of card or sheet of paper rolled a few times to the correct diameter may even be enough. And no, it's not a mess, it is a damned good fix! I'm really impressed. Thanks for posting.

Not sure if it was mentioned, but using soft stick gift tape on crushed speaker domes pulls them out nicely 😊 great video thanks

Great video.. i never knew that a broken board could be fixed you got me more interested in electronics ..thanks..

I would suggest to use an fiberglass Pen to clean up Circuit Boards, a Dremel can maybe cut to deep and a Fiberglass pen keep the surface smooth.

I’m envious of your patience and dexterity!!!!! Good vid and the vacuum use was a stroke of genius! 😊😊

Your best video to date! I learned a lot on this one. Still waiting to see some repairs on household items like Air Fryers etc, hopefully you add some of those to your content soon. =)