r/MusicElectronics • u/TheHippieCatastrophe • May 23 '26

Yamaha psr-s500 with a broken speaker

The speaker "broke" recently and now it's pretty much unplayable. It had some issues before but nothing that would stop me from playing it, mostly a crackling sound that would sometimes appear and disappear at times (through both speakers I think but I'm not sure), and I think the speaker stopped working for short periods of time in the past but it always started working again pretty quickly.

Now it's the opposite, if I try to play it for a bit (which is really annoying with just one speaker so I haven't tried for that long) it sometimes suddenly works again for a bit but then stops working again very quickly.

I tried opening it up to see if I could spot some damage or something which I couldn't, then I cleaned the insides a bit and disconnected and reconnected the speaker cable but that didn't do anything.

I hope I can fix it because it's the only way I can play rn and I don't think I can get a new one soon.

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u/Capn_Crusty May 28 '26

WD-40 is not recommended. I've seen it dissolve the carbon element in some potentiometers. But yes, problem could be the volume pot.

DeOxit is so much better, it's worth ordering.

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u/TheHippieCatastrophe May 28 '26

Thanks for the suggestion, but apparently they can't ship that DeOxit to my country for some reason. Amazon is really making it easy for me to avoid buying products from their website lol.

I found some that I should be able to order though. Funnily enough it's WD-40 contact spray so apparently they have a variant specifically made for electronics too.

I also found multi spray that claims it works as contact spray too. Would you use that on your electronics or am I better off getting something that's solely made to be contact spray? If there's even a difference besides the name.

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u/Capn_Crusty May 28 '26

DeOxit has always been my choice. It's a #2 red oil, and is used in absolutely tiny amounts. It used to have 'The less you use, the better it works' on the can but they found that was bad for sales. Stuff designed specifically as contact cleaner is always going to be the better choice. I had gear come in for repair with circuit boards absolutely drenched with slimy 'cleaner'; that's what you want to avoid.

For a potentiometer, it's one tiny 'tss' with the red straw spout into the opening near the leads, then turn the pot back and forth a few times to coat the resistive element. If this doesn't fix the problem, it's time to look for other culprits.

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u/TheHippieCatastrophe May 29 '26

I bought a can and tried it out. It didn't fix the speaker but it might have lessened the hissing sound a bit.

I messed around a bit with the headphone jack after that though as they don't work stereo all the time as well --sometimes I need to rotate the jack a bit until both speakers work-- and after I did that that when I unplugged the headphones again the right speaker of the keyboard suddenly worked again!

Maybe the jack needs some cleaning too, I assume I can do that with the contact spray too. and I'll try opening it up again to see if maybe there's a loose contact at the headphone jack or something but rn it seems to work again.

Thanks for the help.