Sony Audio Module
By: Joe Sopko, Contributed by Sidney Karam

Since "Service" is a worldwide business, Information from all over the globe comes flooding into the offices of THE SPEAKER. Here's an interesting bit of Knowledge from one of our Neighbors to the North.

We've all had to replace the SONY SBX1637 audio module at one time or another. It's a very common failure item, but I don't think we realize just how widespread the usage of that module is. It's not found only in SONY Televisions. You'll see it in Hitachi's, Zenith's, Goldstars, JVC's, RCA's and other brands, and Not just in Televisions. It's found in some VCR's as well. No wonder we use a lot of them!

Sidney Karam of Sidney Karam Electronics in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia started compiling a list of these modules, cross referencing their part numbers. All of the numbers listed below are that same Audio Module. He has also listed a way to bypass that module "just for a test".

Sidney says:
"Here is a cross reference list that I made up for the infamous US Sony Sound Multiplexing Decoder HIC (MTS) Module (tv/vcr):

Generic Sony # SBX1637-11, SBX1637A-01/02, SBX1638A-01A
Sony # 8-741-637-11, 8-746-371-10/20
Hitachi # 1381181
RCA # SKUP9102, 201632, 225563, 231130
Zenith # 905-2321
Goldstar # OIS0163702A
Toshiba # 2314876 (IF/MTS module assembly), 70012328
JVC # SBX1637A-02
Generic # HTS7332AX, HTS7332B

If you want to bypass the "module for a test": Remove from set and replace with 2 caps (4.7 UF,50 V) put + of each capacitor on pin 12, and the negative leads on pin 10 and pin 11. This will feed audio into both left & right channels, however you will not have SAP available."

All of us thank Sidney for this information...eh?