Need help on identifying amp defect Options

[soulsearchingsun]

I'm having issues with my mid-90s Sony solid state amp.
In particular the right channel is of lower volume (~-12dB in my measurements) and the sound is distorted in a way that there is noise added when I feed a signal to the amp. On silent parts, there is no additional noise. I ruled out the signal source and the speakers as the cause, it has to be the amp. I looked inside to see if I can find burned components, but I haven't had luck yet. I can't see the whole circuit board without disassembly (which I haven't done yet) though.

I uploaded a file here, with the following setup:
sound card output -> amp line level input; amp speaker out -> sound card line level input & speakers

Could anyone give me hints where I should look for the defect? Is this typical for some specific defect?
Thanks a lot!

edit:link now pointing to upload thread

This post has been edited by soulsearchingsun: Mar 1 2012, 14:32

[pdq]

We could probably look for some characteristic distortion resulting from a common failure mode (without even looking/listening I am betting blow drive transistor), but is it really worth it? The likelihood of it being something simple/inexpensive to fix is small, and the cost of an excellent replacement is quite modest, so I think you should just bite the bullet, so to speak.

[soulsearchingsun]

I am betting blow drive transistor

I'm not too proficient with the technical terms, although I have some basic knowledge about how amplifiers work. Are you talking about the output transistors or something before that stage?

but is it really worth it? The likelihood of it being something simple/inexpensive to fix is small, and the cost of an excellent replacement is quite modest, so I think you should just bite the bullet, so to speak.

I'm on a very low budget and refuse to throw things away that could be repaired with modest effort. A replacement amp with remote will cost about 40-50€ (~50-65USD) w/ shipping, I won't have a guarantee that my replacement unit doesn't die for the same/different reasons shortly after buying. I know there's a sweet spot between the effort of fixing something and buying a replacement, but I can't see how I possibly could hit this with buying some components. Thanks nevertheless for your advice, I'll at least keep my eyes open.