so one of my freinds is offering to sell me his vsx receiver, unfortunatly the volume nob is messed up, he says whether u turn it up or down the sound just goes up? hes offering it to me for 75$ do u think this is something i could fix myself? should i take the deal either way? everything else on it works fine

If it's a circular knob, the knob works as a variable resistor much like a light dimmer switch. The sliders do as well, but in linear fashion and not circular. Sometimes these can be cleared up with a good electronics cleaner that can be sprayed into the knob.

If not, then the choice is to take the knob apart and see what's up. It could be a wire strand crossing over all windings to make the switch only be at max volume all the time. If you cannot take it apart, you'll have to replace it. Or you'll have to rig up a mickey mouse volume control in some other way.

Nothing like a receiver that's always on high to make you lose friends and neighbors real fast, plus your hearing.

Actually, many of today's volume controls use a rotary encoder, as part of a digital control setup. This makes the remote control angle easier. Although my dad did have a receiver which had a motor to drive the volume knob!

I can't imagine this would be hard to fix.