I have the Nutone 5000. It is an expensive system to buy new. I bought components in 3 different eBay auctions to put together my system. Saved bunches over the prices at the link below. Every item I bought worked perfectly- some of the room station units were used, but still looked good. One purchase was from a fellow who bought and planned to install, but was transferred and sold the house before the installation. With the proper input units, it can broadcast radio and music through the system- I do not have those units. Mine required special-only from Nutone- 8 conductor cable. Look at the systems that are part of the telephone. Lots of folks use them now. Here is a link that might be useful: Intercom

We have a 1992 hard-wired home intercom/music system (Nutone 4006) with AM/Fm radio and single cassette player. The 5" speakers are crackling. We're in the midst of some major remodeling throughout the house. We used the system when our children were small, but haven't used it since they've moved away, however, we need to either take it out and sheetrock over the holes as we paint, or upgrade. We want to prepare for re-sale in about 5-8 years. It's a large house, ~4,000 square feet, with a full basement that's mostly finished.... so some type of communication system is helpful. From reading on the web, it seems that both the Nutone IMA 4406 as well as DMC system could be used to upgrade. There's also a Nutone NM2000 that I found online tonight. Has anyone had experience with any of these? Thanks for any advice.... Jeanie

We removed ours. The cost to replace it -- and then to upgrade the wiring for the new systems, was ridiculous. We figured an ipod and speaker would be better, and you can get wireless speaker systems that will probably give you better music quality, more flexibility and be cheaper that the intercom. We patched the wall in the kitchen when it was done and are doing the other rooms as we repaint them. The front door had the doorbell, so we had to do that one at the time also. We installed a new doorbell and mounted the button to a small wooden plaque I bought for $1 at Michael's.

I know a couple of electronic engineers who sometimes take on projects like this just for fun. I've seen them trace and reverse-engineer circuits and do board level work, changing small parts and ICs to get the gadget working. Decades ago that kind of repair was actually the standard. It wasn't just for fun, people made a pretty decent living driving their vans to other folks' houses to fix their big, heavy 23" and 25" console television sets (and before that their big console radios). In 1970, a Motorola "works in a drawer" Quasar color television cost $600. That's about $3,800 in today's dollars! When you spent that kind of dough on your electronics, it made sense to call in a repair tech and spend $50 or $75 to get it fixed when it quit working (and quit they did, fairly often). I still see a few old-timers who work on television sets and other similar electronics, but they're nearly extinct in the US. These days electronics are much more reliable and longer-lived than they were 40-50 years ago, but when they do finally fail, most people just junk them and buy new. (As an aside, though, I was chatting a few months ago with a friend of ours who lives in South Korea. She said she'd taken the day off work to wait for the television repairman! So while they may be obsolete here in the US, I guess they survive in some other places.) To get back on topic, what you can do yourself to troubleshoot that intercom is going to be limited by the depth of your electronics background. If you understand electrical safety, know how to use test gear, and can read a service manual and schematic, you can probably at least find and test the power supply. But you still need to be able to get the manual and spare parts. That in turn requires that the manufacturer still exists and still provides service info and parts for their older products. (I can't see the brand name on yours in the picture.) Much as I hate to say it, probably your most practical solution is to buy a new intercom. Nutone, for one, has been around since the 1930s, and IIRC has been making intercoms since at least the 1950s. I expect there are other brands too.