Ultimate stereo nightmare

I would check where the cable wire is inserted into the temination. A slight chance that it may be loose due to not being fully attached during manufacturing. Try wiggling it near its` insertion as you play some music.

If you use locking bananas, check to see if the connector is fully expanded into the speaker binding post.

@rvpiano

First off, it sounds like you’re still enjoying your hobby. The fact that you just spent serious money on (upgraded) speaker cables is a pretty good indicator of this.

I wouldn’t change a thing.

If you use the formula: Grief Factor (GF) = Biological Age (BA) * System Complexity (SC) * Cable Stiffness (CS) * Frrequency of Mishaps (FH), the result produces the relative degree of Audio Headachery (AH).

My assumption here is that your Frequency of Mishaps (FH) is low and you love your system more than you hate the inconvenience of having to deploy more dexterious individuals to the rescue. Hopefully, your "audio guy" gets you going and you’ll be playing your Cindi Lauper’s Greatest Hits cassette in no time (out of both channels).

Okay, but it might be good to be a little proactive for the "next time". Here’s my suggestion. Find electronic version of the manuals for all your stuff. Then print out the illustration of the rear panel of each. Ideally, you’ll have some software (or buddy) around where you can put the all the illustrations on the same page and "connect the dots". If this is not the case (probably not), then just make good notes for each piece of gear as to what goes where. Armed with this information, and a little patience, anyone with functional eyeballs, knees, and phalanges can inspect your equipment and make (re)connectoins as needed.

Okay, a quick (old guy) story. We spend one day a week operating a service business with the goal of keeping old audio gear from going into a dumpster. I got a call from a guy who said he was in his 90’s and was having trouble with his "Bose turntable". I knew this wasn’t correct, but didn’t think it was appropriate to challenge his perception of what he owned and agreed to go pick it up and bring it into the shop. When I arrived, he identified himself as a 98-year-old and the what he referred to as a "turntable" was the CD transport on top of his Bose Wave radio. A replacement motor is on it’s way from China. So, things could be worse. Your "stereo" is not a Bose Wave Radio, and you know the difference between a turntable and CD transport.

Looks like your remedy may be just around the corner. Best of luck with that.

@rvpiano 

Taking another look at your system photos, I think that you'd have an easier time accessing the back of your gear if you mounted your TV on the wall. It might sound better too.

I also just looked at your system pictures. Some young fellow will have no problem getting you all patched up. 

@dinov .... Based on personal experience this is the best advice I would give.