Twin D-500 Restore-a-Thon / Full-Comp WOPL upgrade (+ first a PL 400 S2 WOPLing / Proof of concept / Process debug )

[D-500 Flogger]

Alright, a month ago I stopped lurking in this forum & introduced myself here.

****

It's time to set up the spot where I am going to document the path I will be taking through a couple of D-500s, a 400 S2, a couple of PL preamps, and (assuming that I haven't run out of steam by then), maybe even a PL 5xxx S2 AM/FM tuner I bought new, kept waiting for the break-in period to make it gel...and eventually gave up on it. (I've also got a couple of Lexicon surround sound processors that I enjoyed listening to/through, & they will need new caps also.)

Of course, before I even get to do that, I first need to brew up a no-kidding analog electronics workstation that will help to give me as much unfair advantage, project-wise, as I can fit into my project budget. (I actually *do* have my old Tek 475 o-scope, and I'm hoping to populate the rest of the workspace with the same/better level of audio component assembly/debug/performance measuring test gear.)

And if you were to read my intro, you will see that all of the above + my loudspeakers have all been parked in storage for over 2 decades, so I fully expect to have to go through every single item before I reach my eventual goal -- listening to music in order to make up for lost time...and to repair my battered soul. :0)

So, given all of the above, I decided that this picture best describes my initial starting point of this (admittedly) ambitious project:


(MC Escher's Drawing Hands)


Last & least, here's an older photo of me enjoying the sights & sounds of the big ditch:



Please be thinking of the very best way(s) to spend my money as we dive down this audiophile rabbit hole. :0)

Game on!

 

[laatsch55]

Finally......THE THREAD....

 

[D-500 Flogger]

Yeah, had to *make absolutely sure* that I was ready for this -- because once you put it out in public...

There's no take backs.

But given the sheer quantity of no-kidding real-world talent & mental horsepower in here, I have confidence that we will eventually get there.
(Assuming of course that I don't get hit by the ring-ding truck first...at last count I was up to my 6th life of 9. Knock on wood! :0)

Hey, I've already *invested* in 90 super-duty green TO-3 sockets -- by comparision, this is just a formality. :0)

Party on, Lee!

 

[laatsch55]

Amen Dave, looking forward to your adventure...we are all standing by to help in any way possible..

 

[J!m]

I'll start.

You need a sturdy bench, with eye-searing light available. The bench I work on watches on, I have a 4-foot LED "shop light" I got at Home Depot. I bought two; however, one is more than enough! To control shadows, you may consider setting up in front of a window, and/or having your light come from several angles: Overhead, both sides- maybe one on a gooseneck, such as the popular IKEA one everyone uses for their truntables...

 

[Gepetto]

Alright, a month ago I stopped lurking in this forum & introduced myself here.

****

It's time to set up the spot where I am going to document the path I will be taking through a couple of D-500s, a 400 S2, a couple of PL preamps, and (assuming that I haven't run out of steam by then), maybe even a PL 5xxx S2 AM/FM tuner I bought new, kept waiting for the break-in period to make it gel...and eventually gave up on it. (I've also got a couple of Lexicon surround sound processors that I enjoyed listening to/through, & they will need new caps also.)

Of course, before I even get to do that, I first need to brew up a no-kidding analog electronics workstation that will help to give me as much unfair advantage, project-wise, as I can fit into my project budget. (I actually *do* have my old Tek 475 o-scope, and I'm hoping to populate the rest of the workspace with the same/better level of audio equipment assembly/debug/performance measuring test gear.)

And if you were to read my intro, you will see that all of the above + my loudspeakers have all been parked in storage for over 2 decades, so I fully expect to have to go through every single item before I reach my eventual goal -- listening to music in order to make up for lost time...and to repair my battered soul. :0)

So, given all of the above, I decided that this picture best describes my initial starting point of this (admittedly) ambitious project:

View attachment 58631
(MC Escher's Drawing Hands)


Last & least, here's an older photo of me enjoying the sights & sounds of the big ditch:

View attachment 58632

Please be thinking of the very best way(s) to spend my money as we dive down this audiophile rabbit hole. :0)

Game on!

I am a Puddle fan. Want to find a decent original someday...

 

[laatsch55]

Puddle??

 

[Gepetto]

Puddle??

 

[Gepetto]

Woodcut by Escher, very popular

 

[laatsch55]

Ahhh..

 

[Gepetto]

Ahhh..

I have a very nice framed print but have always wanted an original...along with a lot of other things.

 

[D-500 Flogger]

I have some good news / bad news about what little test equipment I still have.

Bad news first. If I had a Way-back machine, when I discarded 90% of what I owned...and my trusty Tek 475 o-scope made the cut, I would go back & tell myself to locate a sealed Pelican case for it, fill it with the scope, add (20-years worth of) desiccant, and only then put it away. (!)

Due to uncontrolled moisture, some of the controls are frozen, the pushbuttons yellowed (even though I did have the protective cover over the face) ...all in all, this is the biggest disappointment so far in the unearthing process.

****

OK, now for the good news. I immediately went on a hunt for a minty Tek 475 o-scope that was only driven to analog church on Sundays, maybe by a retired Navy electronics tech who appreciated the finer test equipment in life, and it ended up being sold in his estate sale. (Sounds improbable in 2021, but IMHO you should always set your sights as high as possible...just in case. :0)

Check this out - knocked some rust off of my old eBay sniper skills & won this at the last second:



I know...the shipping from Oregon to the finger lakes region of NY is more than the winning bid on the auction. But I'm OK with that for 2 reasons:
1) between this, my 475, & new caps, my plan is that *you* will see me use this scope in anger, and 2) I always wanted a DM 40 meter on top, didn't have one, and you can't really field retrofit them, so in a way this can also be considered an upgrade of sorts.

Given how many 'for parts only' battle-scarred, looked like it had been dragged behind a pickup Tek 465/475 scopes I've looked it, this is pretty exciting for yours truly!

Now to get it across country & have it arrive in the same condition as it left...

Fingers crossed, yet hopeful!

 

[D-500 Flogger]

To finish this up, I (of course) paid immediately after winning the auction...and then, to help prime the pump, I sent the following message to the seller:



To which he replied shortly thereafter:



Given the above, I'm cautiously optimistic. (!)

Please send positive vibes in the general direction of this vintage traveling Tek scope! :0)

 

[laatsch55]

Good buy..

 

[D-500 Flogger]

Good buy..

Lee, given that I'm proposing to take 2 scopes (+ new caps) and make 1 good one out of them,
I was hoping to find a quality troubleshooting guide.

Good news -- here's a period-correct Tek troubleshooting manual. I skimmed through it -- looks very informative.
NOTE: If anyone out there has a scope like this, I've attached the file to this posting FWIW.



Here's to happy Scope Doping!
:0)

 

[laatsch55]

Gotta love a scopehead..

 

[grapplesaw]

Hey triple D

I have one of these scopes. Great buy.

looking forward to your builds

 

[D-500 Flogger]

Triple D here, thanks for the words of encouragement!

Listen, since you are to the WOPL / fully complementary D500 as Edmund Hillary is to Everest,
I'm hoping that you will take your hard-won experience & will be right over my shoulder guiding me to the summit! :0)

The last time I was on the cusp of starting a project of this size & complexity was the Factory Five Cobra (replica) that my buddy Paul & I built back during the '99-'00 timeframe. We hoped to do it in 1 year. It ended up taking us 13 months of nights & weekends - pretty much any time we weren't at the day job we were working through the problem du jour. NOTE: There was an online forum for people in the throes of a FF build, and basically it was people sharing what they had figured out in response to newer builders behind them who had ended up in the weeds while following the build book.

Thanks to the forum, we got the car put together, dialed in, and it is *still* running...hard! :0) And I'm still 1/2 owner of the machine. (Paul keeps it in his garage, and I have unlimited visitation. I actually drive it about a week a year - any more and my license would melt under the pressure & I would be walking everywhere I go. :0)

The difference between these 2 projects? Well, with the Cobra we had a great workspace & we both already had all the tools needed, so it was right to work once the kit landed (& the donor 5-Liter Mustang arrived) in the driveway.

Conversely, on my pile of PL boxes, I can't really start until I put together a decent lab. But I'm actually looking forward to the challenge. Don't know if I'm going to get to enjoy the WOPL'd boxes as long as I've gotten to to enjoy the Cobra...but to be perfectly candid, the Cobra is far enough away that I've only accumulated maybe 20 weeks worth of driving in the past 20 years. The hotrodded amps? I'm confident that I will have 20 weeks worth of listening 20 weeks after both boxes as debugged/stabilized. (!)

...And then the rest will be all gravy.






PS - It took us 13 months because we put a lot of focus on attention to the details. And I have never regretted it since.

Audio, photography, or cars -- you buy it/build it/hotrod it...so you can turn it up to 11 & enjoy it!

Cheers --

 

[D-500 Flogger]

OK, for the handful of Tone Warriors following along, last night I introduced myself to the PL 400 S2 amp that I'm going to use as my 'proof of concept' for taking my vintage Phase Linear gear & making it better instead of worse.

It's going to get the honor of not only debugging the electronics workshop that I've yet to build...but also help me re-acquaint myself with the analog skills that weren't directly involved in making the mortgage payments the past 40+ years.

Seems like a lot to put on a small ~40 year old amplifier, but in the scheme of things I think that this is a good jumping-off point. (ie: To go from 0 > max effort, fully comp D500 is not a recipe for success.)

Without further ado, here's the upgrade candidate: PL 400 S2, Serno #22969, production ID sticker = " Darlene ".



Logo closeup:


Darlene scrubbed up good:




Background info: Bought this maybe a dozen years ago, made the purchasing AND gate based on a) not left outside/dragged behind 4-wheeler, b) essentially complete (but missing top cover) and c) really sold at a reasonable "as-is, no guarantees auction price".

The actual purchasing details are lost, but I think the auction + shipping < $100.

My goal(s) with this amp: See how far I can take it, performance-wise. (Think my control unit for when I do the Carver Null test against future upgrade candidates -- I'd like to be able to document in a lossless audio file where you can actually listen to the before/after audible differences of one/or all amplifier mods...so that you can best decide what to do based upon what matters to you sonically vs. all the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt) heavily trafficked across the interwebs. (!)

Also, come up with a cost-effective way to mitigate the visual ouch of the 4 rack-mount holes that somebody inflicted on Darlene. (Could be as simple as 4 button head allen fasteners -- you know, a subtle tip of the hat to her history without having to stare at the previous owner's hackery.)
NOTE: Visuals are arguably more important in the main system -- but we can relax the eye-candy standard on a workshop amp! :0)


So, I am actually building it for me. My plan is to be listening to this very amp through a pair of Infinity Qe bookshelf speakers mounted strategically in my lab workspace while tackling the 2 bigger Unicorns. Done correctly, thanks to the proposed sound reinforcement in my new workspace my productivity will be at/near my personal best.

So happy to be breaking ground. The cornerstone of this whole adventure is Darlene -- all I'm missing are the silver-plated shovels & Mayor McCheese...

 

[J!m]

Mayor McCheese was indicted in 1980 on counts of fraud and embezzlement. You don’t want him.

This is also why he has not been seen in McDeTh advertising since. Corporate wanted to distance themselves from the mayor.

Carry on.