Just had to acurus L10
- Thread starter VSAT88
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- Are you satisfied with the life you're living
You guys are a bad influence! I picked up the "ugly child" L10 that was recently listed on ebay. I noticed it had been listed for several days, so I reached out to the seller to see if he would accept a lower offer. He replied with a price much less than I had planned .... he called my bluff. How do I say no?
It would appear this unit spent some time in a somewhat damp, but not musty/basement damp environment as there is no "smell". I thought the gold plated RCA jacks simply had dust, per the ebay pics, but there was also the start of corrosion pitting and worn-off plating on some jacks. The inside looks fairly clean, although some of the solder joints are not bright and shiny as preferred. A small amount of crackle when changing through the input selector positions. Can those rotary switches be taken apart to get some Deoxit inside? Gotta love the volume and balance controls. Seriously good stuff. I am apprehensive about the underside of the PC board, however.
All in all it sounds pretty impressive hooked up to the old ADS 2001 biamp system on the bench. I sent the cover to my favorite sandblaster/powdercoat place. That nastiness will be a thing of the past.
This will be a Fall/Winter project as I have a lot to look up and learn regarding upgrades. The Dual 500 needs to be completed before I lift a finger to tear into this beyond the powdercoating.
If anybody has some pearls of wisdom to offer regarding upgrades (I see there are quite a few posts at the front of this thread), please feel free to share.
Thanks
Al
It would appear this unit spent some time in a somewhat damp, but not musty/basement damp environment as there is no "smell". I thought the gold plated RCA jacks simply had dust, per the ebay pics, but there was also the start of corrosion pitting and worn-off plating on some jacks. The inside looks fairly clean, although some of the solder joints are not bright and shiny as preferred. A small amount of crackle when changing through the input selector positions. Can those rotary switches be taken apart to get some Deoxit inside? Gotta love the volume and balance controls. Seriously good stuff. I am apprehensive about the underside of the PC board, however.
All in all it sounds pretty impressive hooked up to the old ADS 2001 biamp system on the bench. I sent the cover to my favorite sandblaster/powdercoat place. That nastiness will be a thing of the past.
This will be a Fall/Winter project as I have a lot to look up and learn regarding upgrades. The Dual 500 needs to be completed before I lift a finger to tear into this beyond the powdercoating.
If anybody has some pearls of wisdom to offer regarding upgrades (I see there are quite a few posts at the front of this thread), please feel free to share.
Thanks
Al
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And you would certainly be a person that I'd trust as making a positive difference here, Joe.
There have been discussions/mods around the power supply - upgrading the transformer, as well as going with a toroidal variety; soft recovery diodes (what does that even mean?); larger capacitors .... lots of things can be tweaked, but if the improvement is nominal, I would have to think twice.
There have been discussions/mods around the power supply - upgrading the transformer, as well as going with a toroidal variety; soft recovery diodes (what does that even mean?); larger capacitors .... lots of things can be tweaked, but if the improvement is nominal, I would have to think twice.
I feel the same. If it broke would fix it otherwise nah, I ain't messing around with it. It does sound damn good and what Joe said "not as pretty as some other gear" I do have to agree with that one. I been thinking of ways to improve how it looks. I really don't care for the rounded off knobs so much.
Film-cap it maybe? I've never been inside one.
They were the lower-line of Aragon, which already had it's share of compromises (based on what I've seen inside my stuff), the quality of the Aragon board being top of the shit list. Is the Acurus board at least better quality? (I'd guess not, but who knows...)
I often suggest the 18k and 24k preamps from Aragon, which, I'd almost bet are the exact same circuit constructed of more boutique and Mil-spec parts. Aurum (or something like that) is the Aragon flagship preamp and very rarely comes up for sale. I wonder if those use the same crap boards?
Joe can/could offer a QUALITY replacement board, which can be populated with the most exotic parts you can afford and pop back into the old case (unless your "fancy" caps are the size of beer cans).
They were the lower-line of Aragon, which already had it's share of compromises (based on what I've seen inside my stuff), the quality of the Aragon board being top of the shit list. Is the Acurus board at least better quality? (I'd guess not, but who knows...)
I often suggest the 18k and 24k preamps from Aragon, which, I'd almost bet are the exact same circuit constructed of more boutique and Mil-spec parts. Aurum (or something like that) is the Aragon flagship preamp and very rarely comes up for sale. I wonder if those use the same crap boards?
Joe can/could offer a QUALITY replacement board, which can be populated with the most exotic parts you can afford and pop back into the old case (unless your "fancy" caps are the size of beer cans).
