It Lives!

[Lazarus Short]

I opened up the old Arcam amp, and applied Deoxit to the gain pot - something to do during lockdown. It looked like most of it just spewed everywhere, so I shot a pool of it into a small container, sucked up some with an eye dropper, and dripped it into the pot. Guess what?

IT WORKS!

 

[laatsch55]

Well damn...

 

[Elite-ist]

You can't beat that kind of a win with such a simple solution. Usually, it would take a couple of Vodka/Tonics to get me going.

Nando.

 

[J!m]

That stuff is magical.

The guys at ESL hate it and prefer to disassemble every spitch and pot for hand polishing. I think that’s a bit silly.

I do use the deoxit 100, and not the diluted stuff. I have plenty of electrical cleaners to choose from already.

 

[orange]

Attaboy, Laz! Doesn't it feel good when that stuff works out? Best of all, no beer money spent!

 

[Bob Boyer]

The guys at ESL hate it and prefer to disassemble every spitch and pot for hand polishing. I think that’s a bit silly.

Which begins to explain the estimate they gave you to put that D5 together...

 

[Lazarus Short]

Thanks, guys! The Arcam is going into the shop system, paired up with the Genesis speakers which I recently brought back "from the dead," and the Denon CDP which was ailing badlly when I acquired it.

 

[J!m]

Which begins to explain the estimate they gave you to put that D5 together...

No, just a nice way to say: buzz off kid! You bother me!

They are actually reasonable. I did the mechanical work on my Kenwood deck and they did the electrical, to a point. Yes, it was expensive still, but they did just as I asked- no more. I had already cleaned all the pots and switches with Deoxit (Shhhh! Don't tell them!) There is the owner and at least two guys on staff. You have to keep them fed and watered or you don't have a business. And they have a MASSIVE stash of parts- mostly NOS. They have some restored decks available for sale as well, which work out more reasonable than buying a busted door stop and then having them restore it.

But if you DO drop off a door stop and want it like new, they will do that. They buy up Nak stuff and COMPLETELY restore it- not just mechanical electrical, but cosmetics too. They are honestly better than new, and I think the cost (adjusted for inflation) is in line with what a new deck cost back in the day. But I'm too cheap for that and not totally sold on the Nak sound. I'd rather have (impossible) ruler-flat frequency response than enhanced anything. But I understand what they did and why- they were trying to overcome the limits of the media (tape) available at that time.

 

[Bob Boyer]

<Grin>. I always hated it when I'd give someone who wasn't a client the fuck you price for a photo shoot I really didn't want to do and they'd say, let's do it. I'd be like, "damn - left money on the table AGAIN."

 

[J!m]

Yeah, but you got a small BS bonus and another feather in your cap.

Sometimes looking back on the lousy jobs you realize you basically did something no one else could or would. Sucks at the time but feels good in hind sight.

 

[Lazarus Short]

The Arcam is in the shop system today, singing with the Genesis speakers. Maybe I should call them "Frankengenesis" since they are not stock. I'm still in slight disbelief because the amp sat for so long with the gain pot in a drawer, and later gave me all sorts of trouble. Now I have a whole system, CDP, amp and speakers - all of them repaired, refurbished, redone. They sound good too...

 

[J!m]

Time to celebrate!

 

[Lazarus Short]

I've hit on something I did years ago - connecting the amp to the variable outputs of the CDP, maxing the gain on the amp and adjusting the gain at the CDP. Works fine, and lets the gain pot of the amp sit on a different spot.

 

[Lazarus Short]

Power went out for a while a few nights ago, and the Arcam has not been right since - left channel dead. Today, I pulled it and put the Cyrus in its place. It sounds great! The Arcam will be doing phono preamp duty.

 

[Lazarus Short]

Well, here's an update, almost a year later. I put a new gain pot into the Arcam, and it even has the same stock number, so many years after manufacture. It was all green grass and yellow balloons for a while, and then the right channel was failing to make sound...AGAIN. Then, I foolishly killed my Cyrus as I posted elsewhere. Today, I hit on an idea, thinking it would at least be a troubleshooting step. I plunked the Yamama M-35 on top of the Arcam and connected its inputs to the Arcam's tape outs. Speakers connected to the Yamaha in the usual way. It works! The Arcam is back to being a phono pre and a source selector.

 

[J!m]

When one of my old Counterpoint preamps died, MANY years ago, I was using my Teac A3340-S as a preamp for a while...

Adapt, improvise and overcome.