Lets start some $hit..

VSAT88

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#1
Ain't seen so many new posts today so I thought I would start a bunch of crap. Here goes. As I read here and there I see a lot of recommendations as to what should be done and not done to vintage amplifiers. Yes I am sure that all of them over 30 years old should have new electrolytics installed if for no other reason than for safety reasons as I know when they are that old they may well go out unexpectedly and take out some otherwise good components with them. What I would like to know is this. Lets just say I have a amplifier that works but is around 30 years old. I have read some places that say that the power supply should be rebuilt even if the rest is not done and perhaps all will be well ?? Bridge Rectifier, main filters. I have seen others that claim that is not the most important part like those parts don't really go bad even though the main caps may loose some capacity. Some claim that a total re cap must be done, others just the bad parts. Others all the electrolytics and the driver transistors all the way to all the output devices. I have no real opinion myself and I do realize that some amps due to heat or a bit underrated parts installed to start with are harder on parts like resistors than others. I just wanna see what you guys gotta say. I am leaving all Phase Linear amplifiers out of the discussion by the way because I know what I am supposed to do with 100% of them...WOPL !
 

orange

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#2
I think the recap everything crowd got their thinking from antique radios and some of them are supreme kludges as they came from the factory so re-engineering them is often a must yet that has to be balanced with looking 'authentic' because that's what people want inside (and unnaturally shiny outside, they were never objets d'art to start with).

The other branch of that school is that they are like hot rods and souping them up with expensive, exotic capacitors must be better...

The truth is in the middle. Some 15 watt receiver built in 1974 will probably benefit from a few new parts but by then many parts were going to last a long time, if the set wasn't tossed in a dump in a few years.

'Shotgunning' is not a good practice. Find the out of spec and bad parts first and replace them. IF you want to improve things like ceramic filters, wait until the set is working it's best as it was. Diving haphazardly into it is like swallowing the water in Granny's cement pond without seeing the seal in there is drunk. You'll get lost like a bicycle in a drag race.
 

VSAT88

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#3
I think the recap everything crowd got their thinking from antique radios and some of them are supreme kludges as they came from the factory so re-engineering them is often a must yet that has to be balanced with looking 'authentic' because that's what people want inside (and unnaturally shiny outside, they were never objets d'art to start with).

The other branch of that school is that they are like hot rods and souping them up with expensive, exotic capacitors must be better...

The truth is in the middle. Some 15 watt receiver built in 1974 will probably benefit from a few new parts but by then many parts were going to last a long time, if the set wasn't tossed in a dump in a few years.

'Shotgunning' is not a good practice. Find the out of spec and bad parts first and replace them. IF you want to improve things like ceramic filters, wait until the set is working it's best as it was. Diving haphazardly into it is like swallowing the water in Granny's cement pond without seeing the seal in there is drunk. You'll get lost like a bicycle in a drag race.
Granny's Cement Pond ! Yes, I have not thought of or seen the Hillbilly's in a great long while. Thats why I started this mess, you guys are crafty ! Well not only that I really would like to know what you all think on this one. Orange, so far I am with you on what you said. I have a Parasound HCA 1206 sitting in storage right now that I liked so much that after I put in all new filters I decided that I would totally re cap.That was a mistake. It played really great for at least two weeks then I lost a channel . Those mosfets are hard to find if not impossible from what I have found. I have looked at and over everything I have done there and I cannot find anything that I did wrong to this day so, I still do not know what it will take to fix it. http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/173259/parasound-hca-1206-re-cap
 

Lazarus Short

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#4
As some of you may know, I recapped (with really good caps) the preamp section of my Cyrus 2 some months ago. A couple of weeks ago I took it out of the shop system, and put in my Arcam Delta 60, which is "bone stock." Well, the Arcam walked all over the Cyrus in terms of sound quality, so the recap was only partially successful - you just never know..
 

WOPL Sniffer

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#5
If I'm building an amp or preamp and I give the customer my lifetime warranty, you can bet I'm replacing whatever I can yank out. It's too cheap not too. As far as fuckin up the sound??? Never happened to me... Well, I did blow an amp up way back and it DID sound pretty shitty....
 

Bradrock

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#6
If I'm building an amp or preamp and I give the customer my lifetime warranty, you can bet I'm replacing whatever I can yank out. It's too cheap not too. As far as fuckin up the sound??? Never happened to me... Well, I did blow an amp up way back and it DID sound pretty shitty....

Did you buy that 'T' today for $300.00? I got a notice of the price reduction & boom it was gone. Pretty high shipping still.
 

WOPL Sniffer

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#7
No, that guy had it marked too high with shipping, and it wasn't in the best of shape. He posted it several weeks ago for just shy of $400. I picked up one last week in awesome shape for $250 with 30 shipping.
 

orange

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#19
I'm looking to repair my 909 and the braking on my 707...
 

Northwinds

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#20
Perry, the only RTR I have is a Teac A2300SD Dolby deck. The power supply was already recapped and visually it's a 9. Looks like they go up to $500+ in past sales
 
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