New toy! PL 4000/II preamp!

[MarkWComer]

Found a PL 4000/II preamp on ebay a couple of weeks ago. From original owner, they even had the original box and user manual. Sounds great, could probably stand to have some electronic refreshing. At least now my signal path is much cleaner.

Blew my Christmas budget, it was a buy-it-now at $475. I thought it a tad pricey, but considering it was from the original owner and that it wasn't all banged up I bit the hook.

Amp and preamp are sitting on cinder blocks for the time being until I get a better piece of audio furniture. Hell- this is the south! Everything that you don't know what to do with gets set up on blocks!

Still fiddling with the autocorrelator adjustments, but it seems to work just fine.




BTW: My Marantz PM8004 is now listed on ebay if there's any interest...

 

[gadget73]

I rebuilt a Series 1 4000 for a friend. That thing had more broken solder joints in it than any single piece of equipment I've seen before. The only thing I couldn't get quite right on his was the peak unlimiter. it worked, but it had a noisy part that I never bothered to trace down. The auto-corrolator actually did a pretty good job for surface noise and turntable rumble issues. Most of those noise reduction things really kill the sound, but that one did a good job.

 

[MarkWComer]

That thing had more broken solder joints in it than any single piece of equipment I've seen before.

The motherboard / daughtercard construction is the downfall of this preamp, and broken solder joints seem to be common with this model. I knew that before I walked into the purchase, thinking that I'd have to go over it and reheat the joints. I cracked it open to have a look, everything looked solid.

I was also looking for a Carver 4000T, more or less the same thing and based on the PL 4000 design. The difference would have been the sonic holography circuit, something I'm curious about but don't really need. You see a lot of Carver 4000s, but the "T" version doesn't have internal amplifiers for the rear delay channels, another thing that I don't really want.

 

[gadget73]

It probably has to do with how it's been taken care of. If it wasn't moved around a lot, it stands a better chance of not having problems. My friend got his from ebay, so who knows. All I know is that it was pretty screwed up until I melted a lot of lead in there. Worked fine afterward at least.

 

[MarkWComer]

If it wasn't moved around a lot, it stands a better chance of not having problems.

Thermal flexing- turning something on while in a cold environment and having it warm up also has an effect. Kills computers, too.

 

[laatsch55]

Thermal cycling , as inevitable as the sunrise in the east...

 

[gadget73]

Sure, but sending something through the mail with all the shaking and banging that involves can't possibly help it any.


Well, either way, besides being tedious to fix, it wasn't actually difficult.

 

[laatsch55]

Tedious is the perfect description...like recapping, and restoring a Spec 1, that's tedious...