That replacement from Audio Classics doesn’t look original factory. I toured the McIntosh factory. They make mostly everything in house to spec. I watched them make the front panels. You should have contacted the parts department first IMO.
AudioClassics gets them directly from McIntosh - they are a big McIntosh reseller - they custom ordered it from the factory which took them a few weeks to produce. They are legit and well known. (They are also right down the street from each other in the Binghamton area). Seems to be a known limitation as well, here is a thread on AK with new vs old pics: audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/glass-faceplate-comparison-original-vs-modern-replacement.926073/
@@pac1085 I know I bought an amp from them. I would still tell McIntosh that you are not satisfied. They are great with customer service. If you don’t get a satisfactory answer from the parts manager talk to the Production Manager.
@@rancosteel I ordered some frosted LED #44 style bulbs, we'll see how it looks once they are in. I think it will help quite a bit (when powered on, at least) On another note, it looks like they may have started offering the tours once again? I really need to get to one. I have to work in Vestal from time to time so will need to get one scheduled.
The last fancy large component stereo stuff we had rotted in the sun 🌞 because we knew they were disintegrating no matter how much parts we changed. MP3 players and digital tapes and online downloads, the stuff has zinc coated leads, every component is growing tiny hairs of conductive zinc oxides. It's going away at the molecular level due to age. It is dying. It will die. Parts are not available because they are disintegrated too.
Too bad, almost all of this era equipment (1950's - 80s really, some newer stuff as well) can be completely electrically restored without much hassle, assuming it's in decent cosmetic condition and not missing any unique chassis parts or has burned out meters. Even then, people are usually parting them out on eBay so you can find them. For the few components that fail and are no longer made people have come up with various replacement adapter PCB's, etc to use modern parts.
Hey man thank you for sharing this, 1st time viewer and i actually ended up here after following your thread on main@fm tuner group. When i was 1st reading your post i originally thought you meant the pointer was actually moving on its own, so naturally i was just about to ask if you had re strung the tuner cord with a ''stretchy'' nylon string, which causes the pointer to move or at the very least make the pointer bouncy (ask me how i know...) But i eventually realized you had the exact same problem i had a few weeks ago refurbishing a 2220B for a fellow member of the Marantz Facebook page. In my case one of these coils was similarly damaged on the AM board and i did the same thing, soldering a low value cap on the foil side. But on the FM board the faulty coil had a broken wire and i deemed it too difficult and risky to re solder it. Luckily my former audio tech had salvaged a 2220B FM board and he was kind enough to give me the coil i needed (L109 i think). Those are the kind of issues that can be very difficult to trouble shoot and repair. Again thank's for sharing. Ray from Canada.
Yeah! I remember seeing your post on the FB group. I had the same issue with a 2216B and one of the AM coils. That one was a lot easier to figure out since it didn't work at all, and wasn't intermittent like this. I inherited a massive collection of new IFT's from an estate sale a few years ago. I think they came from Lloyd's Radios (a low end radio brand from the 70s') - they are all Sumida, Toko, Mitsumi, etc. I need to try to get some help identifying them eventually. I'd love to be able to use them and offer them to other people that are struggling with issues like this. Sadly the one I needed for this repair wasn't in that collection.
@@pac1085 Yup that was me alright and i totally agree an intermittent trouble is way more difficult to fix, my AM coil was dead so it was a bit easier to isolate the source of the issue, but it still took me half a day to fix. Yeah i remember LLoyds stuff very well, like most families we had a cheap LLoyds receiver at one point in the 70s. You were lucky with the estate find, wish i was so lucky. In my neck of the woods finding decent audio test gear for a reasonable price is more and more challenging. Been looking for FM alignment stuff for months to no avail. No way i'm going to pay over a grand for non working gear without leads or worse advertised for parts only. That's what you get for living in Canada...
@@raymondmenard5444 I drove 12 hours round trip from NY to Deep River Ontario Canada last month for a smokin deal on some test equipment, so it exists sometimes :-) Hopefully you find something soon. I used the ST1000A on this one instead of my normal HP stuff, the visual aid was helpful since the prior person had turned every single coil / capacitor way more than they should have while trying to fix it.
No heat issues. I use PETG for the most part. I think PLA would be fine in most cases unless the caps are right up against the heatsinks or near incandescent lights etc. I’d be extra careful with tube gear, and maybe use ABS. I actually used PLA when I made some similar adapters for my tektronix 575 a few years ago and they have held up fine in that much warmer environment.
This is exactly why I bought a 575, I have the same Peak Atlas as you and they’re great for identifying transistors and testing new ones, but not so well on used ones.
Yeah the Peak is great. I only tried their software curve tracer w/ USB Connection once when I first got it. I'm going to have to re-install the software and give it a shot with this one, I'm really curious to see what it will look like
I tried it out tonight. The Peak with the software via USB actually does a really good job - you can clearly tell that something is wrong with it when you let it trace the curve. It doesn't look the same as the 575, but I was testing at a higher voltage/current than the Peak is capable of. I set the 575 up as close as I could to the peak and they looked roughly similar. I can try to make a short vid on it.
@@pac1085 It would be interesting to see how it performs with the lower voltages that the Peak provides. That was the main reason why I wanted a 575, to test at operating voltages.
So glad I saw your bench tour video and discovered this unit! I was wondering how I was going to distribute gpsdo to all my peices of equipment! Thank you!
They sure are handy, at least for the type of work I do (mostly audio). Having the FFT display that calculates thd on screen on a device with 1MOhm inputs is nice, for tracking down distortion and noise between amplifier stages etc. Never been a fan of the FFT mode on any of my regular scopes.
Not yet. I need to clean it up some and will post it when I post the full video in a few days. I have very little experience coding this kinda stuff so it’s pretty crude atm.
@@fluke196cfor sure, I mostly need to add the loops and the out of bounds checking that the original code has, right now it’s hardcoded to calculate up to the 5th harmonic, but would crash if you had a harmonic beyond the 40MHz the machine is capable of. I’ll definitely put it online though, I can’t stand finding videos of someone doing something I really want to do and not sharing the code
No problem, happy to share a look at the thing! And yeah I hear ya on the price. I was extremely lucky to get the one that went for $356 - and this was the nicest of the 3 that show in recent eBay completed auctions. Even that was a bit higher than I felt the thing was worth, but too cool and useful to pass up.
I've been doing electronics repair for longer than I care to say. You showed me a couple of really nice tips! I have an 1152DC, with a bad phono section on my bench right now. It was developing a nasty parasitic oscillation with nearly any signal. I found a previous repair at Q405 & Q406 that leads me to think they are the culprit. Thanks for the video. You can absolutely teach an old dawg new tricks! :)
I will for sure make a video on it in the next few days. There is not a whole lot to show, but a generous person on Facebook sent me a technical drawing of the wattmeter multiplier transformer that they custom wound for this unit. There is also a manual with a schematic for it on Tekwiki if you are curious.
I'm curios about getting my Pioneer SX-1080, updated. It plays perfectly fine, no issues at all. Does the update add any tangible benefit, for me? Thanks.
I haven't had an SX-1080 come across my bench yet. But here are a few reasons why any vintage receiver of that age should be checked over by a competent tech (this list is not exhaustive) 1. A visual inspection could identify capacitors that are physically leaking electrolyte, slowly damaging the circuit boards, which will be much more expensive to repair when it finally does fail. 2. The power amp bias could have drifted out of spec causing more stress on the output devices than they need to be subjected to. 3. Electrolytic capacitors are essentially consumables. They generally have a lifespan of 10-15 years according to the manufacturers. Obviously many have long outlived that, but they will fail eventually. It may need only a few caps in key locations replaced to improve its performance. Caps that are exposed to higher current/heat/etc such as in the power supply. Good to hear that it's working well, though!
Thanks for your insight and expertise. I really do need to have it serviced as it's only a matter of time, like you said. Bought it new when I was in Okinawa, Japan as a Marine in 1988. Have played it daily for years at a time. Great receiver. @@pac1085
They didn’t make too many like this. They later came along with the 6826a (and a few other models in that range), but they still go for big money on the used market.
Very happy for you that you put in the work to find stuff and get it, and that you were rewarded! Love your lab. It all looks like new even if long in the tooth. Subbed
Where do you live? I must know. As we speak, I'm assembling a team of old-school electornics engineers and we'll come rob your lab-in our new-fangled, folding walkers.
LOL! Your Dim Bulb tester is built EXACTLY like mine. I'm sure you have seen some of the DIY dim bulb testers on RU-vid that are down right scary. I used a double pole switch in mine so when it's off, it's off, no neutral still attached. I also have various plug fuse adapters which I swap around as needed, 6amp, 10amp, 15amp when I don't need current limiting. Typically anything on my bench being worked on is plugged into my dim bulb. Check out Xraytonyb channel. he built quite a fancy one.
Since I grew up in the seventies I may use my old "black light" bulb. Might be pretty cool. Thanks for posting this build video. This something on my list to build for the repair bench I hope to build someday. Take care, Kevin
I have two pair of Realistic speakers from the 90's that need this kind of TLC. Thanks for posting this!! Also, Have you repaired or upgraded a NAD 214 amp? I have two that intermittently sound scratchy and loose output. All the very best, Kevin
I have not, sorry! Btw, it’s been a few weeks since using the restor a finish on these and a few other things, and it is holding up nice. I used the feed n wax after and it really make them pop. I’m surprised I didn’t find this stuff earlier, never really put much thought into it - usually just used old English or Scott’s
