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March 8, 2017 - 2:55am
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Looking for a decent vintage amplifier
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The problem with older amplifiers, with the kind of issues you describe, is often bad coupling capacitors.
In many cases, when I have repaired them, I have gone in and replaced most of the interstage coupling capacitors. New ones are usually cheap and are better physically than the old ones, which often become degraded when they are that old.
To troubleshoot them properly, you need an audio signal generator and oscilloscope, and good soldering skill is essential to do proper repairs. Any experienced audio tech should be able to make them as good as new in a few hours.
One other thing that can cause intermittent operation is dirty or bad potentiometers. The volume control and balance control often get contaminated or corroded, and you need to clean them by spraying them with control cleaner while rotating them back and forth through their range.
I recommend the Chemtronics CV1016 or ES1603 cleaner, which is compatible with most plastics and metals. You can get it online from MCM Electronics.
Kenwood made some very good receivers in the 1970s and 1980s
My mother had one of these for many years, and with some nice Epos speakers it sounded very good.
commsysman: I'm not going to get rid of these amps. I think they look good and they sound pretty decent too; given my frame of reference that is.
I have the complete Marantz setup (amp, tape deck and tuner) but they could use a good refurb, so I'm going to save up to do that all at once. I personally don't feel confident enough to tinker with them myself. I really don't want to break them.
For the Technics, I've cleaned the volume knob with contact cleaner before and that used to fix it for a few months, however, last time it was back to being "broken" after 2 days. I can try and clean the balance knobs too, like you said.
The Technics sounds good too, but I think it's time I bought something better. So my idea now is to spend a bit of money on another amplifier. Unless I won't get any better than this for my budget. Im looking into the Kenwoods, too. They same to be a bit cheaper than Sansui's so that's good. Found some good threads on this forum about Kenwoods so I'll keep you guys posted on what I've narrowed it down to.
Thanks already for the tips!