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Now that thrift stores are reopening after Covid I had a feeling the would have a backlog of donations and fewer shoppers. Found a marantz Imperial 7 in the box for $75.  Grill foam was replaced at some point with the wrong foam and the mid surround was crumbling. And for $75 who wants one speaker. Then I saw a piece of wood though the slightly open managers office door. He walked out and I asked if it was another speaker. He said yes. It was the match without a box also priced at $75. I asked if I could pull the foam. It also had a bad mid surround. I told him I would have to pass since they needed work. He said how about $30 for the pair?   Ordered a mid surround repair kit for $20 on ebay. There were also a pair of these in the box.  But all the components in each of them had bad surrounds so I passed. my turn in the barrel fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Jun 9, 2020 |
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Jun 9, 2020 09:16
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Looking to recap a set of speakers and I am having trouble finding an 18uF bipolar capacitor on digikey. Would it make a huge difference if I went down to 15uF or up to 22uF instead? Edit: I guess I can put a 15uf and a 3.3uf in parallel. polyester concept fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Jun 9, 2020 |
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Jun 9, 2020 21:47
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ugh, jealous
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Jun 9, 2020 21:55
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polyester concept posted:I ended up getting the VM540ML. I thought expensive needles were a scam until I got a VM540ML and all of the simbilance from the yelling of loud "S" sounds on all my early 90s rap records completely disappeared.
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Jun 9, 2020 22:08
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Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:I thought expensive needles were a scam until I got a VM540ML and all of the simbilance from the yelling of loud "S" sounds on all my early 90s rap records completely disappeared. That sounds more like an issue with your previous cartridge/stylus than something you need to spend hundreds to fix. Not that I have a problem with expensive cartridges, but stuff like that shouldn't be an issue on a decent inexpensive one.
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Jun 9, 2020 22:15
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large hands posted:That sounds more like an issue with your previous cartridge/stylus than something you need to spend hundreds to fix. Not that I have a problem with expensive cartridges, but stuff like that shouldn't be an issue on a decent inexpensive one. No, I had the same problem with my old Shure which wasn't even that cheap to begin with. I was even obsessive about it and tried all different kinds of alignment devices and everything. I wasn't getting terrible sibilance but it was worse on certain records and especially noticeable at the end of each side. It wasn't TERRIBLE but was enough to bother me when I was listening to the details. The VM540ML fixed it all.
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Jun 9, 2020 22:24
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Weird, never noticed anything like that on the om5e that came with my turntable
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Jun 9, 2020 22:29
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I still recommend an AT95e (or whatever the new one is) to 95+% of people. I used one really happily for like 6 years.
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Jun 9, 2020 22:35
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Just got a $1200 tax return and saw these guys... https://vancouver.craigslist.org/van/ele/d/highlands-rare-bw-speakers/7138609806.html That's Canadian, so like $950 usd. Tell me I'm an idiot and shouldn't buy them.
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Jun 9, 2020 22:45
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large hands posted:Just got a $1200 tax return and saw these guys... https://vancouver.craigslist.org/van/ele/d/highlands-rare-bw-speakers/7138609806.html Are you a collector? Are these particularly rare or unique? Once you start spending ~$1000 vintage speakers start losing their appeal to me, unless they’re like a special or historically valuable set. Especially ones from the 90s and 00s, where even the fancy ones aren’t very visually attractive. There’s premium stuff being made with contemporary methods and materials right now that probably looks and sounds better for a bit more cash, or the same price, or even less.
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Jun 9, 2020 23:17
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They just look beautiful and I'm assuming sound great. Appearance is a big factor, if they're going in our livingroom they better be nice hardwood or my wife won't be happy. Are there attractive modern speakers with that aesthetic for less than $2000?
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Jun 9, 2020 23:26
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large hands posted:Weird, never noticed anything like that on the om5e that came with my turntable It was most noticeable on the song "Tap the Bottle" by Young Black Teenagers. They do a lot of shouting when words rhyme, especially near the beginning with a lot of words that rhyme with "yes" and it sounded terrible. It was the stock cartridge that came with my Audio Technica AT-LP-120. No clue how bad the stock cartridge is with that but it was really noticeable.
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Jun 9, 2020 23:29
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large hands posted:They just look beautiful and I'm assuming sound great. Appearance is a big factor, if they're going in our livingroom they better be nice hardwood or my wife won't be happy. Are there attractive modern speakers with that aesthetic for less than $2000? Hardwood? Have you looked at the Monitor Audio Silver line? Or the Monitor line if you like playful and modern? Or the Wharfedale Lintons? Or stuff by Triangle? Or the Kef Reference series or Q series (I think those are available in wood tone now) Or stuff by Zu audio? Or Tannoy? Etc...
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Jun 9, 2020 23:34
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I haven't, I always just looked for classic used stuff assuming that new stuff that looked as nice would be out of my price range. I'll check some of those out. e: I think I probably assumed that they were like amplifiers, in that you can get a pair of speakers like those b&ws I linked that used to cost $5000 new for $1000 today, and they'll sound much the same as a pair of speakers that cost $5000 new today. I guess speaker tech has evolved more than I thought large hands fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Jun 9, 2020 |
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Jun 9, 2020 23:37
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large hands posted:Just got a $1200 tax return and saw these guys... https://vancouver.craigslist.org/van/ele/d/highlands-rare-bw-speakers/7138609806.html Rare does not automatically mean good. If you're looking to dump a grand why not get a pair of bookshelf speakers that would outperform those? Like the KEF LS-50 or even some used Sonus Fabers or Focal Profile 908's. If you have to have floorstanders then Vandersteen makes a hell of a lot of speaker for half that price, used. Actually I think you can even snag a pair of Warfdale's NEW for that kind of money. I mean I guess those B&W are okay but there's nothing spectacular about them performance-wise. They're just a collector's item.
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Jun 10, 2020 00:36
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Floorstanders vs bookshelf almost always depends on furniture choice. If you’re gonna pop them on stands you may as well consider floorstanders, at least. Although all of the speakers you mentioned are excellent
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Jun 10, 2020 00:40
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Exactly the kind of input i was looking for, thanks guys. Think I'm looking for floor standers both for furniture reasons and I've found most bookshelf speakers to be a little anemic in the bass range. Anything smaller than the Polk monitor 7s I've used in the past on stands would probably be out. Currently using a pair of energy 5.1e towers I've had since I was a teenager but I find the mid range lacking, don't like the chuffy ported sound and they're ugly as sin. These guys are a few blocks from me, hopefully they open the physical store soon and I can go listen to some of that monitor audio stuff https://www.soundhounds.com/collections/floorstanding-speakers
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Jun 10, 2020 00:53
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Get some piano black RP-8000Fs, problem solved
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Jun 10, 2020 04:25
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Dogen posted:Get some piano black RP-8000Fs, problem solved I was gonna suggest Klipsch also considering the budget, but I would HIGHLY recommend going to Best Buy or something and listening to them first. I'm not a huge fan of Klipsch for listening to music. They just don't have the clarity (especially in the mid-bass) that I appreciate. They're INCREDIBLY efficient and make excellent home theater speakers though.
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Jun 10, 2020 15:31
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I like B&W speakers. I bet those sound good.
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Jun 10, 2020 15:32
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Just hooked up my new AT-LP60 turntable and I'm having a blast. A pair of EAW JF80s may be a bit overkill for desk speakers, but I'm not going to argue with free. Or turn the amp up very far.
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Jun 11, 2020 02:34
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 A cheap conical cartridge makes records in bad condition significantly more listenable. Rigged up a bolt and some nuts as an auxiliary weight so I don’t have to rebalance when I put the OM5E back on. Highly recommend everyone have a cheap conical on hand.
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Jun 13, 2020 21:09
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RIP Paul Walker posted:
Happy feelings looking at that. I had a 698 nearly 20 years ago and sold it out of hardship. I build and rebuild a lot of gear so when I got the chance to do a VPI again I jumped at it. The ludicrously low rumble on the Empire 598 and 698 is still remarkable by modern standards   Rehabbed this gem a few years back (the belts were tricky to obtain on this slightly oddball sub model.)   I have loads of pictures from restorations and modifications/repairs over the last bunch of years (and a poo poo-ton of vintage gear I’m working my way through again for the first time since my daughter was born 2-1/2 years ago.) If there’s any interest I can share a couple of those. Discernibly Turgid fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Jun 24, 2020 |
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Jun 24, 2020 14:07
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Discernibly Turgid posted:If there’s any interest I can share a couple of those. I'd like that
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Jun 25, 2020 03:22
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Discernibly Turgid posted:If there’s any interest I can share a couple of those. 
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Jun 26, 2020 07:15
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I was given this ElectroVoice amp/receiver from the 60s yesterday by a friend who wasn't using it anymore. Hooked it up to replace the built-in preamp on my turntable because I wasn't happy with its overdriven output and drat, this thing sounds great! I've never been a huge fan of EV but turns out they made good stuff way back then. 40 watts for a solid state in the 60s is pretty rad! Now I guess I need to find a DAC.    In other news, picked up some albums from a few record shops that had reopened. The new Phoebe Bridgers vinyl marbling is dope!  
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Jun 26, 2020 16:33
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Sick setup
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Jun 26, 2020 16:35
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 I just picked this up from a guy on FB marketplace and the fucker didn’t tell me that the left channel was dead! Wish my soldering station wasn’t on the other side of the country... I am not a hoarder, I can stop any time I want (SL-1810 is replacing the SL-D212).
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Jun 27, 2020 20:17
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I love the SL-1800 and 1810. If I didn't already have 4 SL-1200 I'd have bought one long ago.
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Jun 28, 2020 18:00
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:I love the SL-1800 and 1810. I love the way it looks, it matches the gear in my office very nicely. Reminds me that I gotta finish hunting down furniture and take good pictures of my systems, I’ve got great gear set up unattractively at the moment.
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Jun 29, 2020 05:15
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First time non-phone posting. Apologies in advance. If, however, this works, I'll post some cooler, more extensive rebuilds. This is an Audio Research SP-10 (and a rather stroppy dog.)  Very nice (but unremarkable) line stage sharing a chassis (two chassis, actually) with what is still regarded as one of the best phono stages ever manufactured. One of the only genuine drawbacks (actually, more of a tradeoff) is use of conventional (LM78xx and LM79xx) switching regulators for (primarily) the filament supplies and (secondarily) the solid-state ICs That handle timer circuits at startup. There’s a very strong case (both audibly and in terms of impedance) for sticking with AC filament supplies, but in a unit this densely packed I can see that being a noise vector just by virtue of running that much high-current AC around inside something with an 8-tube phono section.) Since Audio Research decided on solid-state regulation, it would’ve been nice to see almost ANY other type of regulator in place of the noisiest, most sluggish regulation ICs around. This one (being from 1982-3) was in museum quality shape cosmetically (VERY rare for how I tend to come into gear) and was completely untouched electrically. If someone isn’t bringing me their baby for service, I’ve usually found it after something has gone horribly wrong (see the upcoming Kenwood L-09M post), a crime has been committed against it (“Anybody Can but a soldering iron for $10 and a spring-loaded solder vacuum along with a crap ton of insanely expensive boutique parts [many of which are of a sub-type uniquely unsuited to the particular task], and make this gear 100x better, like putting decals and fake air vents on a Camry”), or some other kind of folly. Electrically, some of the non-tube wear-and-tear parts were beginning to demonstrate wear-and/or-tear, so it was getting noisy. Film caps are one thing, but conventional electrolytic capacitors shouldn’t be kept in service over 20/25 years max (Elna Duorex should be exorcised immediately upon discovery), and this power supply has a few that are vital to its functioning and not burning up. My goal was to keep it, essentially, factory original with only the most mild of changes. Here’s the phono section (those selectors had to be opened up, cleaned, and given a gentle coat of De-Oxit Gold before being closed back up. Same goes for the source selector.  Parts placement in the audio section of this thing is a damned masterpiece. Not just the symmetry itself, but how it goes together with function, keeping leads short and paths to ground minimized and inner-stage grounding noise removed. Line Stage  Nothing to change here. Parts are top-notch, but the 6DJ8 isn’t a great preamp tune for this task. It spent its time with me as a phono stage. Power Supply  Biggest thing here was replacing the electrolytic caps (in particular the high voltage ones) and checking for cold or in-the-process-of-failing solder joints (this things a tank.) I was able to locate new production Sprague devices that match the ones used in the original run of this unit, so that was a win. The big Nichicons are for filtering the DC filament ICs (ie putting a band aid on cancer.) From the bottom left you can see a test fit of some leads to replace the winding, noisy path that cap used on the PCB. Ultimately it was a success and they were bound up with the neighboring DC, constant-current filament lines, whose high-frequency noise is too low in amplitude to be picked up as audible inductance on that cap’s lines. Sewn back up for testing (bonus 20Hz post=-op square wave performance on my Tektronix [before I got my bad-rear end Philips and finished restoring my aviation-grade 4-channel HP] scope)    Here it was in our old place after the cleaners had (twice!!!) moved stuff around (a thing they eventually stopped doing.)   Also appearing: Accuphase DC-91 DAC (post forthcoming), Classe S-700, Kenwood L-07T, Tannoy Ardens (I have a cool picture of my custom crossovers for those), and a pair of Bag End Infra-Sub 18s. Oh, and a Sony DAS-R1 I was servicing along with its partner transport. Remarkable machines but a monster pain in the rear end when the twin TOSLINK System that connects them went down. Extra credit goes to the wife (girlfriend at the time) for being first to suggest (upon planning our move in) that the music go in the living room and the TV go in the basement. Discernibly Turgid fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Jun 29, 2020 |
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Jun 29, 2020 14:24
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Has anyone here tried to mount their turntable on a shelf of their own creation? I'd really like to float my turntable above my big moto hifi cabinet so I can play it through those speakers, but I'm a bit nervous about the idea of putting it on a shelf. I'd mount it to studs, obviously.
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Jun 29, 2020 19:14
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Keret posted:Has anyone here tried to mount their turntable on a shelf of their own creation? I haven’t done it with turntables specifically, but I’ve used this to mount extremely high-value projectors in client’s homes. Use brackets for mounting marble and granite countertops. https://www.countertopbracket.com/Countertop-Support-Bracket-Steel-p/fmp.htm Use at least 13-ply plywood and then attach low-profile angle-metal to proverb bowing in all directions. You’ll be all set. To make sure it doesn’t sag over time from drywall compression, you’re best off using a multi tool to remove the drywall over the section of stud you’re using. If you just put the bracket over drywall and into the stud, the moment of inertia of the combined load will deform the drywall near the base of the bracket (enough that your shelf will cease to be level. You can always do a wall repair to cover up the vertical portion of the bracket if paint alone isn’t adequate. Discernibly Turgid fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Jun 29, 2020 |
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Jun 29, 2020 20:14
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I have a Marantz 2226b that is in pretty major need of a recap. I've recapped a number of different things by now, so I've got all of the necessary tools, I'm pretty familiar with the actual process of replacing caps, and I now feel confident enough to actually do it, but with anything I've recapped before this I did it by buying a kit with all of the caps needed. I've found a couple of different people selling cap kits for this receiver but I don't particularly feel like paying 3x the cost of digikey or mouser just for the ease of having a kit, nor do I want to wait over a month for the kit to get to the US from Europe, so with this I'd like to order the parts one by one, but what's the best way to go about compiling a list of caps to order? Should I look at the caps currently on the receiver and make a list of what's what, or should I go by the parts list in the service manual and just write down the values of all of the electrolytic caps listed? Anything else I should replace outside of the electrolytics while I'm doing this? I know enough to know to only buy good quality capacitors that are equal to or greater than the voltage rating of the originals, or is that not a good idea here? I'd like it to sound as close to stock as possible. I've had this receiver since 2012 and it sounded pretty good when I bought it, but it's severely degraded since then, to the point that I haven't used it at all for the last two years. I've opened it up and looked at the boards and nothing looks corroded at least. I'm really itching to get it back to where it was and to not have to worry about it for another couple of decades.
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Jul 1, 2020 02:27
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Jadius posted:I have a Marantz 2226b that is in pretty major need of a recap. I've recapped a number of different things by now, so I've got all of the necessary tools, I'm pretty familiar with the actual process of replacing caps, and I now feel confident enough to actually do it, but with anything I've recapped before this I did it by buying a kit with all of the caps needed. I've found a couple of different people selling cap kits for this receiver but I don't particularly feel like paying 3x the cost of digikey or mouser just for the ease of having a kit, nor do I want to wait over a month for the kit to get to the US from Europe, so with this I'd like to order the parts one by one, but what's the best way to go about compiling a list of caps to order? Should I look at the caps currently on the receiver and make a list of what's what, or should I go by the parts list in the service manual and just write down the values of all of the electrolytic caps listed? Anything else I should replace outside of the electrolytics while I'm doing this? I know enough to know to only buy good quality capacitors that are equal to or greater than the voltage rating of the originals, or is that not a good idea here? I'd like it to sound as close to stock as possible. Caps: make a spreadsheet that you can eventually sort by capacitance (primarily) and then voltage (secondarily) with quantity in the same line. The enter your caps in the sheet one PCB at a time (which will help you to avoid missing any.) Sorting your list after you’ve entered everything will give you your over all part totals. Voltage: match original if you can, going higher only if you must. Almost everything in there is related to audio performance when you get down to it, and going with the higher voltage will introduce (negative) side effects in the higher end of the audible spectrum. A fantastic upgrade opportunity: Another advantage to doing it board by board from the service manual is that the schematics will help you find things you can correct simply by using newer parts: BE SURE to look at the input to the line stage and around the section the couples/separates the preamplifier and power amplifier sections. It is really common to see two caps of identical value connected in series with reverse polarity, which was how many of the big players of the day (including Marantz, Sansui, Pioneer, and others) dealt with the lack of good quality,?non-polar electrolytic caps. On paper that pair of caps is the same as a single cap of one quarter the combined value of two series devices, but in reality it produces higher ESR and a really nasty type of crossover distortion any time the signal amplitude get near bipolar zero. Look for the Elna Silmic Bi-Polar for these applications. You will almost never need a non polar electrolytic bigger than 4.7uf in an older unit like this. For everything that isn’t an electrolytic coupling cap, go Nichicon when reliability is top of the list. The nicer series devices also sound really, really good. Their caps stand up to temperature fluctuations and time (resisting drying up) better than any other I’ve used. I love the sound of the Elna Silmic IIs and Cerafine caps as well, but I tend to keep them away from high-temp and high current circuit elements. An excellent place for these things (that will help you keep from getting overwhelmed) is https://www.hndme.com (not a typo.). Very fair pricing on audio grade stuff (with less bs and excellent customer service. Last notes: replace and zeners you find in there and look for any power resistors that have darkened the board around them (or whose enamel skin is shedding from too many heat cycles.) When it comes to the main supply caps, avoid the urge to go higher in capacitance (it’s really hard on your transformer at startup) and make sure to physically measure the ones in the amp so you get a proper fit. Feel free to ask any other questions.
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Jul 1, 2020 04:44
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I have a 2230 and a 2225 that I’ve been procrastinating doing a recap job on for years - It’s tempting to order a kit from irebuildmarantz.com but I could never justify the extra cost especially when I’m going to be taking the boards out anyway so I might as well just do my own inventory. I’ve done a few amps in the past, and I always just copied the exact capacitance value, and like he ^^ said, only go up in voltage if you need to. I also replaced the caps 1:1 with what’s on the board, because vintage schematics can have errors (though there are websites that catalog all known errors). I’m not smart enough to analyze the circuit and make improvements with modern components, but I wish I was. I suppose there is also merit in keeping the design “original”, flaws and all. polyester concept fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Jul 1, 2020 |
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Jul 1, 2020 04:57
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polyester concept posted:I have a 2230 and a 2225 that I’ve been procrastinating doing a recap job on for years - It’s tempting to order a kit from irebuildmarantz.com but I could never justify the extra cost especially when I’m going to be taking the boards out anyway so I might as well just do my own inventory. Though it can depend on the piece, I agree it’s generally good to keep from hacking things up. The nice thing about that capacitor fix (between the immense performance improvement and simplicity of it) is that when you look at a circuit board in a unit like this (Sansui AU-11000, Pioneer 80-series, etc) the layout is just four adjacent board holes and you put the non-polar cap into the two holes that aren’t joined to one another by a board trace. If it’s a real collector’s piece, it’s a trivial task to go back to “original ,” but I’ve yet to meet an owner (current or prospective) who had an issue with that. There was one tire-kicker in that Audio Research who asked if I’d saved the original power supply electrolytics, explaining that if I hadn’t it meant that I’d ruined it and let the magic escape. Never mind that I used factory-appropriate replacements, but the idea some folks have that “magic part X by this manufacturer is the only way to make music” and other arguments like it are bad. You’ve crossed the line from hobby to fetish/dogma at that point. Any circuit that someone claims only works right and sounds good with some very boutique, exotic version of a standard part is a badly designed (or, at best, mediocre) circuit and someone isn’t listening with their ears. Sure, there’s a sonic difference between properly produced, name-brand parts, but it won’t make or break. Also: never go around replacing all of the resistors in something with super fancy metal films if it wasn’t designed with them (and sounding great) in the first place, as those units tend to have higher input impedances at their various stages than some newer units which, when loaded with metal films (especially in a poorly laid out or cramped design), results in expensive, accidental antennas everywhere. Units with considerably lower interstage input impedances end up avoiding one batch of RF interference, but make themselves vulnerable to another source of noise with the higher currents flowing everywhere and all of the inductive noise that can present if best layout and PCB materials practices aren’t observed.
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Jul 1, 2020 09:39
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Discernibly Turgid posted:
Thanks so much! This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Now I'm off to compile a list and hopefully not break a receiver that's 4 years older than I am. I can't wait to be able to use it again.
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Jul 1, 2020 22:03
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about recapping
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Jadius posted:Thanks so much! This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Now I'm off to compile a list and hopefully not break a receiver that's 4 years older than I am. I can't wait to be able to use it again. Happily. Lemme know if you run into any trouble. Is it still working but going downhill? Are you planning to clean up any of the switches and pots while in there? If just a recap, start in the power supply and protection circuitry and take care of any zeners first, followed by caps. Mark every cap slated for replacement with a black marker (as you do the job a board at a time) and replace them one by one (unless two or more caps share a common solder pad, in which case you leave that pad until all of them are changed, in which case you can put little tape “flags” on the unsoldered legs to remind you to get that spot once they’re all ready,) removing black dots as you go.
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Jul 1, 2020 22:55
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Discernibly Turgid posted:Happily. Lemme know if you run into any trouble. I went through and cleaned the pots and switches about 6 years ago but they're probably due again. I just tested it for the first time in a year or so and I'm no longer getting anything outside of some quiet interference from the right speaker. None of the inputs or the tuner seem to be doing anything at all outside of that constant feedback. This is worse off than I thought. Nothing on the PCBs scream damage anywhere but now this seems more pressing than ever. Can you explain for an idiot what you mean by the caps that are in series with reverse polarity? I would replace both caps with just one cap that's reverse polarity of both caps? The extent of my recapping experience thus far has been 8 video game consoles where I just remove cap, read cap, find identical rating cap and solder it in before I move on to the next one, so I'm still pretty fresh with all of this.
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Jul 2, 2020 06:31
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