stereoguy70
Well-Known Member
Heatsink paste dries out over time and becomes hard as a rock. If you are in there, why wouldn't you?Bias is one thing, but I don't think renewing heatsink paste is needed.
Heatsink paste dries out over time and becomes hard as a rock. If you are in there, why wouldn't you?Bias is one thing, but I don't think renewing heatsink paste is needed.
But in many cases, a person's ears identify a preference, not necessarily something that is objectively shown and proven to be an improvement, and also subject to - whether we like it or not - psychoacoustic effects. Generally, valve amps are demonstrably 'worse amplifiers' (measurably higher distortion levels) than solid state ones, however it is quite understandable that lots of people prefer 'the valve sound'. It doesn't make valve amps better, it signifies a preference.
Because it doesn't have to be "wet" to do what it is intended to do, thermally couple a transistor to the heat sink.Heatsink paste dries out over time and becomes hard as a rock. If you are in there, why wouldn't you?
White paper.......ha! That's a good one.Because it doesn't have to be "wet" to do what it is intended to do, thermally couple a transistor to the heat sink.
Can you show me the white paper on the study you personally have done?
Every failure in vintage audio can be traced back to dried up paste.
re-cap, more out of the desire of greater reliability than an expectation of a marked increase in sound quality.
...Sure enough, he came back about a month later with a 1000uF cap in the P/S that had failed shorted...
I'm gonna chime in with my experiences on this one.....and I agree that a recap is in order when you get over 30 years old on equipment. Most of the units I work on are Henry Kloss units....meaning KLH or Advent. These were made to a price point and do sound very good when completely up to specs. I've done three KLH 27 receivers, a 24 and a 20 all in one unit....these are over 50 years old now and just about every electrolytic in the ones I've come across have been junk, well past their prime. Doing a complete electrolytic recap on all these units made a huge difference....how so? They now work! Same thing with the Advent 300 receivers I've restored....every one had some kind of issue, most related to the electrolytic caps failing, and a few with failing/failed 15v regulator semiconductors, and one with failed output transistors (which was related to failed caps).
So if anyone tells you that doing a full recap is a waste of time, they don't know what they are talking about. It makes a difference, especially with non-working gear, as it usually makes it work again! Now, if you can't hear a difference after recapping a working unit, then the unit was probably fine and I agree with others that its preventative maintenance........caps age and fail, period. If they were 30+ years old and have not failed yet and you just recapped, you just gained another 30 years of use without fear of a cap failing.....hello!!??!!! No brainer.
If it still sounds "lousy" to you, then I also must agree with the above poster I quoted, that either your source material is low quality, or you have not found the right speaker for your gear yet. Its called synergy.
Well there you go then, you wanted to do a 'full recap' when as was seen, just one cap needed changing. In my mind that's a clear point for the 'no need to do a full recap' camp.Here's a true story, that probably means nothing. Shortly after opening my brick and mortar shop in '09, a local brought in his Marantz 2235 for service and evaluation.
I told him that on top of cleaning all the switches and pots, clean/lube/dial-in the tuner, and replace all the dial lamps, that I recommended completely re-capping the regulated P/S and the power amp board, and shitcanning any known troublemaker semis while we were at it.
He cried poor of course, so we ended up just doing the switches/pots, tuner, dial lamps, and maybe take care of a couple of VD-1212 diodes.
Sure enough, he came back about a month later with a 1000uF cap in the P/S that had failed shorted.
Well there you go then, you wanted to do a 'full recap' when as was seen, just one cap needed changing. In my mind that's a clear point for the 'no need to do a full recap' camp.
C'mon Steve, no it isn't, and tarior didn't suggest a 'full recap' anyway. The PSU's in some units get really hot and all components there suffer, heat is the sworn enemy of electronics as the life & derating curves of any electrolytic capacitor shows.
My personal opinion is that the "while you are in there, do them all" argument still trumps anything the 'one at a time' camp comes up with.
It doesn't sound like you understand what is involved during fault finding and eventual reconditioning of a vintage piece. Whether it be a faultfinding/repair event or a 'recap' (I still hate that term), substantial disassembly is very often still required. Someone who is only prepared to take the top and bottom covers off a vintage piece - of the kind I am used to - is never going to do anything more than basic adjustments or superficial / cosmetic repairs. Which in the case of ~40 year old electronics is not going to be enough to keep it running faultlessly for long. The whole point of changing many parts while you have the unit in pieces - is so you don't have to do it all over again, as you would have to if you are/were in the 'one piece at a time' camp. If that doesn't make any sense to you, then I doubt that you understand electronic components or their failure modes, thus there is nothing further for me to discuss with you here.I just don't get this 'while you're in there' argument.
It may have escaped your notice that I too live in the UK.Maybe living in the relatively mild, not hot, not cold temperatures of the UK I just don't come across so many duff Cs as you do, dunno.
It doesn't sound like you understand what is involved during fault finding and eventual reconditioning of a vintage piece. Whether it be a faultfinding/repair event or a 'recap' (I still hate that term), substantial disassembly is very often still required. Someone who is only prepared to take the top and bottom covers off a vintage piece - of the kind I am used to - is never going to do anything more than basic adjustments or superficial / cosmetic repairs. Which in the case of ~40 year old electronics is not going to be enough to keep it running faultlessly for long. The whole point of changing many parts while you have the unit in pieces - is so you don't have to do it all over again, as you would have to if are/were in the 'one piece at a time' camp. If that doesn't make any sense to you, then I doubt that you understand electronic components or their failure modes, thus there is nothing further for me to discuss with you here.
It may have escaped your notice that I too live in the UK.