Search results

I'm building a set of HiVi dual speakers. The kit is pretty good with decent quality parts and the millwork on the MDF cabinets is very clean. I glued it all up and then veneered it with cherry paperbacked veneer. Next time, I wont use paperbacked veneer and I wont use Heatlock for the adhesive...

Racing on the beach

I didn't disappear :) I've been busy on a couple of Pioneers and building a 1/96 scale Cutty Sark tall ship model from 1959. Like our electronics, I had to find a couple of parts kits to get enough good parts to build it .. So I'm still hanging around here but just listening to the chatter :D

So I replaced a very hard to find balance control on my 2285B and decide to explore the old one. It didnt work well, the right side would cut out and all kinds of noise when turned even after DeOxit, cleaner and Shield. What I found was you could see the ohms resistance jump around when you...

The popular opinion is to soak the heck out of the pot with DeOxit, swish the control many times side to side, then rinse to wash out the "gunk". And to be fair, that does seem to work pretty well. I now use a method told to me using the needle version of DeOxit and a more targeted way. The...

So when I bought my 2285B, I didn't know it was such a rare beast. I got it done but I had a poor condition balance pot and a volume pot that had a bent shaft. Both are unique to the 2285B and the balance pot has a detent click in the middle. What I found after a significant amount of digging...

So after dealing with some butchered JIS screws on my Marantz gear, it got me thinking about buying a JIS screwdriver.. So I start looking around and find this cool article.. and explains why a couple of my electronic philips screwdrivers seem to work just fine on JIS...

Finally got her done this weekend :) Its been a road.. all new final transistors, rebuilt both amplifier boards ( saving the new PWBs for a complete to bare metal build in the future), all new caps, relay, partial new wiring, new pots etc..etc..etc. And boy she sounds good. I think she will...

So on my 2245 that I'm getting very close to finishing now :D I got to the new LEDs ( Thanks Randy) and the front panel. I also got the AM/FM recapped and still need to cap the muting circuit. But, before the FM was washed out, weak and not very sensitive. The Stereo would light but not where...

I've been distracted by a project rebuilding a Fender Champ amp and then building a lap steel guitar to go with it :) Now it's done I'm back to my Marantz stuff. I found a way cool double side stickum for things like the vellum paper and front plastic radio indicator panel.. I bought the...

I've seen this done.. I sorta knew why but this video explains it really well. I also know there are opinions that differ as to do it or not. I think since my 2245 is still apart on the bench ( been restoring some cassette decks lately).. I might play around and see if I can hear/see a...

I've been refurbishing my DD300 deck and I am just about done. The overall condition was fair and it was working OK up to a few weeks ago. I ended up taking it apart and replacing the caps for the power supply filtering. I found two leaking caps there. Basic clean and lube, dioxit the pots...

https://www.muffsy.com/muffsy-pp4.html I saw where someone has replaced the preamp in an HK unit and I thought was an interesting idea for an upgrade for some of my 2200 series stuff. I really like the tunability of the preamp. Even if no, I might do it just because i can right now with the...

I just picked this up to fill out the set of the Kenwood receiver, amp and turntable :) I got it and they said it "powered up".. that was the extent of their testing. I got it and yes, it powered up.. even played somewhat.. bad speed control, sticky controls etc.. pretty normal. I opened...

I have had one of the original Apple iPod speakers for along time and didnt really know what to do with it. Turns out it works great on the "Tape Out" on my various receivers for testing. Since it's expecting a pretty low input signal, I thought it might work out and it did. Now I'm wondering...

I found this and it is really, really appealing for a spring project. I have a real vintage untouched Fender Champ but this looks like will be a better match for what I want. Not to mention I think it would be a ton of fun to build vs my normal restro work...

I found this as a useful epoxy repair for boards and adhering pads down. It's rated to 500 degrees so it will withstand light and fast soldering. The list below will handle most board repairs we run into with vintage gear short of rebuilding a board thats turned to charcoal. The other option...

At 41 years old, I wonder how the caps are doing? LOL.. lot to be said for mil spec parts and conformal coating with some anti rad shielding.. All jokes aside, pretty damn impressive for a piece of hardware that old in that nasty environment to still be working :)

Every board in this unit has been a challenge at some level :) I think the Karma gods are making up for the last one which was a cake walk. This has blown caps, lift traces, odd transistors with no marks swapped in and then I just found a resistor buried behind on the big ugly caps broken in...

I have to say, even after new caps, the sound was a bit "scratchy" like the pots needed cleaning with random pops etc. I replaced the transistors and WHAMO.. clean sound :) I guess it was worth two nights of matching 100 transistors :D They were so cheap at 100, I couldn't pass it up. This...

I got the tip from someone else here but I bought three different sizes to see how it compared to the OEM They are damn near identical switches. Given how cheap they are, I cannot see rebuilding the OEMs anymore unless you do not want to unsolder them. Digikey 401-1226-ND for this one $4.20...

I've been poking around since I learned there are two versions of the 2245, early and later production run units. I really do have an early unit. I've learned there were about 82,700 2245s produced during it's run. The SN starts at 1000 and mine clocks in 14292 ( 13,292 ) which would put it into...

Well, the left channel seems to be alive :) No magic smoke, It didn't blow the fuse and I have about 12 mVs across the speaker terminal before any adjustments. At least now it comes out of protection and the relay engages. Very faint sound if I crank it up all the way so I'm assuming the...

Here is the final outcome of my own version of the round to TO transformation. All I did was reverse the bend for the diode, get a longer screw and put the new transistor on some lead extensions. And yes, there is a mica insulator between the heatsink and the body of the transistor with a dab...

So I got a 2245 to restore and one of odd things ( it has many) is that all of the bottom cover screws are the wrong ones. They are the parkerized black but about 10mm long. They should be M4x6 not 10s.. oh well, I pull them and set them aside. Move the clock up two months and I get a new TV...