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    Fisher 400 owners PLEASE READ....IMPORTANT!!!!

    Don’t knock that old 220-T, or your father’s decision way back then. Over 25 years ago, I was one of the earliest advocates for the first gen Fisher SS gear. The old tube models have always had a devoted following (and likely always will). But back then, the very early (pre ‘69) solid state...
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    Let's see your modded Klipsch Heritage Speakers!

    Futzing around with a pair of old Heresies 15-20 years ago, I updated the crossovers with some Mundorfs and upgraded the internal wiring. No changes in values, but it did improve the dynamics and detail quite a bit. While I would never mess with the old oilers in the older vintage K-Horns...
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    800C FM issues

    The micas in the IF transformers do sometimes go bad. They are not sealed, and moisture creeps in and eats up the fill. It depends on how the instrument was kept over the years. High humidity ambients are not good for them. Years ago, I would sometimes open up the can and perform what could...
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    Best Vintage Preamp

    This is certainly vintage, and still sings beautifully today in a high quality system. The sweetest sounding preamp I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot of them. High End? Depends on your point of view.
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    Fisher 400 owners PLEASE READ....IMPORTANT!!!!

    Lol. Al worked for the USPS, and ran this side business out of his little Staten Island home. Once his one daughter was born, he started to spend less time on the business, with the resulting grief. And that was 25-30 years ago. At this point, he’s likely at or near retirement age. Still...
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    800b phono - one channel out

    While the low-level input grounds on the Bs are isolated from the aux inputs, touching the two shields together shouldn't permanently damage anything. It sounds like you have a lot of switch, connection and pot issues going on. The first thing I used to do with these is flood them all with D-5...
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    Fisher 400 Stereo Beam

    That’s an interesting commentary. I was doing similarly towards the end, subbing in EM87s when folks kept grousing about the EM84s not closing so tight. And he is correct, they’re not supposed to completely close, by design. I used a slightly different resistor value than Mr. Gillespie does...
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    Marantz 2226B Poor Man's FM Alignment?

    I don’t think there’s a way to do these well without a signal generator and a scope. At least that’s how I used to do them. I agree with the other poster; someone fiddling with it already may have buggered it past a quick readjustment. I don’t do alignments anymore. But Mike Zuccaro out in...
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    Restored Fisher 500c questions

    I’ve always set the bias slightly cooler than that to squeeze every possible hour out of the old production outputs. But that is still within acceptable limits. Whatever you use, I think you’ll find the best sound using a precision metal film there. I wouldn’t pot the bias supply; I prefer...
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    [TUTORIAL] Marantz 2275 Main Filter Capacitor... yes, the big ones!

    “Screw terminal capacitors must not be installed with the terminals (end seal) facing down. When a screw terminal capacitor is installed in a horizontal position the pressure relief valve and positive terminal must not be in the lowest position.”
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    [TUTORIAL] Marantz 2275 Main Filter Capacitor... yes, the big ones!

    It’s an obscure detail that even a lot of old hands overlook nowadays. Not as critical today, but the big makers still give the usual caution about it: https://www.nichicon.co.jp/english/products/pdfs/e-p_gui.pdf
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    [TUTORIAL] Marantz 2275 Main Filter Capacitor... yes, the big ones!

    Just one comment about the use of screw terminal filters here, as I can’t discern from the photos whether they were installed terminals up, or down. Be aware that good practice is to install screw terminal caps terminals up. The reason is because of the pressure venting system used on them...
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    1990s Power Amplifiers

    Thresholds, or if a little newer, Classe, up to about 1996-98. Warm, nuanced, but with tremendous current reserves for difficult loads. The other post about these needing some attention after about 25 or so years is generally accurate. They will still work well otherwise in many cases, but...
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    Anybody using a "vintage" DAC?

    We still run an Assemblage DAC 3.1 Platinum / D2D-1 pairing in our main system, and have had no reason to replace them after 23 years. We recently compared it to current TOTL equipment from Brand “S”. The old Canadian beat the tar out of it. Elsewhere we run old CAL Alphas and Sigmas, and see...
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    New problem with Fisher 500 C

    The IC axials are old standbys. They were all the rage in the 80s and 90s. Popular with the primarily radio/ham crowd that were doing these then. And some of the early commercial ‘kits’ also slipped them in (VTV’s outrageously priced one comes to mind). I preferred the CDE polyesters for...
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    New problem with Fisher 500 C

    Your approach is the smart one. It only takes a couple volts of leakage there to unleash havoc. I really don't understand why people are still clinging to those Ero-Fols. They're nice enough, but the difference is not that profound, or worth the risk. The Soviet PIOs are a very good...
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    Electrolytic Capacitor Shoot-Out

    ... So after all of that commentary, how does it pertain to the OPs use of Silmics and similar audio grade electrolytic caps, even in the power supplies of vintage equipment? A controversial and derided practice elsewhere. It means this: Most audio grade electrolytics are simply general...
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    Electrolytic Capacitor Shoot-Out

    Just chiming in on this very old thread as it relates to the Marantz 2230, and to add an interesting commentary on recent observations regarding some replacement caps being used in the classic and vintage equipment field, and the real world requirements for such parts. It is a long commentary...
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    power conditioner

    I’ll just add this, Bill. You have as good a protection scheme as I, and there is nothing more that could be done to protect your equipment. The cascading approach is the best transient defense scheme currently in practice. Unfortunately, most people either can’t afford it or are otherwise...
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    Help with a structural vibration issue in a rental home.

    Ok. If that is what you have to work with, then the best approach should be a combination of mass-loading and isolation. The mass loading will increase the inertial load and the amount of energy needed to move it. The isolation will decouple that mass from the surrounding oscillating...
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    Help with a structural vibration issue in a rental home.

    I know your deck is wall mounted. But bear in mind that many walls are affected by distant floor deflections, even sometimes exterior walls. If your residence has a basement or crawl space, you want to locate the deck outside the worst floor span deflection areas, or ideally outside the span...
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    Mancave Rebuild after Sewer Flood

    OUTSTANDING job! Really nicely done. I can sincerely empathize with you. Our basement suffered a sewer backup under the original owners, and the entire finished area had to be completely torn out. It's a huge job to rebuild them. They never were able to do it, and it sat unfinished for...
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    re cap=crap

    I think you nailed that one about the oilers. The best advice is not to mess with them on better examples unless they are leaking a mess or you can confirm a malfunction, or you know exactly what you are doing or don't care. Sometimes with an oiler, that's where the soul of that particular...
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    When will you take your Christmas tree down?

    We had one natural tree, many years ago, on which I had rigged up an automatic watering system. And it was getting decent sunlight. And it just kept drinking. The tree would not die. It actually started to grow. By April, it was starting to bud new growth. Little light green buds. It made...
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    WD-40 CONTACT CLEANER

    Count me in as a Caig user for electronics as well. While I've used and like CRC products a lot for general electrical line equipment, I prefer the specialized cleaning and treatment that the Caig chemicals perform with electronics, especially more frail vintage electronics. I guess to use an...
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