upgrade

I recently went to service an MCS 3245-10 I bought. (45 watt per channel) Upon initial dim-bulb turn on, it was idling fully lit. After disconnecting things, I found that the power transformer was shorted and pulling 110W by itself. None were available, so I bought a transformer for a 3275 (75...

Thought I would share my project video series from a restoration I recently did of a tired old Vintage SX-950 receiver I recently finished restoring. It now has a new lease on life and will still serve for many more decades to come. Jump to the last part to see the final outcome. Here is part...

Hi all, I've just begun to upgrade my system, and am looking at upgrading my vinyl listening situation and have been shopping around for new carts/styli. I currently have an Akai AP-001C with an old AT11 cart and am looking at a few options. A friend of mine has been recommending I try out...

So I just recently graduated college and I've been scraping by on whatever bargains and deals I can find for my audio equipment, but now I have a real job and I'm looking to start taking things to the next level. Problem is, there's too damn much audio equipment to sort through everyday (well...

I currently own an AT 120X BT USB turntable and a pair of Klipsch R41 PM speakers. I’m looking for advise on an upgrade path and learning form fellow music lovers’ experience. Would that upgrade path be an alternate phono amp, cartridge, stylus, TT mods, EMI line filter? Not a ton of money but...

Bought this one a few months ago with right channel not working, to repair for my son's first stereo. Disassembled it and then got caught up in some other projects. Luckely it came with all the connectors intact. Did some cleaning of chassis and PCB's when I had 30 minutes here and there. Don't...

Title says it all. Looking to upgrade my stock Technics SL-BD20 P34 phono cartridge for a higher quality one. From what I read, Shure M92E or Ortofon 2M Blue are the best options. Let me know what you think, and what would be your pick. Kenwood KA-9X amp, Cerwin Vega D5-E speaker mainly playing...

Looking to buy a (what i believe is stock) AR XA turntable. Anything specific i should look out for? I know they are modded a lot and there are older and newer models. Would i be able to attach my Nagaoka mp 110 onto it without any mods?

So I had a thought. was looking on e-bay and found a bunch of Pioneer se-205 and 305 for cheap. Then I found that I could also buy the drivers from a set of Sony WH-1000XM4 for around $10 per side. so $20ish plus shipping. Is this a dumb idea? Is it even doable? The Pioneer's have 45mm drivers...

Hello AK, once again I emerge from my lurking to ask some advice on my next audio purchase. As some of you may remember, I purchased a pair of JBL 4410's in June of last year. I have been powering them with an interim Pioneer SA-1060 I had laying around from an old system I built in high...

Friday I was watching a short movie about the Carpenters on PBS, on the modest HT setup in my bedroom, and when they broke off into their fund-raising schtick, I thought “I can do better than this”, and went out into the living room and put on my greatest hits LP of theirs - Carpenters The...

Just a good clean up, polished with Orange Oil, replaced the grill cloth with more of a “classic” Advent cloth and fixed the cracked tops on my $50 Advent Heritage’s I bought this summer. Thought I’d share.

As a guy who first real job in live was repairing, selling and installing Hifi, radio, and television sets back in the late 70 begin 80ties (yesss I'm that old...) I basicly got bias towards the Technics brand... I know, I know... it is always seen as the Panasonic sub brand witch it was, and...

I have a hodge podge system. Onkyo sr706, martin logan 50xti center, vintage infinity rs iii fronts power by b&k st3140, some vintage ar bookshelf rears set up wirelessly, and 2 svs pb 2000 subs. been fiddling with receiver settings for a while and just can seem to get it where i’m happy... it...

hello!! i finally finished my 2226B. It was a unit in very poor condition. I tested with DBT ant first the bulb behaved as in any other unit working good... after a few seconds the bulb turns off...... should i worry about it? in any other units, the bulb start to decrease the bright, but...

Hello all. I have an AT turntable which came with the AT-VM95E cartridge pre-installed. And it's a great sounding cartridge. However, I understand it can do even better than it does at tracking, particularly on inner groove portions of records, with the help of a stylus upgrade. So what I am...

Having in mind to recap the crossovers of my kef 107, opening the cabs to have a look at the woofers crossover, i had the surprise (surpise might be an understatement, the shock might be more appropriate) of finding an upgraded crossover with Solen capacitors. The seller did mention that the...

Hi all, I have a vinyl setup that I'm fairly happy with at the moment, but I'm always looking for the next weakest link to upgrade, especially if I can do it on the cheap. I'm wondering if the next move is to upgrade to a separate phono preamp. Here's my current signal path: Planar 3 w/ R200...

Hi, A friend gave me a 'faulty' SA7500 to discover that it was actually working. He got it fro ma store telling him it was broken too. Missing jumpers on the back and a broken led light confused both of them thinking that the power supply stage was broken. So it actually works fine, but it has...

Hello AK'ers. I´ve been working on a recap on my 2230. i finished the recap according the suggestions here, in AK. main caps are new.... output transistors...... voltaje on P800 PS board are correct: 13.8v on j805 and 35.6v on j808. P750 has new: -electrolitic caps part-------original-----sub...

I'm considering upgrading some of my gear which I guess like most people's is a little variable in quality. I play only vinyl, with my current rig being: Turntable: Rega P1 with stock Rega Carbon cartridge; I know, I know... Amplifier: Harman/Kardon hk 450 ... circa 1978; this is my only...

My left and right speakers are Boston Acoustics CR6's which are sealed enclosures 2-way speakers that are quite heavy for their size. I'm thinking of upgrading to a pair of Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2 speakers that are rated 6 ohms. My 18 year old Sony av receiver is rated at 100 wps at 8 ohms. Will...

Hello AK´ers I am restoring and upgrading my Marantz 2385. preamp section is almost done!! I´d like to replace the main capacitors for new ones. the 2385 have the pair of duals 6800uf/85v, i think to install 4*10000uf/100v is a good idea. I found cheaps caps here, but i can´t find the...

Hello everyone, I want to start off by saying I'm not in a hurry to upgrade, I'm just interested in what is out there so I can be looking. That said, what is the next reasonable or logical upgrade to an Ortofon VMS 20? On another note, I have a Stanton 681EEE body that needs a stylus, or the...

Hello, I restored a Dual CS 1257, but initially simply bought an OEM ULM-152E replacement stylus ($13) for my ULM-50E cartridge because I was just trying to make sure it worked before spending more cash. Well, it worked (pleasantly well), & my turntable hobby has exploded in the interim. That...