Trucker1964
Member
2385 European Blackface
When I found this beauty I knew I probably wouldn't get another chance to buy such nice black 2385 again (the black face was dead mint perfect).
Years ago, my brother gave me one just like it in poor condition. I loved it and it sounded fantastic but I let go because the overall condition was poor (I needed the money!) and since have always had my eye out for a really nice one. I ended up purchasing this one from AudioKarma member dennisqle for what I thought was a crazy amount of money, but since I figured it was a rare piece and I had a sentimental feeling about it, I pulled the trigger. You can see dennisqle's post about the unit here:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=624549
I contacted a few members on AudioKarma regarding restoration and as you can imagine, the most notable restorers all had long wait times. I decided to go with an AudioKarma member with less experience but seemed to have a real passion for Marantz gear, so I took a chance.
Big mistake.
The member, who will go unnamed here, promised to turn the unit around in 18 days (I think work days). He was very excited about the prospect of restoring the big 2385. He even asked if I wanted to remove the blackface but I knew he wanted to take pictures of the completed unit to show off and I told him I trusted him with the unit and I would carefully pack it in its original double box which I had delivered to him on March 7th in working condition.
Upon delivery, the unnamed member let me know that the rear panel had gotten slightly bent and the AM antenna had been damaged in shipping. It was my fault; when I packed the unit, I wrapped the large European power plug in bubble wrap and nestled it against the rear of the unit. The unit shifted a bit and damaged the rear panel. My bad.
Thankfully the panel could probably be straightened and the AM antenna parts are not to hard to come by.
We had several discussions about restuffing the dual filter caps. I sent him links to catrafter's and silversmith's work on Marantz dual filter caps (the 2285 has them too, I just had Tom Ishimoto recap my blackfaced 2285 and he did it catrafter style, side by side in a puck).
He sent me some pictures of a board he made up to mount the individual filter caps side by side and stated that he thought it would be better for cooling. It looked kind of hokey but I figured I wouldn't see it anyway so I said ok. It was at this point that I figured that the $420 in cash I had given him was a pretty meager amount for the work that would be required to finish the unit. I think that his desire to restore such a nice unit got the better of him and he underbid the project so I sent him another $300.
I had to chase him down several months ago and he told me that he changed the filter cap setup to a stuffed orientation and was waiting for another member to return the stuffed caps to him. Ok, that sounds good.
Fast forward to the middle of May, he indicated that the filter caps he installed "blew up" and that he had never seen this before and he said that the filter caps were defective. Hmm... He also indicated that the chassis had been damaged in the explosion. Needless to say I was disappointed but hopeful that the damage to the chassis was not too bad and that it wouldn't be seen when the unit was put back together.
I tried to follow up with several calls and emails but he had gone silent. It was at this point that accepted the fact that he was in way over his head and I had trusted someone without proper experience on this beautiful rare unit.
I suspected that the explosion has caused a catastrophic failure of the unit (like the transformer) so I began to press him. I called him like a mental patient and emailed him and asked him to be honest with be with no response.
He finally responded yesterday in a poorly worded email apologizing for his poor communication and indicated that he need to remove the filter caps and transformer !! The only conclusion I can make is that the transformer is blown.:sigh:
He then went on to suggest that he purchase the unit from me for a fraction of what I had invested in it. Wow. Needless to say I sent he an angry email requesting that he return the unit to me in its present condition so that he doesn't do any more damage.
No response
This is my tale of woe. I figure someone may be able to repair the transformer ?I'm resigned that I will have to start over again with a qualified tech but it may be a year or two before someone has the time.
When I found this beauty I knew I probably wouldn't get another chance to buy such nice black 2385 again (the black face was dead mint perfect).
Years ago, my brother gave me one just like it in poor condition. I loved it and it sounded fantastic but I let go because the overall condition was poor (I needed the money!) and since have always had my eye out for a really nice one. I ended up purchasing this one from AudioKarma member dennisqle for what I thought was a crazy amount of money, but since I figured it was a rare piece and I had a sentimental feeling about it, I pulled the trigger. You can see dennisqle's post about the unit here:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=624549
I contacted a few members on AudioKarma regarding restoration and as you can imagine, the most notable restorers all had long wait times. I decided to go with an AudioKarma member with less experience but seemed to have a real passion for Marantz gear, so I took a chance.
Big mistake.
The member, who will go unnamed here, promised to turn the unit around in 18 days (I think work days). He was very excited about the prospect of restoring the big 2385. He even asked if I wanted to remove the blackface but I knew he wanted to take pictures of the completed unit to show off and I told him I trusted him with the unit and I would carefully pack it in its original double box which I had delivered to him on March 7th in working condition.
Upon delivery, the unnamed member let me know that the rear panel had gotten slightly bent and the AM antenna had been damaged in shipping. It was my fault; when I packed the unit, I wrapped the large European power plug in bubble wrap and nestled it against the rear of the unit. The unit shifted a bit and damaged the rear panel. My bad.
Thankfully the panel could probably be straightened and the AM antenna parts are not to hard to come by.
We had several discussions about restuffing the dual filter caps. I sent him links to catrafter's and silversmith's work on Marantz dual filter caps (the 2285 has them too, I just had Tom Ishimoto recap my blackfaced 2285 and he did it catrafter style, side by side in a puck).
He sent me some pictures of a board he made up to mount the individual filter caps side by side and stated that he thought it would be better for cooling. It looked kind of hokey but I figured I wouldn't see it anyway so I said ok. It was at this point that I figured that the $420 in cash I had given him was a pretty meager amount for the work that would be required to finish the unit. I think that his desire to restore such a nice unit got the better of him and he underbid the project so I sent him another $300.
I had to chase him down several months ago and he told me that he changed the filter cap setup to a stuffed orientation and was waiting for another member to return the stuffed caps to him. Ok, that sounds good.
Fast forward to the middle of May, he indicated that the filter caps he installed "blew up" and that he had never seen this before and he said that the filter caps were defective. Hmm... He also indicated that the chassis had been damaged in the explosion. Needless to say I was disappointed but hopeful that the damage to the chassis was not too bad and that it wouldn't be seen when the unit was put back together.
I tried to follow up with several calls and emails but he had gone silent. It was at this point that accepted the fact that he was in way over his head and I had trusted someone without proper experience on this beautiful rare unit.
I suspected that the explosion has caused a catastrophic failure of the unit (like the transformer) so I began to press him. I called him like a mental patient and emailed him and asked him to be honest with be with no response.
He finally responded yesterday in a poorly worded email apologizing for his poor communication and indicated that he need to remove the filter caps and transformer !! The only conclusion I can make is that the transformer is blown.:sigh:
He then went on to suggest that he purchase the unit from me for a fraction of what I had invested in it. Wow. Needless to say I sent he an angry email requesting that he return the unit to me in its present condition so that he doesn't do any more damage.
No response
This is my tale of woe. I figure someone may be able to repair the transformer ?I'm resigned that I will have to start over again with a qualified tech but it may be a year or two before someone has the time.
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