Well, I'll be joining the cult in a week or so. Bought a JR-S300 MkI for USD 111 shipped. In the end, I couldn't resist the distinctive style, and the thought of having a "four gauge" reciever. Supposedly fully working and with the original paperwork. After reading this thread, I expect to find a box full of scraps of very expensive Japanese plastic wrapped around a bounced-free tuning dial weight.
Someone on local Craigslist was trying to flog a MkII for 150, but that didn't include the cost of schlepping 40km each way to collect it.
I intend to do the triac mod (
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....orth-5-and-an-hour-or-so-of-your-time.504673/) to reduce the burden on the power switch. Has anyone done this before on one of these units? My big concern is finding some place I can bolt/heatsink the triac to where it won't get into trouble. I get the impression the switch isn't as delicate as some models, but it's clearly not a soft-switch or the like.
Incidentally, I love shopping for electronic components online: It's amazing how a $2.50 part, by the time you get up to a sufficient minimum order to not be hit with penalty fees (Jameco, apparently, requires a $10 minimum order), becomes $14.30 delivered. :/ I suppose I'll use at least two of them (one for the JVC, and one to put in the HK385i as a guinea-pig for the procedure) anyway.
Now for the heresy (non-Klipsch): I'm thinking of swapping the lamps for LEDs, both to reduce heat production, and to possibly bail on the blue-white colour. I'm so fed up with white and blue lit stuff since everyone decided "let's pack every new TV and monitor, router, waffle iron, or 3v power brick with a blue or white LED visible from the International Space Station on an overcast night"... might go for red, yellow, or green.
The first proper audio component I ever bought was a standalone JVC tuner. I want to say T-X30 ; bought it a thrift shop and fed it into PC speakers since I didn't have a proper reciever. Pretty decent reception, as I recall... my standard for "decent" is "can I get KNX-AM from Los Angeles in Phoenix" which my current unit fails to achieve.