KA-7300 refurb dissapointment

dbarr76

New Member
Hi all. I'm looking for some help with my Kenwood KA-7300. I bought it recently at a record store, in great condition. Had it for literally one day and it totally quit working. The guy at the store offered to have it refurbished for me for $275. The piece is so nice and sounded so good that I agreed...When I got it back, it sounded really good. Plays loud and clear...But it just doesn't have the "tone" it had previously. Here's the thing: I'm new to the hobby, but have always been a music lover and the sounds I got out of that thing previously were unlike anything I'd ever heard in my life. There was a certain warmth and overall musicality to it, and the soundstage and detail was huge. Anyway, I can't imagine that for the cost of the refurb, the main caps used were very expensive. Would replacing the main caps with something more high end help the situation? I had read good things about Nichicon Super Through caps and was going to spend $100 on four through partsconnexion.com, but the repair guy I've since contacted, said they are the wrong size...Any advice? What about the preamp caps or any other super "critical to the sound" caps in there? Don't get me wrong, I've been very happy with the unit and it sounds really good...I'm just lusting for that magical sound back. I had never heard my music sound like that before the refurb. Thanks in advance
 
For $275, it is doubtful that he did a full restoration. I don't really know what a refurbishment means, but you should probably find out exactly what he did. That will help us to at least make better guesses as to why the amp sounds so different.

Unfortunately, one possibility is that out of spec components in the unit were giving it the sound you liked...in which case the update/refurb may have actually been a bad thing, at least for you.

However, in my experience, the effect of a good restoration on sound quality is either neutral, or beneficial....not negative.

There is also the possibility that he did a poor job, or used low quality components. If it stopped working, there is a reasonable chance that the outputs went bad. If so, and if he replaced them with inappropriate transistors, that could explain what you are experiencing.

As for filter caps....frankly, changing them to boutique versions is just not going to make that big of a difference. That said, it is important that they be of decent quality, and correct capacitance and voltage.

The place to start is to find out exactly what he did to the amp. Certainly it has components that have degraded with age....but you liked the amp up until it stopped working and was "fixed". Something in the fix caused the change in sound. Just be aware, as I said, that it may be as simple as you liked the sound of the amp with degraded components, and don't like it now that it sounds closer to new (assuming he used good components, installed them correctly, and got the amp adjusted correctly).
 
Agree with the above. IMO, filter caps will make no significant difference. Find out if the tech put it on the bench and checked the basic specs after whatever he did. No way to know what's going on without measurement.
 
Just curious....did the record store offer to refund you, or was their only offer the one where you pay another $275 to get it working again? Unfortunately, there are some hipster record stores in my part of the world that sell "reconditioned" components, with the work done by sketchy "techs" and often consisting of blowing out the dust and squirting some deoxit in the volume pots.

I sure hope that isn't the case here. It will be easy enough to figure out as soon as they provide the details on the work that was done. The 7300 is a good little amp, and in good working order should make beautiful music!
 
Two other thoughts:

Are you sure you have your speakers wired in phase? Red to red, black to black? If not, you will lose some low end/fullness in the sound.

And, were you perhaps using the loudness function when you first had the amp, and now are not? Some folks find that the loudness function provides more warmth and punch.

Just had to ask.
 
Back
Top Bottom