More Mc gear...more woes!

[SixCats!]

Hi all,

Today (Sunday Mother's day) I (with the help of a friend with a truck) pick up the antique cabnit that contained the remaining McIntosh gear and dual 1229 turntable I bought last week for $200.00. Long story short...I removed both the MR 73 TUNER and the C 24 PRE AMP from the coverted chest of draws/cabnit. This was NOT a easy job! After removing the MR 73, I hooked it up to the AUX of my Pioneer SX 737 receiver and started her up.
The sound from the RIGHT speaker sounded GREAT!
However...something is WRONG with the LEFT channel of the TUNER! The volume is very low and not clear! SHOOT! Oh well...this is going to be a long range repair project! First, I must send off for repair the 250 AMP (which SMOKED!) when I plugged it in. I am only hoping that the C 24 PRE-AMP with be trouble free! I have yet to hook it up. I must say...the PRE-AMP looks BEAUTIFUL! (i.e. BRAND NEW looking!). The TUNER also looks VERY nice! The 250 AMP cleaned up pretty good but...is showing it's age due to some rust on the crome. The DUAL 1229 is in SO-SO condition and I doubt I am going to put money into fixing it up.
This unit has no base. I would rather buy a THORENS or something. At any rate...I am going to have to spend quite a bit more money to get these Mc's up and running! I hope it will be worth the cost.

Regards,

SixCats!

 

[crooner]

Good luck with your repairs on the MC250.
BTW, I suggest the use of Caig Dexoit and/or Progold contact cleaner on any unknown piece before powering up. Trust me, this often does miracles! I use it liberally on all controls, solder joints, PCBs, sockets, etc. The only parts I don't spray are sensitive tuner components such as coils, tuning capacitors and trimmers.

I suggest you spray this stuff on your MR73, with precautions on the front end components. I wouldn't be surprised if it works fine this time around.

The C24 will also benefit from contact cleaning, especially if it's the earlier version with socketed transistors. The C24 usually suffers from electrolytic capacitor rot. The small 'lytics are probably Sprague Transi-lytics. They are notorious for those annoying "pop" or swishing sounds. I've had bad transi-lytics even in "mint' looking C24s. If recapped I would bet it sounds at least competitive to the later C26. Gorgeous piece of equipment, I might add. The glass epoxy circuit boards, neat wiring and potted transformer are a beauty to behold.

Good luck with your gear!

crooner

 

[crooner]

Here's a pic of a C24 I used to own.
This one I recapped almost entirely. Sounded great.

Regards,
crooner

 

[grumpy]

SC

Sorry to hear about the other problems. Its very hard on gear when it was not used as I suspect. Hopefully with a bit of Green thrown at the probs you will get the system up an running.

Grumpy

 

[SixCats!]

Hi guys,

Thank you both for your support! Crooner...thank you so much for your suggestions...I will give it a try. Oooh...your old C 24 looked very nice indeed! Mine looks AS NEW as well!

Regards,

SixCats!

 

[crooner]

Thanks Six Cats, and if you have any other questions regarding the C24 I'd be happy to help.

I became quite a self appointed expert (LOL) on McIntosh glass restoration. I used to live in South America and getting NOS glass replacements was very expensive. I devised a method to repair bubbles in the glass. My first candidate was a MA-5100 with two large bubbles on the sides of the McIntosh logo. The repair was sucessful to my utter astonishment! The trick was done by carefully covering all lettering on the back of the glass with masking tape. Then, applying crazy glue to the sides of the bubble. This would press it against the glass again. After drying, I would apply several coats of ordinary spray black paint.
The C24 you see in the photo was repaired that way. I also did a MQ101 equalizer that later sold off on eBay. The buyer would never suspect it was repaired!

The only thing about the method was that it only worked with small bubbles. I had a C27 with large delamination and the only solution was a new glass.

It's good to know your pieces have good front panels. For me, that's even more important than the chrome.

My MR67 has pitted chrome but mint looking front panel and glass. I am pretty happy with it.

Regards,
crooner