Just picked up my first McIntosh!
I have been looking for an MX117 for a while and one finally became available near me so I decided to take a look. It was cosmetically in very decent condition the glass faceplate was basically perfect and the wood case was 7.5 out of 10. I did a quick demo of the unit, seemed to tune in stations and the preamp was quiet except on phono, it had a bit of a buzz. This may have been the turntable that was connected, not really sure yet. The unit came with the original receipt, owners manual and schematic.
I got it home and powered it up with a freshly rebuilt Dynaco 400 as a test mule. It sounded ok for the basic test that I did.
I then noticed a problem, no FM stereo. Signal strength is fine. I pulled the IF wire from the front end and injected an IF signal. No joy..
So I started to look for a service manual but had no luck. Maybe someone has one? I see that the Berners site has it but I don't have any mac manual to trade.
In the mean time I started to look at the schematic. The 19KHz test point is basically dead. So I suspect that the TCA4500A is having a problem. I ordered an LM4500AN as a replacement.
I can also tell that the tuning cap is dirty, the signal strength is a bit noisy as stations are tuned.
I did a quick search and did not find much on the MX117 as far as restoration go. Has anyone done a recap or alignment? The lamps all seem to be working. I am not sure how LED's would look. The lamps at the end of the dial are quite dim, I suspect this is normal?
I really like how everything is so tidy and each board can be removed for service without much trouble. Not what I am used to at all!
I need to find a mac amp to go with it...
I have been looking for an MX117 for a while and one finally became available near me so I decided to take a look. It was cosmetically in very decent condition the glass faceplate was basically perfect and the wood case was 7.5 out of 10. I did a quick demo of the unit, seemed to tune in stations and the preamp was quiet except on phono, it had a bit of a buzz. This may have been the turntable that was connected, not really sure yet. The unit came with the original receipt, owners manual and schematic.
I got it home and powered it up with a freshly rebuilt Dynaco 400 as a test mule. It sounded ok for the basic test that I did.
I then noticed a problem, no FM stereo. Signal strength is fine. I pulled the IF wire from the front end and injected an IF signal. No joy..
So I started to look for a service manual but had no luck. Maybe someone has one? I see that the Berners site has it but I don't have any mac manual to trade.
In the mean time I started to look at the schematic. The 19KHz test point is basically dead. So I suspect that the TCA4500A is having a problem. I ordered an LM4500AN as a replacement.
I can also tell that the tuning cap is dirty, the signal strength is a bit noisy as stations are tuned.
I did a quick search and did not find much on the MX117 as far as restoration go. Has anyone done a recap or alignment? The lamps all seem to be working. I am not sure how LED's would look. The lamps at the end of the dial are quite dim, I suspect this is normal?
I really like how everything is so tidy and each board can be removed for service without much trouble. Not what I am used to at all!
I need to find a mac amp to go with it...