Nice little Martel FAX-200C receiver... early Rotel!

[gadget73]

I see a lot of old Japanese oil caps. Those would all have to go if that were mine. Those things are not well known for being reliable.

 

[loomis]

As several people have said, you must replace every one of those gray Suzuki or Rubycon or whatever they're called gray capacitors. Every old Japanese amp I had, they were bad. Do that first.

 

[jaymanaa]

As several people have said, you must replace every one of those gray Suzuki or Rubycon or whatever they're called gray capacitors. Every old Japanese amp I had, they were bad. Do that first.

Yes sir, and Elna was another name that was used on some of them.

 

[Dandy]

Okay, I'll add my recommendation that you replace the remaining grey caps too.

 

[Gridslayer]

I just picked up one of these. Like it a lot, but has a hum. I guess re-capping is in order. would it be worth paying someone to do this? I guess what I'm asking is, once recapped what kind of sound will this put out?

 

[jaymanaa]

Kind of an old thread, but I've picked up several pieces of Japanese gear since that first Rotel. It's funny to me that folks ooh and ahh over brands like Fisher when the build quality of these Jap units is so much better. I won't say the iron is better, but it's nearly as good, depending on what you ears like. Things like machined aluminum knobs with set screws, while other brands have push on plastic with brights that fall off. If I really wanted a good receiver for say the kitchen or bedroom, I would go with one of the jap brands; Knight, Rotel, Allied , etc..... A lot of them are the same maker just different badges, and I've yet to find one with a phono stage I could live with as is. You're better off copying the one out of the RCA handbook, it fits right in. I think I'll build one someday with some good Fisher output iron, just to see how it sounds.:yes:

Edit; and for the builders, if you ever run across any Olson outputs, you may want to give them a try, they go for silly cheap money and sound a lot like some American units that start with MAC.

 

[Dandy]

For radio and CD inputs, these sound great.

I agree that the phono stage is the weak link. Jay, if you have a thread about replacing it with the RCA one, it would make a good read.

 

[Poultrygeist]

I think the tuner in my FAX sounds quite good while the phono stage is nothing to write home about.

Martel + Roland = Rotel

 

[Gridslayer]

I'd like to use the best possible replacement caps that make sense for this piece. Any suggestions? I will be having someone do the work for me...

 

[Poultrygeist]

Mine has orange drops but you can do better.

 

[Gridslayer]

Mine has orange drops but you can do better.

I'm not well versed in which capacitors are good or bad. Suggestions for something better?

 

[srinath]

I just picked one up too.
Mine needs a good clean up and maybe a sand and repaint.
The seller said he did power it up recently, and it did work. But I have not done it yet. I need to spend a wee bit cleaning up first.
Cool.
Srinath,.

 

[srinath]

Here are a few shots of the receiver after it's hospital stay. Cute isn't it? :yes:

Did you make that case ? That looks awesome.
Mine was a console pull. I have not even the metal case.
Cool.
Srinath.

 

[Dandy]

The case looks great, but I would like to see more ventilation on top and below.

 

[srinath]

There are 400 V caps in this, where do we get those ? Parts express ??? is there a kit of sorts ?
Thanks.
Srinath.

 

[Fitz Loustin]

Hello Everyone, I found this beauty (Martel FAX 200 C) on CL.. I probably paid more than I wanted for something untested but I like challenges and he included a couple old crusted over amps that I couldn't resist. The Martel was pretty caked and an entire can of deoxit cleared that away in pretty short order. After a painstaking cleanup I fired her up and the old familiar 60 cycle hum. I replaced a visibly drying can capacitor with a nice little 8 pin 3 capacitor, cluster technique I learned from one of my guru YouTube guys. I realise all those Greys have to go and I am in the process. I also found that a 60 cycle hum can be caused by a faulty tube so now I'm searching for a good tube tester. I am also looking to a shielding technique. Let the journey begin.

However... for the love of God does anyone know where I can get a schematic for this thing?

 

[Dandy]

Re schematic, have you looked at those in the links in earlier posts, to see if they are the same or similar? There are a number of Trio or Kenwood receivers running 6BM8 tubes.

 

[gadget73]

Power supply problems will show up as 120 hz hum. 60 will be lead dress, heater-cathode leakage, missing shielding (are the covers on?), bad/badly adjusted hum pots, stuff like that.

I'd honestly deal with the caps first and see what that gets you. Those Japanese ones are pretty horrible.

 

[Fitz Loustin]

Re schematic, have you looked at those in the links in earlier posts, to see if they are the same or similar? There are a number of Trio or Kenwood receivers running 6BM8 tubes.

Good advice, Luckily the prior owner left a red and blue marker trail for me to follow.

 

[Poultrygeist]

Is the FAX 200 a push pull EL84 or single ended like my FAX 150?