Picked up this Kenwood KA-6000 amp today

Gavijo70

Member
Scored this little chunky thing at an estate sale today for a whopping $20. It will be my first recapping practice project before even even removing 4 screws on my SX-1080. I figure for $20 if i fowl it I'm not out much. Got it home, brushed 46 years of dust out, deoxed the pots and all switches. Then hooked it up to some cheap Vega VS-80s and tuner. Then glory! Sounds fantastic. Still some noise on switches which i will reclean. Audible and visual woofer pop flex when the amp is turned on, even when the volume is at zero. Slight hiss when idle which i have been told can be cured with a few upgraded resisters. The original owner thought it was a good idea to invrave his name and DL number in the face plate. Being a rare amp I hope i can find a new face plate eventually. Any Ideas on the pop? Could it be dirt on the switches? It's only had one quick shot of deoxit and exercise. Also the face plate, any way to grind and buff that engraving out? Or any ideas to hide it? I will probably keep this one, so i want it to look good. Thanks
 

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The pop is normal, the outputs look to be cap coupled. The engraving is most likely there to stay unfortunately.
If the pop is normal is it also harmless? I plan on pushing 2 Klipsch kg5.2s with it. I don't mind blowing a low end Vega but one of my Klipsch would break my heart.
 
If the pop is normal is it also harmless? I plan on pushing 2 Klipsch kg5.2s with it. I don't mind blowing a low end Vega but one of my Klipsch would break my heart.

My old Pioneer SX-450 used to have a power on thump, I justed hooked the speakers upto the B output so when it switched on to speaker A it wouldn't thump, after about 5 seconds to let the DC offset settle I switch it to B and start listenin'. Beside being a little startling the power on thump is harmless.
 
My old Pioneer SX-450 used to have a power on thump, I justed hooked the speakers upto the B output so when it switched on to speaker A it wouldn't thump, after about 5 seconds to let the DC offset settle I switch it to B and start listenin'. Beside being a little startling the power on thump is harmless.
Thanks
 
Never did understand the engraving of the name on the faceplate.I can see the back but not the faceplate.Meatheads.

Probably to stop theives / help identify stolen gear, I have someones identification number (not sure what number though, It used to belong to someone in the US and found its way to England.) engraved on the back of one of my receivers.
 
WAIT!

The KA-6000 is rare and NOT the unit to practice recapping!!!

Those are difficult to recap AND are full of 2SC458 transistors that get noisy and need to be replaced.

The 2SC458 on the amp should NOT be replaced with the KSC1845. That can drive the amp into oscillation.
 
Some branches of the service required stereo gear in the barracks to be engraved to thwart thievery. Luckily the AF unit I was in, didn't.

Bill
 
Some branches of the service required stereo gear in the barracks to be engraved to thwart thievery. Luckily the AF unit I was in, didn't.

Bill
I would think that if I had to engrave my face plate on any of my gear, under penalty of court-martial or death, i would have a pro do it for 30 bucks at the mall souvenir shop or something. Not chicken scratch 2nd grade penmanship in to my stereo. Lol
 
I would think that if I had to engrave my face plate on any of my gear, under penalty of court-martial or death, i would have a pro do it for 30 bucks at the mall souvenir shop or something. Not chicken scratch 2nd grade penmanship in to my stereo. Lol

I'm sure they could scratch it onto the back of the unit, people who did it on the face plate are people who probably don't care about the looks of the unit.
 
WAIT!

The KA-6000 is rare and NOT the unit to practice recapping!!!

Those are difficult to recap AND are full of 2SC458 transistors that get noisy and need to be replaced.

The 2SC458 on the amp should NOT be replaced with the KSC1845. That can drive the amp into oscillation.
What would be a good replacement??
 
WAIT!

The KA-6000 is rare and NOT the unit to practice recapping!!!

I second it. OP paid $20 for it which doesn't mean it is a cheap amp. KA-6000 is highly praised by select45rpm and used as a reference to compare to lots of other amps.
 
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My understanding of the start up thump is that it results from imbalance on the rails at start up. On side's main and circuit filter caps charge more slowly, creating a voltage imbalance. On many receivers this is because there are local filter caps on the radio and preamp boards circuits which tend to run off the positive rail -- so for them, it's a design issue. On an integrated amp, the preamp might just run off the positive rail, causing the same imbalance.
 
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