why a recap makes no difference

For those of you that do repairs, what do you charge for a complete recap? My repair skills are very limited as the only thing I feel comfortable doing is cleaning controls (deoxiting). I realize cost will vary but could you give me an estimate for a Kenwood KR-7600, a Yamaha CR-620, and a NAD 7140?

I have had these three pieces for a while and all are currently working however I feel that they are on their tale end of their life span. I have no real attachment to any of the three pieces, however if I were to choose one piece to sink more money into, it would either be the Yamaha or the Kenwood. The NAD sounds the best however the Yamaha and Kenwood has the looks that appeals to me.

I would appreciate your replies as I live in an area where choices are limited in terms of finding people who restore vintage equipment.
 
i just think im hearing the amplifiers age.
considering these old nec batwing transistors were pretty

I'm not saying it's the case but have you ever considered your amp sounds right and your ears can no longer hear it.
My point is many of us have been exposed to loud sounds (music?)
Also age doesn't do your hearing any favors
Maybe it's us that needs the recap
 
Mr Oldsansui441
You have two very fine Sansui's there, you sure they are lower down the food chain than the Marantz's?
BTW, thank you for your service, my dad was over there in 69 also.
Glad to be of service, thanks. I definitely do not think the Sansui's are further down the food chain than the Marantz, and have always been a big Sansui fan. They are equals in my opinion. I should have worded that a little different, as they are all my better pieces. I just don't want to spend the money for a total recap on the Sansuis right now because the 8080db still sound and work perfectly good , so I thought I would just have them checked out and serviced as needed. New led lighting at least. I love my 8080db, and it's sitting thee feet from me right now in my office room with a Onkyo CD player and a pair of KEF 104ab's. Volume has to be quite low, as I'm also three feet from the speakers, but the loudness button works just fine. Been using it on a daily basis and it just keeps sounding great. The 5000a has the good boards, but has a little noise coming from somewhere. Hopefully won't be a big deal to fix, as its not one I use that often. My younger brother came back from Germany (Army) in the late 70's with a 9090db. About 10 years ago I went to his house and it was gone, replaced with some new cheap receiver. Said he sold it at his garage sale for $50.00 because the controls were scratchy and it was so big and heavy. As you can imagine, it still pisses me off to this day he didn't tell me about it. Thanks for setting the record straight about my Sansui's.
 
For those of you that do repairs, what do you charge for a complete recap? My repair skills are very limited as the only thing I feel comfortable doing is cleaning controls (deoxiting). I realize cost will vary but could you give me an estimate for a Kenwood KR-7600, a Yamaha CR-620, and a NAD 7140?

I have had these three pieces for a while and all are currently working however I feel that they are on their tale end of their life span. I have no real attachment to any of the three pieces, however if I were to choose one piece to sink more money into, it would either be the Yamaha or the Kenwood. The NAD sounds the best however the Yamaha and Kenwood has the looks that appeals to me.

I would appreciate your replies as I live in an area where choices are limited in terms of finding people who restore vintage equipment.

I typically do repairs for the fun and to keep the skills sharp in between messing with my own stuff so end up charging something like $5-10 an hour of bench time when all is said and done. If I was in the business I'd probably end up pricing most people out of a full recap just because it takes forever even wielding a Hakko 472d.
I'd say the cap question is going to be moot in a few more years. 70's gear is built tough but we're nearing the half century mark on the earlier gear which for electronics is darn near ancient.
I mess around with 80's gear far more than 70's so I get to deal with thousands of cracked solder joints and maybe a few bad caps to go with.
 
I just don't want to spend the money for a total recap on the Sansuis right now because the 8080db still sound and work perfectly good , so I thought I would just have them checked out and serviced as needed. New led lighting at least.

That makes perfect sense.

About 10 years ago I went to his house and it was gone, replaced with some new cheap receiver. Said he sold it at his garage sale for $50.00 because the controls were scratchy and it was so big and heavy. As you can imagine, it still pisses me off to this day he didn't tell me about it.

Oh really, yes l can imagine as an enthusiast you weren't overly impressed, at least you have your other two :thumbsup:.
 
And what do you guys use for recap. Please write the brand and series.
Me, till recentl, roughly
for 0.47uF - 33uF - Nichicon PW, PX (or film)
for over 33uF and up to 63V - Nichicon PM, PX and Panasonic FM
for over 63V - Nichicon HW
for Bipolar caps - Nichicon DB and ES

Now I've dropped Nichicon PM, HW and Panasonic FM in favour of Panasonic FR and Nippon KZL, K**.
 
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And what do you guys use for recap. Please write the brand and series.
Me, till recentl, roughly
for 0.47uF - 33uF - Nichicon PW, PX (or film)
for over 33uF and up to 63V - Nichicon PM, PX and Panasonic FM
for over 63V - Nichicon HW
for Bipolar caps - Nichicon DB and ES

Now I've dropped Nichicon PM, HW and Panasonic FM in favour of Panasonic FR and Nippon KZL, K**.
You should start your own thread for this question.
 
..........

Here's the 'magic' of the 1060. An exaggerated bottom end and nice fat mid bass, smooth mid and a rolled off top end. All 1060s I've had exhibit this same response. ie, not remotely accurate, but oh, so good. ;)

View attachment 1112420

.......

@restorer-john Great series of posts in this thread regarding your Father's Marantz 1060 :thumbsup:

I am curious, what would have been done circuit-wise, in order to implement the frequency response of the 1060 as demonstrated in your graph?

This was intentional, right? Something would have been done explicitly to achieve this response? Would it have been in the amp section i.e. somewhere in the NFB loop, or in the filters? Some other way?

.
 
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A recap is not just for sound. It's also to protect other components, especially the ones that are no longer available (ICs, FETs, SV diodes, the transformer, etc.). So don't do a recap since it will allow me to buy "for parts/for repair" gear at much cheaper prices.
 
A recap is not just for sound. It's also to protect other components, especially the ones that are no longer available (ICs, FETs, SV diodes, the transformer, etc.). So don't do a recap since it will allow me to buy "for parts/for repair" gear at much cheaper prices.
i would say more than half the people that still has their vintage gear ash from the 60s and 70s know they need some repair of some sort but are well into ther 50s and 60s now and spending the cash that it would cost to do it is not in the budget as techs(for all the good work they do) are too expensive especially if you have to ship.Does not make sense for most.I have bought non working gear from a few people i know for cheap as they cannot afford to spend the 3 or 4 hundred it would take to have someone look at it and fix it.I cant afford it either but some of the gear i could sell individual parts on ebay to recoup some cash but that will take a while.I know time is money as electronic parts,caps and such are cheap,but it seems they(techs) are all in some club to charge the same amount generally,which is not true but it seems like it.."no deals to be gotten".
 
If I am given an audio part for repair, I always KEEP it if it is worthwile repairing and repair is successful, no charge at all!

It is my repair terms since I ever repaired a few TVs for FREE in the neighbourhood 40 yrs ago, charged parts only and still got complaints it was too expensive.

It saved me from having "unwanted friends" also.

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 
I am curious, what would have been done circuit-wise, in order to implement the frequency response of the 1060 as demonstrated in your graph?

This was intentional, right? Something would have been done explicitly to achieve this response? Would it have been in the amp section i.e. somewhere in the NFB loop, or in the filters? Some other way?

It's a good question and one I didn't fully investigate. I've had a about 4 or 5 1060s and they all exhibit the same overall response, so that is my benchmark. It was clearly intentional, and all the 1060 lovers out there hear exactly what we see in those plots. Thing is, I didn't run a preamplifier and power amplifier FR sweep individually- I ran it as an integrated amplifier, so I don't really know if it's a combination of both or what.

I can of course investigate it further at some stage as the amplifier is in use at his place as we speak, but I'll let him enjoy it for a while before I propose to take it back for more 'tests' ;)
 
I typically do repairs for the fun and to keep the skills sharp in between messing with my own stuff so end up charging something like $5-10 an hour of bench time when all is said and done. If I was in the business I'd probably end up pricing most people out of a full recap just because it takes forever even wielding a Hakko 472d.
I'd say the cap question is going to be moot in a few more years. 70's gear is built tough but we're nearing the half century mark on the earlier gear which for electronics is darn near ancient.
I mess around with 80's gear far more than 70's so I get to deal with thousands of cracked solder joints and maybe a few bad caps to go with.
holy crap,nice pricing....can you do my AU717...where are you located?
 
if you have something you'd really like to keep and use for a long time then do have it
recapped/rebuilt to fix problems and/or extend the life. over its/your eventual life it's only
pennies per day - skipping one beer per week will do it.

on the other hand, buy all the cheap stuff and flip. build that war chest with LP/cassette/CD/SACD
flips, blank cassettes with "metal" type IV markings. buy cheap turntables and sell the mat
to break even, the cart for small profit, and the belts and covers for major profit, buy wood
cabinets that fit the flipper's inventory, tubes - zillion ways to make $$ - ribbed plate telefunkens
to Asia for BIG bucks, smooth plate 12ax7 to us, cloth covered ST70 trafos,

look at ALL the TOTL Marantz/Pioneer/and-now-a-whole-bunch-of-others receiver flippers.
No EE degree, solder experience, tube/SS troubleshooting experience needed.

this is mostly tongue-in-cheek and in case I offended anyone chasing the Great American
dream of entering (and growing from there) the top 1% billionaire class, I offer my most
sincere apology as a member of the bottom 99%.

and no matter how you collect and use audio gear, enjoy the music.
 
I recapped my Sansui AU-919 (all electrolytics and black flags, accept the big ovals) and can say that it was a good sized improvement.
as Forest Gump said..."THATS ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT".
 
how much did that cost

If you do it yourself I'd say about $30 for caps maybe a little higher if you replace the big filter caps that's if you have a soldering iron and solder. If not then a extra $10 for a cheap iron and $10 for some decent quality 60/40 lead solder.
 
If you do it yourself I'd say about $30 for caps maybe a little higher if you replace the big filter caps that's if you have a soldering iron and solder. If not then a extra $10 for a cheap iron and $10 for some decent quality 60/40 lead solder.
yes,i am a little older and my hands are not as steady as they use to be,in fact i had to change to an auto TT,oh well,sucks to get old,lol.
 
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