Kenwood KR-4140 it works!!!

I posted in one of the threads that I had picked this up but never the whole story... I picked up this Kenwood KR-4140 at Salvation Army the other day, I mean this is an oldie. It was dusty, and I mean that in the worst possible way. In store testing revealed the left channel to be weak but not dead. I figured I would gamble the $15 that it was either dirty (my first likely guess) or something else simple was wrong. Last night I started the cleaning process. It actually was not in too bad of shape aside from a lot (you have no idea) of dust. Part of the cleaning was the back plate (I really had not cleaned anything inside except blow all the excess dust out, had not cleaned the controls or anything). There was a switch instead of jumpers to isolate the amp and preamp. So I unscrewed the little plastic thing holding it in place dusted it and decided to try to see if the preamp of this thing worked. It did. So I switched the thing back figuring we either have dirty controls up front or problem in the amp. So I plug the thing back in turn it on and try to see if any one control is really bad. You can probably guess where this is going but now it works! Well it actually gives me a sense of hope, kinda a cool looking receiver, black knobs with silver. Black dial, with blue lights and tuning meter, nice orange pointer. Got a lot more cleaning to do on it but I suppose I will finish it up later.

Great job

I love when gambles work out the way you want them to.

They really are cool looking receivers. I've always liked Pioneer the best but my Kenwood KR-7600 is really growing on me. It's somewhat similar in looks to the Pioneer models but it has it's own distinctive look too. And it no doubt sounds as good or better than my Pioneer SX-838 or SX-880. Hope you get it working. I think you'll really like it.

I had a 4140. To me, the earlier Kenwoods weren't as attractive as some of the later receivers, but their build quality was quite good. Nice score!

I don't find their receivers to be as attractive as some other brands, but damn, they sure made some gorgeous integrated amplifiers and tuners.

Well I have the exterior cleaning done for the most part now, and blew most of the dust out of the inside. I am going to do the controls tomorrow night before I fire it up with anything but the test speakers. Maybe I will hook it up to the big Electro Voice EV-4s for a run and see what it can do. should provide something of interest. So far though its shaping up nicely. A far cry from that dirty, ready for the junk heap thing I picked up, and I am happy to say its saved from the garbage. Sound test will determine whether it actually goes into use somewhere or is added to the stuff thats there but not in active use.

As far as its cosmetics that stuff is all a matter of personal taste, I think it actually looks good in fact its one of the reasons I bought it even though it was not operating properly, a bit different from most of what you are used to seeing.

Well as I say, it works properly now , gonna clean the controls and give it the sound test tomorrow, let you all know how it works out.

Well 15 years later I used this story to repair mine! Same problem, same fix! Thank you yrly!