Recapping a Pilot 602. A love story. Really.

sanford12

Old Stuff New Stuff As long as it's Good Stuff
Like any story you have to have a beginning. Mine was when I put an ad in CL for my Dahlquist DQ-12's to sell or trade for either JBL 100's or Heresy II's. My wife was not happy when a nice guy from St. Louis Mo. wanted to trade his Heresy's. She liked the Dahlquist and we had them forever but they were to big and had to go. That was about 6 months ago.

Fast forward to Christmas vacation and I broke out the the caps and the soldering iron and started the recap of my Pilot. I replaced the 2 100uf electrolytics that are underneath and start with the Orange caps beginning at the back and working my way up front. I always stop after a few caps and test before going on. I got the 4 .022's for the hum controls done and hooked it back up. Put on Eric Clapton's Unplugged and sat back for a listen. It was stunning to say the least this thing sounded great before. It's even more open with better separation of the instruments and peaks at higher volumes don't lose their definition and I had it cranked at 11:00 on the Pilot and 12:00 on the Yamaha C-6 pre.

Now for the love story part. My wife came down stairs, she never does when I have it that loud. She stood with her back to me facing the speakers. I'm sitting on the couch. Tears in Heaven is playing. She turns to me and tears are streaming down her face and I'm starting to well up looking at her. I think it's the song and she says no that's not it. It's that it sounds so good. She was crying because she said it finally sounds as good as the when we had the Dahlquists. I had no idea that she was that attached to those speakers. The best thing was that I could move someone I love to tears of joy with something I've done. It's a wonderful feeling to make someone that happy. Dang it I'm welling up again thinking about it.
What a great start to 2010. I hope for as Happy a New Year for everyone.
 
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I've been missing my 602 for the past month! :tears:

All I've got to say is:
:worthless

Here's a pic. I'll post some under chassis shots tomorrow.
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Sanford12,
Happy New Year.
Accolades to you fellow audio sojourner!
audiodon

Thank you. It's days like this one that gives you the warm fuzzies. Music is the grease that makes life's wheels turn a little smoother.
 
so you see how good they look in nice clothes..that was my Pilot 654.

Pilot654withTalons004.jpg


Pilot654withTalons007.jpg


Pilot654withTalons005.jpg
 
That's a sweet looking custom cabinet and a stereo receiver. Very Nice. I may have to draw up some plans for cabinet to build this spring.
 
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Thats a real nice looking case :)

Does it provide adequate ventilation ? I noticed it doesn't have a grille or holes in the top.
 
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Glad to hear you're getting started on the recap !

I also have a Pilot 602, which was recapped by another forum member before I purchased it.
One thing I've noticed about this receiver is that it stays much cooler while running off of a
Variac or bucking transformer, set to about 115 VAC. The output tubes generate a lot
of heat, and are much cooler running off of the Variac.
 
Glad to hear you're getting started on the recap !

I also have a Pilot 602, which was recapped by another forum member before I purchased it.
One thing I've noticed about this receiver is that it stays much cooler while running off of a
Variac or bucking transformer, set to about 115 VAC. The output tubes generate a lot
of heat, and are much cooler running off of the Variac.


Interesting, another guy who has my older pair of Pilot AA-904's runs them thru a coupling transformer, and also says they run cooler...I dont understand whats happening, but I wonder if i should get one.:scratch2:
 
The info on the bottom cover
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This is a shot of of what I had done that started this thread. The 4 orange drops on the left are the ones made the startling very noticeable difference.
The 4 on the right and the restuffed cardboard electrolytic were done earlier and didn't really change anything the 2 .25uf on the top of the chassis for the speakers were done at the same time. Today I did the preamp section and the sound has stayed at the previous excellent level. I don't know how many others do the change a few caps or section then test for sound method but I've found it makes screw-ups a lot easier to find. I've got a tube radio that I got too cocky with and I'm still trying to figure it out.
picture.php
 
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