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Any Experience w Ebayer 'hifiaudio-' Need volume pot for HK A300

liteagilis

liteagilis

Active Member
There is a guy on ebay selling volume pots that seem to be unobtanium for HK A300's.
I'm just wondering if anyone on here has bought anything from him and had a good experience.

Based on the other things he sells his stuff looks pricy but he seems to know what he is doing selling recap kits w instructions, pots, etc.

If you have other HK A300 volume pot suggestions I'm all ears.
 
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His prices are indeed high....

Asked him some questions about specific values of capacitors he is selling; he replied quickly, but did not answer my questions, so I rephrased and asked again, he then told me “they were correct” and that was it.


Have you tried Jim McShane? http://www.mcshanedesign.net/
 
adnick said:
His prices are indeed high....

Asked him some questions about specific values of capacitors he is selling; he replied quickly, but did not answer my questions, so I rephrased and asked again, he then told me “they were correct” and that was it.


Have you tried Jim McShane? http://www.mcshanedesign.net/
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Just sent him a message. The unit I have was actually rebuilt by don in 2015
 
Stay away, his parts (may) but from what I heard the internals are cheap and longterm reliability is questioned.
 
petercapo said:
Yes, I've seen his listings. They strike me as very overpriced without explaining why in any detail. For that kind of money, you could look at something like a Goldpoint or other high end part.

I don't know what value volume pot you need, but I'd suggest looking at eBay seller "lasercollection" Items for sale and also "hkseller8" Items for sale
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I should have specified it’s 1 meg dual gang w loudness. Splined.
 
My TA-5000x was specified to have 500k but when removed - measured 1.2m. Pretty terrible choice causing HF roll-off
 
grindfix said:
My TA-5000x was specified to have 500k but when removed - measured 1.2m. Pretty terrible choice causing HF roll-off
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I've seen TA5000X with either the 1 meg or the 250K loudness pot, I believe it was a running change, not sure what other components if any were associated with the change.
 
Anyway, back to original question, if you are looking for an excellent source for controls built from good parts at very reasonable prices, and correct for your application, contact Mark Oppat. He's light years ahead of this other guy. No affiliation, just a very satisfied customer. He's kept pretty busy, may not be a real quick turnaround, but well worth the wait. You need to provide him with the value of the pots, position of any taps, shaft length and type. Contact him.
His company is 'Old Radio Parts'.

https://oldradioparts.net/contact_me.html
 
I made one purchase from him. I was "content" to put it mildly. The item sold was not as described but I knew that walking in since it was impossible to have that many of the "originals" as he claimed. Still, the obvious reproductions met what I needed and I left it at that. His claims and "advertising" is oftentimes "sideways" and based on other reporting, his stuff is not always up to snuff. Caveat emptor, I guess. Also, know that he flips his moniker more than a pancake but his location and items remain the same.

I've never used him but others whose opinion I trust have and report that Oppat is a stand up guy. For a vintage control, I'd go to him first. Might cost ya but you know you'll be getting the real deal.
 
The only issue I had with Mark Oppat- was that with one decidedly unusual pot (1M with loudness tap) I got from him- it suffered from a noticeable degree of channel-to-channel imbalance. I thought it might be something in the circuit (off-value resistors or caps causing unbalanced loading), but I checked all that to be fine- and when I put in a "generic" 1M new pot (just left the loudness out), it tracked perfectly.

I never got around to sending it back to him (just ran out of time to deal with it, and the unit was deemed acceptable without the loudness)- I expect he would have dealt with it- but it definitely did have an issue, here, despite him measuring it on his bench before shipping it to me...

I expect, if anything, this is an issue with using old-stock parts- it's harder to find "first-run quality" older stuff now (the best stuff was cherry picked off over the years from the shelves, leaving the lesser stuff on the shelves to be found later), vs new production parts. This is one case, where if I can, I prefer to just use new production parts...

That said- I DID have a problem with outright pot failure (totally went dead on one channel- open circuit) on one custom-assembled pot, made from new production parts, that I got off of eBay. I can't remember who it came from- but you do need to make sure whoever you deal with has a proper return policy, in case there is an issue there, in any case...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
GordonW said:
The only issue I had with Mark Oppat- was that with one decidedly unusual pot (1M with loudness tap) I got from him- it suffered from a noticeable degree of channel-to-channel imbalance. I thought it might be something in the circuit (off-value resistors or caps causing unbalanced loading), but I checked all that to be fine- and when I put in a "generic" 1M new pot (just left the loudness out), it tracked perfectly.

I never got around to sending it back to him (just ran out of time to deal with it, and the unit was deemed acceptable without the loudness)- I expect he would have dealt with it- but it definitely did have an issue, here, despite him measuring it on his bench before shipping it to me...

I expect, if anything, this is an issue with using old-stock parts- it's harder to find "first-run quality" older stuff now (the best stuff was cherry picked off over the years from the shelves, leaving the lesser stuff on the shelves to be found later), vs new production parts. This is one case, where if I can, I prefer to just use new production parts...

That said- I DID have a problem with outright pot failure (totally went dead on one channel- open circuit) on one custom-assembled pot, made from new production parts, that I got off of eBay. I can't remember who it came from- but you do need to make sure whoever you deal with has a proper return policy, in case there is an issue there, in any case...

Regards,
Gordon.
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I ordered one from mark. We’ll see how it turns out. $60. I thought about ordering a custom goldpoint but they’re four times the price minimum and it would be like 55% of the value of the amp.
 
I needed an "On/Off" switch, pot style for a MC2255. These power switches are known for issues. My 40 hour a week job - at times, affords me time to research my audio needs and I'm no slouch when it comes to finding what I need. The research eventually lead me to design a permeant fix for myself and others. I did run across "hifiaudio" and his replacement switch/pot. $75 was way to high. I thought I could find something cheaper even if it took sometime to figure out.
Well, the Mac owner said to try the "Hifiaudio" switch (He has a large discretionary audio budget) and see if will suffice. So I ordered it thinking I could reverse engineer it, well at least figure out where it comes from.
The original switch is an Alps product and the one he sells is knockoff very similar looking but extremely flimsy compared to the original. Also the shaft is too short and will not completely support the knob. It's kind of a cheesy setup for $75.
He kept bugging me to leave feedback. I finally said my peace in a message and he left me alone.
I guess in a pinch its barely okay and the owner of the Mac I repaired said he was using a power strip anyway and to leave it like it is.
I never did follow up on my initial findings but the pot sold by "Hifiaudio" is an unmarked, crappy knockoff that barely works.
Note:
The Alps on/off pot can be found but the shaft is to short and would have to be lengthened. The original knobs are the "D" type so the alignment is a concern. A proper switch could be made but the cost in modifying begins to get in the way.
 
Just got a volume pot/on off switch for a Fisher 400 from mr hifiaudio and the threading on it was wrong. He suggested I use more force, then suggested I was doing something wrong. It's a simple nut/bolt threading thing.... I rethreaded for it to work but not what I expected for the price paid. And also, not everyone has the tools on hand to rethread.

I couldn't get a response out of Mr. Oppat. I would rather have paid more for the right part.
 
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it's hit or miss - I bought a power switch/volume pot for my Mcintosh MX113 - miss, badly mismatched between channels but it was beyond the ebay return period. More recently I bought another switch/pot for my Mcintosh C28 and is extremely nice with excellent matching throughout the range. I don't think he likes exchanges but it's worth a try if you really need what he's selling. Buy it, test it quickly and if it doesn't work, use ebay return to get your money back.
 
boltaction said:
I just ordered $500 worth of recapping kits from this gentleman, and none shipped. USPS shows awaiting item, and he blames USPS. His real name is Clarence Yow and he also runs antermade. If you look up antermade, you'll find an ebay store with the same name. Thousands of chinese knock off car parts. Stay FAR AWAY from "hifiaudio-" on ebay and by the way, he owns hifiaudio.com which is just a front for his junk.

On top of that, his listing says "Just call me! Happy to talk!" but when you ask for his number he says he can't give it out. Shady guy.

He resent one of the kits and I'm completely convinced now that it's going to be chinese knockoff caps.
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Sorry to hear that. That sucks. Depending on what it is maybe he’ll refund you and you can reach out to Craig at NOSvalves or Jim McShane.
 
Very bad experience with the volume pot for my Sherwood S8000. The loudness taper stays until half way through rotation, then pot volume is inactive after that point. His junk was better than nothing as the pot in my Sherwood was destroyed when I bought the receiver. Shorty after I purchased a volume pot for my PAS2. The back section went open after quarter volume. I contacted the guy and immediately started getting insults saying I didn't know what I was doing and take the preamp to someone that can fix it. I finally got him to agree to a replacement. He sent me the same damn defective pot back as a replacement. This clown was my first ebay claim in over 20 years. Stay away.
 
Avoid this guy, I bought one of his volume pots as well. Crappy construction, noisy as hell and expensive.
 
I bought a recap kit from him for an old Sansui tube pre-amp (sp-220, as I recall). It arrived a few weeks later and did not even BEGIN to resemble what the schematic (or the unit) called for. Values were very much off. I complained and explained this - and he asked me to send him a copy of the schematic because he didn’t have one for the unit!!!!

I’ll never buy from him again.

The pot situation for vintage gear is VERY lamentable.
 
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