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Anybody using a Kenwood KR-6030 receiver?

A little late to this party, but I'll chip in. I've had mine for several years now. It was a very generous gift from one of our customers. I had seen it in his pet shop and commented on it (all I knew was that silver = good), and he said at the time if he ever found a replacement he'd let me have it. I didn't really think about it after that. Half a year later it dropped into my lap (not literally, that would be painful!).

The tuning wire was a little loose on mine, so it would get stuck at about three quarters of the way up the dial to the right. I just took the top off, tightened the wire, and it worked fine. One of the little source selector bulbs (the Phono one) is dead, and it only came with one of the plastic feet (which I've removed so it will sit level on my shelf).

Soundwise, mine has a pleasant warmth to it. It's closer to neutral than my beloved Cambridge Model 2500, but with a slight downward tilt through the treble. It seemed to brighten up a bit when I cleaned the knobs and switches, but that could just be my imagination. I've had decent luck with the tuner, though it's on the other side of a wall from a room full of buzzing, signal-disrupting fluorescent fixtures, so that particular spot is pretty useless for reception. It's not like there's much to listen to on the radio out my way these days, anyway, and what there is is compressed to hell so it doesn't sound very good.

Overall I'm pleased with my beast. They really don't make 'em like this anymore. It's a heavy son of a gun, and the filter caps are the size of small pill bottles. 80 wpc, and overbuilt as hell from what I can see. I do get some hiss and a very faint buzz when I plug my DT880 into the headphone output, which I think is just a bad impedence mismatch because my other headphones don't have this problem, and I don't detect any buzzing or much hiss from the speakers.
 
jwhvt said:
I didn't replace the switch but just cleaned it thoroughly and gently filed the contacts clean. The "fix" lasted about a month but the receiver started exhibiting signs of a failing switch again (flickering lights on power up).

I just went in and added a relay which will hopefully solve the problem for good. Also added some walnut side panels so it's looking and sounding great again.

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Sorry for posting super late, but do you have a template to shre in regards to the wood panels? I have a KR-6030 and a KR-5030 that really could benefit from panels like yours. Great looking recevier, BTW. Congrats!
 
Regarding this "Kenwood" power switch problem.

> This failure mode is not isolated to vintage Kenwood receivers, nor even consumer electronics.
> The cause of the failure is extremely simple and has nothing to do with the switch being overloaded. The contacts are made of silver and silver tarnishes in the presence of oxygen, especially when not in use.
> The fix is also extremely simple:
1. Restore the contacts to new condition (which is usually possible) by carefully filing the major crud off and then polishing the contacts with 2000 grit paper.
2. To prevent the problem from reoccurring, coat the freshly polished contacts with a special dielectric compound that prevents the silver from oxidizing.

Techs started doing this several decades ago and all evidence points to this being a permanent fix.
 
Somehow, I don't think putting a non-conductive compound on the switch contacts is going to prevent them from getting burned up. Arcing is what causes them to get so thrashed, lack of a proper snubber is what allows the arcing. By the time the switch is no longer making contact, the damage is already done. Not to mention it was a pretty marginal switch from the getgo.
There is a thread here on AK that details a nice, simple mod that uses a triac to fix these units with that crummy snap switch.

*Edit* Here is a link to the thread with the triac mod.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/in...-hour-or-so-of-your-time.504673/#post-6552885
 
Just picked one up at the goodwill last night, funny since that was only a couple hours ago. Anyway, got it for $20 and change. Only test I performed, before buying, was plugging in, flipping on and that's it. All the lights came on, meters worked, no odd sounds from switch. Will do a full cleaning in the AM and test some time tomorrow.
 
jwhvt said:
I didn't replace the switch but just cleaned it thoroughly and gently filed the contacts clean. The "fix" lasted about a month but the receiver started exhibiting signs of a failing switch again (flickering lights on power up).

I just went in and added a relay which will hopefully solve the problem for good. Also added some walnut side panels so it's looking and sounding great again.


View attachment 988444 View attachment 988446 View attachment 988448
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I have the same receiver with the same issues, can you please give me help out and tell the walkthru on how one can add the relay. Thanks
 
dapbmw said:
I have the same receiver with the same issues, can you please give me help out and tell the walkthru on how one can add the relay. Thanks
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I sold the receiver years ago and can't remember all of the details. Really wish I had held onto it though.. great tuner and plenty of power.

I did find this hand drawn sketch I did to figure out how to insert the relay into the circuit.

relay_6030.jpg

This thread may also be of help to you: https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...orth-5-and-an-hour-or-so-of-your-time.504673/

Good luck... I hope you can get it working again.
 
Well, I have a Kenwood KR6030 since the early 80's and aside from the power switch/spkrs sw. no trouble till a year or
so ago when she lost the left side. I always liked this receiver, lots of beef, but once I came upon the KR6600, well, I saw
more control and filters which made for an even better sound, 56 watts is fine, so is the tuning dial. so when I saw I could
get another one for 200$ and working but needed work, I went for it, put in a 100 and now have three great receivers.
I am finding that finding that sweet antenna position is not so easy. I am very pleased with these receivers, 2 tape set-ups phono
yeah they are great receivers.
 
jwhvt said:
I got the idea of adding a relay from searching the forums. The flickering lights/arcing power switch is apparently a common problem on many makes of receivers (not just Kenwood) that use this type of power switch. Here's a post by Audiojones showing one of his relay installations: http://audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=5448354&postcount=11

The idea of the relay is to divert the high current power-on load off of the underengineered original power switch contacts to a more robust set of relay contacts. That way, every time you switch the receiver on, the original power switch only has to carry the relatively low current required by the relay coil.

I ended up finding this inexpensive SPDT relay at a local Grainger outlet (http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/OMRON-General-Purpose-Relay-4FE15?Pid=search). The specs looked similar to the RIBU1C that Audiojones shows so I thought I'd be ok using it. I was concerned about there still being an arc across the relay contacts so I added this MOV surge suppressor from RadioShack (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062574).

It took me awhile to trace the switch wiring and figure out exactly where to insert the relay. I sketched out how the existing power switch was wired relative to the power transformer and the back panel outlets and then I sketched out how the relay should be inserted. Once I did, the installation was pretty straight forward. I did have to lengthen one of the transformer leads a few inches but otherwise, I just had to add a couple of lengths of wiring to complete the installation. I found an empty spot on a small circuit board near the back panel to mechanically zip-tie down the relay. The relay is not electrically connected to that circuit board in any way.

Now when I switch on the power, I can hear the new relay clicking on firmly and the lights all come on cleanly and quickly. A few seconds later, the protection relay kicks in and all is well. I am no electronics guru so hopefully one of the real gurus on this forum will comment if they see anything stupid I did.
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I just by passed the sw. Or jumped it out and
turned on w a heavier sw. In the stereo cabinet.The KR6030 is a real work horse,
Works .my SL-15 inches very nicely
 
My neighbor found one at the dump today, someone told her it works , she is bring it to me to check out and test. will update after I test it.
Sorry folks when she showed up with it, its was the KR-V6030 which is crap.. no comparison to the KR-6030
 
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