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AR SRC Recap

JKent

JKent

Active Member
Not sure whether this should go here in Solid State or if it should have gone in DIY :scratch2:

Anyway... Had an AR Stereo Remote Control from the Teledyne era--not sure what year (80s) but back in the day these received rave reviews for their quietness and versatility. Some photos and discussion here: http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=1865

So, I decided to re-cap the thingie. Not too difficult. The case comes apart with 5 screws and the PCB is held in with another 3. You also have to remove 2 screws that hold the transformer in place.

There is a tin shield on the board that has to be de-soldered and bent back to expose 4 electrolytics underneath.

In all, there were 15 electrolytics:
(5) 1uF/50v
(8) 10uF/25v
(1) 2200uF/10v
(1) 330uF/10v

The 1uF caps were replaced with WIMA 1/63 film caps. All other electrolytics were replaced with Nichicon KA series high temp Audio caps, one step higher in voltage rating than the originals (10uF/25v replaced with 10uF/35v etc).

The SRC works great. Does it sound "better" with the new caps? I dunno, but it should last longer!

Only problem with these is the hand-held controllers tend to get lost or broken, and the base unit is worthless without the remote. I have 3 base units and 2 remotes. Maybe I'll try a "learning" remote and see if that will work.
Kent
 

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AR Remote

Follow-up:

I had bought a spare SRC on ebay to experiment with (in case I screwed it up). It did not come with the hand-held remote so by itself it's worthless. And those remotes DON'T show up for sale :no:

Well, I did not ruin the thing so I needed a remote. Found an "AR" learning remote for Apple TV that is very compact and looked promising. Not Teledyne AR but it does say "Acoustic Research." It's uncluttered and even smaller than the original. Another choice was a Chunghop learning remote from ebay but this was available from Amazon and I figured if it did not work I could return it.

It was a bugger to program and without an original to "teach" it you're out of luck, but it works :D

The original has 4 rocker switches for on, off (separate button), volume up, vol down, balance left, bal right, mute and EPL. Then there are second functions that you select by pressing "ON" followed by one of the primary buttons. That gives you sleep timer, fast vol up, fast vol down, left channel only, right channel only, full mute and center balance.

I could not figure out how to program those functions (maybe more experimentation needed) and they're pretty unnecessary IMHO except maybe "sleep timer" I mean, do you really need FAST up/down? And the balance is easily adjusted--there's even an indicator lamp when it's centered. Maybe "lft only" and "right only" would be nice for comparing speakers.

So here's a photo of the new remote. Labels are a bit amateurish but as I said, it works.
 

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Here's something strange: After trying the AR-SRC to make sure it worked I put it away. Recently I took it out and hooked it up and found the volume is MUCH lower with the SRC in the system (even after un-muting). I tried my 2 un-recapped SRs and they were even worse! Tried them in the Tape loop AND between the preamp & amp. Also tried with my receiver and all combinations found the volume significantly decreased. I took one to my favorite tech and asked him to take a look but without a service manual it's tough. Anyone else have this problem?
 
AR SRC contd

No, sorry, no idea about level problems; did you solve? I post only to say that I have three of these and all need repair, so I am taking to a tech friend soon. One in fact works fine but lightly buzzes (over the speakers and amp) even when off. I replaced with the Chase RLC1 but it does not work either; going to take to the same friend, since it is a known chipset. I appreciate the factual and parts posting here and will include it. I have remotes but they are balky and flaky and have scotchtape around them to hold them together following a drop and look like hell. One has lost its button excursion practically, another has something loose inside. But they all work, as well as they ever did; the remote was not the best part of that product. But when it works it's very handy and useful. A resistive ladder, as Ken K once put it.
 
Well, I guess I didn't do adequate trouble shooting. I tried connecting the amp to the Tape Out instead of the Main Out and got full volume. So I took the SRC apart and squirted some De-Ox-It in the Manual Tape Select pushbuttton switch, pushed it several times, re-assembled the unit making sure the switch did not hang up and now all seems OK. Duh.
 
I know this is a over a year old but do you know of anyone who has one relatively cheap. I saw one tonight on the auction site with a price tag equal to a Sansui 9090. Thats to me a little crazy for this maybe I am wrong. I want one or a similar item for my system as I am disabled and it would help on the bad days I cannot get up. Thanks for any info.. Have a great day.
 
Amcrebelfan said:
I know this is a over a year old but do you know of anyone who has one relatively cheap. I saw one tonight on the auction site with a price tag equal to a Sansui 9090. Thats to me a little crazy for this maybe I am wrong. I want one or a similar item for my system as I am disabled and it would help on the bad days I cannot get up. Thanks for any info.. Have a great day.
Click to expand...

I saw that. $500. Yes--crazy.
I have one (or 2) that is complete and works. I'm asking $199 for it. Not cheap but but less than 1/2 the e-pay price. Send me a PM if you are interested.
-Kent
 
Kent's cap list is off by just one cap spec. I just opened mine up to have another look to be sure, and also downloaded the schematic posted by Kent (thank you for all of your posts!) on classic speaker Pages forum, which I will link to below. It was too large to post here directly:
http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?/topic/8946-ar-src-endeavor/

There are indeed 15 electrolytics in the base:
(5) 1uF/50v
(7) 10uF/25v
(1) 100uF/10v
(1) 2200uF/10v - positive supply rail
(1) 330uF/10v - negative supply rail

And the Remote Control (which Kent didn't have) has one:

(1) 1000uF/16v - positive supply rail

As Kent suggested, and I'm sure I referenced in this thread at the time, I upgraded the voltage spec on all of these except for the remote and went with WIMA 1uF/63 film caps for the 1/50's.

I also upgraded the power supply rail cap to 4700uF, and would have bumped up the negative rail if I had known that's what it was at the time. I recall considering doing that , due to its proximity to the four diodes making up the Bridge rectifier, but not having the schematic at that time I left it at 330uF.
I used Nichicon KTs for the 100uF and used Nichicon FW for the 4700 & 330 - must have been what was in stock at Mouser at the time. For the 10uFs, I was surprised to find that I had used Elna Silmic IIs. I do recall looking at them as if they would likely be in the signal path.

Before the recap my unit was not working. I bought a NOS unit on eBay and my unit worked fine with the NOS remote. I decided to blame the large electrolytic in the remote and try a recap due to age of the unit. So, I went ahead and double ordered the parts and recapped the NOS unit as well.

On the upper cover of the base unit there was a crumbling foam strip which I replaced with a similar-sized strip of weather stripping.

And, does it sound any better? I concur with Kent and say I dunno?

It was always very transparent in my experience and still is. But, the large 1000uF unit in the remote had failed, so I figured they were all due for a swap.
 
Interested in following along with the thread, but the classic speaker link doesn’t work for me. Do I need a login to use that site?
 
Thanks! The new link worked. dreaming of a modification to AR-SRC to add bluetooth capability. haven't thought very far about it yet. Very valuable information you have provided.
 
Hey, has anyone ever seen this problem with the SRC? The right channel on mine just went out (pretty much) today. Has anyone ever experienced this/willing to hazard a guess at to what the problem might be?

(after an hour of panicking because I thought the problem might be with my Citation 17 or 19, I realized the issue was with the SRC. Thank god I had a spare SRC that I got from my guardian angel in NJ. Phew!)
 
resurrecting a zombie but anyone have the schematic and can post here? the file link on classic speaker pages is dead. @RAMBUS_King ?

Fingers crossed...
 
Jfaustus said:
resurrecting a zombie but anyone have the schematic and can post here? the file link on classic speaker pages is dead. @RAMBUS_King ?

Fingers crossed...
Click to expand...
Years ago I contacted Ken Kantor, the designer of the SRC directly. He searched his old files and came up empty-handed.
So do what I did. Open it up and write down the values of every cap. Replace them with the same uF and equal or greater voltage. Easy Peasy.
PS: Just checked my own files and found a pdf schematic. Too big to upload. No idea where it came from. PM me with your email address and I'll send what I have.
Kent
 
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