jfouch59
New Member
I received my fully restored AU-717 from Leo at Precision Audio Restorations on Saturday. I’m the original owner of this marvelous amp. The volume control was stiff and the left channel was silent. I sent it off to Leo based on recommendations from this site. Leo did an absolutely excellent job repairing and re-capping this amp. It was previously repaired many years ago when one of the output transistors was replaced with a non-Sanken unit. He replaced that with an original Sanken transistor and backed out some driver transistor mods and other non-standard fixes that were done at that time. There were a few other minor issues that Leo also addressed, polished the front panel and touched up a minor nick on one corner. He kept me informed every few days on the repair status and even sent me a brief video of the amp being tested on the bench. I cannot express how pleased I am with the quality and timeliness of his work.
While the amp was out, I took the time to refurbish the rack and do some fixes on my other components. The rack itself needed some attention. The top deck and lower base were made of ½ inch or ¾ inch particle board or some type of pressed wood fiber panel covered in a vinyl veneer. Over the years they both warped a bit and the entire rack was tilting towards the back. I replaced both with 11 ply ¾ inch plywood and braced the base with additional cross supports. The top deck now sits level which is handy for the turntable
I polished a fingerprint off the Nikko tuner pointer that was probably put there when it was assembled. It drove me nuts! I replaced the burned out light bulb on the SE-7 EQ power button with an LED. The sliders were cleaned with Deoxit D5. The walnut wood panels on the SAE INRS got several coats of linseed oil. I sourced a cheap Sony dual tape deck for now. Maybe I’ll try an upgrade there later. I also added a combo power meter/power outlet to help with providing power to everything. Adds a little light show to the rack.
The restored system sounds and performs great. I’ve been listening to some old tapes I dubbed back in the 70s and 80s. Listened to some albums I have not heard in a long time, some really good stuff.
Anyway, I got long with this post but wanted to share. If anybody is looking for a good restore technician, this is my recommendation. Precision Audio Restorations did a fabulous job for me.
While the amp was out, I took the time to refurbish the rack and do some fixes on my other components. The rack itself needed some attention. The top deck and lower base were made of ½ inch or ¾ inch particle board or some type of pressed wood fiber panel covered in a vinyl veneer. Over the years they both warped a bit and the entire rack was tilting towards the back. I replaced both with 11 ply ¾ inch plywood and braced the base with additional cross supports. The top deck now sits level which is handy for the turntable
I polished a fingerprint off the Nikko tuner pointer that was probably put there when it was assembled. It drove me nuts! I replaced the burned out light bulb on the SE-7 EQ power button with an LED. The sliders were cleaned with Deoxit D5. The walnut wood panels on the SAE INRS got several coats of linseed oil. I sourced a cheap Sony dual tape deck for now. Maybe I’ll try an upgrade there later. I also added a combo power meter/power outlet to help with providing power to everything. Adds a little light show to the rack.The restored system sounds and performs great. I’ve been listening to some old tapes I dubbed back in the 70s and 80s. Listened to some albums I have not heard in a long time, some really good stuff.
Anyway, I got long with this post but wanted to share. If anybody is looking for a good restore technician, this is my recommendation. Precision Audio Restorations did a fabulous job for me.
