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BA 5000 breathes in living mono

bluewool

bluewool

the imposter
Saturday, Jack brought me a copy of the service manual we began cleaning up the BA, blew off the dust with compressed air, and cleaned up the volume pots. So far so good, well, after hooking up some computer speakers (see photo) we determined that the whole amp was running in mono, at least there was no smoke. Disconnecting the creative lab cubes, we connected the mini monitors, “well that is some fine sounding mono” Switching the mono/stereo switch made no difference. After looking at the schematic it became apparent that the switch activated “PL601” so we hunted this relay down, woah, seems that some savage had been playing electronic tech with his soldering gun on the “ F 2520 buffer amplifier circuit board” This is what has been done, R610 has been removed and the trace that connects it to R612 has been scraped off. TR601 is missing also and there has been some pretty ugly soldering and jumping, truthfully I can’t tell what exactly has been done because there is way too much flux on the board.
I would really like to bring this 5k back to health, although I am hesitant about where/who to take it. Anyone know of any reputable places for this sort of gear in the Vancouver BC / Seattle WA area?
For now though I am switching the preamp to mono, and just enjoying the sound.


Andrew
 
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One last photo that shows the back of the board where R610 should be attached, you can also see the removed trace.
 
Sounds like a job for our very own member of the year Echowars. The only other guy I trust is here in St.Catharines, Ontario but it'd be just as cheap to ship that monster to EW than it would be to ship it here.


Mike
 
You can get in touch with Rick at Allegro Sound. Ive been in touch w/ Rick this past weekend via email, several times. Rick has a Mod to the BA-5K that I'm interested to hear more about, so I'll probably talk to him on the phone soon.

Allegro Sound Info: http://www.allegrosound.net/


From his emails, Rick sounds like a...., how shall we say, well, lets just say a guy who has his way of doing things, so I imagine if you sent your BA-5K to him, he'd give it a thorough & proper evaluation and then explain clearly to you what needs to be done to make improvements.

He'll probably also say McIntosh's are better amps, but as I told him, thats all well & good, speaking for myself, I am quite content to be a Sansui enthusiast. Rick also wants a B-2301 really bad, but mine's not for sale :)

B/F
 
Ps- can you post some photos of Jack's BA-5K? Is his a '75, '76, or '77 model?

B/F

Pss- which preamp and speakers does he use w/ his BA-5K?
 
long distance shipping

Thanks for the replies. I am really intent on having the work done locally. I have a couple of friends in the recording business and I'm sure with the popularity of vintage recording gear they must know someone who can do more than "dust the pot seeds out of the boards" But I am also considering an attempt at tackling the job myself.. For starters, there is no r610 in the parts list, and there are two r608's on the schematic. from strange to stranger.... also, my biggest concern is wth this witless barbarian made these modifications for in the first place.


andrew

to paraphrase,

"my eyeballs feel like pinballs and my tongue feels like a fish"
 
Here's an idea...

Since shipping this beast would probably entail renting a u-haul (lol), how about this...

Never seen the insides of one of these but if you just want to get it up and running, could you remove the butchered board and send it off to an AKer with access to a BA-5000?

Of course EW would undoubtedly give it the five-star treatment Just be sure to ask for the faceplate facial and the transformer massage.

I would be hesitant to entrust this to UPS.
 
Another option is you can call Rick and he could probably guide you over the phone on how to diagnose the 'Monster', that is, if you wouldnt be put off by him charging $ for a phone consultation. I suppose you could call him and find out more Info on the phone consultation, I dont think he charges for the initial call to ask about the 'real' call :)

B/F
 
I am really intent on having the work done locally.
Click to expand...
Vancouver is a nice big town. Sure I'd do it, but this thing is so large that shipping is almost prohibitive.

Grab the Yellow Pages and start calling...even if you have to find someone on the US side to do it. Find someone who's friendly and can allay your concerns in a manner acceptable to you. If you get bad vibes, call someone else...
 
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