Lighting - Realistic STA 2000D - Selector switch and T10 bulbs - LEDS?

[vinylocerous]

Hi All.

2 Questions.

I have a Realistic STA 2000D with almost all the bulbs out.

I ordered some LED soft white T10 bulbs to illuminate the meters and tuner. They are too bringht but work fine.

Question 1: LED vs Incadescent? Other than the colour is there a reason why these are not good for my system? I ordered the correct 8V.

Question 2: Assuming that the selector switch bulbs are all just blown. What are the specs on the bulbs for replacement here? They are so small. Are they/were they already LEDs?

Thanks

 

[aldena007]

I have worked with LED's as replacements for the incandescent bulbs on several units [mostly Sansui] and I find that the LED can be a substitute that works for some applications but not all. Backlighting for me has been an issue in that LED's tend to be more directional lending to "hot spots" rather than a broad diffused display of light. One example is the VU meter lamps in the Sansui 9090/9090db/quad units and LED's don't replicate the OEM lighting very well. I have just reverted to incandescent replacements in those applications. Sometimes the LED is too bright in applications where you are provide illumination for displays like "phono, FM, AM, etc". You can tone down the brightness, but it may require some experimentation with resistors to get the light intensity right. One issue with LED's is that they are monochromatic with a narrow spectrum of wavelengths vs the broad spectrum of incandescent bulbs. In the case of the Sansui's they have a blue filter inside the VU meter [Took a while to discover that] to get the soft yellow white of the meter illumination in the 9090/9090db and other units. Then is the issue that the LED has the polarized nature of it's power requirements [it is a diode remember]. The incandescant bulb power in these older units is predominately AC which often creates another adaptation requirement to prevent flicker. I am laying all this out not to discourage the practice but to more or less express some insight to the LEC conversion challenge. Done right LED's can work and lood great.