Sergimm
Active Member
I recently bought a Luxman L-3 for a good price, without knowing anything else from the seller other than “untested, but it powers up”. Good enough for me! For a cheap price, it was worth the risk of getting an irrecoverable amp. The amp looked dirty but well kept, so I went for it. This will be my 2nd amp restoration.
A few days later, here it was:
Well, I was right about it being dirty. Grime was everywhere, but I've seen worse:
But other than that, it looked ok. I powered it up, plugged a DAC on AUX, my headphones , and…it worked!!! Sound was coming out alright, if just a bit muddy and flat.
Also, note this in line of amplifiers (the “lab” series L1 to L5), Luxman engineers decided to put the inputs underneath the amp, apparently to avoid needing extra cables to bring the signal to the board, in theory improving the quality of the sound. Needless to say, that decision hasn’t been the most popular.
Ok, time to check the machine’s guts:
It looks like it has never been touched, and all components look original. Extremely dusty and a bit grimy, as it should be on an unopened 40 year old amp. The boards in the amp are not in the most accessible positions, it looks like the engineers tried to come up with the best way to cram all these boards in the small space (by amp-size standards back then) that the case provided (the volume and balance board are tilted to make them fit!). Quite a difference with the last amp I recapped, a marantz 1050, in which all the boards were extremely accessible and a pleasure to work with. Then again, the circuitry of the Marantz was less neatly finished than the in the Luxman.
Ok, I think I will start with the power supply board (PB1197):
First task: clear the dust!
A few days later, here it was:
Well, I was right about it being dirty. Grime was everywhere, but I've seen worse:
But other than that, it looked ok. I powered it up, plugged a DAC on AUX, my headphones , and…it worked!!! Sound was coming out alright, if just a bit muddy and flat.
Also, note this in line of amplifiers (the “lab” series L1 to L5), Luxman engineers decided to put the inputs underneath the amp, apparently to avoid needing extra cables to bring the signal to the board, in theory improving the quality of the sound. Needless to say, that decision hasn’t been the most popular.
Ok, time to check the machine’s guts:
It looks like it has never been touched, and all components look original. Extremely dusty and a bit grimy, as it should be on an unopened 40 year old amp. The boards in the amp are not in the most accessible positions, it looks like the engineers tried to come up with the best way to cram all these boards in the small space (by amp-size standards back then) that the case provided (the volume and balance board are tilted to make them fit!). Quite a difference with the last amp I recapped, a marantz 1050, in which all the boards were extremely accessible and a pleasure to work with. Then again, the circuitry of the Marantz was less neatly finished than the in the Luxman.
Ok, I think I will start with the power supply board (PB1197):
First task: clear the dust!
