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Luxman L-430 Recap / Overhaul

Hi All,

So I have finally been able to identify the baby blue Rubycon caps. They are "CE-W" series. Only problem is I cannot find any info at all on them. Are they just standard general purpose, low ESR, Audio grade??? Who knows.

I suspect they are just standard caps as Luxman used them everywhere, even in the Power Supply. The only caps that seemed to be specifically 'Audio' were the six Elna's, everything else were Rubycon CEW's

Does anyone have any info on the Rubycon CE-W series?
 
copied this off another site.. new code listing would be TWSS

"Rubycon CE-W are 85c, non-polar. It was (and still is) popular for general-purpose audio coupling and DC blocking, but like most non-polar capacitors, it probably has only moderate ripple-current capability."

hope it helps.
 
Binkman said:
copied this off another site.. new code listing would be TWSS

"Rubycon CE-W are 85c, non-polar. It was (and still is) popular for general-purpose audio coupling and DC blocking, but like most non-polar capacitors, it probably has only moderate ripple-current capability."

hope it helps.
Click to expand...

That's great Bink, thank you.
 
CE is just the French for electrolytic capacitor.. since the adjective comes after the noun... condensateur electrolytique
 
jheu02 said:
CE is just the French for electrolytic capacitor.. since the adjective comes after the noun... condensateur electrolytique
Click to expand...

:rflmao:

So that means that it is not a 'series' at all. Dear oh dear, that gave me a good chuckle. In fact, I just had a look at some of the other old caps from the Lux, some Elna's, and sure enough they also had 'CE' on them.

Thank you for my continuing education.
 
Hello Trevor,

That was an interesting read, and i love the 3296Y trimmers , they are breeze to adjust and so stable over the old trimmers.

In short, , trying to fix my Technics SU-V9, shorted thyristors and that took out some resistors and transistors down the line, plus opamps. Noticed a few caps with green legs - power supply, pre drive used Panansonic FR and Nichicon PW, via tone pcb only 4 electros 2 bipolar which i put 2 FG to make the bipolar and used OPA1642, and NE5532 for speaker impedance and bias opamp. I left the main filter caps, was interesting to read going up in capacitors on the main caps did not work for you. If was going to replace them i was going to use KMH 22000uf. Listen mostly bypassing tone, only cap is the phono cap - used the 940c film caps there.
 
Well the thread I read posted they probably weren't made for 10 years and most people just can them. One supplier on the bay said imported from china. But I dunno.. 2017 rubycon pdf online had a lot of different application abbreviations.
Capacitor abyss!
 
WARNING: READING THIS THREAD CAN CAUSE SYMPTOMS OF CAPACITOR-BRAIN OVERLOAD.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/the-capacitor-abyss-yes-can-it-get-any-better.610004/
(Some morphing (brain overload symptom) but good stuff))

Blue Shadow said:
a capacitor abyss, great quote, great thread where we had Conrad dispensing the knowledge.
Click to expand...

Somewhere I said we should dedicate it to ConradH.. (mad scientist from the finger lakes, NY) He must have tested 100's of caps and batches. identified many rare and nos, explained esr, equipment used and graphs provided. He probably caused a major ripple in the industry!
 
Luxmaп said:
Great work and well documented. The L-430/L-410 are great amps!

If you haven't done it already...check all solder joints! Especially the solder joints from the TO-126 transistors.
View attachment 1330478
If they're in bad condition and the contact isn't given, it can cause damages in the power amplifier section.

And change the relay... Someday (maybe tomorrow or in a few years; I don't know) it will cause contact problems.
Click to expand...

It turned out that this was about the best piece of advice I could have been given!!!

After mucking about a little more with the L430 I tried fitting the original Elna 'For Audio' caps, just to see if they had a different sonic signature. After carefully swapping the caps in (there is only 6 of them) I powered the amp up, and to my shock and horror the speaker protection relay would not engage!

I opened the amp up again and pored over the main circuit board. As far as I could see everything was perfect. The old Elna's measured well, but I removed them anyway and swapped back in the Nichicon UFG's and UKZ's. But no go, the amp was silent and the relay would not engage.

Then I started carefully probing the components with a non-conductive probe, just gently trying to move them ever so slightly. And sure enough, I discovered one of those TO-126 transistors had a very dodgy solder joint. So I then went through and checked all of them, and almost all of them had very questionable soldering. I was amazed. When I originally looked at them I had not used particularly high magnification, but this time I could clearly see fractures in the solder around a number of the legs!

So I bit the bullet and removed them all, one by one. Cleaning the traces and the transistor legs with IPA and then re-soldering them (the right way round of course). I made sure each joint was well soldered with a lot more solder than Luxman had used.

Finally I was able to power the amp up again and to my great relief the Speaker Relay engaged after a few seconds as it should. I have now re-installed the amp and everything sounds good.

Phew! What a relief that no damage was done. I suspect that the Speaker Protection Relay was doing exactly what it should and also prevented damage to the output transistors as well.

Many thanks @Luxman I should have taken your advice more seriously the first time around.

Cheers.
 
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Hmmm so the old Elna's still have life.. The old stuff 10 years ago wasn't that old. but solder decay is often common. Why we at AK say inspect with magnification.

Now are you going to give us a weeks test?? :D
 
Congratulation for removing this weak spot succesfully.
It's a typical problem of the 410/430 models. Here's an example I found in my L-410 a few months ago...
Screenshot_75.png

Anyway... Have fun with your Lux!

Regards
 
Luxmaп said:
Congratulation for removing this weak spot succesfully.
It's a typical problem of the 410/430 models. Here's an example I found in my L-410 a few months ago...
View attachment 1353264

Anyway... Have fun with your Lux!

Regards
Click to expand...

Whoa! That does not look good. The TO-126 joints in mine had not lost any of their pads, but many of the solder joints were fractured. I suspect it was due to the greater strength of the TO-126 transistor legs, any flex in the circuit board, like when I was re-capping, would put those joints under strain.

Cheers mate, and thanks again!
 
Binkman said:
Hmmm so the old Elna's still have life.. The old stuff 10 years ago wasn't that old. but solder decay is often common. Why we at AK say inspect with magnification.

Now are you going to give us a weeks test?? :D
Click to expand...

Thanks Bink, yep the unit is back in daily use. I have settled on an almost all Nichicon capacitor mix, UHE's for the big power supply caps, and UFG's for virtually everything else. Oh, except for those 4 22uF/100V UKZ's and the big Cornell Dubilier filter caps.
 
So, how is your 430 getting on? I have one I bought off the 'bay several years ago. It's been on a shelf (with it's matching tuner) since I rebuilt my Technics SU-8080 daily driver. I've been thinking of bringing it into duty. It is original condition.
 
ryuuoh said:
So, how is your 430 getting on? I have one I bought off the 'bay several years ago. It's been on a shelf (with it's matching tuner) since I rebuilt my Technics SU-8080 daily driver. I've been thinking of bringing it into duty. It is original condition.
Click to expand...

Hi mate,

The L430 is performing very nicely, thank you. I settled on an all Nichicon capacitor mix, except for the really big filter caps which are Cornell Dubilier's. The amp's performance is very impressive, it has certainly got more bottom end now, and depending on the music source I find myself switching off my sub's as the KEF Q900's are being driven a lot harder and have plenty of bass.

All in all it was a very interesting and satisfying exercise that has turned out really well.

Cheers, and Happy New Year :beerchug:
 
@Trevor White Soooooooooooo.... Hows that 'Roo working out? :D Ak's been having a few more Luxman.. posts and used your thread posted to a chap in pakastan. I booked it. Going to be very useful and educational.
You novices and readers should bookmark it just for the close up pics.
 
Hi Trevor,

The Rubycon Baby Blue elco is not CE-W type. I believe the parts code is TWSS, a General Purpose elco not specifically designed for audio. The CE W designation, I believe is CE for European electricity certification and W refer to temperature rating, which is 85 degree Celcius.

This elco quirks me since there are plenty of them in Luxman C-02 and M-02 I have.

I find your trial with CDE 383LX series to be very interesting as I plan to replace the main filter capacitor in M-02 (Nichicon 15000 uF 70V) but most available audio elco (Nichicon LKG, LNR, LNT) is too long, the only possible fit is 383LX.

Cheers,

Trevor White said:
Hi All,

So I have finally been able to identify the baby blue Rubycon caps. They are "CE-W" series. Only problem is I cannot find any info at all on them. Are they just standard general purpose, low ESR, Audio grade??? Who knows.

I suspect they are just standard caps as Luxman used them everywhere, even in the Power Supply. The only caps that seemed to be specifically 'Audio' were the six Elna's, everything else were Rubycon CEW's

Does anyone have any info on the Rubycon CE-W series?
Click to expand...
 
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