merrylander said:
Rob is the closest...into 8 ohms, the 2600 clips at 348WPC (0.5% THD+N), or about the same wattage as a Pioneer Spec 2. Here's a healthy cookie for Rob.
David, I got your PM, but I'll speak about the replacement of the large-can power supply caps here:
/begin rant
One of the things that
really bugs me is not being able to replace the two power supply caps. As I mentioned before, each cap is really two caps in one...each 63mm x 116mm housing contains two 7200µf 105V caps (which means the 300WPC Marantz 2600 contains even less storage than the 160WPC Kenwood KR-9600, which has four 10,000µf caps). Nowadays, replacement caps are available in 100V ratings, and then jump to either 160V, or 200V (usually 200V when you're talking large-can electrolytics). Any 160V or 200V electrolytic large enough to act as a power supply cap for this receiver will be
HUGE, and has zero chance to fit in the given space. But...the actual power supply voltage is a tad under 100V, so a 100V cap could likely be used, but will offer no real 'safety-zone' should the 120V mains voltage be a little on the high side. Digikey has a Panasonic 35mm x 80mm 10,000µf 100V snap-in style cap that would likely do the job,
if you could find a way to mount them, as you would need four of them to replace the stock two caps. The holes for the stock 63mm caps is not sufficient for four 35mm caps...and if that isn't enough of a PITA, you can't even
get to the electrical connections on the stock caps. Why?
Marantz mounts the transformer, bridge rectifiers, and power supply caps on a large steel chassis sub-assembly piece, and bolts this to the bottom of the main chassis plate before wiring the whole thing up. The only access to the electrical side of the caps is through some small 'peek' holes in the bottom of the main chassis plate. There's enough room there to poke some probes in to measure the voltage on the caps, and that's it. To change those caps (assuming you could call up Marantz and order a pair of new ones, which you can't) would mean disconnecting (desoldering) the primary side of the transformer, disconnecting the power supply wires from the amp section and finding a way to snake them back through the wiring maze to disentangle them from the rest of the unit, and desoldering another 1/2 dozen wires that connect to the AC side of the rectifiers to provide power for God knows what (I have not elected to trace these wires down to see what they are doing, as I saw no reason to take this thought experiment any further). Only when all these wires are freed up can you unbolt the transformer/cap sub-assembly and lift it out of the receiver.
Once that is done, you have to find a way to fit four 35mm caps and their associated mounting clamps into a space barely big enough to accommodate the two stock 63mm caps. The Digikey 10,000µf 100V 35mm x 80mm caps are shorter, so I suppose it is possible to fabricate yet another sub-assembly to properly mount four 35mm brackets onto since you have a little vertical space to play with,
provided that horizontal space could be found to do so (and there's no guarantee of that), and the stock mounting plate for the 63mm stock caps would have to be opened up...by cutting a big hole with a jigsaw in this sub-assembly to accommodate the new cap bracket.
Point here is that changing them out is a stupidly difficult job, made much worse by the choice of caps by Marantz and the method of construction of the receiver in general. I like the way the receiver sounds, but a big :thumbsdn: to the way Marantz put this whole package together...not just because of these two caps. I've got dozens of serious criticisms about the way this is designed and built, and don't really feel like expounding upon them here and now.
There was a time not all that long ago when, if you had asked me, what would be the ONE vintage receiver I'd like to own if money were no object, and I'd have said 'the Marantz 2600'. Working on this one has cured me of that. It is a beautiful piece, to be sure...probably
THE prettiest receiver ever made, and sounds wonderful as well, but for the technician that beauty ends once the top cover comes off and you find yourself staring at the clusterfuck on the inside. 10lbs of chit in a 5lb bag, and 6lbs of it is inaccessible. If you want/need a vintage 300WPC receiver, go look at the Pioneer SX-1980, or save your lunch money for a Sansui G-33000 (did I really just recommend that someone buy a Sansui???
)
/end rant
really got it going on........:thmbsp:
reaction! 
If you haven't been shocked by the Scopes high voltage...