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Pioneer Spec-2 Rebuild

crooner said:
Good to hear you got yours back and it's working great. Sweeeet!!

I'm thinking about getting one. No preamp though. I would drive it off the SX-1980.
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Croon,

I drove mine with my 1010 while the volume control was out of my Spec-1. It worked out well. All this hype is making it worse on me Glenn, please mark me in there some where, at least so I know the process is started. Mine sounded pretty good, just not quite as good as I remembered back in '78.

Ron
 
Retro,
Great to hear it is living & breathing well!! But some before & after pics is warranted about now, even tho most of the work was on the inside. Lets see some outside shots! Can never see to much of a SPEC-2.
And YES! They ROOOOCCKK!!! the house baby! After last years rebuild my SPEC-2 sounds heavenly!!!

:worthless
 
madpioneer said:
Retro,
Great to hear it is living & breathing well!! But some before & after pics is warranted about now, even tho most of the work was on the inside. Lets see some outside shots! Can never see to much of a SPEC-2.
And YES! They ROOOOCCKK!!! the house baby! After last years rebuild my SPEC-2 sounds heavenly!!!
Click to expand...

Hey Mark,
I wish I would have taken some "before" pictures, because it was pretty pathetic looking. As EW said, "this is the worst amp, that was still working, that I have ever re-built." That has to tell you something about the condition prior to sending it to EW's for repair. Cosmetically, he had the heat-sinks re-anodized, cleaned and polished everything. The lower-left-corner of the face-plate was bent and dinged a little and EW had a machinist friend ever-so-carefully straighten that out. One of the power indicator needles would spazz out once-in-awhile and that was corrected with all of the electronic repairs that were done. He put new gold-plated speaker plugs in the back. This amp looks damn-near new now. As far as what was done electronically, I think I'll have EW do the commentary on that, but suffice to say, it was extensive! Everytime he tried to move a wire out of the way to do some work, they were brittle enough to break, and then needed to be replaced. I've got two other SPEC 2's and I never knew they could sound so wonderful.

EW has the second SPEC 2 that I am having him re-build right now. I also handed off two SPEC 1's that he will be going over as well. This is an early Christmas present to myself that I have been wanting to get done for a loooong time. When I have the rest of the SPEC equipment back from EW, I will take plenty of pictures and share his work with everybody. In the meantime, I'm going to pretty much turn this thread back over to EW and he can fill you in on some of the details as he goes through the other SPEC 2 and the SPEC 1s.

I also have to pop the woofers out of my AR-9's (planning on it this weekend) and ship those off for a re-build as well. When everything's all put back together (speakers and SPEC system) I will take more pictures than you guys will be able to handle! :naughty:


Retro
 
madpioneer said:
EW one question, why do the heatsinks have to be anodized? What purpose does the anodize serve there, oxidation control? Curoius. :yes: THANX!
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Actually, while looks plays a role, the major reason that heatsinks are black is something known as 'black-body radiation'. You can look it up in your first-year classical physics text. Essentially, it simply states that the most efficient radiator of heat is a 'black-body'. And that is most closely approximated in our real world by something that is black. You can google same for a few definitions and explanations.

And, need to repost those pic's. :yes:
 
Got the second of two SPEC 2's (I'll be bi-amping some AR-9's when everything is ready to go) back from Echo Wars last week and have had time to set it up and take her for a test drive. I still don't have my AR-9's ready for action yet, so I hooked the SPEC 2/SPEC 1 combo up to a pair of Ohm 4 speakers that I bought recently from another AK member. All I have to say is WOW!!! I set everything up in the middle of the family room Thanksgiving Day and kept it set up until Saturday morning. I really wasn't going to leave it set up that long, but I just couldn't stop listening to the music! Damn, it was awesome. EW has a couple of my SPEC 1's right now, and I'll be sending him a third when those are done. Just trying to keep Glenn busy! :D Glenn said he's got all the Black Gate parts on order for the SPEC 1's and when finished, should sound very sweet. I'll let EW fill in what he did to the second SPEC 2, but let's just say it was much easier than the first one I sent him. Also, maybe when EW starts rebuilding the SPEC 1's, maybe he can do a step-through of his work here on those as well.



Retro
 
Retro Stereo said:
Not mentioning any names, but one fella who got a good listen to it, is talking about selling his Sansui G-22000 and going seperates all the way. Anchoring his new system would be........, if you guessed a Pioneer SPEC 2, you'd be right.

That Amp just kicks a$$$$$$.......


Retro
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Shhhhhhh..... that was supposed to be a our little secret ;)

Thinking maybe two systems G-22000 and one Spec 1 & 2 :D
 
Way cool Greg !!!
Be sure to post a few pices when ya get her all up and singing again.
Thanks for "training" Glen (like he needs training... :ntwrthy: ) on the SPEC gear for us future customers !!! :thmbsp:
 
Update:

I just got the first of three SPEC 1's back form EW today. The second one is done as well, but I'm using the same shipping box to send him the third one, and then he will use the same box to send me the second one back. Confused, yeah me too! :scratch2:

I'm going to let this first SPEC 1 warm up to room temperature for a day before I hook it up to one of the rebuilt SPEC 2's (cold here in Minny this time of year). I'll give everyone a review before the weekend is over. In the meantime, maybe EchoWars can give everyone a rundown on exactly what he's doing to these SPEC 1's. Pretty please Glenn????



Retro
 
Retro Stereo said:
In the meantime, maybe EchoWars can give everyone a rundown on exactly what he's doing to these SPEC 1's. Pretty please Glenn????

Retro
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Nothing to compare with what was done to the Spec-2's. The power supply was beefed-up a little, with the main filter caps increased from 1000µf to 1800µf, and a few of the regulator caps changed from 470µf to 1000µf, but other than that, was just a matter of replacing a buttload of capacitors. Non-signal path caps were replaced with Panasonic FC's, and signal path caps replaced with Blackgate 'N' or 'NX' non-polar caps.

Doesn't sound too involved, but it does take bloody forever. The Spec-1 is a busy little preamp.
 
I have one that is near the top of my project list, including a recap. Lots of quality parts in there. I anticipate a few hours to get it done.

Rich P
 
EchoWars said:
Doesn't sound too involved, but it does take bloody forever. The Spec-1 is a busy little preamp.
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Yes it is. Several things I like about it that alot of other preamps don't do. First, it was built for bi-amping.
And secondly you can run speaker wires from the amp to the preamp and then control it and run an addition pair (A/B) from the preamp.
Those are a couple of very cool features as far as I'm concerned.

Glenn, what did you think of the SPEC 1's phono section? I know I've always been impressed with it, but I never hear it being highly regarded with some of the other TOTL preamp (like Kenwood preamps) phono sections.


Retro
 
I saw nothing terribly wrong about it. Low gain, like most MM stages from the era...it would be happiest with a cart that can output 4 to 6mV, but the best MM carts output more like 2mV.

The Spec-1 preamp also uses a bipolar input stage for the phono, and I like FET input stages myself, but the Spec does pretty good regarding noise. It's phono amp is certainly one of the better designed.
 
after witnessing Retro's EW-rebuilt SPEC's :thmbsp: I just swapped out my SPEC-2, her left meter pointer fluctuates about 0.1 to 1.0 on the scale, on shutdown. :tears:
 
Perhaps they all do...I can't remember, and in general once power is removed all bets are off anyway as long as nothing nasty is being sent to the speakers.

Wish you'd have introduced yourself...missed ya.
 
hey EW, no nastiness from the speakers, it just freaks me out!

you were sleepin when I went lookin...
 
Thought I would revive this thread as EchoWars now has my third SPEC 2 in for a rebuild. This time he is going to attempt to add a built-in automatic DC offset servo. Glenn can certainly explain it better than I can and I'll let him do it as it happens.

PS: Glenn, do you think you can take plenty of nudies of this one, it's really the cleanest one I have.



Retro
 
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Retro or Echo:
I have followed this thread from the start thinking it may be of use to me at some time. Some time is now. Did you find that the rebuild of the Spec-2's changed much due to the condition of the units? Especially the difference between the 2 good units. I see you have been shipping in the original box, is that working out or are you using extra packaging? If either of you wish to discuss the costs involved, please PM me. Thanks Den
 
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