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Preamp stripping

I sure will, love it here.
I always love music, played guitar and drum in a band in 1969-72, now retired and start looking for a nice sound system (piece by piece), still have too much to learn and envy those that can talk tech to component level with ease. Problem is I'm embarrassed for having questions but do not have any knowledge to contribute on helping others.
 
Lee Nguyen said:
Problem is I'm embarrassed for having questions but do not have any knowledge to contribute on helping others.
Click to expand...
No need to be embarrassed at all! You'll slowly learn along the way and will soon be able to answer questions from others just starting their audio journey.
 
Lee Nguyen said:
Problem is I'm embarrassed for having questions but do not have any knowledge to contribute on helping others.
Click to expand...
We all started somewhere. And many of us got started pre-internet, when we had to take the (frequently bad) advice of stereo salesmen (not to be sexist, but they were invariably fast-talking men) or try to guess from reading magazines or manufacturer's literature.
 
If there is something you don't know, you can be sure there are others who don't know it too. As soon as you learn something, there will be someone coming in the door behind you that you are now able to help. :thumbsup:

By the way, Houston had a lot of small audio manufacturers back in the 70s. It is a good place to find vintage audio.
 
You would be surprised, yes, many vintage gear, but the bad is the heat and humidity killed them quickly and not many shop down here to fix them. If you can do restoration work, you can get a U-haul and come down here for a week and you could have enough work to next year (lol)
 
Lee, if you are indeed having voltage spikes , then that needs to be addressed. You may be getting 121 VAC at the outlet for now, but you still can have fluctuations of voltage high and low voltage which will ruin electronics. If you are comfortable and have experience working with electricity, the first thing you’d want to do is turn the circuit off and open up the receptacle making sure all of the connections are good and tight. Many times the receptacles are back stabbed wired and over time they can work themselves loose especially under a load where it can arc, generate heat and you’ll loose the connection. You might as well just replace the receptacle since you have it apart. If all looks good there, then it could be an outlet or a
switch that’s on the same circuit that could have loose terminal connections too.

The other issue could be in the panel, or the meter socket, or a transformer on the power companies side. For those issues I would consult an electrician. I wouldn’t recommend poking around in the above mentioned, because if you don’t know what you are doing you can be seriously injured or killed. Ive been an a Electrican for 20 years, I’ve seen 1st hand when homeowner play electrician. Good luck
 
Hmm, I wonder what else is on that circuit. Would a low voltage condition cause a preamp to shut down?

Here's an experiment. Put a voltmeter on the outlet and just let the system play. If it shuts down, run over and look at the voltage at that moment.
 
Here’s the the thing. If he’s having voltage spikes, it wouldn’t be localized to that one circuit, a phase yes but not that one particular circuit. Other things in the house would be affected too. There could also be an issue of voltage drops, which can do just as much damage to electronics as spikes can. I’ve seen plenty of instances where a bad neutral coming from the pole will reek havoc with the electrical system. I’ve measurEd from one leg to the neutral at the meter socket and watched my meter for 20 minutes and suddenly it drops from 120 VAC all the way down to 60 VAC and then back up to 120 VAC. Electrical systems need balance, and when there isn’t....Well that’s when the Gremlins come out to play. Lol!!!
 
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