Should I recap? Sansui 5000 sounds dull.

[surfnsound]

I read several threads here that say recap does not really bring an advantage to the untrained ear (mine...). But: I git thus beautiful Sansui 5000 and comparing it to Sansui 800, Pioneer SX-6000, Sansui 771, others - it just never even made on my shelves to have some weeks of playing time. It always sounded tat way and I did recap the big capacitors, but no change in sounds to me... not a lot at least. With "dull" I mean the sound is not as "clean", its "closed", no audible distortions but just dull, its a bit like having a towel over the receiver...I still have the initial F-1040 boards, so I thought to do these first and make the changes on the transistors as well to have some more fire security...

My questions: Should I recap he boards? Will it bring improvement?
If yes, which board to start with?

 

[Watthour]

Perhaps I can be a contrary voice.

According to some measures, my ear is "untrained" as well. I'm an amateur musician among my other maladies. While my ear is probably not tin, it may well be iron. Nonetheless, I can verify that a unit which has failing components can indeed benefit greatly in sound quality by updating, even to my iron ear. It's not just electrolytic caps, but the lower value polypro and film caps as well as semiconductors. Having gone through the similar 3000A for a friend and performing the recommended factory updates, several of the failing germanium semis along with many of the old audio path caps were replaced. The transformation from dull, thumpy mush to at least a "neutral" tone which can be brought up to almost "bright" with the controls was very noticeable. His was a early '70s unit, and improved greatly by trashing some of the 45 year old components.

The main filters and larger caps in the audio circuits can make some difference, but the smaller value caps should also be addressed. The 1029, 1036, and 1040 boards should probably all be scrutinized.

 

[ConradH]

I'm not fan of recapping more recent equipment, but I can give you an almost iron-clad guarantee that at the age of the 5000, it will almost certainly have some "tired" caps, and probably some other issues with small signal transistors, connections and other stuff. By the time you can hear anything wrong, caps and other things might be 10X out of spec, or even more.

 

[avionic]

I read several threads here that say recap does not really bring an advantage to the untrained ear (mine...). But: I git thus beautiful Sansui 5000 and comparing it to Sansui 800, Pioneer SX-6000, Sansui 771, others - it just never even made on my shelves to have some weeks of playing time. It always sounded tat way and I did recap the big capacitors, but no change in sounds to me... not a lot at least. With "dull" I mean the sound is not as "clean", its "closed", no audible distortions but just dull, its a bit like having a towel over the receiver...I still have the initial F-1040 boards, so I thought to do these first and make the changes on the transistors as well to have some more fire security...

My questions: Should I recap he boards? Will it bring improvement?
If yes, which board to start with?

Have you gone through and deoxit'd the switches and controls yet ?

 

[surfnsound]

Yes, I have gone through deoxit. And I did the basic adjustments (current...). With other receivers all that helped a lot (at least it gave the impression it did so..) - Not with the 5000. But yes, it makes sense that the sound changes if the cap values change.

Thank you also for the proposition with the The 1029, 1036, and 1040. I will start with 1040 and report back. This might take some weeks, have to place the ordre at Mouser.