MBuras
Restoration is an Addiction
So normally I work on Marantz, Pioneer & Sansui gear but this little integrated has good looks and came at a good price so what the heck. There's not a lot of information out there on this amp so I thought I would contribute what I can by documenting the boards as I work through it.
First things first, I used a DBT to make sure there were no obvious shorts as the playing condition was unknown. That went fine so on went the test speakers with an AUX source. And it plays! Really nicely in fact. No pops, crackles or other signs of bad transistors. Controls are all working well and both channels are even. Testing went so well I put it on my main rig for a listening session. It sounds every bit as good as a Marantz 2230/1060 or even the Pioneer x2x series from the same era. Nice warm sound. The lows were a little muddy and the highs a little crunchy which I attributed to age of components. The soundstage is very nice! Now it's on to a recap and see if we can't bring back some of the original sound.
Here's a few pics of the outside. A real gem if you ask me. Great looks and free of any major defects.
4 screws hold the top cover on. Here's a peek inside.
Sony came up with an interesting way to pack a lot into a small space with the phono/pre/power floating on the upper boards and the main amp/heatsink down below. Although that also resulted in a lot of point to point wiring for all the sources. Yikes!
For those without smell-o-vision let me explain the disgusting level of dirt & smell inside this chassis. It seems like a chain smoking squirrel lived inside this case for about 30 years and then curled up in the corner and died. Fuzz, dust, nicotine, sticky residue is pretty much everywhere. I'm thinking about pulling everything out and giving the chassis a full wash down. We'll see.
It has all the original output transistors which is great, although the to-220 case transistors are easily replaced with modern components.
Removing the faceplate is a pretty straight forward operation. Pull the few lever knobs, the volume slider knob and the 2-piece tone control knobs (which are machined metal!). Then there are 3 screws on the bottom front and 3 screws on the inside top of the face. It pretty much falls off after that.
Pretty simple. Then just remove a whole bunch of screws holding all the controls in place and remember where they all go. Actually, just the headphone and aux2 jacks have different screws. The rest are all the same.
That's it for the moment. I'm still working my way through documenting the boards and will post more later.
-Mike
First things first, I used a DBT to make sure there were no obvious shorts as the playing condition was unknown. That went fine so on went the test speakers with an AUX source. And it plays! Really nicely in fact. No pops, crackles or other signs of bad transistors. Controls are all working well and both channels are even. Testing went so well I put it on my main rig for a listening session. It sounds every bit as good as a Marantz 2230/1060 or even the Pioneer x2x series from the same era. Nice warm sound. The lows were a little muddy and the highs a little crunchy which I attributed to age of components. The soundstage is very nice! Now it's on to a recap and see if we can't bring back some of the original sound.
Here's a few pics of the outside. A real gem if you ask me. Great looks and free of any major defects.
4 screws hold the top cover on. Here's a peek inside.
Sony came up with an interesting way to pack a lot into a small space with the phono/pre/power floating on the upper boards and the main amp/heatsink down below. Although that also resulted in a lot of point to point wiring for all the sources. Yikes!
For those without smell-o-vision let me explain the disgusting level of dirt & smell inside this chassis. It seems like a chain smoking squirrel lived inside this case for about 30 years and then curled up in the corner and died. Fuzz, dust, nicotine, sticky residue is pretty much everywhere. I'm thinking about pulling everything out and giving the chassis a full wash down. We'll see.
It has all the original output transistors which is great, although the to-220 case transistors are easily replaced with modern components.
Removing the faceplate is a pretty straight forward operation. Pull the few lever knobs, the volume slider knob and the 2-piece tone control knobs (which are machined metal!). Then there are 3 screws on the bottom front and 3 screws on the inside top of the face. It pretty much falls off after that.
Pretty simple. Then just remove a whole bunch of screws holding all the controls in place and remember where they all go. Actually, just the headphone and aux2 jacks have different screws. The rest are all the same.
That's it for the moment. I'm still working my way through documenting the boards and will post more later.
-Mike
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