Tuner restoration advice

[TheAnalogman]

I have a Sansui TU-919, it's mint cosmetically and works perfectly IMO, but it's 28 years old and I was thinking about having it looked at and "restored". What things are usually done to such a tuner, besides capacitor replacement? I stuck my toe in the water and have seen some quotes for the work, but I don't really know what needs/should to be done and what doesn't.

Thanks.

 

[westend]

The Tuner info center
has a very favorable reviewof the TU-919. Their modifications included bypassing the Quartz lock and realigning the filters to a 2+2 instead of the stock 3+1.
If you have a bit of change to burn, replacing capacitors in the signal path with Blackgates should probably insure a better performance. I don't know how the Power Supply is configured but some of the older tuners were a bit lacking in that department. Replacing the opamps with the newer, faster opamps might show rewards.
Replacement of filters or adding filters would be on the top of my list. Also, an alignment would be mandatory for a tuner of this pedigree. There are a couple of knowledgable techs that advertize, here, and everything I've heard about them has been positive. Good luck with the TU-919.

 

[Whitehall]

Hexfred replacements for the silicon rectifier diodes is often mentioned as a useful upgrade. It results in smoother waveforms to the power caps with less high frequency "overshoot."

 

[Yamaha B-2]

All the above make it better. I also have the balun removed and a better power cord installed. If you decided to replace opamps (does the TU-919 have them?) have sockets installed (I did on my T-2). Then you can play by easily swapping them out in the future. AK members Punker X and dr*audio have done excellent work on my tuners. There are other tech's on AK who do tuner work and also have fine reputations, as well (Terry DeWick, for instance). Insure that the person doing the work has the low noise sig-gen and distortion analyzers needed to do the work properly.

 

[ModernClassic]

I have a Sansui TU-919, it's mint cosmetically and works perfectly IMO, but it's 28 years old and I was thinking about having it looked at and "restored". What things are usually done to such a tuner, besides capacitor replacement? I stuck my toe in the water and have seen some quotes for the work, but I don't really know what needs/should to be done and what doesn't.

Thanks.

I have just finished repairing a 919. The 919 in stock form is already a very nice sounding tuner. All you need is a tune up if it is working 100%, without the tuned station drifting out of lock! Use the fixed output port to connect to your amp.
I normally do not suggest playing with filters unless the reception is very poor. It is not the quietest tuner around but it is good sounding.
Did I hear someone saying......do not mend it if it is not broken?..........

 

[stereofisher]

If in good shape and sounding well, you might spring for an alignment.. two 2 cents

 

[joemango]

Hexfred replacements for the silicon rectifier diodes is often mentioned as a useful upgrade. It results in smoother waveforms to the power caps with less high frequency "overshoot."

Same result and way cheaper is to add snubber capacitors(10-100nF) across each existing standard silicon diode. Some gears already have this and some don't so check yours first. Changing to a soft recovery diode might not improve things if the snubber is already there to begin with and all you get is the placebo effect.

There was an article about adding just one capacitor across the secondary to dampen the ringing but this method require specific capacitor value for each application.

Regards,

Joe