Well, Folks, I decided it was time. I installed the precautionary components to ensure that if something blew up, it wouldn't take out the whole damn thing. You would have laughed at watching me sit there - in fear - second guessing my decision driven by excitement to hear this baby sing. Finally after about 3 minutes I just turned the volume knob on... just to minimum, just to let it warm up, just to listen for loud bangs in the first few seconds, indicating there is a serious problem. BUT !!!...
Oh man ! This thing sounds absolutely amazing ! The clarity ! The punchy bass ! And it's deep ! The crystal clear highs. And it fills out my AR 2Ax speakers very nicely. I've never seen the wind from those woofers move the cloth speaker grille ! And this thing is DEAD QUIET ! I'm just listening to my mobile phone's 1,000 songs so I expect even better sounds when I connect some high(er)-end audiophile gear. I don't think I'm going to get any sleep tonight ! I'm listening to songs I've always hated listening to, but now they sound stunning - I want to see what I've been missing. Too bad there's no headphone jack. I know I could add one. I might just reach out to you all for that (I think I saw a schematic or a picture of one during my KX-200 research this week).
Anyway, I'm very happy with my KX-200 and am excited to complete the restoration. Stay tuned for more of my journey. I'm psyched to see what sound improvements the EFB can do !
PS - I have encountered several problems just after 1 day. The face plate is bent (but not so badly that it affects anything), several screws are missing that hold it all together, whoever cleaned or repaired inside did a lousy job, a lot of the writing on the metal is worn away, the bias meter doesn't seem to work, etc. But that's part of the fun, right? Making this beauty whole again !