Mc2205 Lights- Recommendation and LED News

JosephH

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
The 2205 is going in for service for a lazy meter and I think it is time for a new blue film, a relamp and to have the sparkling new face (from AC) installed by AC. SO the question becomes which lamps. I contacted AKer DWOJO who is famous for his long life lamps. The last person who ordered fro him for the 2205 ordered the following:
10 - long life 6.3v/250ma bayonet base lamps, @ $1.50
2 - #7382 bi-pin lamps @ $1.50
2 - #7381 bi-pin lamps @ $1.50
4 – 6.3v/200ma/4.12mm w/12” black wire leads @ $3

Here is the exciting news: Dave now has the following plug and play LEDs:
6.3v/200ma/4mm (plug n play), cool white and warm white, $2.50 each
6.3v bayonet base lamps in LED's, cool white, warm white, and light blue, $2 each

Soooo, does anyone have experience with the temperature and color of LEDs in the MC2205 (or similar) amplifiers? Also which bulbs go where? IIRC the bi-pin are for the power and PG indicator lights. Please verify. The blue LEDs intrigue me, but will it be overkill with new gels?
 
I have replaced the lights with LEDs myself on one MX130 and two MC7270s.
Since LEDs run much cooler than incandescent bulbs, heat should not be a problem.
The only problem on vintage McIntosh units is the heat from the old bulbs over 30 years (or more) makes the plastic sockets (where the lights plug in) brittle. It is easy to break a socket if you are not VERY careful. The other problem on the MC7270s (as well as some other McIntosh units) is that some indicator lights are soldered to the circuit board. At age 73 my hands are not as steady with a soldering iron or soldering pencil as at age 30. So, that was a bit of a problem.
I had Audio Classics replace the lights on an MC2255 they worked on for me. They did a top drawer job.
If you are sending your unit to Audio Classics, I would just ask them to install the best LEDs they have. AC and Terry DeWick seem to do more McIntosh repair than anyone (except for the McIntosh Labs repair facility). Terry certainly knows what he is doing, but as a small operation he has quite a backlog, as does McIntosh Labs.
Audio Classics does top drawer work, but without the backlog of the other two. I would just ask them to install the best LEDs they have. It is hard to go wrong with AC.
Thanks,
Jim
 
I took the conservative path and ordered the long life incandescent bulbs today. I will have AC replace them when they do the repair and face plate swap.
 
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