Poll: Do you like when vintage receivers have LED lamps swapped in?

[restorer-john]

The original question is flawed.

Do you like LED lights or the original style lights on vintage receivers?

Clearly, the poll results will be mostly 'yes'

 

[satellite]

I voted NO. When browsing around on Craigslist or other places looking for a purchase, I would much rather see lamps out than glaring "LED upgrade!" To me, this is just an indication that some kid has been in there fiddling with shit looking for a quick sale. In my experience, this is much worse than an original, untouched unit--working or not.

However, if properly implemented, I don't mind LED's at all. There are definitely some heat and longevity advantages, and some look ok. Bodyblue's example above is a good one.

 

[reydelaplaya]

This thread is useless without side-by-side pics to compare.
I wish I had some...

I've edited in the photos now that I'm back at the computer. There are some before and after shots taken when I did the work sometime last year or before.

I used LEDs to ‘upgrade’ the lights in my Yamaha CR-1020 because it had a few out anyway. The light was good, significantly bright, and even the warm white color that matched original incandescent bulbs. But, even though they were ‘wide dispersion LEDs, they created sharp shadows that were distracting and didn’t present well no matter how I aimed them.

View attachment 1205210
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Had plenty of LEDs, thought maybe I'd see how lighting that AM/FM dial would look.


View attachment 1205209
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Ended up pulling them and going back to stock bulbs.
Stock incandescent bulbs back in. Kinda sorry looking, but that's how Yamaha intended the lights to look so...

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EDIT: ADDED PHOTOS

 

[superdog]

If done right.For the most part I don't see them done right.Blues that look purple lighting on vintage Marantz??? I like the aquamarine.

 

[bobins08]

People say “only if it preserves the look” and from what I see LEDs look brighter. Marantz looks to have a bit of purple hue instead of pure blue, at least in some of the photos I see.

If reliability and less heat is a priority then yes, go LEDs.

 

[OutlawSun]

Good point. If I replaced a bulb and it looked way out of sync with the rest of the unit, I would probably go LED on the whole thing.

Yeah if you're going to go through the trouble of opening it for one or two up you might as well just replace the whole lot and probably not have to do it again especially in terms of something easily changed like fuse bulbs.

 

[sKiZo]

The original question is flawed.

Do you like LED lights or the original style lights on vintage receivers?

Clearly, the poll results will be mostly 'yes'

I tried liking that twice ... <G>

Maybe start another poll ...

Did you like the original LED poll better or would you prefer this one?

There are definitely some heat and longevity advantages

Another point in favor of LEDs ... those "classic" light boxes will discolor a LOT and can get extremely brittle as the years pile up. Be EXTREMELY careful when working with them, as those can be a whole lot harder to find than the bulbs.

 

[chef free]

I HATE blue LEDs...

 

[sx-70]

I much prefer the type of light produced by incandescent bulbs.

I kept LEDs in my 2285b because of the lower heat produced compared to incandescent bulbs - the plastic lamp housing was already pretty brittle. If there was a metal lamp housing replacement I'd go back to original bulbs.

 

[Bodyblue]

It's only original once... like cars

Hardly the same since there are a lot more items that wear on a car. Would you really put 7.50x14 bias ply tires on your classic Mustang if you were going to drive it on the modern road everyday? Some replacement items are simply so much better than it is a no brainer to replace them with modern models......LEDs are one of those things. My 73 Mustang is a far better and safer car with it's 225/60 tires than the E78s that came on it.....and that goes for shocks, break pads fluids and on and on.

 

[Steven Tate]

It took me a while to jump on board with the LED's. All of my units are Marantz and, having bought several 22xx receivers new in the 70's, nostalgia kept me from loving the LED's. However, when refurbishing a couple of units, I tried LED's and just saw that I really loved the brighter, bluer color that cool white LED's brought to the units. I finally had to reluctantly decide that I indeed like the new look better than the old look.

 

[mkane]

Don't even like them in tailights

 

[restorer-john]

The simple fact of the matter is back in the very early 1970s we had no LEDs at all. By the mid 1970s, we had red, then green and orange/yellow. They were pathetic little things back then and had very little luminous efficacy. At most, they were used for dial pointer 'dots' or novel 'indicators'.

Then the 'holy grail' of colours -blue, was created in the mid 1990s by some cool Japanese dudes* and they ultimately won a Nobel Prize for doing so.

They changed the entire world as now we can have any colour we want in ultra high efficiency, long life lighting.

If manufacturers in the 1970s had white, blue or whatever colour LEDs, they would have used them without a doubt. There is nothing about incandescent illumination on HiFi gear that is good.

* a link to the cool Japanese dudes

https://www.ledinside.com/news/2014/10/the_story_behind_shuji_nakamuras_invention_of_blue_leds

 

[Sharpstik]

Resistance is futile

 

[Lavane]

Cool light LED's are ok. I hate the glare of most I've seen. Some just look better with them. Others no.

 

[sKiZo]

Don't even like them in tailights

I especially hate them in tail lights. Gaudy lil buggers they are. If you've ever been following a Caddie with the full width ass array, you'll catch my drift as you go veering off on the shoulder, blinded by the light, when they hit the brakes.

Especially fun up here in snow country are the "first gen" lights used when LEDs first became a thing. No heat generation at all, so the lights would disappear whenever it snowed. Headlights would fog and stay that way. DOT finally revised the standard to require that they generate a minimum amount of BTUs to keep the lenses clear. So, keep in mind that the newer arrays that supposedly save watts are probably using as much (and maybe more) as the old incandescents.

 

[bluestime]

Did you like the original LED poll better or would you prefer this one?

Well yes, I think so.

 

[jdurbin1]

If the equipment was designed to use LED's originally, I would have zero problem with it and I am sure the quality of the installation and the resulting illumination would be consistently excellent. But, that isn't the case and unfortunately some of the people that retrofit them willy-nilly do a shit job of it and leave the equipment in a condition where it can't be made original again in the process.

As to the automotive analogy, it is in fact very close to the same thing. People that do factory-original restorations do in fact put bias ply tires on classic cars that match what the factory did and some of those are also driven. Driving a classic car with modern tires is not the same experience (could be better or worse, but it isn't the same) and neither is a classic receiver with LED's - though calling lamps "wear items" is a stretch - may as well include the capacitors in that categorization while you're at it, metal finishes etc. etc.

Just my position, not trying to shove it down anyone's throat. You guys can put LED's in whatever you want, as long as it isn't mine and I don't have to clean up any of it later. Hot-rodders and modders are a part of life, I just don't let them work on my stuff, with a few carefully studied exceptions: putting Jag 2" SU's on my Triumph is a period-correct upgrade for improving the performance of the crappy 1.75" US carbs and it will happen

John

 

[hemiram]

I generally like LEDs better, as long as they aren't super bright. One of my toys has green LEDs that are a little over the top, and one of the projects is to dim them down about 2 notches, then they will look almost identical to what the original look was.

 

[mkane]

That would be SU carbs