Wow...

I’m surprised I wasn’t quoted in there!!! I’m learning still. I will freely admit that I’m in no way a real tech. I’m a parts replacer, That’s just how i learn. Some people can read a book and understand, some need a video to watch, and some like me need to turn the screws and physically touch things to understand them. I also read and watch videos, but it isn’t until I put my hands on it that things start to click for me.
 
Gotta remember there are always 10+x more readers than posters and certainly many of the inexperienced get vintage bitten but also many posters with oohs and aahs 'cap-happy' jobber posters expressing their joy about their unit don't and give a false easy to do impression.
I know we're bitch'in a bit and that's okay with me, too. I see only a fraction of gear posted here but because I read so many posts it get repetitive symptom wise...but It's very interesting to me. I try to remember on any forum you're gong to read the complete spectrum poster personalities, mentalities and age groups.
I do agree with you guys on many i.e. 'I'm a complete noob where do I begin' threads? It should be obvious to the inquirer.
 
All fully recapped and restored.
1st - SX750 took a long time and with AK's help all went well
2nd - Sony ES670ES - Did not bother replacing the mica sheets on the outputs, as in, i left them uninstalled, and then wondered why fuses were popping on powerup. Seriously.
3rd & 4th - SX450 SX690
5th - Marantz 1060 - Smoking power amp due to installing the wrong transistors in wrong locations - Left a trail of destruction on DBT as was not quick enough with power off.
6th - Onkyo A10 (by the way what an amp!)
7th - Onkyo A7090 (by the way what an amp!)
8th - SA8500 - Buzzing from left channel, drove AK mental with it, was the wire from the LED too close to board causing the buzz. Pumped at least 20 hours into that problem alone, poor merlynski done his best, eternally grateful for his help on that one.
9th - Onkyo TX2500
10th - SX750
11th in progress SX1010
Few others along the way too

To date all units are fully operational and are now in good shape, sold a few on to finance the next experience

I still cannot read a schematic properly, but still, i know a lot more than when i started, heck i even like to think once or twice i helped someone else out on AK.
I am still learning all of the time, my progress is snails pace slow. Dont give up on us is what i am trying to say as without your help and expertise i do not doubt a few of those units would be in the scrap heap by now.
Its the people that make audiokarma what it is so i urge everyone to continue to help, we do all start somewhere.

my humble 2 cents anyway
 
I came to AK to learn how to recap my Scott R75s. I found the forum by searching google for Scott R75s and capacitors. Read the one post here that talked about that (only a question of IDing some odd looking old tantalum caps.) Some great AK'ers took me under their wing and walked me through it step by step. They weren't Scott people. But they spent a lot of time with me and my schematics. Plenty of arguments about approach, but they taught me what I needed to know (often pointing me to pinned threads) and warned me what not to do. People were enormously generous advising me on capacitor choice for various locations.

There were circuit voltages that didn't make sense...I couldn't get one channel to proper bias voltage. After staring at it for a few months, I realized a driver transistor was weak. Replaced that and all is well.

Only bump was slipping with an alligator clip during bias setting and frying an output (see my avatar pic). Bought new outputs and some mini test clips ;-).

I know it's hard to field newbie questions when things have been worked through before. But I looked around for quite some time before asking questions and I still missed some obvious threads. AK is a big place.

I took my time and now my grandfather's stereo is ready for another 40 years. Thanks to very generous people here.

Many of you make this a refuge from the rest of the internet.
 
I don't mind relaying that I'm a tinkerer at heart, not stupid (I think) and have had some success with minor stuff.

However, if I want something done right, I pay the man.

mattsd
Echowars
blhagstrom
Zebulon1
larry derouin

These are just a few I'd trust with my stuff (mattsd and Echowars having rebuilt stuff of mine, and Zeb having rebuilt an SX-1010 I bought from him). Several others here I wouldn't hesitate to recommend, based on threads I've read.

Take it to the pros if you want it done right. Start with something cheap if you want to learn.
 
The proverb 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing'
expresses the idea that a small amount of knowledge can mislead people into thinking that they are more expert than they really are, which can lead to mistakes being made.
 
Blue Shadow said:
I think this is the reason the units all say "No user serviceable parts inside"

Sometimes gear should see a professional. Just cause we know which end of a soldering iron to hold doesn't mean we are qualified for some of the things we do to electronics.

Thanks to all the real techs that help us through the issues.
Click to expand...

OTOH, I took an amp to a professional electronics repair business, paid through the nose, and it still did not sound right. I recapped the preamp section, and now it sounds great. My first recap job, BTW.
 
woofmytweets said:
a friend of mine and experienced repair tech has a serious aversion to the wanton recapping of electronics without a good reason. i'm beginning to think he has a point.
Click to expand...

I understand this point of view, but electrolytic caps have a posted lifespan. After that time has passed, why wait for each one to eventually fail one at a time when replacing all can improve reliability in the long term? I replace the oil in my car before it fails. I have a pickup that gets the oil changed long before the recommended mileage because I only put about 5k miles a year on it. Hoses and belts get replaced before they fail as well. I see recapping in the same manner, not regular maintenance, but a reasonable preventative.
 
El Rubio said:
I understand this point of view, but electrolytic caps have a posted lifespan. After that time has passed, why wait for each one to eventually fail one at a time when replacing all can improve reliability in the long term? I replace the oil in my car before it fails. I have a pickup that gets the oil changed long before the recommended mileage because I only put about 5k miles a year on it. Hoses and belts get replaced before they fail as well. I see recapping in the same manner, not regular maintenance, but a reasonable preventative.
Click to expand...
i tend to agree - but he also works on a whole ton of older gear, vintage tube radios, and the like - certainly there's a happy balance between replacing something that has perhaps half its life left vs. replacing a component that's so old it should have failed already....and then there's also the concern about originality & the desires of the customer. should the device perform 'as new' or 'better' - and better is highly subjective. i'm all about improved sonics, but not all his customers are the same. i have almost no knowledge of the relative performance and lifespan of capacitors, so i tend to defer to the recommendation of the experienced technician.

there's also something to be said for solving a problem first, before a wholesale recapping/reworking, to determine the failure mode, and then deciding what to do about that before proceeding.
 
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