illinoisteve
Super Member
I finally decided to email the guy who's had a Kenwood KR-5150 listed on my area's CL for several weeks and went to see it/test it. As ad said very weak (almost non-existent) left channel, might just need a good cleaning. I know that works sometimes, but my audio horde is getting a bit large to consider buying another boat anchor, ...but from what I've found to read about it--it's a very interesting receiver, with a lot of capabilities I never imagined a receiver might have. Instead of the $25 he'd been asking, I offered a Twenty.
This morning I took off the wood top cover and perforated metal bottom plate and blew out the dust. Then I flushed every control and switch with CRC QD Electronic Cleaner (red can) and worked the budjeezus outa each one. Then, after letting it sit long enough for the last of that no-residue cleaner to dry, I plugged in earphones, plugged the power cord in, and switched it to FM. I'm thinking: this is when I find out it really needs a recap or transistors replaced or something else big that I will probably put off thinking about trying to do. I switched it ON. And the weak channel is BACK and full strength! Wooooo-Hooooooooooooooooooo!
Hooked a little cheapy FM dipole up to the back--WOW the tuner is really strong, picking up stations 35-55 miles away as well as the one 10 miles away. Hooked a little CD player up to AUX 1, and it sounds great. Gonna try my turntable with each of the PHONO inputs in a while. After running it through a few more paces, I'll squirt just a tad of Deoxit D5 in the controls as preventive medicine. I expect to swap it with the Kenwood KR-750 I've been using in my main system later today. The 750 is about 10 years younger, not quite as "vintage," has higher button to knob ratio than I expect for vintage, though still a very nice machine.
This KR-5150 does need a couple of display light bulbs replaced. I believe I read some old AK posts a few days ago about replacing them. "Watch out for the tuner twine" is one of the main cautions.
This morning I took off the wood top cover and perforated metal bottom plate and blew out the dust. Then I flushed every control and switch with CRC QD Electronic Cleaner (red can) and worked the budjeezus outa each one. Then, after letting it sit long enough for the last of that no-residue cleaner to dry, I plugged in earphones, plugged the power cord in, and switched it to FM. I'm thinking: this is when I find out it really needs a recap or transistors replaced or something else big that I will probably put off thinking about trying to do. I switched it ON. And the weak channel is BACK and full strength! Wooooo-Hooooooooooooooooooo!
Hooked a little cheapy FM dipole up to the back--WOW the tuner is really strong, picking up stations 35-55 miles away as well as the one 10 miles away. Hooked a little CD player up to AUX 1, and it sounds great. Gonna try my turntable with each of the PHONO inputs in a while. After running it through a few more paces, I'll squirt just a tad of Deoxit D5 in the controls as preventive medicine. I expect to swap it with the Kenwood KR-750 I've been using in my main system later today. The 750 is about 10 years younger, not quite as "vintage," has higher button to knob ratio than I expect for vintage, though still a very nice machine.
This KR-5150 does need a couple of display light bulbs replaced. I believe I read some old AK posts a few days ago about replacing them. "Watch out for the tuner twine" is one of the main cautions.