Yamaha B2 - the "why" and the "how" of a comprehensive rebuild

Moving the VU meter lighting discussion here.
As discussed elsewhere, I am happy with improving the lighting for the VU meters using strip LEDs. My initial try was with the C-1 VU meters, where I used 5v LED option for various reasons not relevant here.
For the B-2 and UC-1 the original incandescent VU meter light supply is about 11.4VDC so technically a 12v rated LED strip with a current limiting resistor would be more or less a drop in.
Here is what I found straight from Amazon:
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The strip is 5mm wide vs the 2.7mm wide strip I used for the C1.

Here is both of them side by side

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Note: The 12V rates strip above powered at 11.4Vdc as available with the B-2 PSU.

The 3000k temp seems to be a good fit as seen with the C1 VU Meters here:
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And here:

More to come with a B2 or UC1 mod coming soon.
 
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Hi, everyone! After getting my hands on a Sony TA N7b amplifier, I dove into the world of V-FETs. And now I have this wonderful restored Yamaha B-2 in my system. After three days of listening, I’m absolutely thrilled and want to thank our friend US7IGN here, who showed me this article and carried out all the restoration work with great professionalism. Of course, I also want to thank Mr. rottalpha , who developed this project and shared it with us. It was a long and difficult project with complicated logistics for shipping the necessary parts, but friends from all over the world helped out with that. I can confidently say that this Yamaha B-2 outperforms my own restored US7IGN Sony TA N7b and Sony TA 8650. Everything written here about the sound of this amplifier is absolutely true. Even a simple source like an FM tuner paired with Sony SS G7 speakers produced a whole new level of sound quality! During the restoration process, it turned out that rust had formed under one of the transformers, which I managed to fix by galvanizing it, as other users have shown here. In the future, I plan to upgrade the backlighting with an LED strip. I’m really happy that the transistors in my black Yamaha B-2 turned out to be intact. And I hope we have another project ahead of us to save this amplifier! For anyone interested, here’s a link to the article about the restoration: Yamaha B-2 restoration




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Virtus said:
Hi, everyone! After getting my hands on a Sony TA N7b amplifier, I dove into the world of V-FETs. And now I have this wonderful restored Yamaha B-2 in my system. After three days of listening, I’m absolutely thrilled and want to thank our friend US7IGN here, who showed me this article and carried out all the restoration work with great professionalism. Of course, I also want to thank Mr. rottalpha , who developed this project and shared it with us. It was a long and difficult project with complicated logistics for shipping the necessary parts, but friends from all over the world helped out with that. I can confidently say that this Yamaha B-2 outperforms my own restored US7IGN Sony TA N7b and Sony TA 8650. Everything written here about the sound of this amplifier is absolutely true. Even a simple source like an FM tuner paired with Sony SS G7 speakers produced a whole new level of sound quality! During the restoration process, it turned out that rust had formed under one of the transformers, which I managed to fix by galvanizing it, as other users have shown here. In the future, I plan to upgrade the backlighting with an LED strip. I’m really happy that the transistors in my black Yamaha B-2 turned out to be intact. And I hope we have another project ahead of us to save this amplifier! For anyone interested, here’s a link to the article about the restoration: Yamaha B-2 restoration




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Congrats!
it is a gorgeous amplifier. The real "music to my ears" is hearing how you and your friend saved all those v-fet amps.
 
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rottalpha said:
Congrats!
it is a gorgeous amplifier. The real "music to my ears" is hearing how you and your friend saved all those v-fet amps.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Peter! Your videos and articles on properly restoring amplifiers with V-FET transistors are a great inspiration to us. I’m still hoping you’ll apply your expertise and find a solution for the preamp section of the Sony TA 8650, just as you did with the Yamaha C-1))) For now, I’m forced to use the Sony TA 8650 as a power amp alongside the Sony TA E88 preamp, and it’s magnificent
 
Virtus said:
Thanks, Peter! Your videos and articles on properly restoring amplifiers with V-FET transistors are a great inspiration to us. I’m still hoping you’ll apply your expertise and find a solution for the preamp section of the Sony TA 8650, just as you did with the Yamaha C-1))) For now, I’m forced to use the Sony TA 8650 as a power amp alongside the Sony TA E88 preamp, and it’s magnificent
Click to expand...
I started the 8650 project but had to set it aside for lack of time. Family and my real job leave little time for my hobby.
 
Virtus said:
Thanks, Peter! Your videos and articles on properly restoring amplifiers with V-FET transistors are a great inspiration to us. I’m still hoping you’ll apply your expertise and find a solution for the preamp section of the Sony TA 8650, just as you did with the Yamaha C-1))) For now, I’m forced to use the Sony TA 8650 as a power amp alongside the Sony TA E88 preamp, and it’s magnificent
Click to expand...
quick question: Did you determined what was the issue with the preamp section of your Sony?
 
rottalpha said:
quick question: Did you determined what was the issue with the preamp section of your Sony?
Click to expand...
In my amplifier, the sound in the right channel periodically drops out by 80%. Sometimes the sound returns if I turn the amplifier off and on again. The sound might also come back if I turn the volume up very high and suddenly. But after a couple of minutes, the sound would disappear again. Replacing any parts did not yield positive results. Suspicion fell on the green BX-269 and BX-270 microchips. There is also significant overall preamp noise, which is audible in the speakers
 
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