Show me your ****(embly), and let me get in your guts baby!

ka7niq

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Here's a grab shot of the innards of a Fisher X-100 I recently re-hab'bed for a local. Parts from Jim McShane and Antique Electronics Supply.

Cathode biased, push-pull 7189s. Very sweet sounding amplifier; glorious midrange (maybe even a tad nicer than my HF-81).

Nice Work!

mhardy6647

Kenneth Swauger wrote: »

Hello,
The Amber pre-amp should sound good. I used to sell the Amber Series 70 amplifier and it was excellent sounding. I didn't have much experience with the pre-amp, but should be good. The designers may have taught electronics at U of VA, I seem to remember.
Enjoy, Ken

Your recollection seems plausible, sir.

I donated Amber to a West Coast Audio Asylum member whose (much higher end) preamp had a sudden and unexpected meltdown. Based on several hours on a Flame Linear 200 and my little Ohm Walshes (unknown models), though, Amber got the job done.

mhardy6647

Nice Work!

Thanks... it's a nice amp. I think its owner is pretty pleased with it.

[Deleted User]

Hello,
I've been looking at the bottom of my Fisher 500C recently, replacing the filter caps and filament selenium rectifier with a kit I bought. I have to remove some capacitor mounting brackets and terminal strips to allow for the new board to fit underneath the bottom plate. I had to take out the chassis fuse holder and epoxy a fuse holder to the inside chassis itself. I used a Dremel with a cutoff disc to cut off the terminal strips and capacitor bracket that was riveted to the chassis. Now I have to install the new circuit board and run the connecting wires to the places in the circuit where they need to go. There's a tremendous amount of point-to-point wiring, good grief somebody probably made $2.00 an hour in those days. Quite a process.
Ken

mhardy6647

The good thing about the Fisher receivers, though, is that there's a fair amount of room below decks and things are neatly and thoughfully laid out. Compare a Fisher 400 or 500C to, say a Pioneer SX-34 (or its clone, the Allied/Knight 333) or even a Sansui 1000A. All of these units were roughly contemporaries.

That Fisher amp was a little crowded around the outputs. The receivers, though, are quite pleasant to work on IMNSHO.

The output zone of a Fisher 400:


The same neighborhood on a Knight 333:


Replacing the coupling caps in the latter was a pain in the tuchus

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Things got a little tight under there, here's the link to the circuit board:
http://www.triodeelectronics.com/sds500cbrdprts.html
I discovered a neat trick that someone could market. If you look on the photograph you have for the receiver look at the shielded wires near the right had side of the photo. When I am tinning wires I put the wire between the shielding and the metal part of the chassis. It is a great way to support a wire while you work on it. Someone should make something similar as a great accessory wire holder for soldering. A platform with a spring connected at two points that can hold a wire.
Ken

mhardy6647

Great tip!

I use one of those "third hand" thingies with articulated alligator clips, Ken. They're still "available everywhere", maybe even Radio Shack (which is where I think I got mine).

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=360-670



The plastic magnifier is cheesy, but the rest of it is quite helpful.

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Oh, yes, had those for many years. There's a variation on that available from Micromart that has four arms and a different kind of base that has a threaded locking mechanism. With this one you can attach it to the sides of the component's chassis then use the four arms to hold various parts steady. So if you tend to work with the chassis upright you can attach the holder firmly to the unit itself. When I'm joining two wires I like to have both wires held in place then that frees up both hands to heat and hold the solder.
I bought replacement end caps for the Fisher knobs, new front panel lamps and am considering a new cabinet from the Fisher Doc to really get it looking spiffy. I've cleaned and polished the faceplate with Flitz and have to get the on/of selector working. I might have to take it apart and clean the wiper arm, not looking forward to trying that.
Then I can get back to the Altec.
Ken

mhardy6647

Did you add cathode resistors?

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Not yet, the original issue was a "something's burning" smell coming from the receiver. I suspected the selenium rectifier so that was my beginning point. Thanks for reminding me about the 10 Ohm resistors. I believe VTV offers a circuit upgrade kit for coupling caps, etc. This receiver is used with a pair of Spica TC50 on Chicago stands with a XRt12 tuner. My wife has a small office in the basement and this is her audio source. I used to have a CAL CD player with it, but the XM tuner has replaced it.
Ken

mhardy6647

Unless you really don't feel like the doing the legwork, I'd recommend sourcing all the parts yourself. PM me if you want more info.

Back to the carnality...

[Deleted User]

Hello,
You've been PM'd sir.
Thanks, Ken

MikeC78

Monster Power Center HTPS 7000 MKII

Face

Here's the guts of my McIntosh MX115.

mhardy6647

No top view of the MX-115? :-(

mhardy6647

I was cleaning up an old Technics SA-5270 35 wpc receiver tonight in preparation for its going to a new home :-) Snapped a few photos while the hood was up; thought I'd share them here.






Dunno if you can tell in the last two photos, but all of the panel lamps on this ca. 1976 receiver still light! Interestingly they're large-diameter, fuse-like lamps extremely similar to those found in vintage Fisher 400s and 500s. Never saw such lamps in a Japanese receiver before.

speakergeek

mhardy6647,

Those are some great photos of good vintage receivers there! That Technics has some decent caps.

mhardy6647

It's quite a bit nicer than the next model year's SA-300 or the following SA-303, I can tell you that.

LBrize

The first three are Harman Kardon DVD-22
Next we have Rotel RB-951 (Mark One)
Finally, Rotel RB-985 THX Mark II

Enjoy!
I'll have to take a few tops off, but I should have some more to add pretty soon!


Edit: I hooked up the 951 to test it, (I bought it for surround channels to complete a 7.1 setup) but it sounds better than the 985 Mk II. Puts me in a pickle, because the little 50wpc amp sounds so laid back, musical, and relaxing that I'm going to have a hard time putting the 985 back on the mains.

Any thoughts?

LBrize

Picture comparison between the RB 951 Mk I and the Mk II.

disneyjoe7

Nice thanks for joining Polk Forum


Question,

Does the Mk I and the Mk II sound different, or the same?

LBrize

I really don't know if the Mk I and Mk II sound any different, but I do know that, at least in my case, the smaller amp sounds better than the bigger amp I own. I tried today for it to not, I hooked up the 985 and listened to some good stuff; Fourplay, Norah Jones, Sinatra, then moved on to Def Leppard and some modern pop stuff, then I switched back to the 951. The difference is too much to ignore.

I don't own the Mk II, I grabbed that picture from this board. Thanks whoever owns that pic. :0)

del44

The inside of a Bryston 4BST before cleaning.:)
[IMG][/img]



Pic of the left side after it's removed from the body. This needs to be done in order to remove the rack handles



[IMG][/img]


Body, after the side is removed. Sorry for the bad pic.


[IMG][/img]

disneyjoe7

del44 wrote: »

Body, after the side is removed. Sorry for the bad pic.

That's OK take some more nice piece

beardog03

niiiice !!

engtaz

Nice guts you got there.

engtaz

mhardy6647

I don't think I ever posted photos of this EICO AF-4 single-ended EL84 integrated amp in this thread. This one's been in the family since it was new. My father got it in a "grab bag" from his TV parts supplier in the late-1960s and gave it to his sister. His sister used it for some time, then put it in storage. Last year, she (kindly) passed it on to me.

Face

mhardy6647 wrote: »

No top view of the MX-115? :-(

Here's the best I can do for now.

mhardy6647

That's a start :-)

That's nice...

mhardy6647

Not to post-ho', but today's project was to (finally) upgrade the unshielded power transformer in my (very early) Bottlehead Seduction phono preamp to the shielded PT. I've only had the shielded PT sitting on my workbench in the basement for about 2 years...

Before:





After:




(I flipped the chassis upside-down in its stock base to work on -- and to photograph -- it)