So as we being remodeling our kitchen and great room towards a more modern, mid to late 1960s look, we decided it was time to get a new RCA stereo to go along with our new decor. The RCA Victor VHT75W all solid-state stereo from 1967 on the right in the picture will replace our blonde RCA Victor PVCR-182 three-channel tube stereo from 1961 on the left. The cabinet on the VHT75W is just absolutely beautiful and in perfect condition, but the only sound that came out of it was when I plugged in my iPod into the tape inputs.
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When I brought home VHT75W, the first thing I did was replace the electrolytics in the power supply and amp (chassis RC211C), and the sound went from a garbled muffle out of one channel to quite-clear stereo sound out of both channels! Major improvement!
Also, someone had apparently ripped the FM dipole antenna from the chassis, breaking and detaching the antenna connectors from the circuit board and also cracking the circuit board further on down. I carefully repaired this by gluing the circuit board back together and soldering a wire across the crack on both sides of the circuit board. Voila! Crisp FM stereo sound with great FM reception!
The previous owner said the phono didn't work, which was true, but that was only because it was not hooked up to the turner chassis! Connected that up, cleaned up the old grease and applied new phono lube, made some easy adjustments and voila! Plays records nicely! However, I also noticed that the record changer that came with it is not the original changer (RP-224) with the strobe, but one that was made during the same time frame (RP-223). I will be posting a "Wanted" classified later on for the RP-224...
I also replaced the non-polarized electrolytics in the speaker cross-over network. This did seem to help somewhat in getting more treble in the sound...
Lastly, I made the decision to replace the electrolytic capacitors on the tuner circuit boards. Being that they are almost 50 years old, and after reading other posts, it's probably the best thing to do to make the stereo perform better and eliminate any issues in the future. I have practiced soldering on other solid-state table models from the late 60's, and found it was actually quite easy to do as long as I'm careful and pay attention to polarity....
Would you guys replace all of the electrolytics on the tuner circuit board also? The tuner chassis is RC-211C. It sounds real good now, but I think it could sound better (especially the treble response)...
Thanks,
Stan
