Phonoland

The original 530 amplifier in my 1900 has decided to go south. The bass is flat (hardly changes with the turn of a knob) and it's intermittently popping more frequently.

Who's the go to guy in the united states for getting an amplifier rebuilt? I live in Minnesota, but would be willing to ship it if I knew I was getting premium work done.

I know a lot of guys will buy the rebuild kits from Bill Bickers (Jukebox Friday Night), re-cap the amplifier then be on their merry way.

I've never been a fan of the chinese capacitors (I have a background in PC repair) and am a little leary about the quality of the parts in the kit.

If you were doing a no cost spared, uber-rebuild, what would you use for components in the amplifier?

Sprague orange drops? Something else? Am I being too nit-picky? Too assuming? I want it done right the first time, and as far as pricing goes on parts, I don't care. Capacitors and resistors are cheap all things considered.

Any input you amp rebuilders can provide, I would appreciate. Who's "the man" when it comes to rebuilding these things, and what are the best parts you can put in them?

-If you are going to re-cap it yourself--go to audiokarma.org. it is a website simillar to this that caters to the high fidelity crowd. Or the Golden ear croud if you will. there are fourms there that deal with amp rebulding, and you can find good information there.. But remember that some of these folks will not hesitate spending $2000 + on a turntable and another $1000.00 for a cartridge. good luck.Norman

vaguy2222 wrote:-If you are going to re-cap it yourself--go to audiokarma.org. it is a website simillar to this that caters to the high fidelity crowd. Or the Golden ear croud if you will. there are fourms there that deal with amp rebulding, and you can find good information there.. But remember that some of these folks will not hesitate spending $2000 + on a turntable and another $1000.00 for a cartridge. good luck.Norman

The trouble with the "karma" crowd and most DIY tinkersites is the ultimate lack of formal electronic training.
It's all "recap this" and "mod this" word of mouth bullcrap.
No one seems to know anything past that.
It's like the blind leading the blind!

Critical lead dress and component placement?
Forget it!
You'll get a "deer in the headlights" stare.

The ability to troubleshoot and track down a problem?
Or forsee a potential issue down the road and apply the proper "insurance" against it happening?
Good luck!

There ARE reputable people out there with solid reputations in their field of servicing - ya just gotta hunt them down.
And they certainly don't work from their kitchen tables, while taking cues from websites on their laptop nearby.

Why not have Bill Bickers rebuild it?

Ken Layton wrote:Why not have Bill Bickers rebuild it?

I'm concerned about the quality of the components. That's why. I'm trying to do something above and beyond the "typical rebuild". I'm not doubting his work is good, and by work I mean good solder joints, testing tubes, being thorough, etc. I don't think he uses any other components other than what he sells. And with my experience in the electronics world, I'm not too impressed with the stuff that comes from illinois capacitor. But that's JUST ME. I'm just trying to attain something better than the average rebuild. If I'm not being reasonable, then please tell me why, and I might just go with the flow.

"hirdlej" it is not a matter of 'going with the flow" it's understanding what you are working on.

Unlike semiconductor based devices where electrolytic caps dominate, these old tube devices are much higher impedance and thus generally use much smaller capacitance values. The inherent non-polarized design of these caps and the much simpler construction means that the type (mylar vs paper etc) has little effect on the audio they pass.

That statement often gets me an argument from types who fetish over a few feet of speaker wire, but as a practical matter -it is reality.

The bigger problems in those old machines are the mediocre pickup, the filtering and tone shaping used to cover up it's deficiencies and less than great speakers with no crossover.

I suggest using Sprague or Elmenco caps for coupling. The electrolytic caps are not that critical here. Low leakage is all that matters.

I've never bought a "kit" for this sort of work as I have a large stock already and often modify parts of the design., if you are only doing one or two amps a kit might be OK -if- you ask about the brands included.

If you want to do something that will actually make a difference, consider changing to a magnetic pickup and possibly adding a better tweeter along with an actual crossover.

Rob/NYC

I buy my capacitors for tube equipment from justradios.com in Canada. They have all the values and voltage ratings of capacitors for tube equipment. I use the yellow mylar (polyester) axial lead styles for most cap jobs where I'm replacing wax/paper tubular originals.