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Originally Posted by poncho-mike
I don't have a Variac. Are there any trustworty places on the east coast for working on old electronics? I'm also concerned the plastic in my polypropylene speakers has gone bad over time and will need to be replaced. They are infinity.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by poncho-mike
I was relocated 150 miles away from home in 1992. We had a 5-year old that wouldn't leave the stereo alone, and I was tired of zip tying the doors on the stereo cabinet shut. After the move, I never set my system back up, it's still in its original boxes.
My system consists of a Harmon Kardon Citation 17 pre-amp with a Citation 19 amplifier, a H-K tuner and cassette deck, a Dual turntable with Infinity Reference Standard 1.5 speakers. I've been thinking about bringing it out of hibernation lately, but I've been reading that old electronics like that will often blow the caps on initial power on. Has anyone dealt with old electronics like this and have any suggestions? I found a guy several states away a couple of years ago who said he would bring up voltage slowly and replace any caps that fail, but I wasn't comfortable packing up my electronics and sending it to a stranger.
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Nice vintage gear, the Citation stuff was/is very good. As mentioned you dont really need to worry about using a variac to power up the components, they arent "that" old & most of the caps should be ok to power up, they will reform in a matter of seconds or maybe a couple minutes.. they should be replaced with new caps though if you plan to keep & use it. If you have basic soldering & mechanical skills you can probably do a basic recap yourself, lots of tutorials or youtube vids out there for most of these vintage brands. One of my vintage Sansui amps was in storage by the prev owner in a garage for 20+ years, it powered up fine but has the typical scratchy pots etc, will do a recap & restoration on it soon but it powered up without any problems.
Im in the midwest, if we were closer I would offer to look at it or can help with any questions you might have. The link I posted earlier to "simply speakers" will probably have the best selection, quality & price on refoam kits & they offer the service too for a good price.
For protection of the unit when powering up older gear you can use whats called a dim bulb tester, can make one for about $10-$20 depending on what parts you buy, heres a pic of one I made for working on all my vintage gear, its basically a current limiting device that will allow the unit to power up but protects it from full amps that can damage something if there is a short or bad component inside. Theres diagrams online or I can help how to make one if needed.
Chances are if the stuff worked when it was put away, it will still work when pulled out of storage, there are usually fuses inside this stuff that will protect against major damage, especially amps or higher power items, but always a good idea to try to protect them.