It depends heavily on what piece of gear, as well as who is doing the work, of course. The range can be a few hundred dollars for a complete recap/restore to about $1K to do my SX-1980 including the main filter caps (the four big filter caps in the 1980 cost $240 by themselves!).
Interesting to hear everyone's take on restoration of some of these vintage receivers.
Personally, anything short of recapping would probably be something I would venture to do as a little pet project on weekends.
If people don't mind sharing, how much does a full restore including recapping range?
Do people consider a full restore to include woodwork/cabinets?
I understand that this would vary according to different circumstances, but any input towards vintage marantz would be enlightening.
As I mentioned previously. I have been working some of the lower power units, so a recap is in the $20 to $30 dollar range (not sure what cost would be if I paid to have it done). In addition to that I will clean all the controls with Deoxit (although there are some old Sherwoods that don't like Deoxit - it will damage the on/off switch that is part of the volume control. I usually clean all the connections (in/out) with denatured alcohol (it leaves no residue). I always check for bad solder joints too. When found (they usually have cracked ringlets around them) I remove all the old solder and re-do the connection - in addition I always re-solder all board to board connections too. WBT solder is my favorite solder - a little pricey - but easy to work with and seems to add detail to the sound. I also like to clean the glass inside and out for a pristine look. The lower powered Marantz units (doing a 2220B right now) might cost more like $40 to do yourself with good caps.
The SX-1280 has a very good phono stage - have you tried it? I suggest to. You might be surprised. Was just spinning some vinyl this morning via my SX-1980. It's phono section is absolutely superb. Remember that back then vinyl ruled the day!
You can and you should! The only thing that won't work is if you have a low output moving coil cartridge. But if you have a MM or high output MC, then connect that TT right to Phono 1 and prepare to be impressed
I won't be using the phono stage, but I will be using the preamp section. I suppose I could bypass the preamp section by connecting my DAC via the amp input on the back since it has variable output.
If EchoWars breathed on it, it may be okay. All I can tell you is that this was my amp+preamp for the latter half of the '70s and when I got my humble Hafler DH-101 preamp the difference was so dramatic it won a daytime Emmy.
The switching on the 4650's preamp is very handy, so if you can get the preamp to sound more wide-awake by judicious parts upgrades, let us know. If you can get away with not using it, well, remember the Law of Analog: the fewer active stages between source and speaker, the lower the likelihood that degradation will occur; ie, simpler is better. This is especially true if the parts quality is not top notch.
One little preamp quirk I recall is that when-- if-- recording off the TAPE outputs, the MONO switch still works, which I don't think is mentioned in the manual. Messed up several old tapes I still have, but handy for recording mono LPs.
As I mentioned previously. I have been working some of the lower power units, so a recap is in the $20 to $30 dollar range (not sure what cost would be if I paid to have it done). In addition to that I will clean all the controls with Deoxit (although there are some old Sherwoods that don't like Deoxit - it will damage the on/off switch that is part of the volume control. I usually clean all the connections (in/out) with denatured alcohol (it leaves no residue). I always check for bad solder joints too. When found (they usually have cracked ringlets around them) I remove all the old solder and re-do the connection - in addition I always re-solder all board to board connections too. WBT solder is my favorite solder - a little pricey - but easy to work with and seems to add detail to the sound. I also like to clean the glass inside and out for a pristine look. The lower powered Marantz units (doing a 2220B right now) might cost more like $40 to do yourself with good caps.
You could at some point decide to use a step-up transformer between the TT and the SX-1280's phono input instead of the additional phono stage. What is your external phono stage?
Wow, this thread has came alive in the past few days. I have two Pioneer's the SX-780 and the SX-1080. I have gone through with DeOxit on both of them. Both of them sound wonderful at this time. But as Skylab said earlier depending what you have invested in each piece determines what kind of servicing you do to them. I have a little over $100 into the SX-780. I don't plan on spending anymore money on it. If something happens to it, I will sell it off as a "parts only" unit and get a little money back on it. On the other hand the SX-1080 has no noise issues and all lights and functions work. But I was checking the DC offset on it last week and the Left channel was setting at 21mV and the Right channel was at 71mV. This unit appears to be all original. I made the decision to spend money and have this unit serviced and re-capped. I found a local Pioneer Service center that has been in business for over 40 years and used to sell these units back in the 70's. All the techs at this place have been there since then. The newest person there is the Service Manager and he has been there since 1985. I took the SX-1080 in to them yesterday and they quoted that it will be 4 to 5 weeks until its ready and at least $300 to $400 to bring it back to spec. They will call me if its looking to be over $400 to service it. I like that they were upfront with me on what it was going to take to make this unit back to new like condition. They had several vintage Pioneer, Marantz, Sansui, Nakamichi units setting there for sale that had been re-done. I have been out auditioning new speakers for my 2-channel rig for the past two weekends and I also listened to the Rega Brio-R integrated amp in case the SX-1080 is going to cost more than than I think its worth. Now the Rega is a well regarded integrated amp but the SX-1080 in its current condition still sounds better. It has more midrange resolution and weight than the Rega. I hope that the SX-1080 comes back sounding even better. Also I received "The Wife's" approval for new speakers so I should be setting pretty audio wise in the coming month.
You could at some point decide to use a step-up transformer between the TT and the SX-1280's phono input instead of the additional phono stage. What is your external phono stage?
I've got several vintage Marantz units here, and they've all had as little as possible done to make them work.
I've been quite lucky; deoxit has done wonders and things have worked fine.
If they fail, I'll have them fixed. I have a good local shop to do that work if I need it.
I did sign up for a recap from a guy called "I Rebuild Marantz" who has since been quite heavily panned on another forum. I'm hoping he'll get to me... eventually.
I've had much more trouble with turntables than I have with the vintage integrated amps. The vintage TT has been in the shop repeatedly, while Marantz 2220 and 2235 just play and play and play.
Out of curiosity, how many of you vintage lovers get your equipment serviced upon purchasing it? Or do you wait till something goes wrong first and doing it up all at one go?
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