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Calling All "Vintage" Integrated/Receiver Owners
Oct 28, 2013 at 6:03 PM Post #10,307 of 19,142
Vintage + Alpha Dogs = amazing. 
 
Every one I tried was exceptional - seems the best was the Realistic STA-64B (lowest power output of all I own) with loudness engaged it was amazing.  The Kenwood KA-5700's and Pioneer Spec setups were the kind of experience you wish you had found way back before you started buying Magni's, E-11's, etc..................just so incredibly full sounding and the bass with everything set flat was great.  Now, add a bit of EQ to the low end, flip the loudness switch and you'll swear off speakers/subs. 
 
Oct 28, 2013 at 6:15 PM Post #10,308 of 19,142
Wow, that #2 BCS ranking got you flipping
tongue_smile.gif
all kinda switches up there in Oregon! (just funnin' with you...)
 
Oct 28, 2013 at 6:22 PM Post #10,309 of 19,142
silent one said:
  Wow, that #2 BCS ranking got you flipping
tongue_smile.gif
all kinda switches up there in Oregon! (just funnin' with you...)
Click to expand...


Guess I'm more impressed with the Alpha Dog than the Ducks..................and that's saying something (considering two daughters are Duck's). 
 
Oct 28, 2013 at 6:26 PM Post #10,310 of 19,142
Congrats on the repair Moody. Sounds like it worked out better than you might have thought. 
 
I have an interesting repair story. Recently my newly acquired sx1080 lost the right channel. Checked it with speakers and hp's...still no right channel. So then I strip it down to the frame and cleaned every pot and switch and button with deoxit...still no right channel. Now I had only just picked it up a few days earlier and it sounded wonderful. Since I've always wanted to try a restoration and the channel issue is keeping me from using the receiver, I decided to drive it up to Terry Dewick in Knoxville TN. He gets great reviews on AK so I thought that give him a shot at the 1050. 
 
Three hours there and three back. He is currently 40-50 days out  and your wait time starts once he gets the receiver in hand. He does not accept shipped products because of all the damaged in the mail products that he's received. 
 
It was a nice visit. Terry works out of his house. He's been repairing vintage gear since high school which was about 40 years ago I'd guess. He has 7 cats. I got to see pictures of them from birth to current status. I had hoped to talk about vintage gear and pick his brain but we mostly talked about the cats. 
 
So then today I decided to put another vintage receiver back in place to be able to listen to my speaker setup while I wait for the 1050 to be back. Well, low and behold...same right channel is out. Now I thinking that the speaker may be defective. Not possible because I switched the cables around when I was testing the 1050 and the right speakers worked fine. 
 
Long story short (sorta), it turns out that my Pioneer Elite SACD player has an intermittent channel issue. Who would've guessed? 
 
Oh well, I guess that it will be nice to have to receiver back to spec and ready for another 35 years of enjoyment. It will be interesting to see if I can tell the difference once it's restored. 
 
Oct 28, 2013 at 7:45 PM Post #10,311 of 19,142
Isn't that ironic, the vintage piece was fine and the modern piece wasn't?

Matt you will be very happy you got the 1080 recapped and Terry has a great rep.
 
Oct 28, 2013 at 9:28 PM Post #10,312 of 19,142
moodyrn said:
Well after failing to find someone here to recap my ka907 that I would trust to do it right, I decided to just get it serviced here in birmingham. I told him to fix or replace any parts bad or out of spec. It turns out that four caps in the power supply were bad. Although neither were leaking or bulged, they had dried up. Well two of them were and the other two were out of spec. Also two caps in the preamp were bad as well. So I got it back today and hooray!! It's king again(as far as solid state goes). Tonality wise it sounds the same. Technically as far as depth, extension, transparency etc, it's the same as well. But the reason I slightly preferred the restored 9090db to it was the fact the 907 sounded a bit grainy in comparison.

Well the grain is now completely gone, and the sound is buttery smooth. It now sounds like the solid state version of the 500c, though the 500c is still a little better. They both are the most neutral vintage amps I've heard and that includes the sx1280 which I find just slightly warm.(not a bad thing) But it makes me wonder if this would take the overall top spot if I could ever get it restored by echowars. Ummm.... But for now, just getting it serviced will have to do until he have a spot available.
Click to expand...

 
How the Ka-907 recapping fall apart? I remember you were going to have it recapped in August? If it's not Ok to post here, please send me a message.
And congrats for repairing!!
beerchug.gif

 
I think low noise floor of Ka-907 is really amazing!!
 
Oct 28, 2013 at 11:46 PM Post #10,313 of 19,142
matttcg said:
Congrats on the repair Moody. Sounds like it worked out better than you might have thought. 

I have an interesting repair story. Recently my newly acquired sx1080 lost the right channel. Checked it with speakers and hp's...still no right channel. So then I strip it down to the frame and cleaned every pot and switch and button with deoxit...still no right channel. Now I had only just picked it up a few days earlier and it sounded wonderful. Since I've always wanted to try a restoration and the channel issue is keeping me from using the receiver, I decided to drive it up to Terry Dewick in Knoxville TN. He gets great reviews on AK so I thought that give him a shot at the 1050. 

Three hours there and three back. He is currently 40-50 days out  and your wait time starts once he gets the receiver in hand. He does not accept shipped products because of all the damaged in the mail products that he's received. 

It was a nice visit. Terry works out of his house. He's been repairing vintage gear since high school which was about 40 years ago I'd guess. He has 7 cats. I got to see pictures of them from birth to current status. I had hoped to talk about vintage gear and pick his brain but we mostly talked about the cats. 

So then today I decided to put another vintage receiver back in place to be able to listen to my speaker setup while I wait for the 1050 to be back. Well, low and behold...same right channel is out. Now I thinking that the speaker may be defective. Not possible because I switched the cables around when I was testing the 1050 and the right speakers worked fine. 

Long story short (sorta), it turns out that my Pioneer Elite SACD player has an intermittent channel issue. Who would've guessed? 

Oh well, I guess that it will be nice to have to receiver back to spec and ready for another 35 years of enjoyment. It will be interesting to see if I can tell the difference once it's restored. 
Click to expand...


Ah, I really hate to hear that Matt. Well on the bright side, I think you'll be smiling from ear to ear once you get it back.

meewoo said:
How the Ka-907 recapping fall apart? I remember you were going to have it recapped in August? If it's not Ok to post here, please send me a message.
And congrats for repairing!! :beerchug:

I think low noise floor of Ka-907 is really amazing!!
Click to expand...


Well the guy never did respond any more, and given I would have to ship to the Chicago area, it was enough concern for me to not worry about it. I'm on the fence about giving him another try.
 
Oct 29, 2013 at 2:18 AM Post #10,316 of 19,142
Yeah, as echowars already said, it sounds great as is. Chasing those last few percentage points on sound just may be too big of a risk. But his youtube videos does look good which is why it's hard to write him off completely. But it is serviced and working great. So I'm just going to enjoy what I have for now.
 
Oct 29, 2013 at 7:31 AM Post #10,317 of 19,142
Nearly had a heart attack, 2/3 of the way restoring my Kenny KA-2000A decided to give it a demo after diode, AC coupling cap replacements, my gosh for a 13watter these sound huge even powering my 85watt/channel bookshelfs. 
 
Still need to deoxit volume and source switch pot. Bit of background hum due to the power filtering caps. I got some nice Mundorfs as straight-drop ins but not sure if I want to :/
 
Oct 29, 2013 at 8:06 AM Post #10,318 of 19,142
defqon said:
  Nearly had a heart attack, 2/3 of the way restoring my Kenny KA-2000A decided to give it a demo after diode, AC coupling cap replacements, my gosh for a 13watter these sound huge even powering my 85watt/channel bookshelfs. 
 
Still need to deoxit volume and source switch pot. Bit of background hum due to the power filtering caps. I got some nice Mundorfs as straight-drop ins but not sure if I want to :/
Click to expand...

Sounds like your doing a good job! The little bit of background hum might be bearable if you are only using it with speakers? I've always like the look of those amps, gonna have to try one at some point. 
 
Oct 29, 2013 at 2:34 PM Post #10,320 of 19,142
Got a Pioneer sx 890 fs local. Looks to be in good condition and the price is right. But I don't know anything about the x90 series. Anybody own one?
 
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