Restorations

    On the right is a list of links to pages containing restoration information for just some of the many models we work on. We restore most vintage power amplifiers, integrated amplifiers, preamplifiers, receivers, and tuners. If your model isn't listed, feel free to email us for information. Of course, even if your model is listed, you can contact us with any questions you have. We are always happy to hear from you!

Quality

    Our reputation is very important to us, and we know that quality work and a healthy reputation go hand-in-hand. We strive to ensure that equipment we restore will run reliably well into the future. This is ultimately important to us, and it simply cannot be accomplished while cutting corners and using poor quality parts, so we do neither.

    Electronic equipment 30-plus years old- audio or otherwise- is full of potential bugs, and for reliability purposes you need to eliminate all of those bugs. For this reason, we only restore- rather than just repair- vintage audio equipment. Of course, should the need arise, we will repair equipment we have previously restored.

Typical Restoration Work

    Not surprisingly, some of the equipment we work on has glaring faults. Obviously, repairing those faults is part of the restoration process. A lot of the equipment we work on, though, basically works (or is at least capable of producing sound, at least for a couple minutes...). However, audio equipment can have a lot wrong with it, and still make sound. The power amp stage of an amplifier or receiver can have incorrect bias current (or none at all!), and still make sound. The DC offset at the speaker terminals can drift wildly, [usually] due to faulty differential pair transistors. Dirty controls can cause noise, failing capacitors can cause all manner of problems.

    Replacing all the electrolytic capacitors ("caps"), including the main power supply filters, is probably the most basic part of the restoration job. Unlike other types of capacitors, electrolytics have a rather limited life expectancy, even if they have not seen a lot of use. There can be as few as a dozen or more than one hundred electrolytic capacitors, depending on the model.

We also:
• Replace the protection relay(s)
• Replace any other faulty, hard-done-by, or unreliable parts (for example, discoloured resistors, bias trimmers, and semiconductors known to be failure-prone)
• Repair failing solder joints
• Clean all controls
• Replace incandescent lamps
• Adjust the bias point and DC offset, and other adjustments as per the service instructions
• Do a proper AM/FM calibration (tuners and receivers)
• Thoroughly test the unit to ensure it performs up-to-spec

    That covers the basics; there is plenty of other model-specific work to be done. After the restoration, we test the equipment to ensure it meets or exceeds the original published specifications. We supply a printed copy of the test results.