Pioneer SX-800 - Round 2

Ok,

Its raining or snowing,

you're stuck all alone,

what are ya gonna do...

Watch a bunch of movies,

or tinker on a project?

Well ya know what I'm gonna do...

I was wound up for this one,

parts were ordered a week in advance,

arriving just in time for a winter weekend.

You probably were hoping I'd be done writing about this.

The previous time only the suspect "Suzuki" caps were swapped,

unfortunately not fixing the base problem,

which is this random crackle noise coming from one side.

A late night was spent sucking in soldering fumes.

After this batch was replaced,

all the bottom caps were now new.

Looks like fun huh!?

Well it's not when you plug it in and it doesn't work.

At all.

Holey Chit.

Going to sleep with a broken fix isn't fun,

however waking up at 4am knowing the problem is.

Weird how the brain works like that.

Thankfully an easy and obvious issue,

a power diode wire had broken.

Whew.

Wow,

now it really sang.

The tube sound is like being bathed in warmth.

What a feeling of accomplishment.

For about an hour or two.

Holey Double Chit...

Good thing there was a Plan 2-B.

See those black and blue things on top there?

Those would get rid of the last electrolytic capacitors,

which are known to leak or degrade after 10-15 years.

All righty now they're installed,

all but one anyway,

nice fat new filter caps.

Time to shine...

Again...what clarity, what bass!!

Yes! 

Mission accomplished!

For maybe two hours.

Holey Triple Effin Chit.

There's a saying for this...

"Fuck this - lets ride"

Snow and rain clear my head!

I made it back without taking a slide 

and busting myself up.

So...

The crackling issue creeps as the amp heats up,

and swapping tubes to different sides

doesn't change anything,

meaning the tubes should be ok.

Also hitting low/bass filter switch will make a thump.

I'm no expert,

buy I am a quick online study.

See those grey dogbone like things?

Well those are Suzuki carbon composition resistors,

supposedly not the greatest for age, heat and moisture.

I ended up ordering every replacement resistor,

even the brown and blue ones with the stripes.

About 111 total...

Yikes.

Also,

see those round brown discs?

Those are ceramic capacitors,

which supposedly are very durable,

but what about when there is white stuff on them?

Cheap enough replacements to gamble,

everything was less than $50 shipped.

Sadly I had to let go of an old stablemate.

The Sansui 2000a sacrificed itself for this bout,

it had its 45 year old issues and ya gotta choose your battles.

Let's see how Round 3 goes!

ding-ding...

TP