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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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In Reply to: Any Idea Why This Marantz 7C . . . posted by FlaCharlie on March 9, 2007 at 05:34:45:
Hi, FlaCharlie:I composed a nice reply and then seem to have lost it somehow!
Here goes a second time, for your amusement and edification!
A couple of observations and some historical information for you, with regard to the high price bid on that particular unit of Marantz 7 preamplifier on eBay.
1.) INMO, lower serial numbered units are not necessarily any better than ones manufactured later on.
2.) Differences, if any, consist of more old (by now funky) paper and foil coupling caps, spray-thru type potentiometers rather than sealed units in later production versions and a veering away from all carbon type resistors to a mix of some carbon and some more precision types.
3.) Any original units still equipped with factory installed selenium rectifiers are never going to deliver performance up to spec. They fail and need replacement. That much is fact.
4.) This particular unit, you noted, looks golden in the images. If we can trust the photos, I have a good idea what is going on there.
5.) Judging from the closeup of one control knob, I can easily see an accumulation of what must be tar from cigarette smoke all over the faceplate, knobs, top, sides, and back of this unit.
6.) Not exactly clean is it! Look at the corrosion on the rivets on the back of the preamplifier! This can be easily remedied with the use of a pencil-type old-fashioned typewriter eraser, if you can even find one these days.
7.) Remove the entire front panel and knobs, dip them into a warm solution of dishwashing liquid and water and soak overnight. The result will be a bath of yellowish gunk, which floated off the filthy, tar-laden panel and knobs.
Clean is good, you know!
Imagine what the insides have to show from a smoker over the years? YECCCCCCH!
The cabinet can be cleaned the same way and if you like good polish, I use any high quality auto stuff, such as TR-7.
In the mid seventies, when I was first acquiring units like Marantz preamps and those by McIntosh, I purchased a nice C-22 from its original owner, a guy who lived in a well-to-do section of San Francisco, and had kept it for years, just outside of his kitchen. When I got that unit home an opened it up to inspect it, what did I see in there? Cooking grease -- all over everything! It took me almost an entire afternoon with a box of Q-tips and isopropyl alcohol to remove all of that nasty stuff. It literally coated everything in that preamp.
So, imagine what the Marantz purchased on eBay will look like up close and "personal"!
'Nuff said!
Richard Links
Berkeley, CA
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Follow Ups
- Re: Any Idea Why This Marantz 7C . . . - Marantzguy 11:59:56 03/09/07 (0)
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