Each amp is meticulously gone through and completely cleaned and serviced. These amps come in with years of caked dust, pet hair, even smoke residue. One full day is dedicated to disassembling and thoroughly cleaning circuit boards, burnishing circuit connections, and inspecting solder joints. Part of cleaning the circuit boards encompasses removing Sony bonding glue, which in time becomes extremely corrosive and conductive. This is an area that cannot be neglected and must be addressed. Each component is checked for accurate tolerances. These amps have a unique array of audio capacitors: Nichicon muse, Rubycon blackgate and Elna. Each one of these capacitors represents many years of collaboration in research and development. TO REPLACE ANY ONE OF THESE CAPACITORS WITH SOMETHING OTHER THAN WHAT WAS ORIGINAL WILL ALTER THE SOUND OF THESE AMPS. We are one of the only shops (or possibly the only shop) that is fully stocked in these unique capacitors. Attenuators and switches are cleaned. Pots are cleaned and de-oxed. Distortion levels are measured in spec. After restoration, each amp is tested to insure flawless operation. All indicating lights are replaced with LEDs, meters are tested and properly adjusted.
The original speaker terminals are always replaced, as the plastic has become extremely brittle with age and heat, which is a common problem with this type of speaker terminal. It is a shame, as original speaker terminals do not reflect the high quality of the rest of the amplifier. They are heavy amps, around 60 pounds, and the power supply uses twin power transformers. All old speaker terminal speaker wiring and speaker relay boards are removed. A new plate is cut to mount six pairs of 5-way binding posts are installed on the plate, correctly centered in the proper spaces. Wiring is directly connected from the respective speaker terminals, to speaker relay board. The replacement wire used is a very low impedance, 10 gauge oxygen free spiral wound copper. All soldering is done with silver solder. All three speaker relays are cleaned and adjusted.
Original terminals could only accept bare wire ends. The 5-way posts can accept all normal speaker wiring connectors: Bare wire, spades, or banana pins. This installation is tremendously stronger than the original setup. Speaker relay board is now solidly supported. Speaker terminals are now strong. Amplifiers provide speaker switching for three separate pairs of speakers, which is an unusual option not found on most amps. Output millivolts for AB and A amplification are adjusted to factory specs. Real time testing is done by running the each amp through some (4 ohm) maggies. All amps run warm, as normal, and sound outstanding, the way these very unique amps were meant to sound, as many customers have said to me, "I hear clarity of instruments and sounds from these amps that I have NEVER heard before on any previous amps I have owned."