bloop said:
Thanks for your thoughts.
Yes, my rear speakers are not identical to my front speakers. But this was not a problem in the past when listening to DVD-A/SACD Surround. The results were pretty fine.
What should I restore on my 2020? What's Re-capping?
OK, restoring the 2020. Some basic, and some less basic things to do. There are others, but this is the starting point.
The first thing I'd do is nice and simple -anyone can do this: clean everything. Blow all the dust out with a can of compressed air, and a nice brush from your local electronics store (be careful of static, and always use an anti-static wrist-strap).
All major contacts like phono-connectors, should be cleaned. In fact, everything you can safely clean, clean it.
There are a few ways you can do this. You could use some isopropyl alcohol from a chemists shop, or a product like Kontak. Put it on cotton-buds or pipe-cleaners, and work it into everything, then polish it off with another bud or pipe-cleaner. If the contacts look very tarnished, an alternative is to use a metal polish like Brasso which will cut away all of the dirt. This is quite extreme, but very effective.
Re-capping? This is the start of modifications where, if you're not so good with a soldering iron, you'll need to get someone else who is to do it or you'll destroy your new piece of quad equipment. You'll also need to get a circuit diagram.
If that hasn't frightened you off, here we go! Re-capping means removing some, or all of the capacitors from inside your Sony, and replacing with new ones which will have to be soldered in. This isn't voodoo rubbish like hifi-cabling by the way -it's sound engineering. The 2020 is an old piece of kit now, and electronic components degrade over time. For a start, unless it's been recently restored, I'd replace all of the electrolytic capacitors in the power-supply: they'll be long past their best. Look for brown stains near the top of them -if they're there, it's shot, or less than healthy.
Once this is done, you can take it to the next step. Make a list of all the different types and values of caps. in the rest of the Sony, and, once you've got new replacements -replace. You can get a huge variety of capacitors ranging from pocket-change to UK£300+. Forget the expensive ones though -not worth the effort.
Beyond this is basically a full restoration. Good luck!
