OLD Equipment Reliability Question

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When we were kids we found an old TV in a large cabinet that someone threw out. We carried it out onto a bridge and chucked it over into the water. As it sank it started to smoke, then it caught fire and blew up.

Still connected to the mains?!

I guess so. It even made a hissing sound and a small little geyser as it sank. Almost sprayed us.

I’m surprised that you didn’t notice what must have been an incredibly long mains cable trailing out behind you!
 
I’m surprised that you didn’t notice what must have been an incredibly long mains cable trailing out behind you!
Nope. No cable. It was actually a large console, the kind you would see in living rooms in the 50's. It also had a large speaker and possibly even a turntable. It was very heavy. Took all 4 of us to carry it out on the bridge.
 
I have lots of older equipment from the 70's and 80's including amps, recievers, all types tape decks, all types disc players, beta vcr's, svhs vcr's and decoders. I don't have any Pro equipment. The majority of these components work after routine maintainance (cleaning and lubrication of rubber parts and switches). Most tape decks need new belts, but I've never had to replace a belt on any of my Akai decks (5 reels, 1 cassette, 2 Q8's) because the belts are thick and pliable. The mechanism on my Akai 570d cassette deck looks like it was designed for a reel deck. The only rubber rollers I've ever had to replace on a tape deck were on the 570d. I give all of the rollers on my tape decks a shot of rubber renew on a regular basis. I think Teac makes the best when it comes to high end reel and cassette decks. I enjoy my vintage speakers and most (except Technics) have required new surrounds. Don't EVER throw out an ORIGINAL WOOFER because the surround is bad!!
 
I bought my 1st Home Stereo system (1972-10 thru 1972-12), wish I'd had the
money for a Quad system...

I bought my first Surge Protector a month or so after I got my 1st PC (1995-08).

Considering my Location, I'm fortunate that none of my A/V equipment was
damaged by AC Power Surges.

I've used Surge Protectors ever since, I'm in the process of replacing all of mine
with new ones (GE brand from Walmart), are Surge Protectors needed/popular
outside the USA?

Kirk Bayne
 
I bought my 1st Home Stereo system (1972-10 thru 1972-12), wish I'd had the
money for a Quad system...

I bought my first Surge Protector a month or so after I got my 1st PC (1995-08).

Considering my Location, I'm fortunate that none of my A/V equipment was
damaged by AC Power Surges.

I've used Surge Protectors ever since, I'm in the process of replacing all of mine
with new ones (GE brand from Walmart), are Surge Protectors needed/popular
outside the USA?

Kirk Bayne
We don't get many power surges in the UK, more likely to get brown-outs. Most of the problems we do have are due to lightening strikes, though normally it hits a telephone pole and fries all the ADSL modems in that area.
 
I have not only used equipment since the 1960s, but repaired it.

The oldest piece of equipment I have is my modified Collaro TSC-640 Conquest turntable. It was made in 1961, and other than replacing two mica sheets in the muting switch with guitar picks, replacing 3 broken springs, and replacing drive wheels, pickups, and styli. it is still working just fine.

I noticed that drive wheels made after 1974 don't deteriorate like the older ones did. Keep them clean and they keep working.

I have had 5 TV sets quit on me. 3 of them had the same problem - the switching power supply capacitors failed. The other two blew the flyback.

If you keep using an old piece of equipment, it tends to keep working. If you stop using it for a while and then try to use it, the power supply capacitors go bad and it either hums very loud, or it blows the rectifiers.

The newest stuff is very hard to repair because the parts are too small. The older stuff is hard to repair because they don't make the parts anymore.

Part of the trouble with keeping things going is the belts on tape drives fail, and you can't get them anymore.
 
I have lots of older equipment from the 70's and 80's including amps, recievers, all types tape decks, all types disc players, beta vcr's, svhs vcr's and decoders. I don't have any Pro equipment. The majority of these components work after routine maintainance (cleaning and lubrication of rubber parts and switches). Most tape decks need new belts, but I've never had to replace a belt on any of my Akai decks (5 reels, 1 cassette, 2 Q8's) because the belts are thick and pliable. The mechanism on my Akai 570d cassette deck looks like it was designed for a reel deck. The only rubber rollers I've ever had to replace on a tape deck were on the 570d. I give all of the rollers on my tape decks a shot of rubber renew on a regular basis. I think Teac makes the best when it comes to high end reel and cassette decks. I enjoy my vintage speakers and most (except Technics) have required new surrounds. Don't EVER throw out an ORIGINAL WOOFER because the surround is bad!!
I have rescued several sets of speakers people were throwing away cuz the surrounds were rotted..
 
First off I love vintage equipment, however the biggest single problem that I run into are intermittent switches. Contact cleaner and Deoxit can help or even cure some problems, but more often than not the trouble recurs, replacement is the best fix but usually exact replacements can't be found. Power amps in seventies equipment can be troublesome, even when blown transistors are replaced the repaired amp seems more prone to repeated failure. The old Quasi-complimentary amps didn't sound all that great anyway. Feeding the pre-amp output to a modern amplifier thus marrying vintage with newer equipment is one solution.
Yes with speakers you can easily replace rotted foam surrounds but sometimes it's better to replace the entire woofer. Blown mid range and tweeters usually require replacement, unless you can find replacement voice coils. Newer equipment is often throw away, not often fixable.
 
First off I love vintage equipment, however the biggest single problem that I run into are intermittent switches. Contact cleaner and Deoxit can help or even cure some problems, but more often than not the trouble recurs, replacement is the best fix but usually exact replacements can't be found. Power amps in seventies equipment can be troublesome, even when blown transistors are replaced the repaired amp seems more prone to repeated failure. The old Quasi-complimentary amps didn't sound all that great anyway. Feeding the pre-amp output to a modern amplifier thus marrying vintage with newer equipment is one solution.
Yes with speakers you can easily replace rotted foam surrounds but sometimes it's better to replace the entire woofer. Blown mid range and tweeters usually require replacement, unless you can find replacement voice coils. Newer equipment is often throw away, not often fixable.

Good points all, Ken. In many ways I love the old stuff too. I can browse audio gear pic galleries & I love how glamorous this stuff can look. I understand there is acertain value, a piece of history, a sense of uniqueness that comes from owning a vintage piece of gear. Like if you buy a '63 Corvette Stingray you don't do that for good MPG or safety features. However I have a hard time recommending to anyone just discovering quadraphonics to go with the old stuff. Esp if you are not good at repair. The core of good quad system was always the decoder. With the Surround Master there is a choice between vintage & new & I could only endorse the latter. Then there is a great selection of new equipment to feed that decoder, and power amps for its output.

The downside as MidiMagic said is that the new stuff is pretty much un-reparible at home or by most technicians. I could most likely fix a QSD-2 but not a SM. Another aspect is when a proprietary chip such as the Exar Fosgate or Variomatrix chips go bad. Even if you can replace it's hard to find them. Haha & then there's my vintage NOS Proton SD-1000 that has a total of 23 trim pots on the PCB. I ain't touching that!

The oldest electro-mechanical gear I have & currently using is my Pioneer DVL-700 Laserdisc player circa 1997. It making a bit of mechanical whir & grind nowadays but plays back as good as new & the remote works fine as well. My oldest gear still using everyday is my Adcom 555 power amps & matching pre-amp purchased ~1987. Only had to send one of the power amps in for repair all this time.

I feel bad sometimes that I have a dead Fosgate 101A & Sansui QS-1000 sitting in closet and I know I could repair them. For better or worse having something new, reliable, that performs better in some ways really takes that motivation away. Sigh...

Edit: Well I haven't mentioned CD-4 & while there is a Mac program for this it still reads like more of a science fair project to me. So those fond of CD-4 will mainly be using the old hardware stuff. Well, upgrade what you and make the most out of what you can't.
 
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