Shoutout to the guy who told me to replace caps before troubleshooting anything else on old stereos

I spent 2 hours chasing a dead channel on a Pioneer receiver before I just swapped the electrolytics and it fired right up, has anyone else found that 90% of vintage gear problems are just bad caps?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinp7226d ago

My first big fix was a Sansui 8080 where the left channel would cut out after 20 minutes. Reflowed every solder joint, cleaned every switch, and it still did it. Finally swapped the four main filter caps and it's been running perfect for 3 years now. You ever had a unit where recapping fixed something you didn't even know was broken, like the tuner suddenly pulling in stations better?

oscar_ellis26d ago

Yeah did you find the tuner thing happens a lot too? I recapped a Kenwood KR-5200 and suddenly the FM stereo light locked in on weak stations it used to ignore. Those old caps just give up on everything after a while.