I really appreciated seeing this video and how you didn’t mind showing the importance of cleaning the controls. You could have edited that out, but instead included a great reminder for many a meaningful lesson for the rest of us. Looking forward to more of your content in 2025!
I have a few vintage receivers, but my primary system is a mid 80s Yamaha C-60 and an M-60. Not as cool looking as a silver face receiver, but it's got that black face with the red lights and meters and it sounds good. We all make mistakes fixing things and we all learn things from our mistakes. The key is you didn't break anything. I once spent hours trying to figure out why I wasn't getting sound until I noticed the tape monitor was on.
I too run the Yamaha C-60, lovely pre-amp, mine is running 2X Hitachi HMA 8500MKII's and 2X Hitachi HMA 7500MKII's all four are running BTL I can break windows at will :)
Lots of Heathkits came with meters. In the mid 70s I helped my Dad build a 25" TV; it came with a (relatively simple) multimeter in its own case that was the first thing you had to assemble before you started on the actual TV. After that we did a stereo receiver that had you use the tuning meter as a meter (IIRC there was a switch inside that switched between tuning and measuring).
Aiden, thanks for taking the time towards the end of the video for your opinion on how the Harmon Kardon works compared to an older Marantz receiver. So many TH-camrs are scared to give their opinion. Happy new year to you and yours.!🎉
I built a Dynaco Dynakit preamp (DYNACO PAT-4} and power amp {Dynaco 120A) in 1970 that blasted away till 1983 when it just gave up. It was great until surround sound (5.1) was the thing to have. I remember that the inductors were made by wrapping so many winds of wire around the large capacitors. Great fun to build. The power amp would also dim the lights when it came on, along with a transformer "bong" until it stabilized.
Who wants to work on a filthy unit? Clean the outside, clean the controls and test. Enjoy the music while detailing and the ultrasonic is busting grime off the knobs and button caps. That Novus 2 does a great job rejuvenating the shine....that or mothers mag polish.
Hoping you and your family had a great Christmas and will have a fantastic New Year. Unique items there, H-K's in disguise and with 130w I'd say pretty healthy. Dirty controls, who'd of thunk that? 😉 Nice job, thanks for the work. See ya soon.
I thought it was recommended to turn off the power when connecting and disconnecting inputs and outputs? BTW, it is really great to see someone admit when they have made a mistake. This is how we all learn and I really appreciate your honesty!
Looking forward to seeing the video on that Carver !! Great little units with tons of clean power but after 30 years or so, it’s bound to need some service.. The cat sure has her priorities in order!!l. 😂
Its so crazy how much a dirty potentiometer can really just mess things up. I have a Power Amp from RadioShack where the VU meter isnt working, but im very sure its just a dirty trim pot that im too lazy to do anything about
There used to be a Heath store near me. It was located on the back side of Heath's plant in St Joseph, Michigan. The store was selling computers and educational products. The store apparently was making profit, however they were selling more Apple products than ZDS systems. ZDS shut the store down because it was supposed to be a retail outlet for ZDS computers, and selling Apples became a conflict of interest.
I've come to love my Phase Linear 400 (modified with White Oak Audio upgrade and Watts abundant Speaker Relay) with my Planar speakers. Lots of clean a/b power is the ticket.
Those look like Heath branded Harman Kardons. Edit; Yeah, have a look at the HK825 and HK870 from Harman Kardon Very good performing gear. Good specs and these should sound great
Exactly what came up in my mind. Harman Kardon all over. I’m still in the first minutes but expect the switches to play up. TK and or ELNA caps. The TK’s can be fine but can also be very hard on their way out.
I posted before I watched, A YT no-no. lol I did a vid on the HK870. Be sure to check the solder joints on the power transistors. They crack from thermal cycling and can destroy yer speakers.
Regarding the resistors deep under the heatsinks. Hirschmann Kleps (2600 or 3000) will do the trick. The bad connection you noticed is caused by oxidation. A little bit of brushing with a fiberglass brush will fix that for a while.
Aiden, Thank you so much for this video. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You helped a lot of your viewers, including me. I will always try to remember to clean the controls before troubleshooting my equipment, so something good did come out of your oversight. Thanks for showing the idle current adjustment and DC balance adjustment . I need to learn more about this. I hope your Christmas went well with family, friends and good food. And I hope 2025 is even better. - Thomas
Good Job! Don't beat yourself up... we've all been there overlooking the simple things while troubleshooting electronics. Hey, look at it this way... at one moment you probably wanted to throw it off the bench, but now its up and running!
Hey, live and learn! We have all done something similar. It's actually very rare for us to internalize something like this the first time. It usually takes a few misfires to learn and remember.
I built an Heathkit AA-1800 decades ago, and that kit included a meter kit for adjusting biases. I suspect that the meter you found in the power amp was for the same purpose, which makes me suspect that your power amp may have been an actual kit.
I have a marantz 2226b that I bought from a thrift store for 20$ and a pair of Polk model 7b for 5$ for the pair. The combination sounds amazing! Cant believe the bass that it can make. There is a song on Laurie Andersons "Mr Heartbreak"that has a 4 note bass line that sounds great.
Look at the backside of this amp... check the transistors under the covers . Thermalpaste is most of the problems and often the solder joint cracked. Watch it on trevors bench.. set is the same as Harman Kardon hk870. helps me a lot. But good job. This set sounds impressive. Greetings from germany
My current mains are Maggie MMGs and I can attest to your information. I have them running on a 120WPC yamaha integrated with DAC. It sounds super detailed and the soundstage is huge. For my money, the maggies love big modern power. Fun to play with, maybe tube pre and modern power amp?
When i saw the Heath units i was struck by how similar they both looked to my Adcom units of the early 90's. Same pre-amp/power amp specs at 100w per side. I was always impressed by the Adcom power and sound staging. The faces are almost identical. Adcom used round buttons where the Heath used square buttons. Other than that, identical as i remember them. Do you think the manufacturers purchased generic face plates from suppliers. I had opened my components several times and do not remember the "rods" extending back to adjustable pots. Do you have any thoughts on this?
awesome video! please go back into the power amp and fix the solder joints on those wires. that thing was definitely hobbyist assembled, and those joints are not making a good mechanical connection.
One day you should hook up with the musicians responsible for our favorite song. The essential classic "Walk in the Park" by Jazz Instrumental Relax Center!!
Don't ruin the Advents! I have some throwaway speakers for stuff like this ever since an old Amp put 40 volts out directly to the speaker terminal and blew them. Also, it seems strange that the preamp would have a protection circuit.
It's likely a muting circuit to suppress turn-on/turn-off/input-switching transients that would be amplified downstream. My Apt Holman preamp works in this way.
Everybody's favorite song (and mine) has become your signature and should never be changed! Good for you to inform the rest of us who, and for some, could easily have fallen prey to the same situation. Nice job in the end.
Appreciate you actually sharing the mistakes so we all learn from them. Suggestion: create a checklist so you ensure you follow the same initial diagnostic process each time and don't miss/forget the simple things, then you can share with all of us as well.
the fact you could still buy a KIT to build the amp yourself is crazy, that was common back in the 1950s and 60s but even by the early 70s "stereo kits" were becoming very rare and pretty much never an option for Japanese made gear. Heath was probably last major company to have kits as an option.
Don’t beat yourself up! The more we know, the more we think it’s got to be something complicated. That said, I always try to remind myself to check the simple stuff first😅
Already mentioned, but their products could be bought as a kit or pre-assembled. They were less expensive in kit form, and the company was known for good customer service. If a customer had an issue while assembling it, they could get tech a troubleshoot things over the phone or even send it to the factory and have their techs troubleshoot and finish the kit. Their motto was "never let the customer fail."
Those maggies take a lot of juice. I wouldn't even use anything under 100 watts, and 150 or more would be better. The klipsch are efficient speakers. The maggies are not.
You probably should just run those through the local car wash every time before you start working on something to clean the controls and rinse the dust off. 🤷🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️😂😂
I'll be straight up here, I have never worked on anything from HK, NAD or any of these so called great brands and found any satisfaction with them. Poorly engineered, usually average quality PCB's and just generally lackluster products.
Just chaulk it up to schooling. lol...... Try spending 8hrs doing the same kind of investigation, only to realize that you put a wrong new output transistor in the left channel.
Dont beat yourself up..we're all in the same boat, human's are imperfect...we make mistake's.. Everybody's favorite song, hahaha. Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year as well.
Why are you always switching the PHONO??? That has super rare magnetic switches and you push them to the limit. Also they like to burn out, probably because of the 2603 transistor and you use it like that. Also the Power Amp, HK 870, is shoult NEVER be used like that, many resistors and the glue on the bottom will ruin your transistors. Very dumb what you did there, if you would inform yourself a bit, there is a lot of information I think in German on how to rework those units. That was super dangerous to the equipment. And the blinking does not mean protection, it just gets muted or is switching the inputs with the magnetic celonoid switch. or however that is spelled. 13:30 - yeah sure your "power supplyis good", but you still have the leaking, green leged 10/16 blue caps in it that ALWAYS leak. I cannot stand this video, what a junk video. You replace all the known bad parts first, you dont switch around like a madman on old equipment. And maybe read the manual if you are not sure about the operation. You will RUIN your Harman Kardon soon, listen to it while it will last on its last legs. At least you like the sound better than Marantz (of course), but you will regret your sloppyness in dealing with those devices soon. So many died already and you just keep pushing them. At least, if you are a TH-cam, you get another big bonus cash cheque for the next repair video. Must be a good life, just destroy stuff and get paid for it.
I really appreciated seeing this video and how you didn’t mind showing the importance of cleaning the controls. You could have edited that out, but instead included a great reminder for many a meaningful lesson for the rest of us. Looking forward to more of your content in 2025!
I have a few vintage receivers, but my primary system is a mid 80s Yamaha C-60 and an M-60. Not as cool looking as a silver face receiver, but it's got that black face with the red lights and meters and it sounds good. We all make mistakes fixing things and we all learn things from our mistakes. The key is you didn't break anything. I once spent hours trying to figure out why I wasn't getting sound until I noticed the tape monitor was on.
I too run the Yamaha C-60, lovely pre-amp, mine is running 2X Hitachi HMA 8500MKII's and 2X Hitachi HMA 7500MKII's all four are running BTL I can break windows at will :)
Always check the simple things first.
Words of wisdom from an x audio bench tech.😮I like the work you are doing keeping the vintage audio going.
If I’m not mistaken, product’s labeled Heath were built in the factory. Heathkit products were sold in kit form.
My Heathkit AA-1800 power amp came with a small meter to adjust bias - offset
Lots of Heathkits came with meters. In the mid 70s I helped my Dad build a 25" TV; it came with a (relatively simple) multimeter in its own case that was the first thing you had to assemble before you started on the actual TV. After that we did a stereo receiver that had you use the tuning meter as a meter (IIRC there was a switch inside that switched between tuning and measuring).
Nothing is a failure if used as a teachable moment.
Aiden, thanks for taking the time towards the end of the video for your opinion on how the Harmon Kardon works compared to an older Marantz receiver. So many TH-camrs are scared to give their opinion. Happy new year to you and yours.!🎉
everyone's favorite song is the perfect mascot for an audio whyfi channel...
Hey I LOVE your favorite song good for judging basic audio performance, great happy little jazz ditty, keep it-!!
I built a Dynaco Dynakit preamp (DYNACO PAT-4} and power amp {Dynaco 120A) in 1970 that blasted away till 1983 when it just gave up. It was great until surround sound (5.1) was the thing to have.
I remember that the inductors were made by wrapping so many winds of wire around the large capacitors. Great fun to build.
The power amp would also dim the lights when it came on, along with a transformer "bong" until it stabilized.
I built those and the FM5 mid 70's and still them today, and they work. Had to re-cap the power amp.
Love the LP seat booster. Vinyl fan heads are exploding right now..😆👍
Who wants to work on a filthy unit? Clean the outside, clean the controls and test. Enjoy the music while detailing and the ultrasonic is busting grime off the knobs and button caps. That Novus 2 does a great job rejuvenating the shine....that or mothers mag polish.
As soon as you showed the back panel I thought Harman Kardon just like some of the other viewers did. Looks so much like my PM-650.
Hoping you and your family had a great Christmas and will have a fantastic New Year. Unique items there, H-K's in disguise and with 130w I'd say pretty healthy. Dirty controls, who'd of thunk that? 😉 Nice job, thanks for the work. See ya soon.
Thumb's way up for honesty!
I thought it was recommended to turn off the power when connecting and disconnecting inputs and outputs? BTW, it is really great to see someone admit when they have made a mistake. This is how we all learn and I really appreciate your honesty!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! GOOD JOB!!!!! ✨✌️⚡✨
Merry Christmas 🎄! Love these vids :)
Thank You Thank You for keeping in the mistakes. That's how we all learn.
Looking forward to seeing the video on that Carver !! Great little units with tons of clean power but after 30 years or so, it’s bound to need some service.. The cat sure has her priorities in order!!l. 😂
Your correct it is everyone favourite song....i love it...
“Put first things first and second things are thrown in. Put second things first and you lose both first and second things.”
- C. S. Lewis
Its so crazy how much a dirty potentiometer can really just mess things up. I have a Power Amp from RadioShack where the VU meter isnt working, but im very sure its just a dirty trim pot that im too lazy to do anything about
Merry Christmas Mr. Fix It and wishing you a Happy New Year!
Agree! It is everyone's favorite song!!
Ha ha. Except that it is not a song. A song, by definition has to be sung. I hear no singing. 🙂
I rember a Heath Kit store (crazy warehouse more like) near my house in the 70s and 80s. I practically lived there! Rig centers rule!
There used to be a Heath store near me. It was located on the back side of Heath's plant in St Joseph, Michigan. The store was selling computers and educational products. The store apparently was making profit, however they were selling more Apple products than ZDS systems. ZDS shut the store down because it was supposed to be a retail outlet for ZDS computers, and selling Apples became a conflict of interest.
Hee hee! Always clean the controls first, even if they seem okay! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!
I've come to love my Phase Linear 400 (modified with White Oak Audio upgrade and Watts abundant Speaker Relay) with my Planar speakers. Lots of clean a/b power is the ticket.
Those look like Heath branded Harman Kardons.
Edit; Yeah, have a look at the HK825 and HK870 from Harman Kardon
Very good performing gear. Good specs and these should sound great
My Sansui AU-717 is working perfectly now. Someone had already made little access holes in the volume pots.
Exactly what came up in my mind. Harman Kardon all over. I’m still in the first minutes but expect the switches to play up. TK and or ELNA caps. The TK’s can be fine but can also be very hard on their way out.
I posted before I watched, A YT no-no. lol
I did a vid on the HK870. Be sure to check the solder joints on the power transistors. They crack from thermal cycling and can destroy yer speakers.
@@James-dt7ky Somebody beat you to it! Good to know
Regarding the resistors deep under the heatsinks. Hirschmann Kleps (2600 or 3000) will do the trick. The bad connection you noticed is caused by oxidation. A little bit of brushing with a fiberglass brush will fix that for a while.
Regardless of the controls cleaning this was a fun and interesting video. Thank you!
i love the song, and cold showers, and warm beer, and rainy days
Aiden, Thank you so much for this video. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You helped a lot of your viewers, including me. I will always try to remember to clean the controls before troubleshooting my equipment, so something good did come out of your oversight. Thanks for showing the idle current adjustment and DC balance adjustment . I need to learn more about this.
I hope your Christmas went well with family, friends and good food. And I hope 2025 is even better. - Thomas
I'd like to add that it's my favourite song too - but only on this channel _(& Dankpods channel as well) !!_
I wish i could get my techs to be this hard on themselves when THEY make mistakes.
Looking forward to you looking into the Carver!
Meter, possibly supplied for adjusting the Bias???
Good Job! Don't beat yourself up... we've all been there overlooking the simple things while troubleshooting electronics. Hey, look at it this way... at one moment you probably wanted to throw it off the bench, but now its up and running!
A great takeaway is now you what a dirty balance control looks like on the scope.
those advents are real nice, i have a pair daily use
I listen to our favorite song, 24/7!!
It's the u-tube favorite fault song !!!
Hey, live and learn! We have all done something similar. It's actually very rare for us to internalize something like this the first time. It usually takes a few misfires to learn and remember.
The amplifier was a kit with an extra part and the owner stuck it inside thinking they would figure it out later.
Nope. It was used to set voltages during final assembly of the kit.
Well, at least you didn't disassemble the whole unit with parts all over bench, only to find you had it unplugged!!!!
I built an Heathkit AA-1800 decades ago, and that kit included a meter kit for adjusting biases. I suspect that the meter you found in the power amp was for the same purpose, which makes me suspect that your power amp may have been an actual kit.
Great video :) I mostly come here to listen to my favourite song. All the best.
Jazz Fan...........................So I enjoy your "Walk in the Park" Have made same mistake with dirty/oxidized Pot controls and switches as well.
I have a marantz 2226b that I bought from a thrift store for 20$ and a pair of Polk model 7b for 5$ for the pair. The combination sounds amazing! Cant believe the bass that it can make. There is a song on Laurie Andersons "Mr Heartbreak"that has a 4 note bass line that sounds great.
Look at the backside of this amp... check the transistors under the covers . Thermalpaste is most of the problems and often the solder joint cracked. Watch it on trevors bench.. set is the same as Harman Kardon hk870. helps me a lot. But good job. This set sounds impressive. Greetings from germany
WOW Heathkit my dad built a color tv when i was a kid
Mark Twain
“History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes”.
TrackTribe released a full hour version of the best song ever written. Isn't that great?
You found your error and remedied it. At least you didn't order and install a bunch of new components for it before you did.
My current mains are Maggie MMGs and I can attest to your information. I have them running on a 120WPC yamaha integrated with DAC. It sounds super detailed and the soundstage is huge. For my money, the maggies love big modern power. Fun to play with, maybe tube pre and modern power amp?
When i saw the Heath units i was struck by how similar they both looked to my Adcom units of the early 90's. Same pre-amp/power amp specs at 100w per side. I was always impressed by the Adcom power and sound staging. The faces are almost identical. Adcom used round buttons where the Heath used square buttons. Other than that, identical as i remember them. Do you think the manufacturers purchased generic face plates from suppliers. I had opened my components several times and do not remember the "rods" extending back to adjustable pots.
Do you have any thoughts on this?
Those look like rebranded Harman Kardon 825/870 power and preamp combo
it s the same
I was thinking HK as soon as I saw the units.
They should sound Really good once fully serviced.
that is a nice set, wish i had one.
It's a great favourite song
awesome video! please go back into the power amp and fix the solder joints on those wires. that thing was definitely hobbyist assembled, and those joints are not making a good mechanical connection.
One day you should hook up with the musicians responsible for our favorite song. The essential classic "Walk in the Park" by Jazz Instrumental Relax Center!!
Don't ruin the Advents! I have some throwaway speakers for stuff like this ever since an old Amp put 40 volts out directly to the speaker terminal and blew them. Also, it seems strange that the preamp would have a protection circuit.
It's likely a muting circuit to suppress turn-on/turn-off/input-switching transients that would be amplified downstream. My Apt Holman preamp works in this way.
Everybody's favorite song (and mine) has become your signature and should never be changed! Good for you to inform the rest of us who, and for some, could easily have fallen prey to the same situation. Nice job in the end.
Appreciate you actually sharing the mistakes so we all learn from them. Suggestion: create a checklist so you ensure you follow the same initial diagnostic process each time and don't miss/forget the simple things, then you can share with all of us as well.
Touch by Daft Punk @17:54 is the perfect test song.
this is harman kardon cictation selled under other brand. i had it couple of times. repaired
9:25 Tektronic and fluke fancy 😁
Power amp was definitely a kit build.
My sansui 5050 went silent after an hour of playing music through it.still lights up but no sound.all fuses are good.what could it be?
I was wondering if you had cleaned the pots..
Figured that was the first step..
the fact you could still buy a KIT to build the amp yourself is crazy, that was common back in the 1950s and 60s but even by the early 70s "stereo kits" were becoming very rare and pretty much never an option for Japanese made gear. Heath was probably last major company to have kits as an option.
Hafler still had kits, not sure when those were stopped.
So those two were sold new for $2,273 in today's money.
How are you connecting your phone to the CD input or am I completely mistaken?
Never mind. I'm a dope. One should think before one types. Carry on, as you were.
It's my favorite song!!
It's called a "Learning Curve Tracer".
I'll bet that amp is a home built unit and that little meter was used to set the bias or DC offset??? Just a guess.
use the O-scope to trace the signal, dont get flustered and confused because the Volt readings dont exactly match the schematic, they rarely do.
What a beast!
I like the song..
Looks like a clone of an HK 825. Nice preamp.
Boa noite amigo.
Nunca ligue o amp sem as caixas de som estar conectadas.
Don’t beat yourself up! The more we know, the more we think it’s got to be something complicated. That said, I always try to remind myself to check the simple stuff first😅
even those who know what they're doing need to relearn a lesson now & then.
Heath!? Aren't Heath pieces self-builds????? Heathkit? Am I confused? Very possible.
They provided both kits and prebuilt components also.
Already mentioned, but their products could be bought as a kit or pre-assembled. They were less expensive in kit form, and the company was known for good customer service. If a customer had an issue while assembling it, they could get tech a troubleshoot things over the phone or even send it to the factory and have their techs troubleshoot and finish the kit. Their motto was "never let the customer fail."
Not the first time I have overlooked the obvious on anything
Those maggies take a lot of juice. I wouldn't even use anything under 100 watts, and 150 or more would be better. The klipsch are efficient speakers. The maggies are not.
think the meter was being in there was by accident . many meters from heath kit start with 407-
You probably should just run those through the local car wash every time before you start working on something to clean the controls and rinse the dust off. 🤷🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️😂😂
I'll be straight up here, I have never worked on anything from HK, NAD or any of these so called great brands and found any satisfaction with them.
Poorly engineered, usually average quality PCB's and just generally lackluster products.
You are great, love watching your videos and also learning a lot. Thank you, Merry and HNY. to you yours and Saidy.
Just chaulk it up to schooling. lol...... Try spending 8hrs doing the same kind of investigation, only to realize that you put a wrong new output transistor in the left channel.
Dont beat yourself up..we're all in the same boat, human's are imperfect...we make mistake's..
Everybody's favorite song, hahaha.
Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year as well.
$25 for the pair.
You're wrong again...that song sucks. Plenty song's on TH-cam men. Get with it.
Are you here for the video content or the music? Let it go, Mr. Huffy
@Mrsteve4761 sorry if I offended you and your boyfriend...but it is what it is...
Why are you always switching the PHONO??? That has super rare magnetic switches and you push them to the limit. Also they like to burn out, probably because of the 2603 transistor and you use it like that. Also the Power Amp, HK 870, is shoult NEVER be used like that, many resistors and the glue on the bottom will ruin your transistors. Very dumb what you did there, if you would inform yourself a bit, there is a lot of information I think in German on how to rework those units. That was super dangerous to the equipment. And the blinking does not mean protection, it just gets muted or is switching the inputs with the magnetic celonoid switch. or however that is spelled.
13:30 - yeah sure your "power supplyis good", but you still have the leaking, green leged 10/16 blue caps in it that ALWAYS leak.
I cannot stand this video, what a junk video. You replace all the known bad parts first, you dont switch around like a madman on old equipment. And maybe read the manual if you are not sure about the operation.
You will RUIN your Harman Kardon soon, listen to it while it will last on its last legs. At least you like the sound better than Marantz (of course), but you will regret your sloppyness in dealing with those devices soon. So many died already and you just keep pushing them. At least, if you are a TH-cam, you get another big bonus cash cheque for the next repair video. Must be a good life, just destroy stuff and get paid for it.
Why so negative? We're all here to help each other, not cut each other down