mzpro5 wrote: 
Yes.

There is of course old crap and new crap, new good stuff and old good stuff, but as a general rule bang for your buck with the old stuff is much better. Just for starters, modern power supplies are feeble. I have done many back to back comparisons, including between my HK730 (40 watts RMS a side) and my Marantz 2245 (45 watts RMS a side) against the receiver they replaced, an Onkyo model from the 90s (100 watts RMS a side). The Onkyo didn't have a chance, both in terms of warmth and quality of sound and overall power. When I bought it I thought it was a great amp, as soon as I bought the Harman/Kardon it was obvious just how much it was lacking.

There is a chicken and the egg type situation with modern music recordings and modern music reproducing electronics. In both cases they tend to sound cold and as though the loudness button is depressed at all times. I suspect the records are EQed to work with the sound systems, though it is possible that it is the other way round. I listen primarily to older music, acoustic music, jazz, etc, both of which sound amazing on both of my systems. Modern rock, sounds great too. At times in the past, though not currently, I've had a system (also vintage, but different brands) set up that sounds fantastic with modern rock recordings. Older recordings, acoustic music, jazz, etc sound like crap on it because its got a sharper, harder, bassier and treblier sound.

If you're listening to mp3s you'll hardly notice any difference between your modern whatsit and something old and nice, but with CDs, records, DVDs you sure should. And always consider the magic of component matching. I have lots and lots of gear and all of it sounds great...when combined with the right other gear. I am not a fan of my H/K CD player with the Marantz reciever, but it sounds good with the H/K reciever and great with my Pioneer integrated. My Marantz HD770 speakers only really work well with the Pioneer, with everything else they sound like they have a whole in the mid-range (and they do really, the Pioneer just turns them into this great rock system).

I spent $30 on the Marantz 2245 and $25 in parts to fix it up. Nothing you can find at the store for under $500 has a chance and you'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands, because I will never ever give it up. But you're welcome to come and listen to it anytime.

 mjmurphy61 wrote: 
Good to hear!  Glad you got it working.

 cc_rider wrote: 
Yup, kind of embarrased that I posted the problem BEFORE I opened it up and looked under the hood, but actually I was inspired to dig into it when I read some of these posts. It's a great piece of gear, and I can't say any of of my other electronics has lasted that long (except a couple guitars.)

 mjmurphy61 wrote: 
Outstanding! Some of that dust was prolly shorting across something. Glad to hear all is well!

Good news.

Problem solved. I just opened up the top, grabbed some compressed air and contact cleaner from my gig bag, blew away about 30 years of dust, cleaned all the contacts, and now I'm listening in ridiculously great stereo sound again! The thing is blasting RP as I write this.

Since I never had a problem before, the amp was 30 years old and in storage for a year, I just figured it was probably toast.... and time for a new one when I "lost" the right channel. Anyway, thanks to all who posted on this. I learned a bunch and saved some serious dough too!

Now for those speakers...

Lets rock!

 mzpro5 wrote: 
These days, most repairs can ONLY be done to board level. The 'circuit boards' in the old gear appear to be one small step up(?) from point-to-point wiring, so replacing components on them is not quite so difficult as trying to extract an IC from a SMT PCB. Which is why the small appliance repairman has pretty much gone the way of the cobbler and the tinker.

 Milo wrote: 
Do you really believe this?  There is a load of equipment well under 4 figures that will provide stellar performance. Have you sonically compared equipment from the '70s with equipment from today?  You would spend probably two thirds the price of a new receiver to fix the old one....IF...you could find someone that knows how to do component level repair. Most repairs today are done only to board level....problem on a board, that's as far as you go, replace the whole board.  Not sure that would work with a '70s era receiver if the parts are available.  You can get more performance for less money in a modern receiver.

Though they may not be "elite" equipment you can get more performance for less money in a number of moderately priced receivers.

The attitude that it is better just because it is older is silly.

Of course this is just my opinion as a serious A/V fan for over 40 years that would not trade my current setup for my 1974 receiver for all the money in the world.

 mjmurphy61 wrote: 
I use Airport Expresses to receive iTunes or Airfoil fed audio streams around my house, I have one inputting to the main hifi system (Quad amp & Linn speakers, my Quad 33 and 405 are about the same vintage as your HK380i and the Indexes aren't much younger) plus another two APX inputting to Sonic Impact T-Amps with Q-Associates 1010i speakers. For about £200 the Airport Express + T-Amp + 1010i combination is fantastic.

The Sonic Impact T-Amps seemed to get very positive reviews and given the price, about $65, they are great but I can't see any for sale any more.

I've been looking for an alternate simple and inexpensive 2 ch amp to replace a pair of powered desk speakers and turned up the Audiosource AMP-100. Again it gets good reviews and fulfils the 'simple' requirement with only a volume and balance control. Try to google for the AMP-100, it should fall within your price limits.

 Milo wrote: 
See, double consonants in each word.

 dmax wrote: 
Is that the recommended spelling?

 hippiechick wrote: 
Thhe correct spelling: Recommended

Just seems right somehow, doesn't it? 

The correct spelling: Recommended

 mjmurphy61 wrote: 
Unless your budget has four digits or you really must have a remote control, you're not going to buy better equipment than they made in the 70s. Unless you're shopping for a CD player, in which case the best ones are from the early to mid nineties.

And you're not feeding the throwaway society we have become, which is just as important.

 Beaker wrote: 
Okay you guys are guilting me out. I've had this thing since high school and so of course I really do love it. I'm taking it down to the local repair shop and gettin' me another 30 years worth of awesome music! Man, good thing I wasn't looking for help on putting my dog down!

 cc_rider wrote: 
I know of at least three places/people locally that would happily repair this reciever. Go to http://www.audiokarma.org and ask around, there is guaranteed to be somebody who will help you fix it yourself over the internet or that can recommend somebody in your area to do it.

 Beaker wrote: 

 cc_rider wrote: 
I was under the understanding that the life span of many of the electrolytics in electronics of the past had a useful lifespan of about 25 years before they start losing performance due to drying up. Lots of people replace the electrolytics in their vintage stuff with more modern capacitors. But of course I am not an electronics technician and have never performed this modification on any of my many vintage pieces.

 Beaker wrote: 
Oh, the only reason I even ask is because I use film-and-foil caps for building speaker crossovers, that's all. In that world, electrolytics are considered inferior, but your experience says that's not the case in active devices. Since I'm not a EE or tech, I didn't know if there's anything to be gained by using the more exotic caps. Plus, some crossover designs employ a little bitty film cap on top of a larger electrolytic, to provide the required capacitance and still get the fast response of a film cap. It's fairly common in speakers, I was just wondering if the technique is ever used in amps as well.

 Beaker wrote: 
Absolutely agree. However, the likelihood of finding a tech to fix most ANYTHING these days is pretty remote. It's far more likely murph is faced with replacing it than having it repaired. Heck, the repair cost would almost certainly be far more than buying a comparable new unit: probably $75 just to open the case, IF he can find someone willing to even look at it.

With schematic in hand, and a little judicious cleaning/testing, he might be able to fix it. If not, well, he was already shopping for a new one anyway. Damn disposable society, but that's the way it is.

I used to have a massive MISSION amplifier a buddy gave me: it had some obvious hot spots and other issues, but nothing very easily repaired. I took it to a specialist in older gear, he had the dang thing for a couple years: neither of us was ever was able to track down a schematic for it. I finally took it back from the tech guy and tore it down for parts. Saved the transistors, big caps, and a couple of HUGE toroidal coils. Plus some cool heatsinks and whatnot. Not sure if I'll ever use any of them, but I couldn't bear to throw them away either. Oh well, maybe they'll come in handy if the Sansuis ever need anything. At this rate that seems unlikely.

 cc_rider wrote: 
ESR -equivalent series resistance - is one possible factor.

 Beaker wrote: 
Wuss. You probably read the instructions before assembling stuff, don't you? And take maps for long trips? No guts.

Just kiddin' ya Beaks. That's awesome you were able to find the schematic, free no less. I had to buy the ones for my Sansuis, but since some poor devil took the time to scan them and everything, I didn't mind. Prolly saved me from blowing something up, too.

Just wondering, since we've mentioned caps and polarity, I might as well ask someone who will know: can you replace polarized electrolytics with film-and-foil caps? Obviously the size and lead configuration could be an issue, but is there any electrical reason?

There has been much mention of deoxit (which really is the best contact cleaner) and your switches. The switches on pretty much all HK gear from the 70s and early 80s suck, but the ones on your particular receiver are the worst. It is generally recommended to clean those switches every couple of years. I would definitely try playing with the switches to see if you can get your signal back that way.