What do we mean “Complete Restoration” and Why is it
important?
If we are going to talk about “vintage audio” we are
talking about machines which are at least twenty years old and older.
Isn’t it amazing that equipment of that age was so well put
together that it is now very popular and much sought after. The
better vintage audio pieces were wonderfully designed and built. Of
course the fact that present day consumer-grade audio/video components
are cheap and sleazy doesn’t hurt the comparable desirability of
good vintage audio. Glowing statements aside though, don’t
presume that it is simply a matter of extracting the baby from
somebody’s closet and experiencing sonic bliss. Most older
machines come to me after years of neglect. Even if they are
electronically sound—that is to say, not completely
broken—they still need a fair amount of attention before they are
able to approximate their former glory. This fact applies the most
stringently to the fancier or more collectible pieces. Suppose you
have a something like a Marantz or McIntosh tube preamp from the
’60’s. You would be completely out of your mind to simply
plug it in and use it. It would not only perform well below its
capability, there would also be the possibility of damage to critical
parts by running it without it being restored first—for example,
if the filter capacitors fail due to normal aging, they can destroy
the transformers. Clearly, you should do what is necessary to
preserve your equipment if it has value.
So what do we mean by “complete restoration”? Simply
put, our “complete restoration” is the level of service
needed to bring a piece of equipment back to its original performance
and reliability…to make it perform as much like it did when it
was new as is possible without replacing every single part in the
unit. It is this level of service which creates happiness of
ownership and use. After all, if a lovely old piece “almost
works” or works part of the time you will be less than thrilled.
You bought it to enjoy it, and enjoy it you will…if it works
well and looks good, which is the whole purpose restoring it.
In order of importance and process, it goes like this. First you
repair any overt failures which the unit may have. After that, you
replace any parts which experience has shown to be prone to fail in
this unit. This is done even if they check ok. The mere fact that
they have a high failure rate is sufficient to warrant this, largely
because of the age of these units. Then you do the
“housekeeping” which would be to clean and deoxidize the
controls and switches, to resolder bad or suspect joints which crop up
over time, to do alignments and tighten up loose things, etc,
etc. When all of these things are done, the performance of the unit
should be at or near original. To finish things off, you do a
complete cosmetic so it looks good. After everything is done, you run
it a while so you can confirm that it does indeed work well and that
it remains stable in normal use. Only after all of these things are
done is the unit ready to go back into service.
The restoration job is not the same for every piece of equipment.
There is quite a variety of vintage audio out there and available for
use, and different models do different things. The restoration
depends completely on the experience of the technician doing the work.
Any unit that is worthy of consideration has by now a pretty full
“case history” file. Over the years, with any particular
model, certain problems have shown up over and over again, and as they
age, new problems begin to appear. The trick here is to know what
these problems are, and to know the countermeasures specific to each
model. Some of these countermeasures are absolute no-brainers. You
can anticipate that switches and controls will become oxidized, that
rubber parts will go soft, that mechanical linkages will become gummed
up as the grease hardens. Other countermeasures are not so obvious.
Certain parts have a habit of failing or becoming marginal, but it
varies from model to model, and the technician must be familiar with
all of these. For example, if you are working on a Pioneer SX-980
(a receiver of the late 70’s), you will be concerned with
different problems than an SX-1080, or even more so if it is an
SX-780. If it is a McIntosh MA-6100 then you have an altogether
different set of concerns. All in all, there is a really wide range
of usable machines and they are all different and do different things
so it is critical to know just what has been failing over time, and
what to do about it. The technician has to know what fails, and has to
care enough to do a solid and permanent repair. If you gloss over
something, or leave something out, it will always come back to bite
you.
I see a great many machines which have been procured on the promise
of good performance. Sellers will sometimes represent them as very
functional, and many probably do so in good faith. After all, most
people will turn it on, and if it works at all and has a decent
appearance, they will consider it to be and say it is
perfect….they just don’t know how untrue that is. I also
see many machines which have been represented as “recently
serviced” or some similar phrasing. What is usually found inside
these is that they have been somewhat crudely patched back together
and that most of the subtle problems that would be only too plain to a
specialist have been ignored. I suspect there is a whole generation
of technicians out there—mostly working on newer stuff—who
will consent to do vintage audio, but with little enthusiasm. Their
belief is that the unit has only limited value, and that the owner
wants to just “get it going.” Consequently, they spend as
little time and effort as possible on it. So they will do precious
little and assume that everyone will be pleased. Of course, the unit
works like hell and no one is happy. This style of technician
frequently uses wrong parts or bad judgement and leaves the unit in
worse condition than he found it.
Since the Complete Overhaul is usually more comprehensive than
lesser service jobs, it tends to cost more. I think a good way to
look at this is to calculate your cost over a period of time. A cheap
repair that lasts 90 days is not really much of a bargain. If
technician A charges twice as much as technician B, but the unit has
better performance and lasts four times as long, then technician A is
actually the more economical option. This obviously applies more to
better quality equipment than to the lesser stuff. Let’s face it,
the lesser stuff should perhaps be retired, but the real gems, the
real good stuff deserves very high quality treatment. Good collector
pieces are easily worth the cost of a real restoration, and in fact,
it is just a shame to do any less.
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