Vintage Audio Blog

RIFA Capacitors will die.

Vintage, Swedish-made RIFA capacitors should always, ALWAYS be replaced no matter if they are working or not. These are frequently used...

Luxman and L&G

Luxman is a long-time maker of hi-fi gear going back several decades. They still make audio equipment and many of their pieces are in the...

Suicide Varistor Diode

Many times there are vintage pieces of audio gear that have components that are destructive if left as-is. Transistors and diodes are top...

A rare Optonica SM-4646 integrated amp!

A long-dead division of Sharp Electronics in Japan, this extremely rare amp was their attempt to break into the HiFi market. Too little...

How does a receiver or amplifier shed heat?

Every receiver or integrated amplifier generate heat of varying levels. The output processors on the amplifier board are just one of the...

Time for some clock gears

An old TFM-C720 from 1972 getting a replacement gear. The motors, made by Copal Denki in Japan, were very robust and simple....

Crispy power switch on a JDM Pioneer SA-8800 (SA-7500 in the US)

Over time, with these old machines, the power switch contacts get pitted and a little burnt from having full mains power (120v US)...

Use that AUX port!

Similar to hooking up a turntable, using a Bluetooth receiver to stream music into your receiver or amp is SUPER simple. There are many,...

Turntable hookup basics.

It's already been talked about a lot on the interwebs, but I thought I'd post some basic setup steps for hooking your turntable up to...