I have been 'renovating' a pair of Sansui SP 1700 that my grandparent gave me to me few years ago, they were made in 1973 so pretty 'antique' even in the vintage audio niche.
Everything I replaced, I did it per speaker so i can hear the difference as i progress. I always exchanged components for components of equal values (Basically the most expensive option from Dayton Audio, which is borderline snake oil, but not there yet)
Replacing the ~50 year old electrolyte capacitors was a very interesting experience, the old ones were Rubycon so no explosion or swelling, but it doesn't take an expert to know that they're way off their advertisied values after such a long time.
After placing the new capacitors, the first 2 hours the speaker sounded just way off, way deeper than usual and as if the enclosure was left open or something. 12 hours later they sounded okay, 24 hours later they sounded better than the speaker I didn't touch.
Now this could just be my brain canceling the difference between the two. As Audio that we perceive is just vibrations that the brain thinks are different from the rest of the vibrations out there. My brain could have just equalized these two inputs from the two speakers as time progressed.
Now I was interested in replacing the resistors on the board, now resistors typically don't go bad and they were ceramic resistors made by Micron. But it's been almost 50 years, So I couldn't help myself since the whole thing is so old. The old resistors were 16 ΩK (so 10% tolerance value) while the Dayton audio replacement were 16 Ω with 1% tolerance value.
I expected nothing, as the old resistors were properly okay. But i can swear the Speaker with the replaced resistors has lower distortion. Sansui advertised THD value is between 0.1% and 1% (which is okay for the 70s), is it possible that the resistor change lowered Distortion? Or is it just my brain and it's further 'justified' because i actually did something that i think is meaningful?
What are your experiences in these sort of things? What is the scientific consensus about this as well?
Everything I replaced, I did it per speaker so i can hear the difference as i progress. I always exchanged components for components of equal values (Basically the most expensive option from Dayton Audio, which is borderline snake oil, but not there yet)
Replacing the ~50 year old electrolyte capacitors was a very interesting experience, the old ones were Rubycon so no explosion or swelling, but it doesn't take an expert to know that they're way off their advertisied values after such a long time.
After placing the new capacitors, the first 2 hours the speaker sounded just way off, way deeper than usual and as if the enclosure was left open or something. 12 hours later they sounded okay, 24 hours later they sounded better than the speaker I didn't touch.
Now this could just be my brain canceling the difference between the two. As Audio that we perceive is just vibrations that the brain thinks are different from the rest of the vibrations out there. My brain could have just equalized these two inputs from the two speakers as time progressed.
Now I was interested in replacing the resistors on the board, now resistors typically don't go bad and they were ceramic resistors made by Micron. But it's been almost 50 years, So I couldn't help myself since the whole thing is so old. The old resistors were 16 ΩK (so 10% tolerance value) while the Dayton audio replacement were 16 Ω with 1% tolerance value.
I expected nothing, as the old resistors were properly okay. But i can swear the Speaker with the replaced resistors has lower distortion. Sansui advertised THD value is between 0.1% and 1% (which is okay for the 70s), is it possible that the resistor change lowered Distortion? Or is it just my brain and it's further 'justified' because i actually did something that i think is meaningful?
What are your experiences in these sort of things? What is the scientific consensus about this as well?
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