HiFi Hell
January 18, 2015 4:37 PM Subscribe
is it worth repairing/restoring my old NAD receiver, or should I just look for something else?
Last year I rescued an old JVC turntable and Technics receiver from my grandmother's basement. I got both working again and was enjoying them until earlier this month when the turntable finally stopped working on me. I could have replaced the phono cable and had it working again but I used it as an excuse to buy something new, so I picked up a Rega RP1.
I also figured I needed a decent amp or receiver to do the Rega justice so I happened to find a good deal on a NAD 7155 receiver. Or so I thought. There's a problem with the balance/volume dial and possibly something else. I took it apart and cleaned the pots as best i could. I thought I had it working until tonight when it started happening again. Took it apart again, cleaned it some more, poked around looking for leaking caps and broken solder joints but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. It's still happening.
I know it's a nice receiver but is it really worth having it fixed? I don't know how much that would cost but I'm guessing it'll be more than the $75 I paid for it. Any specific repair shops in NYC I should be looking into?
What other vintage amps and receivers should I be on the lookout for? I've been looking at Marantz and Sansui and Denon but I have no real idea which specific models.
Should I just buy something new? I'd rather not spend any more than $300-$400 so something like the Rega Brio-R is out of the question but I'm open to recommendations.
Last year I rescued an old JVC turntable and Technics receiver from my grandmother's basement. I got both working again and was enjoying them until earlier this month when the turntable finally stopped working on me. I could have replaced the phono cable and had it working again but I used it as an excuse to buy something new, so I picked up a Rega RP1.
I also figured I needed a decent amp or receiver to do the Rega justice so I happened to find a good deal on a NAD 7155 receiver. Or so I thought. There's a problem with the balance/volume dial and possibly something else. I took it apart and cleaned the pots as best i could. I thought I had it working until tonight when it started happening again. Took it apart again, cleaned it some more, poked around looking for leaking caps and broken solder joints but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. It's still happening.
I know it's a nice receiver but is it really worth having it fixed? I don't know how much that would cost but I'm guessing it'll be more than the $75 I paid for it. Any specific repair shops in NYC I should be looking into?
What other vintage amps and receivers should I be on the lookout for? I've been looking at Marantz and Sansui and Denon but I have no real idea which specific models.
Should I just buy something new? I'd rather not spend any more than $300-$400 so something like the Rega Brio-R is out of the question but I'm open to recommendations.
I vote for something new, unless you really have a vintage gear fetish, in which case $75 is chump change. NADs are wonderful. ( Seriously, I am a fan. I have an NAD preamp on my desk right now!).
But as much as I like old gear, I just had to buy four 7.2 receivers to outfit a bunch of classrooms, and is astounding how much you can get for a couple of hundred bucks these days, including units from Sony, Onkyo, H-K, and Denon. Denon makes a couple of straight up stereo models still as well. These are good sounding amps, with tons of inputs and outputs (you may need to buy a separate phono preamp, but those aren't that expensive for basic quality). They come with loads of shit you probably don't care about, but you might eventually enter the digital source age... The build quality on them is excellent. They are power efficient. They run cooler than older gear. And they are compatible with modern digital inputs and outputs that didn't exist when your NAD was designed, including optical, USB, and HDMI, and in some cases bluetooth and WiFI and network streaming over ethernet, even in $250 units.
The other major issue is, what are you driving? What kind of speakers and what is their power rating?
Anyway, if your goal is good sound on a limited budget, I am of the firm opinion that new gear offers insanely better value than vintage gear unless you have the hobby of hunting for cheap vintage gear and a willingness to end up spending quite a bit of money getting it all working together. And even then, meh,vintage is overrated for sound quality and most people either can't tell the difference or just like distortion more than I do. It is just crazy how cheap reasonable quality is, and how affordable really good quality is.
It is true that you don't describe the problem very clearly, maybe we could troubleshoot your NAD a little with more detail.
posted by spitbull at 5:40 PM on January 18, 2015
But as much as I like old gear, I just had to buy four 7.2 receivers to outfit a bunch of classrooms, and is astounding how much you can get for a couple of hundred bucks these days, including units from Sony, Onkyo, H-K, and Denon. Denon makes a couple of straight up stereo models still as well. These are good sounding amps, with tons of inputs and outputs (you may need to buy a separate phono preamp, but those aren't that expensive for basic quality). They come with loads of shit you probably don't care about, but you might eventually enter the digital source age... The build quality on them is excellent. They are power efficient. They run cooler than older gear. And they are compatible with modern digital inputs and outputs that didn't exist when your NAD was designed, including optical, USB, and HDMI, and in some cases bluetooth and WiFI and network streaming over ethernet, even in $250 units.
The other major issue is, what are you driving? What kind of speakers and what is their power rating?
Anyway, if your goal is good sound on a limited budget, I am of the firm opinion that new gear offers insanely better value than vintage gear unless you have the hobby of hunting for cheap vintage gear and a willingness to end up spending quite a bit of money getting it all working together. And even then, meh,vintage is overrated for sound quality and most people either can't tell the difference or just like distortion more than I do. It is just crazy how cheap reasonable quality is, and how affordable really good quality is.
It is true that you don't describe the problem very clearly, maybe we could troubleshoot your NAD a little with more detail.
posted by spitbull at 5:40 PM on January 18, 2015
Response by poster: Sorry, I guess I should have gone into more detail about the actual problem with the NAD. Basically, the volume dial only works correctly if the balance dial is set all the way to the right. Otherwise, turning the volume dial changes the balance but the volume is stuck at its highest setting. Enabling the "Low Level" setting seems to fix it, sometimes, but not always. I thought maybe the issue was with that particular push-button switch but no amount of fiddling and cleaning has changed it. Also, it seems like the problem is much worse when the case is opened. I had pretty much given up on fixing it tonight, but after closing it back it it seemed to be working fine, until the problem slowly came back after 10 minutes or so of listening.
posted by Venadium at 5:45 PM on January 18, 2015
posted by Venadium at 5:45 PM on January 18, 2015
Response by poster: As for speakers, I'm currently using a pair of old Mirage floorstanding speakers but I was planning on getting a set of decent bookshelf speakers like the Monitor Audio BX2s or Wharfedale Diamons 10.2s. I haven't actually decided yet but it will definitely be something about that size and price.
posted by Venadium at 5:51 PM on January 18, 2015
posted by Venadium at 5:51 PM on January 18, 2015
I'd have to see it in person to diagnose, obviously, but this doesn't sound like a horrible fix. bad pot maybe, fucked up bias maybe, etc.
Is there a vintage audio shop near you? i think a receiver like that is worth spending $50-100 to repair rather than bother buying something else. it's definitely not worth just junking.
one the side for voting towards a nice vintage receiver is that new receivers use wimpy, smaller transformers because of weight and copper being expensive. a receiver like that has a nice big beefy transformer, and this _really_ helps with the lowend and big transient attacks, even at lower volumes.
i own one of those nicer new receivers, and i also own a couple nice older receivers like yours and a couple big boy integrated amps. The new ones are pretty well made, and reliable, and don't need fiddling... but a used mid range to upper end midrange brand amp is a lot more bang for your buck than a low end new amp. Nice stuff is made now, but it costs a lot. Old stuff that used to cost a lot costs comparatively little now. Just a better value.
$75 was a very good deal, and sinking another $75 in wouldn't be stupid. the shop that can fix it would likely charge $2-300 for it and sell it easily.
and honestly, the reason to get this one checked out and not just buy another vintage one is that this is a known quantity, and once you get it checked out you'll know the bias is spot on and everything else is good to go and wont asplode in a week.
if you really do decide you absolutely want to buy a new one, my recommendation is this stealthy little pioneer elite no one seems to know about(it's designed to go with their andrew jones speakers like this which are a shockingly good value).
Personally i'd check out what the repair + used gear shop near you has in your price range though, it'll likely be way nicer than anything available new. You want your cities equivalent of this shop in seattle.
posted by emptythought at 6:43 PM on January 18, 2015
Is there a vintage audio shop near you? i think a receiver like that is worth spending $50-100 to repair rather than bother buying something else. it's definitely not worth just junking.
one the side for voting towards a nice vintage receiver is that new receivers use wimpy, smaller transformers because of weight and copper being expensive. a receiver like that has a nice big beefy transformer, and this _really_ helps with the lowend and big transient attacks, even at lower volumes.
i own one of those nicer new receivers, and i also own a couple nice older receivers like yours and a couple big boy integrated amps. The new ones are pretty well made, and reliable, and don't need fiddling... but a used mid range to upper end midrange brand amp is a lot more bang for your buck than a low end new amp. Nice stuff is made now, but it costs a lot. Old stuff that used to cost a lot costs comparatively little now. Just a better value.
$75 was a very good deal, and sinking another $75 in wouldn't be stupid. the shop that can fix it would likely charge $2-300 for it and sell it easily.
and honestly, the reason to get this one checked out and not just buy another vintage one is that this is a known quantity, and once you get it checked out you'll know the bias is spot on and everything else is good to go and wont asplode in a week.
if you really do decide you absolutely want to buy a new one, my recommendation is this stealthy little pioneer elite no one seems to know about(it's designed to go with their andrew jones speakers like this which are a shockingly good value).
Personally i'd check out what the repair + used gear shop near you has in your price range though, it'll likely be way nicer than anything available new. You want your cities equivalent of this shop in seattle.
posted by emptythought at 6:43 PM on January 18, 2015
I have an old NAD integrated amp that sounds similar to yours. Mine too has some wierdness with the volume and balance controls. On my model the balance pot is coaxial with the volume, and they are linked together in an odd way. Also, my loudness control seems to work differently on one side. I tried to troubleshoot it about ten years ago and was unsuccessful. I ended up running the thing wide open and feeding it with outputs from a Mackie 1202.
If this is indeed a common trouble spot on NAD equipment, I'd bet there are people discussing it on a forum somewhere. Have you tried vintage gear googling?
posted by werkzeuger at 6:46 PM on January 18, 2015
If this is indeed a common trouble spot on NAD equipment, I'd bet there are people discussing it on a forum somewhere. Have you tried vintage gear googling?
posted by werkzeuger at 6:46 PM on January 18, 2015
Those older NAD amps are pretty sought after and you got a very good deal; $75 for a halfway-working one is probably not unfair. $150-300 for one that's working well and sounds great is probably market price to a lot of people. Of course, that assumes you like vintage gear. If you just want something that makes your computer/iPod/whatever louder, maybe you don't care, and any old amp would work. That's a personal decision, but I'd say it's worth getting looked at.
posted by Kadin2048 at 6:47 PM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Kadin2048 at 6:47 PM on January 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
If what you tried didn't fix it, it either wasn't the problem or how you tried it was wrong. Since it seems you tried it twice,I think it's the former.
Get a schematic and an oscilloscope. Send in some audio and find out where it's getting scrambled. Fix that. You are assuming that a problem exists with a pot (reasonable) but the assumption has not panned out. Time to get the real story.
Schematic will cost you $10. Scope, a lot more, but if you have a ham radio friend or EE buddy, you can probably borrow one. Audio freq. scopes are common and cheap. Someone you know has one, I'll bet.
Voltages inside those things are low, and the AC power area is what you should avoid. The rest is all low voltage DC.
I worked on a NAD receiver yesterday. Nice box. Old is often better. I prefer old Kenwood amps... DC coupled with insane bandwidth and lousy frigging switches.
No kidding... it seems you are 90% of the way there. Why not go a little further, develop some new skills, slay a dragon, brag and profit?
posted by FauxScot at 9:54 AM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
Get a schematic and an oscilloscope. Send in some audio and find out where it's getting scrambled. Fix that. You are assuming that a problem exists with a pot (reasonable) but the assumption has not panned out. Time to get the real story.
Schematic will cost you $10. Scope, a lot more, but if you have a ham radio friend or EE buddy, you can probably borrow one. Audio freq. scopes are common and cheap. Someone you know has one, I'll bet.
Voltages inside those things are low, and the AC power area is what you should avoid. The rest is all low voltage DC.
I worked on a NAD receiver yesterday. Nice box. Old is often better. I prefer old Kenwood amps... DC coupled with insane bandwidth and lousy frigging switches.
No kidding... it seems you are 90% of the way there. Why not go a little further, develop some new skills, slay a dragon, brag and profit?
posted by FauxScot at 9:54 AM on January 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
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Nevertheless: It is quite old, so probably not worth having repaired by a pro.
Take a look at this link and see if it addresses your problem.
posted by Thug at 5:25 PM on January 18, 2015