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Harman kardon tube receiver


dtr20

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From his testing, it seemed like the receiver had about 15 hours on it total. The output tubes weren't 100%, but pretty close. To replace the tubes with true 7408 tubes, it was going to be about an extra $200 from what he could find. He replaced other tubes (tuner and some preamp) that weren't working, cleaned the unit, cleaned the sockets, etc.

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I have seen old tube amps come back to life somewhat after listening to them for a while. It's like the capacitors get revitalized a little. But most of the time the capacitors need replacing before the unit will sound really good. You can source Orange Drops from Antique Radio Supply for reasonable money. Its critical to the audio path to have capacitors that work.

 

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Unless he took it to measuring ESR, I highly doubt he got all the ones you need replacing. An old audio capacitor can still measure correct capacitance yet be very high in ESR which can affect the sound you hear.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESR_meter

 

Here is a thread where the problem is brought up in the next to last post.

 

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=112032

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

I just got this receiver back again from the tech. I fought a lot with him on this over the last couple of months. He just went through and tested all of the caps and replaced most of them. I'm listening to it now on my khorns and it sounds really good. I'm not sure if it's better than my Pioneer sx-1010 solid state receiver, but it is really nice.

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The receiver is not rebuilt...Any 50 year old cap testing good means it's good at that moment and nothing more. It could fail the next time the power is turned on. In my opinion your still listening to a tired near original vintage piece of tube gear. 

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Craig is more than right.  Partial rebuilds on 50 year old equipment simply means that you are living with a ticking time bomb in your house.  Don't forget, sometimes when they fail they emit flames!  Let me put it this way.  Don't ever leave your house with an unrestored tube amp turned on.  Hell, I'd be reluctant to leave the room.

 

The other thing about a restoration, as opposed to a repair, does is often times you get improved performance resulting from a beefed up power supply, better grounding scheme etc.

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In Oct 2015 I picked up an HK-A500 on E-bay. It appears yours has the amp of A-300. These were sweet sounding amps and I just love mine. Enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnKIweqqSOI

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mnKIweqqSOI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


I found this on E-Bay for you:


FA3000X Level 1 restoration 11-2016.

This is a  Harman Kardon FA3000X  tube receiver. The FA3000X is essentially the Award Series A300 amplifier combined with FM tuner on one chassis. 

 

During the heyday of these tube amps, HK offered receivers that had the amplifier section lifted from their tube amps. The amplifier section of the FA3000X receiver is essentially the very desirable A300 15 watt/channel integrated amp.

Normally, I restore these receivers to their initial factory condition, replacing all the power supply electrolytic and paper/oil coupling capacitors with new capacitors and other components as necessary.  I've discovered that I have too many projects and have decided to sell off some of my 'raw stock' to make my workshop more manageable.  I did perform what I'll call a 'Level 1' restoration on this unit, consisting of a slow power up with a Variac, testing and replacing pre-amp and amplifier tubes as necessary, (nice set of 6V6 outputs), DeOxiting the controls and amplifier tube sockets, and ran the unit without issues for about 8 hours. In it's current condition, all the functions work as designed however the FM tuner is not working. If you are a radio listener, this receiver (and any 40 year old tube tuner) would probably be made well with an alignment.  If you are a serious FM listener, I’d suggest an external FM tuner. Now, if you purchase this receiver, I strongly recommend that you replace the rest of the power supply and paper/oil coupling capacitors as indicated above--they currently are OK, but they do need to be replaced for safety and reliability.

The faceplate and knobs are nice for their age, with some minor scuffs and marks, see pics. The lettering is sharp, legible and complete on both the faceplate and chassis.  The chassis top is also decent, see pictures.  The entire unit would benefit from a general cleanup.  The power cord has been shortened, it was done safely.

If you are reading this, you probably are familiar with the ‘tube sound’. It’s just mellow, and clear and wonderful (my opinion).

The HK Award Series amps and receivers were (and are) highly respected units from the 'golden age' of tube systems.  Probably says something for HK in that they are one of the very few hi-fi manufacturers from the 60's that are still in business. 

  

The main specs of the FA3000X are:

 IHFM music output power—15 watts per channel. Works best with hi efficiency speakers, suggest 90-92 db or greater, I like Electrovoice 12TRXB's, also I've had good reports on the old Klipsch's.

Frequency response--+/- 1 db 15-70,000 cps at normal listening levels.

Output impedance—8 and 16 ohm

Stereo inputs—low level—2-3 mv--for magnetic phono cartridges and tape heads (from tape recorders).

Stereo aux.input—high level –125 mv—this is suitable input for tuners, CD decks, tablets and some mp3 players (need decent output from the mp3 player). Also has a phono-hi input, which can serve as an additional stereo aux. input. 

Stereo tape outputs—to feed a tape recorder.

Now—my lecture. This is not your son’s receiver. This is a tube unit, and as such, has voltages inside the chassis that can be lethal—350+ volts. Tubes and transformers get hot and the unit should be turned off when not in use.

 

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