Sell and refurbish?

An alternative viewpoint. I picked up an old Marantz 2230 receiver for $20 at a flea market. The initial listening test was promising, so I decided to refurbish the unit myself. I replaced every electrolytic cap (~75 of them) with 105 deg C rated modern caps and replaced some of the mylars as well, cleaned and reseated the transistors on their heat sinks, replaced all of the lamps, put in new diffuser paper behind the dial (so it was deep blue again instead of aqua), replaced a broken power switch and a few broken speaker posts, and polished the chassis to a gleaming finish (see pictures below). The total cost for all the parts was <$100, and I now have a kickass 30WPC receiver (a VERY powerful 30 watts, I might add) that is also beautiful to look at, and a bit of a conversation piece. It's now the centerpiece of my basement workshop system, along with an Onkyo DX-702 CD player (picked it up for free) and a pair of Pioneer HPM-40 speakers (also a free score).

So for a total of $120 I have a system that sounds excellent in that space, and a lot of personal satisfaction. It won't replace my main system in a much larger room, but that system cost me >$15K! And that Marantz will be good for another 20 years at least.

In summary, if you like unusual/vintage gear and like to work on /fix things, and you have some free time, why not go for it yourself?

Inside View

Outside View

So what do you think?

Good job Ait! I've always thought it would be fun to do something like that. However, I'm always scared off when I see a notice: "Danger, Lethal Voltages Inside". :)

Nice work for sure!

Ait, excellent job that looks beautiful.

I heard an old Kenwood receiver the other day that was pretty damn stout (hadn't been refurbished). Maybe the best thing to do would be to keep the Rotel until you get the Sansui back and make a fair shoot-out of it. It shouldn't be too much of a hit if it doesn't come out the way you had hoped and you would still have a system you obviously enjoy.

Unplug it first, Mark....and discharge the PS caps. ;=)=

Seriously, though, I studied the service manual and made sure everything in mine matched up to it (there were a few exceptions), ordered all the appropriate parts, and then took my time and if I had a question I looked it up or asked for advice on one of the myriad audio DIY forums. My thought was "hey, if I screw it up I'm only out $120", but all went smoothly, and now I get great satisfaction every time I fire it up, knowing that I did it myself.