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Re: McIntosh MC240 Capacitor replacement...

John, hi. Electrolytic caps have a life and also change over time. It's not like replacing a fuse which has either of two modes: fine or open. Lytic caps can develop all kinds of non-linear behaviors becoming more resistive and reactive over time. The bias diode should be replaced with a good fast soft-recovery type - Stealth by Fairchild is a good one. I would also check those resistors in the circuit McIntosh specifies to be 1%. Carbon composition resistors can drift way out of tolerance. I'd use either precision 1% wire wound or precision carbon film as R replacements. I know you don't want to contemplate a major restoration/rebuild, but there are at least a few areas that should be addressed. I probably ought to tell you this. I did a 100% rebuild on my MC-225. It started with a cap upgrade in voltage doubler and went on from there. I replaced every resistor, every coupler, bias diode, and so on - Black Gates in the doubler and downstream. When completed my little 225 had taken a quantum jump in performance. I would not have believed it possible prior to hearing it. I thought I knew what the McIntosh Unity Coupled Circuit sounded like. I didn't. I had only an inkling how good it could be.


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  • Re: McIntosh MC240 Capacitor replacement... - elektron 10:47:53 03/19/07 (0)


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