Minerva10210
New member
Hey guys
So as I mentioned in my introduction, I an now the proud owner of a Pioneer SA-520 Amplifier, coupled to speakers I got as a kid.
Now this puppy has taken a few shots it would seem, and I would like to make sure it is in the best condition as I can on a limited(ish) budget, and with the least amount of real effort. Now just to put this into perspective, I don't want to be spending R300 per knob (it has a few missing) for authenticity here, but I am willing to spend that money on "worthwhile" internals if it is usually deemed better for performance/longevity of the equipment. Another side note here would be to mention that I can wield a soldering iron and a DMM to a fair extent, but the witchcraft which is electronics evades me for the most part.
So with the disclaimers etc out of the way, let's get to the meaty stuff...
The speakers I have are probably as old as I am, but were/are nothing special other then the sentimental value I have for them. The enclosures measure 550x320x230mm (outer measurements), material thickness of say 10mm. From what I can recall, the 8" woofer is a 16 or 20W driver, and it had a 2 or 5W 2" tweeter. It has an elementary "crossover" of a few caps soldered in parallel and then in line to the tweeter.
So other then age, and the fact that these would probably not count as audiophile class equipment, is there anything that I should be doing to them maintenance wise or the like?
Then onto the Amp. Like I mentioned above, it has seen some rough treatment. A cursory check under the cover reveals that some work has been done on it at some stage in it's life. The most prominent fact is that it has a "A"/"B" speaker output switch, but the connector posts have been removed, and I can see a wire or two hanging loose around there. Other then that, I cannot see anything too hectic. There is a resistor or two that shows that it had gotten fairly warm at some stage, no swollen caps though.
A 5 min search on the forum and on google has not netted me much. I got hold of a wiring diagram, but the quality of it is such that I can barely make out anything on it, making it close on useless. ANyone know where I would be able to find a better quality wiring diagram with part numbers etc?
Then the last item with the amp which I would like to pay some attention to are the pots, the are quite scratchy, and the one for the Treble adjustment is broken clean off (there is a deep enough groove in the bit that's left for me to take a flat screwdriver to it
). I will try some electro-clean on them first. In the event that the electro-clean does not work, is it wise to pull into a place like Communica and buy any old random pot of similar value and make it fit?
I think that about covers the most of it for now. I believe these amps were part of a "component system/kit" - as such I may be able to get hold of the phono, cassette deck and tuner at a later stage too, so will keep those items for future projects
TIA :thumbs:
So as I mentioned in my introduction, I an now the proud owner of a Pioneer SA-520 Amplifier, coupled to speakers I got as a kid.
Now this puppy has taken a few shots it would seem, and I would like to make sure it is in the best condition as I can on a limited(ish) budget, and with the least amount of real effort. Now just to put this into perspective, I don't want to be spending R300 per knob (it has a few missing) for authenticity here, but I am willing to spend that money on "worthwhile" internals if it is usually deemed better for performance/longevity of the equipment. Another side note here would be to mention that I can wield a soldering iron and a DMM to a fair extent, but the witchcraft which is electronics evades me for the most part.
So with the disclaimers etc out of the way, let's get to the meaty stuff...
The speakers I have are probably as old as I am, but were/are nothing special other then the sentimental value I have for them. The enclosures measure 550x320x230mm (outer measurements), material thickness of say 10mm. From what I can recall, the 8" woofer is a 16 or 20W driver, and it had a 2 or 5W 2" tweeter. It has an elementary "crossover" of a few caps soldered in parallel and then in line to the tweeter.
So other then age, and the fact that these would probably not count as audiophile class equipment, is there anything that I should be doing to them maintenance wise or the like?
Then onto the Amp. Like I mentioned above, it has seen some rough treatment. A cursory check under the cover reveals that some work has been done on it at some stage in it's life. The most prominent fact is that it has a "A"/"B" speaker output switch, but the connector posts have been removed, and I can see a wire or two hanging loose around there. Other then that, I cannot see anything too hectic. There is a resistor or two that shows that it had gotten fairly warm at some stage, no swollen caps though.
A 5 min search on the forum and on google has not netted me much. I got hold of a wiring diagram, but the quality of it is such that I can barely make out anything on it, making it close on useless. ANyone know where I would be able to find a better quality wiring diagram with part numbers etc?
Then the last item with the amp which I would like to pay some attention to are the pots, the are quite scratchy, and the one for the Treble adjustment is broken clean off (there is a deep enough groove in the bit that's left for me to take a flat screwdriver to it
). I will try some electro-clean on them first. In the event that the electro-clean does not work, is it wise to pull into a place like Communica and buy any old random pot of similar value and make it fit? I think that about covers the most of it for now. I believe these amps were part of a "component system/kit" - as such I may be able to get hold of the phono, cassette deck and tuner at a later stage too, so will keep those items for future projects
TIA :thumbs:
