Hi all!
I recently bought a clean working HK receiver from the eighties. It is a 385i. It is for a basement rig pushing some small Polk mini monitors from the late seventies.
I don't know if I like it or hate it. The specs are quite optimistic, and it dubs itself as an 'ultrawideband linear phase' receiver.
The power output is fine for 30w/ side. But it does seem lean on FM stereo. Phono stage is quiet and punchy (MM only).
I went ahead and replaced the stock filter caps with Panasonic low noise parts, and cleaned out the selector since it was noisy.
At 36mV per side idle adjustment, as per spec, the little guy puts off some heat. I built a tile shelf around the rcvr to rest my turntable on for this reason.
What do you think? It is a mostly discrete-circuit without IC bricks on the output side. Would a new set of speaker terminals (posts) and some other tweaks make sense or is this just BOTL fodder? 🙂
Keep in mind, it does sound Ok for what it is.
I recently bought a clean working HK receiver from the eighties. It is a 385i. It is for a basement rig pushing some small Polk mini monitors from the late seventies.
I don't know if I like it or hate it. The specs are quite optimistic, and it dubs itself as an 'ultrawideband linear phase' receiver.
The power output is fine for 30w/ side. But it does seem lean on FM stereo. Phono stage is quiet and punchy (MM only).
I went ahead and replaced the stock filter caps with Panasonic low noise parts, and cleaned out the selector since it was noisy.
At 36mV per side idle adjustment, as per spec, the little guy puts off some heat. I built a tile shelf around the rcvr to rest my turntable on for this reason.
What do you think? It is a mostly discrete-circuit without IC bricks on the output side. Would a new set of speaker terminals (posts) and some other tweaks make sense or is this just BOTL fodder? 🙂
Keep in mind, it does sound Ok for what it is.
Interesting about the transistors.
You know what? I left the unit powered up overnight and it sounds phenomenal right now! Maybe it was unused for many years and needed to 'wake up'?
You know what? I left the unit powered up overnight and it sounds phenomenal right now! Maybe it was unused for many years and needed to 'wake up'?
Some of that is the electrolytic capacitors reforming. It should sound better if used regularly.
Shall I play FM stereo into an 8-z load ,flat for a few days? Haha...... Or are test tones from my sig gen better?
Just use it for background music regularly and it will come back to normal.
I have a HK-430 that I found (from the 70s) in my video system, and it works great.
If you were asleep for decades, you'd be a little creaky when you got up, too.
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