Yamaha A-500 refurbishment & more?

[Malefoda]

Hi there,

got this amp in good shape but the age, it's from 1983 and caps may be in the heaven of caps now. (well, do ceramics caps go there?) Former owner said it can't hold loud playback anymore and clips a lot. It drives my headphones nicely but a bit too much highs.
Any ideas of what to do to refresh it, like simple cheap and good big lytics (12000µF!) and or film bypass (got 63V MKTs around) somewhere?
Even simple mods are welcome, I plan to use it as the bedroom amp and as a "in case" amp if I fry a T-amp...

Thanks,
Matthieu

 

[Malefoda]

That may be helpfull =)

edit: better, high-res .pdf
http://atsh.free.fr/Yamaha_A-500.pdf

 

[mjf]

hello.
if it is an old amp (as here) - first i would clean all contacts (pot,switches,fusesockets,..........).

 

[Malefoda]

Hi,
well any cheap "housewife" magic product in the kitchen? A "pro" chemical may cost more than the amp 😉 IIRC WD40 can help... or was it in cars?

 

[mjf]

yes,i have heard that some people used wd 40 in old amps and it worked - me too in cheap old hifi gear...........

 

[Malefoda]

WD40 does the job!
Some electrolytics caps changed, some even changed for MKT of the same value. It's very, too smooth. Nice for long listening and thoses ear piercing cheap CDPs around 😉