Hi forum members,

joining as a new member with a specific need, hope that's alright.

Recently bought above mentioned 609k valve receiver but it turns out to be in a pretty bad state with at least one, long time ago, attempt at repair, probably doing more harm than good.  Subsequently it must have been stored in an attic as it's full of dusty white powder, insect wings and seeds!

Anyway, I've disassembled to the point where I can access the components on the main tuner pcb and have removed all the obvious capacitor candidates for replacement and checked the values of all resistors in order to find the ones that are intolerant (sorry about that), I mean the ones that don't measure correctly for their markings.  Getting ready to remove those too and replace with new old components that I've ordered (after xmas).

Apart from the dirt and the filter capacitor that had been added, to 'repair' it I imagine, I found a loose black lead that may have been the cause of some of the initial problems.  Also a number of the valves, including one of the output el84s, were a milky white colour which is, I think, a pretty good indication that they're not in good shape.  The face plate has also lost two small areas of paint where someone put some sellotape.  I'm planning to paint in the small bare patches with some custom colour mixed paint, grey blue.

That's where I am at the moment.  I have been looking for a schematic but have not found one yet.  It would be very interesting to hear if anyone has experience of restoring a similar receiver.

I also have a 609k minette, which is just the FM receiver.  This also needs attention as the face plate has a smaller bare patch and it only gets reception on FM mono with the tuning eye valve indicating weakish reception.  I haven't yet opened that one up but expect it to be cleaner than the bandmaster but equally in need of attention to non spec components.

With the bandmaster I've removed all electrolytics and anything that resembles one.  Also removed two black plasticky 10,000pf cap, one of which appeared to have partially melted.  The remaining caps are red disks (ceramics?) and small silver coloured axials between the fascia dials.  

Any thoughts about the reliability of these components particularly bearing in mind that the apparatus appears to have been quite severely stressed at some point.

I'll keep you posted with progress though that won't happen till after xmas 'n new year.  Can also post some pics if anyone is interested as lacking the cicuit diagram I'm using pics and notes to try to keep track of what goes where.

Brian

Hi Brian and welcome to the forum. 

Sounds like you have a couple of good projects to get your teeth into there.  There are plenty of knowledgable people here who can give you technical information.  It is always nice to see pictures of these restorations so please post a progress report.  It may be better to start this in another section rather than the general forum  There is a workshop and vintage section which will keep things more tidy.  Upgrading membership gives you access to user and service manuals but I don't think there are any - at least not for the 609K that I could see.

Welcome again,

Dave.

I do have some schematics for a 608 and 609 amplifier - I am willing to bet that Martin has some as well.

Your own some very - very nice B&O products.

Especially I would like to mention, the Minette 609K is very - very rear. Please take good care of that one. I have a service manual but is unfortunately in Danish.

The tubes which are 'milky white' are all gone - the glass is broken somewhere, so you need to find some replacements, but that should not be a problem.

/Frede

Congratulations and welcome to Beoworld!

...Envious about that gear... *Drool*

Those EL84's are still in production, you can get those cheaply

Hi Brian,

welcome, and please do post some pictures - we like them

I just did a slight restore of a Dirigent 610K, although I'm not sure how helpful it is for you - you're likely to have much more work ahead of you before you can even think about powering up (check out the book site I mention in the last post if you don't have much experience with valve kit!).

As Frede said the white valves have lost their vacuum (rough handling in the past perhaps) and are beyond help, but fortunately they are all common types and you'll have no problems finding them on a popular auction site.

The red discs are indeed ceramic caps and they shouldn't ever fail unless you see mechanic damage. The dull yellow coloured are I think polycarbonate caps, also very reliable. The small silver coloured caps are styroflex, they don't age at all but the wires are easily detached from the foils inside.

This topic would be more suited in the vintage subforum - I think me or some other moderator could eventually just move the thread over there, but I'll leave a little time of notice so everybody will know where to look for it later.

What a helpful and friendly lot you are!

Thanks for all the replies, particularly Tournedos, for the information about the caps.  

Doctor, when I get back to Stockholm I'm going to check which cap it was that had what I suspected to be a disconnected lead. If you could check  on your schematic and confirm that it should, in fact, have that lead connected I would be very grateful. Actually I've just checked the notes I made disassembling which I happen to have with me (!!) and I believe it was cap no 1, 10uf 350 v.  According to my notes, it had two green and white leads connected to one end and a black lead disconnected at the other end.  As it appeared to be disconnected I'm not even sure that it should be connected to the cap but it's the only logical place for it.  

Classic, I didn't have any idea that the Minette was rare so that is very useful to know and I will most certainly bear it in mind during the restoration.  I may actually be able to make some sense of the Danish manual as I can read basic Swedish.  

Does anyone have experience or advice about restoring the face plates.  As I mentioned, both have issues with areas where the grey blue paint has come off, the Dirigent slightly more and the Minette only a very small bare patch though I haven't actually examined it from the back yet.  My main concern with this issue is not to cause further damage and rather than do that will just leave them alone.  I was thinking about trying to use model aeroplane enamel paint but then on second thoughts might try acrylic which is water soluble and so probably more easily reversible and less invasive.

I do have a little bit of experience with valves but I've never tackled a tuner before.

I'll keep you posted and thanks again for the warm welcome and help.  It makes an enormous difference to have the support of interested people.

Brian

ps OMG Tournedos, just read through your 610 restoration project. Eek! What have I let myself in for?  The books link looks like a real treasure trove.