About Our Restoration Process

We don't flip gear. We restore it.

Every receiver and amplifier that comes through our shop gets treated like it's the only one — because to someone, it probably is. Our process takes time, it takes parts, and it takes a bench full of equipment most people will never own. Here's exactly what we do, and why we do it.

How it starts: the teardown

Every unit begins with a full tear-down and visual inspection. We're looking at the capacitors, the board condition, any previous repair work, signs of heat damage, cold solder joints, and anything else that tells us the story of the last 50 years. Most of what we find is expected. Sometimes we find surprises. Either way, we know what we're dealing with before we touch a single component.

We don't restore units that aren't worth restoring. If the board is cracked, the transformer is failing, or the damage is beyond a reasonable repair, we don't list it. You'll never receive something we weren't proud to send.

The recap: the most important step

The capacitors in a 1970s receiver are 50 years old. Even ones that test "okay" are operating well past their design life — they've lost capacitance, their ESR has climbed, and they're increasingly likely to fail without warning. A recap isn't optional maintenance. It's what turns a vintage receiver into a reliable daily driver.

We replace every major electrolytic capacitor in the unit— power supply filter caps, signal path caps, the works — with quality modern equivalents chosen for the application. We don't cherry-pick a few big ones and call it done. We do the whole board, all boards get new modern electrolytic capacitors or where possible upgraded to film capacitors in the audio path and long-life high-temperature capacitors for power supplies.

Cleaning and mechanical work

Scratchy volume controls. Pots that drop a channel when you touch them. Switches that pop and crackle. These are the things that make vintage gear frustrating to live with — and every one of them is fixable.

Every control and switch gets treated with DeoxIT, worked through its full range, and verified before the unit moves off the bench. If a pot or switch is past saving, it gets replaced. By the time you receive a unit from us, every knob should turn silently and every switch should click cleanly.

We also replace the dial lamps. Most units get warm-white LEDs that closely match the original amber glow. If you prefer the look of another color or want the unit to match the original incandescent lamps, just ask — we can make change order for custom requests.

Alignment and setup

A recapped receiver still needs to be properly set up. Bias drifts. DC offset changes when the caps are new. We set both to factory specification on every unit, using calibrated test equipment. The output transistors run at the right temperature. The DC at your speaker terminals is where it needs to be.

On tuner-equipped receivers, we also verify FM alignment. We're not running a full professional alignment on every unit, but we confirm it pulls in stations cleanly and the stereo separation is working correctly.

Burn-in and bench testing

Once the unit is fully assembled and set up, it runs on our bench for a minimum of 48 hours under load. This catches any components that are marginal, any solder joints that weren't quite right, anything we might have missed. Most problems that are going to show up will show up in the first few hours of operation.

After burn-in, we measure power output, confirm both channels are balanced, and do a final listen before the unit is photographed and listed.

What we don't do

We don't use substitute parts when the right part is available. We don't rush units through the process to list more inventory. We don't hide cosmetic issues in photos or omit them from descriptions.

If a unit has a scratch, we'll tell you where it is. If something was previously repaired by someone else, we'll note it. The condition grading on our listings reflects what you'll actually receive.

Questions about a specific unit or our process? Use the contact form or email us directly. We actually respond.