Hi. I'm new here and looking for some help. I have owned a Marantz 2238B for over 30 years. It had heavy use through the college years and it has been out in my shop since I started my business years ago. The problem is that in humid conditions, the system drops a channel. It sometimes gets bad enough so that the one remaining channel becomes garbled. This happens when using the turntable as well. I am assuming that it is long overdue for cleaning and maintenance. Is this something I can do myself or leave it to a professional? I LOVE this receiver and it's great sound![b]

Mike

Hi There welcome to our forum!

With the Marantz being 30 years it sounds like it's due just a good service I would take it to a professional unless your qualified in electronics, dvv will probably be able to enlighten you more he's a Marantz fan.

He'll be watching

any pics? some of these old Marantz, Technics retro amplifiers look so good.

Hi Twomorestrokes, I've emailed DVV our resident vintage Marantz expert & he'll probably be along soon. Welcome to Mundoaudiofilo and watch out for the digits! (Twomore comes to us via a recommendation on Vinylengine Forum.)http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/index.php

Never fear, DVV is here!

Will I see this? But of course, my men are everywhere.

Twomorestrokes, let me begin by saying two things.

One, your reciever was made during Marantz's golden period, 1978-1980, a time when they were better than ever and better than most others on the market. On that merit alone, it's well worth taking care of, especially if you are the first and only owner, and have generally kept it in good condition.

And two, just take a peek at various e-bay sites around the world and you will see that the above sentiment is shared by more and more people daily. New kids on the block are discovering that we old farts did know a thing or two about great sound. Vintage Marantz products, especially those from the era of your receiver, are costing more and more all of the time. That's no freak accident, trust me on this.

A friend bought that model on my recommendation in 1978. It never broke down, it saw him start in audio, only to end up owning gear by Conrad Johnson, VTL and Infinity - but in the meanwhile, his receiver saw the rise of his elder daughter, in whose room it now resides, and she's about to graduate college. Not a single lamp burned out!

Right, now on to your problem. As you describe it, the most probable reason why this happens under humid conditions only, and I'm guessing here because to really know, I'd have to open it up and check, is that its contacts are in bad need of cleaning. Unfortunately, under "contacts", one should include all electrolytic caps as well, they tend to behave eratically in their old age.

Essentially, you have two choices. One is to sell it off as is, and the other is to keep it. I'm hoping for the keeping choice. In that case, your course of action should be:

1. You kick off by buying its service manual, if you already don't have it. at http://www.servicemanuals.net . I've been buying from them, and they never EVER let me down so far over the years, although they are hardly the only people offering that service. They do have it, I checked ( http://www.servicemanuals.net/ServiceManual/MARANTZ/2238/pos1/results.aspx ) and it costs $ 16.49 as a download. Make sure you get the right one, there's a 2238 and a 2238B. Whatever you do, whoever does it, you WILL need that service manual;

2. Ask around to find a recommended technician, known to love and do vintage stuff, there's bound to be one around. Once you've located him, get in touch with him, prefereably in person, and let him know you how attached you are to that receiver. This is a double edged sword: on the one hand, it may inspire him to deliver on love, affection and expertise (we vintage freaks tend to be receptive to emotions shed on what we love), but it may also stimulate him to raise the bill. Off hand, in at least 90% of all cases known to me, it was the love and affection bit;

3. Let him have the receiver, so he can assess what needs to be done. Without even looking at it, after 30 years, it will need a thorough cleaning. Don't ask or assume, supply him with the manual, it will make his work much easier. All solder points will need to be checked. ALL capacitors WILL need replacement. All contact points need to be investigated and cleaned. And lastly, the FM tuner will need to be realigned for full peroformance.

Here you will need to make a choice, and he will probably ask you about that. There are many capacitors on the market, from cheap and cheerful, to very serious and not inexpensive ones. He will need to know what is he soldering back in. If you just want it back in full glory, ask him to install what he usually installs, and that would be reasonable quality caps, but if you want it back in full glory, and then some so you too can be surprised by what it's capable of, then go for better quality products, using caps from reputable companies such as Elna, Nichicon, Rubycon, etc. It's a choice you must make. My advice to you is to consider its function - if it's the primary system component, go for better and more expensive, but if it's a secondary tier component, go for what he uses as replacement, reasonable quality and reasonable price.

In any case, since components have shrunk in size over the years, make sure that he uses a size lirger main two filter capacitors. If they are say 6,800 uF, let him use 8,200 uF, or even 10,000 uF, if he can stick them in. This WILL make a dramatic improvement in sound just by being replaced, and if you replace them with high quality, larger size caps (as I would), what you end up with is improved power regulation, and that is ALWAYS a good thing. A small side bet here - do ask him when replacing the big caps to measure the two he takes out. 1 will get you 10 they are at 30-35% of their nominal capacity right now.

4. When ordering a refresh, make sure you stipulate in very clear therms that you expect him to open up, clean, assemble together and return EACH AND EVERY pushbutton and potentiometer. This is tedious and costly work because it gobbles up time, but absolutely necessary. For example, when I purchased it, my DC 1152 integrated amp was losing a channel because of the DEFEAT pushbutton. Sometimes, also because of the Low Filter pushbutton, even if I didn't use them. That's why they all have to cleaned up properly.

5. You may also want to consider changing those !@#$%^&* speaker terminal clips. They are junk by default. But they can be replaced by reasonable quality, large hole size binding posts, enabling you to use better speaker cables. Thicker cable will enable a better transfer to the speaker, and you will be hearing fuller, more authoritative sound. Been there, done that.

What it might cost, I have no way of telling. Too many variables. Off hand, I'd guess $ 200...300, which is not insignificant, but it WILL give your 2238 a new lease of life for the next 20 years, in those days, they used to build them like tanks. And, of course, it will startle you in the end with its sound. You see, you, like all of us, have been losing this quality in small, individually imperceptible increments, which unfortunately add up. Then, a refresh gives it all back to you in one step, and even possibly improves a little on the original, and you stand in awe.

Trust me on this, I am not overstating the case, and I'm not talking off the top of my hat, I've been hit by that effect enough times to know it's inevitable. My current collection consists of two DC 1152 integrateds, one DC 1180 integrated, one 3250B preamp and one DC 170 power amp. After I send this post, I'm off to start working on the DC 170 power amp, it's his turn now. And as I write this, I'm listening to FM from a Sony ST-3950 (around 1976), which has been refreshed and given a face lift, though unwittingly; I couldn't find the proper light bulbs for the meters and the scale, so I installed clear white high luminiscence LEDs. Now, the slace was initially toned to blue, so that the yellowish light of the bulbs mixed in to give the required green, but the clear white LEDs don't do that, and I now have a blue scale. You could say I'm good enough to turn a Sony into a Marantz. But, more important. instead of the $5,500 Karan Acoustics iA-180, 2x180W/8 Ohms integrated amp, a gift to me from its maker, I am listening to a Marantz DC 1152, and its 2x76W/8 Ohms power is all but lacking, it oozes power (but then, I do have relatively efficient speakers, 92 dB/2.83V/1m).

That's it. If you need any more info, please feel free to ask either here, or via my private e-mail address, which is dvv@bitsyu.net .

I forgot ... it's not the years, it's the mileage.

Whatever you decide on, Twomorestrokes, do go for as high quality as you can afford main filter caps. They are the key to say 80% of its overall sound, which means they are THE strategic point to lavish money on. After all, they are not that expensive ...

Goddamn, I'd refresh it myslef for a pizza and a Coke, just to see your face when it's turned back on afterwards! That look I know, and it's priceless! It's an odd mixture of disbelief, awe and happiness.

The only thing I know of which is just comparable is the look on the face of a SUV driver when I gun my li'l, ol' Yugo to 8.000 rpm and leave him in the dust ...

Now that's what I call help!!

Absolutely! Thanks dvv! That is a ton of great information! Now comes the task of finding a qualified person in my area that I can trust with the repairs...

Mike

It would take me about a year to write an complete answer like that, what a good job. A pat on the back.

Not at all, gents.

First and foremost, my thanks to our own JSB for drawing my attention to the topic. I would have found it over the weekend, that's when I look the forum over.

Twomorestrokes, this is only the beginning. Refreshing that baby is a process, it takes some time, it needs some money, but the reward is well worth it. The tone you used when you wrote about was not lost on me, and I can fully appreciate your situation.

Ultimately, any knowledge and experience I may have is not fully useful, as it it's meant to be, if it's not shared.

So, any other questions you may have, any other advice you may need, by all means do get in touch, I'll try to walk you through it because I know that road rather well, and the walk is nicer in some company. With just a little luck, it could turn to a cake walk. Let's see if we can do that. I think we can, so we should.

In the meanwhile, you have a decision to make, Twomorestrokes: do you want a simple, quality refresh only, or do you wish to additionally tune it, over and above a plain refresh?

If you are even considering tuning it, then you need to send me that service manual so I can analyze the circuit and isolate the key points, those which give most bang for buck. I can do that, but I will need a few days to really get down under its skin; anyone who glances at it and tells you he's got it is lying. Glancing will tell you how it operates, but for anything more than the simple electrical values, you need time. I did see its schematic once, about 30 years ago, and I do have a very general idea of it, but far too dim to be able to say anything.

Obviously, I cannot tell you what it might cost until I know what it entails. But when I do make a suggestion, I will be able to give you a rough idea of the bill you could be facing.

A little while ago, I had a little problem. I did what I could to solve it, but the seller was adamant - no sales to my country. I believe that's because Serbia has gained an infamous reputation for Internet cradit card payment scams. Anyway, I cried "uncle!" and our own Stu took care of it for me, simply, quietly, no fuss, he just went and did it. I am now planning a worthy "revenge" on Stu, to be performed in the coming few days, but as it turned out, here comes this Marantz and its loving owner which let me now do for someone as Stu has done for me.

I see this as an important thing because it's a good way to institute a new and I think worthy reputation for this Forum as well, and that is that we take care of our own.

[quote="adam"]

dvv wrote:

Here!!Here!!! well said that man, that's the spirit.

I thought you might like that, Adam.

But that's how I see it.