Inside High End Equipment

[STC]

I am starting this thread to share pictures of high end equipment.. My friend who specializes repairing high end equipment regularly send me the pictures of all his work and often discuss the parts and quality of workmanship in them. There must be thousands of pictures that he shared with me. Instead of deleting them I thought I could archieve it here so that others could catch a glimpse of what's inside.

 

Today I received Swiss made hi end Nagra PL-P preamp which was restored to the original specs replacing the baattery power supply modification . I also have videos of them playing but due to copyright issues with the songs and poor audio I am refraining from posting them here. If you are interested please PM ASAP before I delete them.

 

 

[One and a half]

Keep them coming please, appreciate the build and quality of any repairs. 

No need for major analysis, the photos are terrific!!

Thanks a bunch ?

[STC]

Conrad Johnson power Amp.

 

 

[PeterSt]

I think it is seriously inappropriate to share pictures made by such a repair shop. Of course this starts with the repair shop doing this itself.

This is not really about pictures which can be taken from the top with the lid off, but about parts which are normally not accessible to you and me. Say the under side of a PCB, unveiling secrets, after a day of work to tear it apart for repair.

 

This is just my opinion as a manufacturer. What you do is up to you. 

[sandyk]

2 hours ago, STC said:

I am starting this thread to share pictures of high end equipment.. My friend who specializes repairing high end equipment regularly send me the pictures of all his work and often discuss the parts and quality of workmanship in them. There must be thousands of pictures that he shared with me. Instead of deleting them I thought I could archieve it here so that others could catch a glimpse of what's inside.

 

Today I received Swiss made hi end Nagra PL-P preamp which was restored to the original specs replacing the baattery power supply modification . I also have videos of them playing but due to copyright issues with the songs and poor audio I am refraining from posting them here. If you are interested please PM ASAP before I delete them.

 

 

 

In the 3rd and 4th photos from the top, the electrolytic capacitors are too close to the valves and will have a reduced service life due to the heat.

I base this on extensive feedback in a U.K. forum devoted mainly to Musical Fidelity valve products

[One and a half]

4 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

In the 2nd and 3rd photos from the top, the electrolytic capacitors are too close to the valves and will have a reduced service lie due to the heat.

Unless there's enough meat in the caps to last years, unless that is.

 

That's one reason not choosing tube gear, the heat build up affects not only caps, but insulation materials, those 1950's jobs don't have the insulation of today with Teflon for example. Heat will break down and crumble early bakelite stuff. The low voltage (up to 1500V DC) just adds to the mix. If you like the tube sound, fine, but consider the downsides.

[sandyk]

9 minutes ago, One and a half said:

Unless there's enough meat in the caps to last years, unless that is.

 

That's one reason not choosing tube gear, the heat build up affects not only caps, but insulation materials, those 1950's jobs don't have the insulation of today with Teflon for example. Heat will break down and crumble early bakelite stuff. The low voltage (up to 1500V DC) just adds to the mix. If you like the tube sound, fine, but consider the downsides.

 Garry

I have seen numerous photos of charred PCBs around the valve sockets of M.F. valve headphone amplifiers, and the work needed to repair that area, as well as replacing the failing electros with higher temperature types. and relocating hot wire wound resistors.

 

Alex

[bambadoo]

This is great. Just keep them coming. Every manufacturer should have done this on their homepages. 

[yamamoto2002]

Always interesting to see internals of old equipment.

 

Following website has a lot of clear pictures of old amplifiers:  Amp Repair Studio

http://amp8.com/

 

[rickca]

4 hours ago, PeterSt said:

This is not really about pictures which can be taken from the top with the lid off, but about parts which are normally not accessible to you and me. Say the under side of a PCB, unveiling secrets, after a day of work to tear it apart for repair.

So do you think the teardown pictures of Apple products published by iFixit are inappropriate?

[PeterSt]

26 minutes ago, rickca said:

So do you think the teardown pictures of Apple products published by iFixit are inappropriate?

 

So if I call in a contractor to work on my software (bug finding), do you think it is OK if he publishes the source code ?

[rickca]

7 minutes ago, PeterSt said:

 

So if I call in a contractor to work on my software (bug finding), do you think it is OK if he publishes the source code ?

Of course not, but in that case you are explicitly giving your contractor access to something confidential (source code) in order to perform a service for you.  It's not the same as tearing down a product to look at its parts.

 

I was just pointing out that iFixit publishes a teardown and repair guides on brand new Apple devices.  I don't see a problem with that.

[Musicophile]

Even magazines show pics from the inside of equipment.

 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/exposure-3010s-integrated-amplifier-page-2

 

This pic from the direct predecessor of my amp was one of the key arguments for me to buy the amp, I just love the clean and discrete component layout of my Exposure gear, plus the nice toroidal transformer.

 

[Ron Scubadiver]

27 minutes ago, PeterSt said:

 

So if I call in a contractor to work on my software (bug finding), do you think it is OK if he publishes the source code ?

Not the same thing by a long shot.  Publishing schematics would be different as it would involve copyright as would source code.  

[plissken]

6 hours ago, PeterSt said:

I think it is seriously inappropriate to share pictures made by such a repair shop. Of course this starts with the repair shop doing this itself.

This is not really about pictures which can be taken from the top with the lid off, but about parts which are normally not accessible to you and me. Say the under side of a PCB, unveiling secrets, after a day of work to tear it apart for repair.

 

This is just my opinion as a manufacturer. What you do is up to you. 

 

You're joking, right?

 

There's not an electronic item in my house where it's parts aren't accessible to me. 

[plissken]

1 hour ago, PeterSt said:

 

So if I call in a contractor to work on my software (bug finding), do you think it is OK if he publishes the source code ?

 

You better get all the repair videos of:

 

Phones,

Electronics,

Cars,

Vacuum Cleaners,

Washer/Dryers,

Power tools,

 

reported at YT. 

[rickca]

I used to work for a major manufacturer of IT gear.  It was common practice to teardown competitive products and video every single step of the process.  

[plissken]

Mercedes rents a Tesla from SIXT and then drives the shit out of it and and dismantles it.

[eclectic]

15 minutes ago, plissken said:

 

You're joking, right?

 

There's not an electronic item in my house where it's parts aren't accessible to me. 

 

And all those items belong to you. You can do what you like with them, outside of copyright/patent infringement or using them to commit crimes etc. The manufacturer has released them into the "public domain" by selling them and has no call on them whatsoever.

 

 

[PeterSt]

For your collection :

 

 

Phasure NOS1a.

 

Let's say that I was overreacting. 

Now please continue with the topic.

[sphinxsix]

Devialet. IMHO beautiful both inside and outside.

 

 

 

I'm not sure their Phantom is high end but it looks quite cool inside too..

 

 

 

These aren't obviously my photos. And this is obviously not vintage gear..

[accwai]

1 hour ago, Ron Scubadiver said:

Not the same thing by a long shot.  Publishing schematics would be different as it would involve copyright as would source code.  

 

A while ago, some guy reverse engineered the Coincident Technology M300B Frankenstein MK II monoblock amp and published the schematic on SET Asylum:

 

https://www.audioasylum.com/forums/set/messages/7/edit/7527820140325143853.html

 

He claimed that since the manufacturer never showed a schematic for the amp, he was the sole creator of the diagram. And as such, he is the actual copyright owner of the published diagram.

 

The strange things happening on the net these days... But if we follow through with this logic, I don't understand why the guy didn't sue the manufacturer for violating *his* copyrights

[accwai]

Ok, inside photos of older gear:

 

Esoteric P2 CD transport

 

 

 

The above are from an old CD transport tear-down article at lapizator.eu. The thing is literally built like a tank. I have the successor model P2S and inspected the inside when I first got it. The photos in the article, while impressive, doesn't quite show how awesomely hefty the real thing is.

 

Yamamoto A-09S

 

 

Single-ended stereo amp with 8W per channel. Photo above from review article at 6moons.com. Neat point-to-point wiring totally by hand. High quality components throughout, down to the inhouse wound transformers/choke and tube sockets manufactured inhouse. I used to have the predecessor model A-09. The inside has this Zen-like serenity to it 

[rayooo]

Just a few of the items that have come across the transom over the years....

[Ron Scubadiver]

4 hours ago, accwai said:

 

A while ago, some guy reverse engineered the Coincident Technology M300B Frankenstein MK II monoblock amp and published the schematic on SET Asylum:

 

https://www.audioasylum.com/forums/set/messages/7/edit/7527820140325143853.html

 

He claimed that since the manufacturer never showed a schematic for the amp, he was the sole creator of the diagram. And as such, he is the actual copyright owner of the published diagram.

 

The strange things happening on the net these days... But if we follow through with this logic, I don't understand why the guy didn't sue the manufacturer for violating *his* copyrights

 

There have been numerous instances of one manufacturer copying another's design when the later was not patented, recall B & K.  Whether the person who produced a schematic actually owned the copyright is doubtful because a schematic already existed in the hands of Coincident.

 

A controversy exists as to whether a photograph of a 3 dimensional object comes under fair use or not.  Photographs of the Eiffel tower taken at night are said to violate the copyright of the one who designed the lighting.  It's the same situation regarding the Seattle Space Needle unless the tower is just part of the skyline.

 

If "part of the skyline" is the correct approach, then there might be a copyright issue with close ups of this gear.

 

Disclaimer:  This is not legal advice, if that is what you want, go find a lawyer.