This is a nice thread to follow. I do a lot of electronics servicing and restoration, from ancient tube classics to the later high end pcb-based gear. Ive worked on a few Squeezeboxes over the years.
For beginners in electronics servicing, desoldering and removing smd style caps is little different from the larger radials. On a cheaper non-eyelet style pcb pad such as used on this instrument, a twisting or rocking action once a joint is heated will remove just about any radial type. Just be sure to keep the pad hole open as the wet lead stub draws through. If a solder sucker or braid will not open a closed up pad hole, a heated scrap piece of lead cut from another cap will. Be sure to never force anything from the side opposite the pad, or you can lift the pad and weaken the trace. Where there are excess leads after placing the new part, bending them slighty once the part is seated will hold the part tight to the board before soldering. Snip the remaining exposed leads after the joint has cooled, and you have a repair indistinguishable from factory assembly. Smds can be a little harder, as they often are pre-cut for machine assembly. But still nothing like replacing an op amp or other chip, which I do not recommend to novices. For a slightly nicer sound, I have found that replacing the stock rca output couplers (when they fail) with Silmics does well, and takes away a little of the mid-fi tizz and haze that afflicts the SB3 and improves the dynamics slightly. Quality parts do make a difference, especially for anything directly in the signal path. Still, you are never going to make a classic sound better than a touch or transporter absent using it as a digital head end into something else. The biggest issues I have encountered with the classics so far are the awful power supplies, the balky wireless card, and a vfd that eventually tires out. The only premature recapping I have had to do on them to date are the above coupling caps. But as they are now approaching 15 years in service, I would not be surprised to see more mainboard cap failures on them. The classic does not run hot as electronics go, but it does not run cool, either. The warmer any device runs, the shorter the mean capacitor life. Happy servicing! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ sgmlaw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13995 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=103213
_______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
