Yamaha CR-840 Refresh

I have a problem with acquiring stereos and speakers. But when I saw this Yamaha at a garage sale I had to buy it. It's from 1980 but looks almost brand new. Despite it's good condition, the audio output was weak and uneven between the left and right channel, and often didn't work out of either one (or both). The 5 of the 8 bulbs were burnt out. It needed some help.

Image

The "after" shot, in working order and sounding really great!

What did I do?

  • Clean all switch and button connections with dioxit cleaner, especially the volume and balance controls. 90% of the volume and audio issues went away with repeated cleaning of the connections that impact audio in any way.
  • Replace the bulbs with new incandescent bulbs. They look much better than the LED's. Since the bulbs are so small, each one is wired onto the board.
  • Clean up the caps and resistor connections.

How it came. Unfortunately I don't have a pic of it with half the bulbs burnt out.

Phono input too! You'd never know this was 40+ years old.

A little dirty but cleaned up well. I love the pulley mechanism for the tuner.

During testing.

Working well and playing music! Gives such a nice glow.

Another angle, plus a special message from Mel.