That thing is pure 1970s elegance! I was too young to afford Heathkit back in the day, By the time I could, they were out of business.
@xfireamg417
2 жыл бұрын
Same here. I'd go to the local Heathkit store and spend hours looking and listening to the latest gear. The prices were pretty steep, so I'd try to catch them on clearance. Now I buy low cost stuff that needs repair and do my best to fix it up. Thanks for looking - Have a great day
@bobstuckrath1805
Жыл бұрын
This was my dream system. Now it's an antique.
@xfireamg417
Жыл бұрын
Same here. They're still expensive and rather difficult to work on. This one needed a lot work so it wasn't too expensive. Thanks for looking
@helifynoe9930
5 ай бұрын
I finally got around to fixing my Heathkit AA-1506 dead Power Light Bulb. I had almost totally forgotten that power switch was supposed to light up when power ON. It was not until I took the unit apart to fix the power switch in which its casing had cracked in one place, that I had recalled the situation. Anyhow, a little bit of epoxy fixed the switch. I got fed up looking for a bulb replacement, so I instead used three 10,000 MCD white LEDs to light up the "POWER" word, and one 20,000 MCD LED to light up the power switch push button. These LEDs are connected in series and are then tied to a 150 ohm resistor. This then is tied to the power source via one diode rectifying it, and one electrolytic capacitor to smooth out the dc, such that there will be no 60 Hz flickering. End result is the LEDs are running at 19 mA. YeeHaa
@xfireamg417
4 ай бұрын
Thanks for posting this. One of us might need this some day. Thanks again
@helifynoe9930
4 ай бұрын
@@xfireamg417 Just finished giving my AA-1506 Amplifier/Heatsink section a blast of alcohol, and a soap scrub, followed by a 40C dry out. LOL The top black panel had chips missing of the black paint, and thus the aluminum was shinning through saying "here I am". It did not look good. But just for the heck of it, I recalled that I still had some black stain that I had used to re-stain the front panels of my home made 1978 speakers, but it has more of the thickness of paint. Anyhow, I carefully filled the exposed aluminum areas with the black stain. I looked too shiny, so when it was almost dry, I gently tapped these areas with my finger to get rid of the shininess. The outcome was so good that I can now not even visually see the exact positioning of the repaired areas. Other than that, the heatsinks were warmer than they should be, and one side was warmer than the other. So I checked the capacitors and found one 250uF bipolar capacitor reads 370uF, and 3 meg-ohm in one direction, and the other read 414uF and 6 meg-ohm in just one direction as well, which is weird in itself. So this nasty unidirectional leakage was giving misleading capacitance readings. Anyhow I replaced each of these 250uF caps with a 220uF BP cap in parallel with a 33uF BP cap, and I picked matching capacitor values. The heatsinks are now functioning as cool as expected, and both sides are of the same temperature. YeeHaa.
@xfireamg417
4 ай бұрын
@@helifynoe9930 anybody can by something new, but it takes courage and commitment to keep this vintage gear alive. Keep it up and thanks for sharing
@chasgantz3059
4 жыл бұрын
I had one back in the 80's. I loved it!
@xfireamg417
4 жыл бұрын
Thanks for looking. I could only dream of having one back then. They came with a pretty hefty price tag.
@chasgantz7728
3 жыл бұрын
@@xfireamg417 Yeah I got mine for free. I wish I never threw it out :(
@xfireamg417
3 жыл бұрын
@@chasgantz7728 You can't beat free!!
@Smithy1962
Жыл бұрын
My brother had one of the AN2016. I even got to finish making one of the boards for him. Not sure what happened to it. He called it the black beast...
@stevea3007
4 жыл бұрын
Very nice! I have a AN-2016 and three AA-1506s. They work fine, but aren't real pretty. You did a beautiful job on the appearance of these. Any hints on cleaning up the silver trim on them?
@xfireamg417
4 жыл бұрын
Hi Steve - The silver edges on both these pieces were in very bad shape. At first I tried sanding them down to retain the brushed finish look, but couldn't make clean transitions on the corners and edges. I ended up priming and painting them with a silver that closely matched the original color. The results were pretty good. Hope that helps. Thanks for looking
@stevea3007
4 жыл бұрын
@@xfireamg417 Thanks - looks very nice. I may give that a try.
@xfireamg417
4 жыл бұрын
@@stevea3007 Steve - I dug out my notes on the restoration and it appears I used Testors Metallic Silver. Check it out to be sure, but I think that's it . Hope your unit is still performing well for you. Did you build it?
@stevea3007
4 жыл бұрын
@@xfireamg417 No, I didn't build this one. Like you, I couldn't afford it back in the day. I did build an AA-1506 and an AP-1615 preamp back then, but they are long gone through moves. I got the AN-2016 and AA-1506 used in the past 10 years. I also have an AR-1500A and the equalizer and noise reduction unit that match the preamp.
@xfireamg417
4 жыл бұрын
@@stevea3007 You can never have enough Heathkit! Keep that vintage stuff cranking.
@99thDimension
2 жыл бұрын
Pick up one with the two AA-1506's super clean one owner deal. What we couldn't find was the speaker terminals I need 4 of them any clues of where to source them. Not much room on the back for a double set of banana binding posts.
@xfireamg417
2 жыл бұрын
Hi - thanks for the feedback. The speaker connectors are hard to come by indeed. I have picked up two or three of them on EBAY but they don't come up very often. I think there would be a big market for them if someone could make an affordable reproduction,
@jdpinbaytown
8 ай бұрын
I have the AA 1506 Power Amp and love it!, I Recapped it back in 2019 and it sounds awesome!, Today I looked and noticed the light in the power button had went out!, Do you know what Lamp it takes so I can have it before I take it apart? Thanks! Jeff Houston, Texas
@xfireamg417
8 ай бұрын
Hi Jeff - I don't think I have the manual for this amp, but I'll see if I have any notes. Did you build the amp and the pre-amp as well?
@jdpinbaytown
8 ай бұрын
@@xfireamg417 No, I didn't build it, Was a Ebay find waaay back "2005", I use it with a modern Pyramid Preamp for Computer Audio, Phono, CD and Tuner, Running a set of Bose and a set of Magnavox Speakers!, I just wanted to have the replacement Bulb on hand so it wouldn't be down or have to be taken apart twice while I find one.
@xfireamg417
8 ай бұрын
@@jdpinbaytown Jeff- I found my notes from this unit, but I hadn't recorded anything regarding the lamp. Sorry - Maybe another viewer can help out.
@jdpinbaytown
8 ай бұрын
@@xfireamg417 I appreciate you checking!, I have another Magnavox Amp I'll use temporarily wile I have this one apart and I'll pass along the Lamp type/Number to you so you and other viewers will know as well!
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