Announcement

**Psycoacoustics** · 12-31-2017, 05:12 PM

Hey Lasse, I share your love of "Vintage" gear. I too have rebuilt some Citation gear. A 16 amp, 17 pre, and an 18 tuner. I chose Elna Cerifines for the electrolytics, Xircon 1% metal film resistors for most boards and Vishy 1% emitter resistors for the output section of the amp.

Like you, ran into some trouble with the amp where a friend had to bail me out, but the pre and tuner came together without a hitch! They really sound nice, but it did take some time for the new caps to break in and come on song!

Here's a couple of pics. Hope you enjoy yours for years to come! Later, Mark

**lasse** · 01-01-2018, 06:16 AM

Hi Psycoacoustics and thanks for the nice pictures and feedback.

You really have a first-class setup there!

My endeavor started with a recap of the electrolytics in 11 and 12 and I choose Panasonic FC´s fore some reason (perhaps cost/performance estimate...). The thought never came to me to go for more high-end components. Probably, it´s a good idea to replace the resistors but perhaps you can advice me on this. Did you sense any improvement after changing the resistors?

For the four big cans in 12, I choose Vishay.

The other small caps, is there good reason to replace them?

The same for me. The Pre worked directly after recap but, as said, the 12 turned out to be a different story

Best regards//lasse

**Psycoacoustics** · 01-01-2018, 05:48 PM

Well my friend, sadly, I really can't comment on if changing the resistors helped the sound. I bought these from a friend of a friend knowing that their age would force me to rebuild them. And,,,,, I got them for a really good price! The amp had a blown output transistor when I got it so it just wasn't possible to give it a before and after listen. The pre's pots were so dirty that it wouldn't pass a clean signal and I just didn't take the time to clean them to listen to it before diving head first into the rebuild. The tuner did work well, and sounded nice right from the jump. Under advice from the person helping me it was recommended to NOT change the resistors to metal film from the carbon that HK originally installed in the tuner. Something about metal film not being good for the tuner. Remember, I'm just a hack that happens to know how to solder! I listen and take advice from the pro's so,,,, the tuner just got new electrolytics, light bulbs, and a good cleaning.

I chose Elna caps because I had read plenty of different forum post from people that said they worked well in the tuner so I just decided to keep all three components the same. I'm sure your Panasonic's do a fine job. Wolf is the only person I know that has the experience to hear differences in caps. The person helping me would have supplied me with Nichicon's if I hadn't chosen the Elna's.

One thing I can say is that as I was replacing the resistors I'd check them and found very few that were more than a few ohms off. A couple were way off, but that was the exception, not the rule.

Speaking of the person that helped me. He runs an eBay store where he sells rebuild services for HK, SAE, and maybe a few other brands. If you search eBay for patrickk1358 I'm sure you'll find him. He supplied me with most of the parts. I told him what I was doing and,,,,,,than installed everything he sent,even supplied me with the proper schematics for the pre. There seems to be a few different versions of the 17 and Hi Fi engine only had one set of schematics and they were not correct. Pat was the guy who sorted out one of the driver boards for the amp that I screwed up! He's a good guy! A touch crusty at times but agreed to help me rather than insist I send him everything to help his bottom line. If your curious as to weather or not you should do more work you should contact him and take his advice.

Anyway,,,,, like you, I now have a soft spot in my heart for HK Citation gear! I really liked my rebuilt Hafler with the Qual-Co mods (again eBay) and Marantz 2252 used as a tuner and pre, but for right now the HK stuff is my daily driver in my basement system.

Here's a couple more pics just for fun! Later, Mark

**lasse** · 01-03-2018, 04:50 PM

Hi and thanks for the reply and encouraging words.

I have sent patrickk1358 a message on Ebay and looking forward to him making contact. Perhaps it will be a good idea to replace a number of resistors as the next "move" but for now, I am very pleased with my "high-school-amp" making music again.

Obviously, the recap meant a substantial improvement in SQ as that system, paired with a pair of Dynaco A25´s, sound just fine. Actually. it sound just as nice as a few of my other systems, active digital and active analog with six-channel amps,,,,,,,

Info on the systems can be seen in the "Media" part of my page on PE.

Regards//lasse

Announcement

Citation 12 back in service

Citation 12 back in service

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment