Beolab Penta 6603 MK1 restoration project

65 replies

StuckE30 wrote:

It is sort of unfortunate that Audyn doesn't make a 27uF capacitor so I had to break the nice matching kit with a Jantzen. Both are very very good quality though.

A tech note suggests replacing the 27uF with a 22uF...
Not all Penta Mk I are identical, they can be quite different and have different crossover filterboards.

And yes, Leslie, please do a test with these foil caps and compare to standard electrolytic caps.
I used to provide both a standard kit and a foil kit but to be honest I couldn't tell any difference and
so could none of the owners so the extra cost wasn't justified and the kit no longer made.

Let us know what you find.

Martin

BO wrote:

Leslie wrote:
Also wondering if you could connect MK2 or 3 displays on the MK1 Penta.
As far as I know the interface for the displays are the same on all Beolab Penta speakers.

The mk2 and 3 need a switch at the bottom to switch between an audio- or videomaster.

The brackets which holds the boards are different.

Location: Utrecht

Quite a challenge to achieve "Less is More" while having the Beovirus.

Dillen wrote:

StuckE30 wrote:

It is sort of unfortunate that Audyn doesn't make a 27uF capacitor so I had to break the nice matching kit with a Jantzen. Both are very very good quality though.

 

A tech note suggests replacing the 27uF with a 22uF...
Not all Penta Mk I are identical, they can be quite different and have different crossover filterboards.

And yes, Leslie, please do a test with these foil caps and compare to standard electrolytic caps.
I used to provide both a standard kit and a foil kit but to be honest I couldn't tell any difference and
so could none of the owners so the extra cost wasn't justified and the kit no longer made.

Let us know what you find.

Martin

I certainly will Martin, why spend to much if the result is less or none. At the moment I'm working on 2 pairs of RL7000's so comparison can be made. To make a comparison with just one pair of Penta's (left and right speaker) is quite difficult I guess. Send me a PayPal request for one pair of RL7000 and I let you people know the result.

 

Sorry Jordan for interrupting your thread. Please let us know the progress of your Penta restoration. Following it with much interest.

It's no interruption, this is a discussion forum after all. We are all here to discuss things :-)

I hope to be able to finish the crossovers tonight and be able to do an A / B audition with the two towers run by an external receiver do hear the difference in the crossovers between the all original and the new and improved.

I just got an email from Audiofriends letting me know my midrange foam surrounds have shipped from the Netherlands. That shall hopefully be the last part. My wife is *starting* to question all of the speaker parts parcels and the costs of the contents.... ha ha ha...

 

What about your speaker cloths, are they still okay?

No, not at all. Many snags, tears etc. I'm not concerning myself much with cosmetics as of yet. Focusing first on getting them functioning as they should.

I finished up both boards, PCB 14 and PCB 15. I got them reinstalled into the housings, I did have to trim the inner stiffening ribs just a touch on one side to make enough room for the 2 68uF caps to nestle down in there. They are pinched between the baffle foam and the PCB so they are nice and secure.

link

link

Still waiting on those red wima's from Mouser so I screwed the base plate back on and connected the tower up to the Yamaha reciever I have out in the garage for car work tunes. Figure 50w rms @ 8ohm or so.

I have to say I'm impressed. The tower sound MUCH improved over how it sounded with the old components.

 

Now to finish the amplifier and get it tuned so I can do a true A/B comparison between the two towers.

There is no need to use 2 of the 68uf caps on the one board. Only 1 of the two caps is responsible for the sound of the woofers. The other one is used for linearisation of the load for the amplifier.

Look at the circuit plan, you will see, that only 1 68uf cap is needed. To replace the linearisation cap with a MKP cap is a big waste of time, space and material... and money. It makes no difference for the amp using the cheap bipolar electrolyth cap in this position.

And there is absolutly no use of caps with 400V. The amplifier works with */- 40V, so 100V is completly sufficient. The Penta reaches it's 300W output with voltages less 100V. Usually caps with 160V fit perfectly with the size of the original caps. 400V does also not sound better, they are only more expensive. Since the boards become pretty warm, the heat dissipation can damage the caps easily, since there is less cooling space available. So it really makes no sense using 400V caps.

The pictures are still available in the old workbench forum how to replace the Penta caps... 

Replacing the 27uf cap is also quite easy. On the original position fits a normal 22uf cap, on the other side of the pcb fits a 4,7uf flat MKP type perfectly. It is also better, using 2 caps instead of just one, the internal resistence becomes even better.

You can read it in the archieved forum from 2007...

This here is everything you need to improve the soundpath of the Penta...

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