Kenwood KR-9600


I have been buying legendary vintage audio for the last 9 month's,  I came across this kenwood kr-9600, I named it Dino,  big, powerful,  and old,  To my astonishment,  it is in mint condition,  everything works except the power switch is stuck on,  to say the least,  I do not believe I've ever seen a tuner this good,  with a piece of two inche wire antenna this this picks up endless stations from abroad,  also,  this Dino is a whopping 160 watts RMS per channel,  I've studied everything about this unit,  I know exactly what I want to do to it,  from Etna simic two, nichicon kz and fg capacitors to modification's, my plan is to recap all 91 capacitor's,  put a relay with fuse on the power switch after it has the carbon cleaned out from in rush current,  change the op amp out on the tuner Board for audiophile grade new one for better sound , change out three resistors to aluminum finned new one's on the power Board,  the original one's are underrated and get to hot from factory, etc..., I need to find someone that know's this kenwood kr-9600 inside and out, that has reworked one of these,  competent,  to do all this work,  please help,  thankyou audiogon community. 
audiolabyrinth

Showing 4 responses by dlcockrum

Short of finding a KR-9600 specialist, You may want to contact these and see if any gain your confidence:

http://www.oaktreevintage.com/repair_links_outside.htm
http://alexav.com/kenwood-stereo-receiver-repair/
http://stereoadvisor.com/
http://classicsoundrepair.com/
http://www.eliteaudiorepair.com/
http://www.repairaudio.com/service.html

I have a KR-9600 and it is a great vintage receiver. Be careful with the power switch - it is not buffered so it takes the whole AC surge when switched on and is prone to failure. Replacements are unobtainium. Best to use an external device to power the receiver on and off instead of the switch.

Another area of concern is the custom Kenwood Darlington power module. Also unobtainium.

Dave
Don't know anything about Legendary Amps. Looks like they specialize in Yamaha. I would talk to several vendors before deciding.

The reason I brought up the Darlington modules is that extreme care should be taken during the refurb to protect these from electrical damage during testing/power up.

Sometimes the old adage "If it ain't broke don't fix it" plays out in these cases.

Dave
The KR-9600 is in my vintage system. I rotate between Pioneer HPM-100 and Watkins WS-1a (Watkins Dual-Drive woofers) speakers using either the tuner or one of three vintage TTs (good phono stage in the KR-9600) as the source with a Pioneer SG-9500 12-band EQ between the pre-out and main-on jacks.

Fantastic sound on Blues and Rock.

Dave
Glad you are happy with it,  Some things are right just the way they were made. ;>)

Dave