@w
About 20 years ago we had a preamp out for review with Harry Pearson of TAS. His cat urinated in the preamp section. It came back to us to see what we could do- it was a mess. I took it to a car wash, the manual kind with the high pressure sprayers and gave it a good spray at close range- getting the spray beneath the tube sockets and the like. Then I took it to the shop, let it dry and then replaced a few resistors that were damaged. After that added a bit of contact lubricant to the volume control and gain trim controls; after that it worked just fine.
FWIW at the time we had our circuit boards made at the same place ARC did (Electronic Industries; if that name is familiar to some of you old timers it is in fact the very same Electronic Industries that spun off Audio Research). I think the Ref5 was made prior to Electronic Industries being bought out so there is a good chance the boards were made there. This might not be nearly as serious as you think!
About 20 years ago we had a preamp out for review with Harry Pearson of TAS. His cat urinated in the preamp section. It came back to us to see what we could do- it was a mess. I took it to a car wash, the manual kind with the high pressure sprayers and gave it a good spray at close range- getting the spray beneath the tube sockets and the like. Then I took it to the shop, let it dry and then replaced a few resistors that were damaged. After that added a bit of contact lubricant to the volume control and gain trim controls; after that it worked just fine.
FWIW at the time we had our circuit boards made at the same place ARC did (Electronic Industries; if that name is familiar to some of you old timers it is in fact the very same Electronic Industries that spun off Audio Research). I think the Ref5 was made prior to Electronic Industries being bought out so there is a good chance the boards were made there. This might not be nearly as serious as you think!