Bought Nikko system from the original owner who said he would guarantee that it is 100% operational but I had no way to test it. It looked clean so I made the purchase.
Consists of:
Alpha III 80wpc mosfet amp
Beta II preamp
Gamma I tuner
EQ-1 10 band/ch equalizer
RG PRO 16 Dynamic Processor
I hooked up the pre/tuner/power and this is what I discovered.
At first it had no right channel sound. I tried different interconnects and switched L & R, and the sound moved to another channel so I concluded it was the preamp. After plugging and unplugging interconnects it worked fine, so I thought it had corrosion, and I'd clean the RCA jacks after a thorough run in. I thought all was well as it sounded very nice and clean. But that wasn't the end.
After leaving the amp on overnight playing the tuner at the lowest volume setting. In the morning it was very hot, emits a pungent smell but no smoke. All the front panel leds lights, including the red ones were on, even w/ the volume all the way down.
Powering it down, letting it cool, and powering it up the left channel leds work but the right channel lights 3 leds and doesn't follow the music. As it warms all the leds light. Additionally from the lowest volume to the first notch on the preamp's volume the makes a pretty large audible jump, not good for late night listening. So I unhooked it an contacted the owner 3x over a period of a few days and finally got him.
The owner guaranteed it would work 100%, but he would not take it back. He said try it for a week and if it blows up he will refund my $$. So I hooked it up again and the right channel is not working so I unhooked it and left message by phone and email reminding him of his 100% working guarantee. I got a curt email response that he would look to see if I hooked it up correctly.
If he doesn't stop by in day, hopefully concluding in a refund, I'm going to clean all the contacts thoroughly, and adjust the amp's dc offset and idling bias, as that is what I'm skilled to do. I have no idea how to fix the leds or address the excessive heat and smell. There seem to be no burned boards or bloated caps that I can tell, but that is all I'm capable of assessing.
What are your thoughts? Will adjustments help? Other things to do?
Mike
