Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
OK, a week ago I posted the video of my Yamaha CR 2020. I decided to perform some additional restoration steps on this unit.
Power supply was recapped by Stereo Rehab in Chicago in 2021, I have the receipt from the previous owner who passed the paperwork along when I purchased it.
I’ve never been happy with the tone and sound quality. And I found that after this was powered on for about two hours, everything became sweeter and more brilliant.
The fact that this is a really damp moldy smelling unit means that it came from someone’s basement and a bunch of additional caps need to be replaced.
So I completely recapped the 2 amplifier driver boards and also replaced six transistors on each. Turns out almost every one of the capacitors was off by 30%. And many had high ESR.
Next step was to completely recap the tone circuit. There are four little boards that unsolder and come off. It wasn’t too difficult, but after removing each, I completely recapped the tone circuit.
I can’t believe the improvement this made.
I also found so much rust, dust, and debris inside which was cleaned out during the process.
Finally, while the phono circuit worked I did replace six low value capacitors in the circuit on principle. I left the larger 8 cans for now.
Right now, the FM tuner works but barely pulls anything in even with an external attic antenna. That will be the next thing to recap, but not right now.
I am not a fan of huge shotgun recaps, but let me tell you I can only find positives by doing this. Every month I’m starting to swap certain capacitors out in my receivers within the collection and I’m really realizing improvements.
This unit now has a day and night difference in sound quality, it fires up and performs really well. And I also feel better that it’s much cleaner inside.
Have a great Independence Day, or at least what’s left of it!
OK, a week ago I posted the video of my Yamaha CR 2020. I decided to perform some additional restoration steps on this unit.
Power supply was recapped by Stereo Rehab in Chicago in 2021, I have the receipt from the previous owner who passed the paperwork along when I purchased it.
I’ve never been happy with the tone and sound quality. And I found that after this was powered on for about two hours, everything became sweeter and more brilliant.
The fact that this is a really damp moldy smelling unit means that it came from someone’s basement and a bunch of additional caps need to be replaced.
So I completely recapped the 2 amplifier driver boards and also replaced six transistors on each. Turns out almost every one of the capacitors was off by 30%. And many had high ESR.
Next step was to completely recap the tone circuit. There are four little boards that unsolder and come off. It wasn’t too difficult, but after removing each, I completely recapped the tone circuit.
I can’t believe the improvement this made.
I also found so much rust, dust, and debris inside which was cleaned out during the process.
Finally, while the phono circuit worked I did replace six low value capacitors in the circuit on principle. I left the larger 8 cans for now.
Right now, the FM tuner works but barely pulls anything in even with an external attic antenna. That will be the next thing to recap, but not right now.
I am not a fan of huge shotgun recaps, but let me tell you I can only find positives by doing this. Every month I’m starting to swap certain capacitors out in my receivers within the collection and I’m really realizing improvements.
This unit now has a day and night difference in sound quality, it fires up and performs really well. And I also feel better that it’s much cleaner inside.
Have a great Independence Day, or at least what’s left of it!
