The best sounding receiver I've ever worked on: MAC 1500

Need tools? Here's a video showing what I use (with links!): • Must-Have Tools For Wo...
Use code AHFIX10 at www.tubesandmore.com for 10% off your order! Offer expires May 30th, 2023.
Watch the unlisted extended cut here: • MAC 1500 Extended Cut
How to replace multi-section filter capacitors: • How To Replace Multi-S...
It's always a good idea to ask your neighbors if they have old stereo equipment! This has been with my neighbor for over 40 years and when it stopped working he held onto it until it was time to get it fixed. That time is today! This is one of the best-sounding receivers I've ever heard. So good that I almost didn't give it back! Anyways, I hope you enjoy watching this rare MAC 1500 get repaired and restored.

[@DrNoahBoddy004]

That was simply blessed labor! That Mac 1500 sounded simply fantastic! Thank you SO much posting this most important iconic receiver!🌹

[@insolentstickleback3266]

That is so cool, after all those years holding onto it, and now his neighbor brings it back to life! Awesome, nice story, nice video. 👍🏻

[@Hugo81765]

I have the Mac 1900 & 1500, bought them at a flea in Brooklyn about 8 years ago from a 30 something vendor for under $100 total…youth is wasted on the young. Both were working with channel issues, but are currently under the knife at pro audio in Brooklyn for tuning and any necessary restoration….check Yelp..this a one man operation with excellent reviews….Excellent video

[@ae4bp]

I have the exact receiver! I was glad to see that you did a video on this. Mine, like yours, is restored and fully functional. But, when I watched, I realized that my stereo indicator never worked. I will go back and correct this now. Also, I formed the electrolytics and they seem fine for now. But, I will probably replace them next. Like you said, a rare and wonderful piece and I’m glad to have it. Thanks for sharing.

[@ae4bp]

Can you give the tubesandmore part numbers for the can caps you installed?

[@johnwest7993]

I refurbished an old Marantz with 'cat-eye' tuning. I don't recall the model. But even before I'd aligned it I plugged in a pair of headphones and heard a guy's voice and I jumped, because it sounded like the guy was in the room with me, seriously. It was spooky. Modern receiver designers use 'scopes, spectrum, and distortion analyzers. Old-time engineers used 'scopes and ears. Modern gear sounds like modern gear. High end old gear sounds like you're there. There's a reason those old tuners and receivers sell for more now than they sold for new.

[@lucasschommer5703]

I just got up and i was thiken i havent seen you for a whil well just fired up youtube video cam out 5 minits when i seen it thank you

[@kc8jtg99]

I didn’t know Macintosh made a receiver. Can’t imagine what a unit like this would cost today. Thanks for including your helper Miss Cat.

[@Runco990]

They made several! I have a MAC 4100. It is probably the most affordable entry into McIntosh you can get. I serviced it and love it! It was MADE to be serviced, everything is modular. An underrated gem.

[@216Numbskull]

Don't get it twisted here my friends unless this was meant as a bit of sarcasm. Cuz there's a big difference between "McIntosh Labs" audio electronics corp & "Apple Macintosh" computer tech corp. The only bond between the 2 companies is that Apple/Mac Steve Jobs had to pay McIntosh Labs Gordon Gow a substantial amount of $$ for licensing rights to use the name even though the 2 names are spelled differently by a letter. Other than that the 2 companies have no affiliation whatsoever. Just saying... 🤔 ✌️😉

[@Runco990]

@@216Numbskull I see I accidentally mis-spelled it. Correct! McIntosh has nothing to do with Apple "MAC Intosh." 🙃

[@mrz80]

It is possible to disassemble and rebuild those big electrolytic cans. I've done that on my MAC-1700. You cut the can open with a Dremel tool or a very fine blade hacksaw, gouge out all the dead innards, and wire up some modern NIchicon electrolytics to each section's lead tabs. Close the can back up with some of that aluminum duct tape and glue on a printed label.

[@louoldschool7047]

it sounds good and I'm 2000 miles away

[@gilbertwashburn7095]

Great find that's really nice I found a Mac mc225 at a garage sale for 20 bucks don't get too excited it's in a million pieces I rebuilt it it sounds fabulous but it was a lot of work since the guy took it all parts or store it unfortunately he completely removed every component it was a big job but I did it and it sounds great thanks for doing this it keeps me inspired I've been fixing electronics for 50 years some of his new stuff it's just awful

[@TrevorsBench]

Love the classic Jag

[@tomklenk9573]

I enjoy your videos very much. Have been able to fix issues with my SX 780 and my G-6700 with tips I picked up watching you work. Thank you!

[@danhorton6182]

Excellent work man! Love saving gear like this from the scrap

[@MrDoneboy]

This receiver dates back to 1965...Which Aidan should have told about in the intro! I can't believe what they are asking for resale. I seem to remember my late uncle having one back then.I just remember that he had a great receiver back then!

[@jimcabezola3051]

I hope your neighbour thanks you for your repair…by playing the snot out that beautiful receiver. What a find! Also…there is something poetic in you picking up an item to be repaired…in an item you already repaired! Aloha!

[@terrym1065]

Nice work Aidan👌 Rare vintage piece of audio equipment right there, needed to be restored to past glory. Glad to see you tackle this project and win in the end. Sounds great for something 50+ yrs old. Thanks for the video. Enjoy!

[@hardball107]

Love your XJS. I have a convertible which originally had a V12, converted it to a Chevy 350 many moons ago. Currently swapping in a cammed GM LS 5.3. hope to have it done in a few months.

[@pietromanno8916]

GREAT JOB !! KEEP IT UP!!! NEVER GIVE IN!!!!!!

[@batmandestroys1978]

Brilliant Video!

[@geedaddy45]

Aidan, I just finished restoring my Fisher 800-C and that unit sounds AMAZING! Watching your video on this tube gear and you commenting on the sound makes me think tube gear sounds better than SS gear. I’m looking to find some other tube gear to work on now. Thanks AH!

[@hippydippy]

SWEET! Nice work as always.

[@ScramjetNY]

Greetings from Binghamton! I love that you had the Mac rocking out at the end of the video Aidan! I don't know what I enjoyed more - you're skilled restoration of this amazing receiver or your adorable kitty cat assistants ;)

[@Converse6446]

Phenomenal work! I´d have loved to see your neighbours reaction when you bring/brought it back.

[@AHFixIt]

He was thrilled. I will share the text he sent about an hour after I left: "I just listened to Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms " this Mac sounds fabulous."

[@Converse6446]

@@AHFixIt Isn´t that great to hear! Let´s hope he gets to enjoy it for many years to come!

[@mikepxg6406]

Impressive amplifier. Good job.

[@viperocco]

Sweet ride man!

[@larryshaver3568]

Great job! it really sounds life like

[@tomhill9445]

Nice find and save ! My Mac 1700 needs some work. It was my favorite sounding piece out of my hoard of vintage recievers.

[@Darrylizer1]

I love the old gear. I recapped and replaced all the out of spec resisters on my dad's old Pilot 216a preamp, including getting new quad caps made from Hayseed Hamfest. I bought a lot of parts from Antique Electronic Supply, wish I had your promo code then, haha. The Pilot feeds my dad's old Dynaco Mark III monoblock power amps which I also restored. Tubes can be a PITA but the sound makes it all worth while.

[@alpe3911]

The cat is almost the best part of the video. Good work and deserved success.

[@stevezeidman7224]

I just found your channel and really enjoy your videos. I have vintage McIntosh so watching you fix them is fascinating to me.

[@electrohoard]

Oh dear! I wish I could find these abandoned gems to add to my hoarding! Thanks for the great video!

[@martyjewell5683]

I can dig it, sometimes the wait is worth it. While speaker shopping in 1978 my desired pair were the Ohm Acoustics model H systems. My budget found the Ohm L's more compatible. Still have and use those Ohm L's. Three years back I found restored Ohm H's in excellent condition both sonically and cosmetically for $275 (the pair). A freakin' steal. It only took me forty two years to get those Ohm's and they sound boss.

[@peterlundskow4061]

Wonderful job!

[@dr.fritzprengel2378]

Now, finally the *receiver gets the love he needs* 🤓👍

[@reinkansman1081]

That was a solid challenge that you met, Aidan. Picking it up in another challenge met kinda set the tone.

[@lawrencemarocco8197]

I got one of these that was a demo unit at a local electronics store about 1979. Still sounds awesome after all these years.

[@ohmbug10]

Betcha it feels good to fix a historical piece of audio gear. Nice job Aidan.

[@Shadowban69]

Soapy warm water and a soft sponge clean up the faceplate the best. Dish liquid and glasses lense cleaner on the glass. I sometimes use mothers polish on the faceplate and knobs.

[@robertdavis5714]

Nice production, those parts and tubes you bought were not cheap. Goodness gracious, 2 big and 1 giant Trans, must be pushing 70 lbs.

[@hermanmunster3358]

Nice XJS!

[@N3WERHamRadioElmer]

Nice Job N3WER 73's

[@rossr100]

Nice XJS, they used to race those at Bathhurst Aust before it turned into taxi racing.

[@Blowncapacitor84]

Nice!!!

[@jb678901]

I bought a venerable Pioneer SX-82E from a local retiree (sold it to me for $130). Fully functional and in physically excellent condition, it came with its original service manual. His sister-in-law gave him the receiver as she had inherited from her recently deceased father, the original owner. The original owner had meticulously maintained the unit and even cut out and inserted into the service manual all the service updates/text revisions. I ran it up on a dim bulb to carefully check, etc. Test sat. However, the capacitors are ancient and I will not use this baby until it has undergone a full revision. Must be over 15 tubes in this monster. Weighs a ton.

[@ronaldt8959]

Nice job 👌

[@6AM_YT]

Curious that a guy fixing a tube amp was surprised that a stereo tube amp has a power transformer and an output transformer for each channel. Nice job fixing it, though!

[@todddenio3200]

I dont care how you turn it, quality vintage hi-fi sounds so much better than todays high priced systems for some reason. Personally I have old Marantz receivers and amps, and several brands of speakers including Marantz. Strangely I have some vintage off brand speakers that sound as good as if not better than the bigb names do. My Marantz receivers are a 2245 and a 2270, my amps are a little 1015 and a 4100 quad. Sets of speakers (I can't remember some model names) pairs of vintage speakers are -- Symphonic, Tru-Sonic, large Advents, Panasonic, RCA (actually sond really good), Pioneer, Marantz Imperial 7's, Utahs that are unmarked and sound surprisingly well, on the cabinets, Bose 501's, Bose 701's, and a few others I cant remember the brands of. Cant remember the brand of my turntable but it is a professional DJ grade, and my cassette deck is a vintage Marantz unit. . I do have a couple other vintage marantz receivers....I think they are lower quality and have what looks like computer chips in a few spots inside them. I think they are model 5100 or 5200 but cant remember at the moment.

[@Roscoeverdin5469]

I bought a Mac MA230 Amp at a moving sale. Of course I asked if it worked and of course I was told it did. Two weeks later when I got around to hooking it up, quiet, zilch, nada. It's sat in a box for 15 years. Someday I'll get around to having it restored. They don't seem to command much money though. So, I'll see.

[@roguesquatch1]

I picked up a Mac 1500 with the wood case from the son of the original owner about 2 years ago. He told us he story of when his father bought it new with the JBL Lancer 77s. It actually works great but I am not using it until I can get it fully restored.

[@billmcdonald4335]

No power wash? Why no power wash?

[@briangoldberg4439]

When you replace caps on an old unit that doesn't have a regular PCB, you can cover the exposed legs with heat shrink tubing to help prevent the chance of something touching underneath. I don't know if it's strictly necessary, but I do it, and it would make me nervous to leave them like that

[@briangoldberg4439]

Oh, and great work on the amp! lol I always enjoy watching your videos

[@schwanny]

Great video! ... and I grew-up just outside of New Haven, CT :)

[@MervinGriff]

So did I... East Haven, I am betting this guy worked at David Dean Smith in New Haven they were really the only Mac retailer around back then

[@schwanny]

@@MervinGriff That's awesome! Guilford here! Whenever I visit home, the FIRST thing I do is get pizza and some Foxon Park White Birch Beer!

[@frankjandreau8316]

The resistors connected to the filter capacitors are part of the filter circuit. The filter removes ripple from the DV voltage. If you do not filter out the ripple the amplifier will hum. The resistors also bleed off the DV voltage when the powerr is turned off. That's why you did not measure any voltage on the can capacitors with the power turned off. The resistor are there as part of ther filter.

[@BNDtcb]

Hey! I've recently been getting into vintage receivers, well vintage stereo. My dad quite recently passed away and left a bunch of stereo behind. To name some of them Marantz 2600, 2500, 2325, 1300DC. Pioneer 1250, 1980. and other players and after that really wanted to get into stereo and take on my dads hobby you might say. Well anyone enough background, I stumbled on your channel and I've really loved your restoration videos, I've started to learn which I am really appreciative for! But to get to the point I would really love if you took the time someday to make a video about receivers, showing the new viewers getting into receivers where parts are located for example inside the receiver. I've not been able to find a good video talking about the insides of the receivers, sure you've got the manual schematics to work with but for an inexperienced soul it can be quite overwhelming. I hope you get to see this comment, if you see this and think "nah I'd rather not" then fair enough, thank you for taking the time to read it! But to sum it up, I'd appreciate if you made a video for the more inexperienced viewers getting into vintage stereo going over the basics, go through where stuff is located inside the receiver and what it does. Just a simple explanation nothing major or super complex. I'd appreciate if you took the time to comment on this post your thoughts! Thank you for the informative and enjoyable content, keep it up! :)

[@AHFixIt]

Every receiver is different so it's not too easy to explain where stuff is broadly. In most service manuals, yes, there are schematics, but generally, there are also exploded views of the receiver or pictures with arrows pointing to each board. If you go inside this stuff enough times, you'll eventually be able to tell what each board is based on the components soldered to it. I can make a better effort to talk about this stuff as I see it when I open up gear for the first time. But even then, I'm still just guessing until I open the service manual :)

[@swpowell1226]

Very nice. Does your neighbor have the cover for the case ?

[@Hounddoggy33]

Did your neighbor call and ask you to turn down the loud music while requesting you finish the restoration? 😄Great job!

[@bradbeasley7669]

nice😎👍

[@larryshaver3568]

that's how i'm going to my astro sonic.... just one or two capacitors at a time

[@bobgrob4]

wow, nice MAC. Did you do the 350 chevy conversion to that Jag? I have a friend that did that to his.

[@sirtainlee8725]

What make of quad and capacitors did you use?

[@adeeponionbreath]

Now…what do you do with the old power tubes? Pitch them?

[@MervinGriff]

I am betting this guy worked at David Dean Smith in New Haven they were really the only Mac retailer around back then.

[@pauldavis6356]

Great video. Nicely done but too bad KZbin is killing it with commercials ☹( I counted 3 )

[@ShadowsOnTheScreen]

But he loves the ads! Making that KZbin cash!

[@RogierYou]

I which current gear would have a loudness button.

[@mikepxg6406]

Some Marantz Amplifiers do.

[@michaelscottcutler3627]

What year was it released? It being a hybrid, about 1965?

[@AHFixIt]

1965!

[@janicehopkins4432]

That is when I was released.😄

[@Parkhill57]

@@janicehopkins4432 That was when my brother went to Viet Nam and I got his old bedroom - whoo-hoo!

[@johngranato2673]

You know that that brown wire coming out of the metal box is not safely installed

[@ahmadalawadhi538]

❤❤ nice world

[@larryshaver3568]

what would the bulb do if there WERE shorts?

[@AHFixIt]

What would happen is it would be completely illuminated at full brightness. It's not very easy to tell in the video, but it was not fully illuminated. It was dim in reality, but this amp being vacuum tube has a high idle current so it looks brighter in the video than it really is.

[@johnmadow5331]

I brought Mac Intosh 2100 amp in 2001 with damage power transformer. I was told by the repair person that the cost of rewire the power transformer will be $600.00 so it is cheaper to buy a donor unit ans switch the transformer. Are you interests to repair this amplifier? I found McIntosh stero used in 2005.

[@dikludas]

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@stuartlee8041]

If it's not valve I'm not interested nowadays, I was given and old radiogram, and eventually got it working, there's just something natural about the valve sound, I can't go back to solid state..

[@jayyoung5423]

Nice job. I'm not far from you...would you consider tuning up some 70's yard sale finds for me? Having watched many videos of yours, I think I would trust no other, peace.

[@larryshaver3568]

did you get that Vari-ac new?

[@MrDoneboy]

It's actually an Isolation transformer.

[@MrDoneboy]

Variac is a brand that is different, from an isolation transformer.

[@supercompooper]

Waiting 15 years? That's worse than even my ADHD can muster 😅

[@larryshaver3568]

to restore that is

[@violao206]

Repaired? Yes. Restored? Not so much... Restoration means cleaning out all the crap off the chassis, assembly, and circuit boards which has not been done. Also, the tuner section oscillators were ignored, and you know there would be drift with the tuning coil inductors in that circuit from the original spec.

[@phazer131]

Looks like a fisher replica

[@ericschulze5641]

Dim bulb lit up and no shorts ?

[@sampahtetapsam21]

How to contact u directly ? I have receiver that require service

[@tonymannino5672]

Did Aidan get back with you on your repair needs ? And is he in Connecticut?

[@themadmallard]

That hearth is ridiculous. if its brick all the way through, what a great dead wall for listening.

[@alanrogs3990]

I do not know electronics at all but why wouldn't you try to see if the fault was in one of the tubes first?

[@glennjones6574]

Can anyone guess the song that blasted on for a second ?? Lol

[@AHFixIt]

I too would like to know if anyone can guess it lol

[@larryshaver3568]

isn't it strange that the right channel fails more than the left

[@UQRXD]

There is nothing incredible about that sound. New stuff will put it to shame. If it was HD FM it would put that thing to shame. I was so glad when the tube era came to an end. The carbon foot print of all the power used was enormous, and reliability was low.

[@nelsondog100]

From watching your videos I’ve noticed a few things you should be made aware of before you get yourself into trouble. You’re too rough on the controls of older gear. The way you forcefully engage switches makes me cringe, you’re too rough. You’re going to cause damage some day. The same applies to the way you twist knobs. Be more careful, even if it’s your own equipment. There’s more but I’ll be quite and maybe let someone else chime in about your ‘repair’ work.