Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Vintage Kenwood KA-2000 (vintage Audio Rules)

I just found a kenwood KA-2000 in the dumpster at my apartment and I rescued it just before the rain and I have to say at only 13WPC it sounds better than my "New" Onkyo receiver (For Stereo Music that is since it is not a Surround receiver). The only thing that was wrong with it was it was missing the speaker terminal block there was just two wires sticking out of the back (Blue and a yellow and I figured out that the Chassis was the audio ground

I will be set now only if I could find a proper speaker block as the one I got from R$ fits but is not long enough to fully screw down to both screws. I got it working for now just need to clean the dials because I get crackling when I move then and the switches are doing the same thing.

Also I hope I rewired the speaker plate right please tell me if I am wrong

Yellow = right
Blue = Left
I used a short piece of 18 AWG jumper wire to jump the two Negative terminals to a point on the chassis (I just crimped a ring terminal to the wire and then when I put the cover on. (I put it through that screw on the inside of the chassis)

Oh and if anyone has any old audio equipment be very and I emphasize VERY careful when messing around the inside
especially while plugged in to a live outlet (No Polarized plug) and I think there is a way the chassis could become
electrically hot Don't know how though but I do remember that old TV's had what was called a hot chassis I don't know if Vintage amps are the same way

I have a lot of questions about this
1. why do the two channels share the same audio ground?

2. How do I fix the crackling/popping when I turn the volume/Bass/Treble knobs?

3. How to I fix the stereo/Mono Switch? I can tap the switch and I hear crackling and one side gets louder (Right now I have it set to stereo and I have it so it is working OK for now but if I move it at all it will do that again)

4. I have a couple of safety questions as I don't want to get shocked or have the amp be damaged
I traced the power cord to the fuse holder/60 Watt Switched (Which is of no use as nothing modern will fit in it) outlet in the back and I noticed that there is a very faint ribbing on one side of the cord.
The side without the ribbing goes directly to the fuse holder and I can't trace it anymore without taking the whole thing apart (Which I don't want to do) I currently have it plugged into a surge UPS system into the surge only outlets. I put the ribbed cord side into the side with the wide blade (Neutral) and the other one obviously goes to the hot side of the outlet (Is this safe? I assume so as it has a UL Listing so this must of been safe at one time)

Thanks for reading my long winded post and thanks in advance for any reply's

I'm into vintage stereo gear too, and I agree the old equipment can sound a lot better than the new stuff! As to your safety questions and the lack of a polarized plug, most older receivers used massive power transformers to supply the chassis voltage. The 120 volt line power usually goes directly to the power transformer (via the fuse and power switch), and is isolated from the receiver's chassis. The concerns over a "live chassis" go back to the days of the old 5-tube table radios, which did not use a power transformer. Some older tube type TV's also did not use a power transformer, which provided for electrical isolation of the chassis from the line current.

As for noisy volume and tone controls, the local R$ store SHOULD have tuner/volume control cleaner which you spray into the controls to remove dirt and oxidation. You can use the same spray cleaner on the stereo/mono switch.

I have an old Kenwood receiver myself, but I've never opened it up to see the color codes for the speaker outputs. Just hook it up and try it; and when you turn the balance control to the left and only the left speaker is working, then you have the colors right. If you turn the balance to the left, and the right speaker stays working, then you have it reversed. No biggie! Most stereo equipment uses the common ground system for speaker wiring, but I'm not enough of a design expert to tell you why.

Its amazing what "finds" you can get out of dumpsters sometimes! One man's trash is another man's treasure.

I figured out the speaker color code by only connecting the right (Red) output from my MP3 player and I had the balance control in the middle so when I got sound I knew that was the right audio channel.
Ah the Joys of old and new technology working together :eek:
MP3 Player connected to a 1967 AMP (Not an iPod as iPods's are evil:D )

Just in case you want to see my great find here is a picture of it in its new spot, Serving duty as my computer amp connected to a pair of Insignia Speakers (Best Buy's House brand) and it sounds awesome to me (I am not an audiophile though)

http://images.dr3vil.com//files3/235/Kenwood_KA-2000.jpg