Any new thoughts on front panel lighting?
 

Although I haven't done a lot of research on the subject -- lately -- I did recently read that certain "go to" Mac suppliers have gotten out of the LED business. Obviously, vintage Mac stereo equipment comes with incandescent lighting that, by definition, will require periodic replacement.

Not that this hasn't been covered many times before, but I simply don't have the time to work on our stereo equipment very often, so I'd like to do the job once and happily stare at our old Mac stuff for a long time to come...so I'm asking if anyone has any up to date thoughts on LED replacements for front panel lighting?

I recently saw a couple of eBay listings from a seller named "captainfantastic07" in Brooklyn, NY. Specifically, he's selling warm white and green "frosted" LEDs that are supposed to replace the incandescents in certain older Mac units. Has anyone had any experience with these kits?

Thanks for your time ~ 70sMac

I used one of his "kits" a few years ago for my mc2255. I like the looks of it and knock on wood all the lights still work. It did require a fair amount of disassembly and bulbs do need to be soldered in.
This winter I used another led supplier for my mc1201's and that was a bit more of a project. The meter lights at first were spotty and it took some experimenting for me to get decent dispersion from led's glare. Now I'm happy with the new look and I hope the 28 bulbs I replaced in them last a very long time.

Some time ago I was modifying my MCD7005 and thought about using a LED too but the original power supply for the front panel lamp is AC. The LED requires DC and I did not want to introduce another switching component to create DC as this might have influence on the electronics. I found a replacement regular lamp and used that. I don't mind the periodic replacement and the incandescent bulbs will last more than 10 years.

Shifting Gears
 

Macuser and Oltmb......Thanks very much for the kind and informative replies.

Macuser......Bearing in mind that we own older Mac equipment, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions. First, I'd like to know which amp is pictured as your forum avatar photo? As you seem to be much more up to date, in general, when it comes to audio equipment, I was wondering if you have any thoughts on audio source material? Specifically, I'm wondering if you're still into the traditional vinyl medium or, conversely, if you've moved into formats like SACD?

As we have an oldish Denon HDCD player, I recently started looking for CDs recorded in said format ... and, yes, the Denon really shines when the HDCD indicator lights up. The upside to the whole HDCD thing is that the Denon easily hooks up to our MX130 preamp. The downside, of course, is that HDCD didn't really take off -- and the amount of decent music available in this format is extremely limited.

I also recently purchased a few SACD discs, but the only piece of equipment we have capable of processing via this format is a Sony UDP-X800 blu ray player that we use for movie watching. It works very well for all of our DVDs (new and old), but it only has (2) HDMI receptacles on the rear panel, so using it with our old Mac stuff is a problem.

Once again, as you appear to own much newer equipment than ours, I would really appreciate any thoughts you might be willing to share in this regard.

Thanks again for your time ...

^^^^Hi Bill; The amp pictured in my avatar is an MC1201 and the addition of Ivan's handles helped a lot in bringing it up to date visually. As far as sources my favorite is vinyl followed by redbook cd's on my older but excellent sounding mvp831 player. I do not have any hdmi inputs on that rig so I won't be able to help you there. Hopefully someone with much newer gear than mine chimes in to help you.

Macuser......Thank you for the post. That certainly is a very nice looking amp you have there. I recall seeing a pair of similar looking amps when we tested out our Nautilus speakers (circa 2002) in a high-end audio store in NOLA ... obviously, prior to Katrina changing everything back home forever.

The handles are a very nice upgrade, as well. We moved our old MC300 at the end of 2018 and, in short, some sort of handles would've been a Godsend ... I ended up having to replace the entire face of the amp.

Thanks again ... and, hopefully, someone who's dealt with the HDMI issue will chime in.

Can't shed light on your HDMI issues but can chime in on LEDs.

A few years ago I installed a now canceled LED kit into a C2200 or C2300 from a well known amp reseller. The kit was extensive, well thought out and therefore expensive. Now discontinued. Toughest part was sanding off the discoloration of the white backside of the meter case.

I also restored a MC2125 amp electronically and since the amp owner was a manager for a international provider of LED lighting for emergency vehicles he asked me to convert his amp and MX117 to LEDs.

LEDs do not work well in the PG indicator circuits and getting the meter color correct with even the labeled soft white LED lamps took a considerable amount of fussing to find the correct mix of color gels. The light boxes falling into a dozen pieces due to overheating did not help any. Finally with the help of two of my photographer neighbors we found the right combination of gels and with new meter boxes got the meters right.

I just finished restoring one of two more MC2125s. Again the light boxes have issues and since I did not dare disassemble the boxes to change the gels I installed soft white LEDs, showed the owner the differences between the LEDs and a Mc2155 and Mc2205 I have here and sent him on his way, knowing his 2nd MC2125 would be coins soon.

So what is the bottom line now........he has one MC2125 that "sounds so much better" but with tarty meter lighting and the waiting to be restored MC2125 that will have to be the experimental unit to sort out the over the top LED lighting.

Restoration done correctly takes time and experimentation if it is going to be done correctly, period correct if at all possible or desired.

I doubt if you will find that at a auction site.

Audio Resource in Metairie would have been the only Mc dealer in Greater New Orleans in 2003.

“Prior to Katrina changing everything...forever”—-NOLA has been back to its normal ways for some time now...same at it ever was—300 years and running.

Huh?
 

I appreciate the post, Cajun, but that's not what our family back home tells us. For one thing, they never got to return home (Violet) and had to move everything they had to a house north of Lake P.

Our older relatives, who lived on a bayou in St. Bernard Parish lost everything they had, as well, and have never been made whole again. For our family, the shrimping life they worked so hard to establish is indeed gone forever.

If NOLA proper is back to pre-Katrina life, God bless 'em, but that certainly doesn't mean much to the working folks to the south and east of the Big Easy.

Although I didn't even get into what happened to us, I certainly hope that you and yours made out better than we did...