Hey there,
I got into vintage recently and for my first piece I found an almost (9.8/10) pristine vintage Yamaha CA-1000. I fell in love with the Yamaha gear 2 years ago when I went to the Montreal Audio Show where I saw the NS-5000 speakers with the A-SXXXX line of amplifiers. I was both hooked to their sound and their look. Before that, I always believed that Yamaha was just doing home cinema stuff. Then I discovered an all "new" world for me with the vintage Yamaha.
I found the Yamaha CA-1000 I own now locally. Cosmetically speaking, almost perfect. Technically however, it was bad. One channel was out, all pots scratching badly, etc. I knew it was probably going to need a good restoration. So I found a excellent tech who took care of the cleaning, full recap, fix the right channel and some other transistors along the way.
But I wanted more than that. After careful research, I had the lamp cord removed by an excellent tech (Planabox) and a AC/IEC socket installed so that I could use whatever power cable I want. Another step was to remove the old binding clip posts and install some real banana posts. I was thrilled at the quality of the work. He even drilled the center of the binding posts to solder each wires instead of using the tabs that come with them. I also had the stock fuses changes for audiophile grade fuses.
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It was a fun project for me as I curious how far these old amplifers could go when properly restored and also when fed with the same tweaks the newer gear enjoys. I have matched my amplifer with a Bryston BDA-3 and a BDP-2. Nothing sounds vintage at all! In fact, the news fuses brought more clarity than I am comfortable with as I find it removes that natural sound of the Yamaha.
For all the repair works, I believe I drove about 1500 KM for back and forth trips to the techs. With all the efforts put into this, and knowing I will never get my money back, I will probably never sell this amplifier. I know I have one unique CA-1000. When the upgrade bug will hit again, I will move it to an upcoming system in the living room. And when I will get tired at some point, I will put it in storage waiting for my son to be a teenager and give to him for his first system (he is only 3 now but enjoys listening to music with me).
Enjoy!