McIntosh
Solid-State Blue LED
Meter Lamp illumination
Use In
MR 71 Tuner
MR 73 Tuner
MR 74 Tuner
MR 77 Tuner
MR 78 Tuner
MC2105 Power Amplifier (Requires Two Sets)
(More to be Added)
Picture of my personal McIntosh
MR-73 Tuner with new meter LED lamps
installed. Also notice I have replaced the original dial pointer
lamp, which originally used a incandescent bulb with a red gel
filter, with a blue LED. It
looks so cool! Sorry I
don't offer the pointer LED's as a kit.
When I found the
need to replace some lamps in my McIntosh MR-73 Tuner while performing
a routine alignment I was presented with a illumination
revelation! Replacing
lamps was pretty straight forward with the exception of the two meter
lamps. Over each bulb was wrapped a blue gel filter material that
had aged with time. As I tried to remove the filter material it
broke apart in my hands from the years of lamp heating. I knew I
could find new blue gel material at a local craft store, but I wanted
to avoid facing the same problem when a lamp would burn out in the
future. I have previously designed LED based lamps for the R.L. Drake
4-Line series amateur radio equipment. That project required blue
rear illumination over the wide angle of the frequency display
window. I had created special lamps to meet those
requirements. Would they work as a replacement for the MR-73
meter lamps. A quick try revealed excellent results! So I've
decided to build a kit of two lamps which I could supply to the
McIntosh
user. Although I have only tried them in an MR-73 they should
work with many other McIntosh products which have a clearance hole
larger than 0.45 inches. This diameter is required to allow
passage of the lamp top diffusion lens through any chassis clearance
hole. These lamps are designed as 5.0 to 6.3VAC bulb replacements
like
the #1847 used for meter illumination in the MR-73.
As
a replacement for the blue filters I have developed a Blue illumination
kit to replace the existing #1847 incandescent meter lamps
provided with the McIntosh equipment. The kit consists of
two custom
manufactured LED lamps designed as plug-in-play replacements for
the original #1847 incandescent bulbs. The new LED lamps use the
same style bayonet bulb base as the originals. There is
no need to replace or add additional gel filters. Simply discard
the original gels!
The life of an LED
is long,
typically 80,000-100,000 hours (almost 10 years of continuous
power), and most of us will never experience one going out.
Once the original lamps are replaced you should never have to
replace them again. You will save on current draw! The two
LED lamps only require a total of 40mA whereas the original #1847 lamps
have a total of 300mA current draw. That's over one quarter amps
less current draw from the power supply and negligible heat dissipation
from the LED's.
View of Tunning Meter with New LED Back Light
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McIntosh Meter Lamp Kit
Two (2) Diffused Lens Blue LED Bayonet Lamps
Full Installation Instruction Sheet
Above is one of the Blue LED Diffused
Lamps
Built With A Purpose
These
are not mass produced lamps. Each lamp is hand
assembled in my shop. The bayonet bases are solid
brass. Lamps have a specially manufactured diffusion lens
which
surrounds the blue LED. This dispersion lens is milled from
solid semi-transparent plastic. It is not a hollow plastic
covering! By using a solid lens material the emitted light is
dispersed a full 360 degrees around the lamps sides and a full 180
degrees toward the top side. The picture below demonstrates how
well this custom dispersion lens works installed in the McIntosh MR-73
tuner. The picture is taken from the top of the dial tuning
assembly with the dust cover removed.
Simple to Install
Installation is straight forward
and every attempt was made for ease of installation. This is a
direct lamp replacement and can be performed in about 15
minutes.
Ordering
All
lamp sets are $22.00 USD each and ship @ $4.80 (Any Quantity) for USPS
Priority Mail Shipment to
U.S.A.
locations. For destinations outside the U.S.A. you have a
choice of
Standard Airmail @ $10.00 USD (1-6 weeks delivery time) or
International Priority Mail at $37.00 USD ($23.00 for Canada/Mexico)
(1-2 weeks Delivery time). Shipment selection is available using
the
on-line PayPal order system below upon final checkout.
or Send Check or Money Order (US
Funds Only) to:
Kenosha, WI 53144 U.S.A.
Include
quanitity
and Part Numbers (see below) with your payments made via standard mail
orders.
or for immediate
processing we
accept payments through PayPal.
Just click on the link below.
When
using the PayPal Order Cart you can change the order quantity if
desired. (Notice a
quantity of 1 is for one (1) Kit , i.e. two (2) lamps)
Please
indicate if you intend on using these in another McIntosh Receiver or
Tuner other than those mentioned at the top of this page. This
information can be
provided in the "Message to Seller" area upon check out. I
will keep a list of successful McIntosh equipment that these lamps can
be used in and provide that list here for future customers.
User
Comments
Man, those blue LED lamps you sell
look fantastic! The website just doesn't do them justice. They have a
rich neon-like glow, especially with the room lights on.
- Steven
J., Parkwille, MD
Above picture (Click on
picture for enlarged view)
was sent to me by Steven J, showing his MR73 using my blue LED
meter back lights. Steven has replaced all rear illumination
lamps with LED's.
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