Luxman T-88V Tuner Recap and LED mod

Another recap post. This time on my workbench was Luxman T-88V tuner. It is a simple one board tuner that together with 4 tantalum caps contains little over 20 capacitors that needs to be replaced. The whole recap took me about 2.5 hours.

Here is a picture of the board before:

Luxman T-88V Tuner Recap and LED mod

And here is one after:

Luxman T-88V Tuner Recap and LED mod

I have used Nichicon UPW and UFW capacitors.

There are few capacitors that are not pictured here:
1. one big capacitor in its own bracket
2. one capacitor under the PCB
3. one capacitor connected to one of the meter
4. one capacitor by the two push buttons on the front panel

I just made one mistake by ordering wrong capacitor. I got non-polar capacitor which was four times the size and wrong type. There was also one capacitor that I have forgot to note polarity for before pulling it off the board. Of course this was the only one that did not have the polarization marked on the PCB. In this case, photos of the board before recap came to the rescue. In the photo below you can clearly see the negative side of the capacitor.

The tuner works fine after recap. If I decide to keep it, I may send it out for adjustments. I have also replaced the incandescent bulbs with LED strip. I only had 2 out of the 9 bulbs working so I couldn’t really take before and after pictures. Here is a picture of the old bulbs:

Here is a picture after the conversion:

Luxman T-88V Tuner Recap and LED mod

The difference in color between the Marantz and Luxman is noticeable because Marantz LEDs shine thru vellum paper (lights are behind the dial scale) and Luxman’s LEDs shine from the top thru a narrow plastic diffuser strip. Still Luxman look better in real life than here on the picture.

5 thoughts on “Luxman T-88V Tuner Recap and LED mod

  1. scott Reply

    What are your impressions before and after of this tuner. I am looking to pick one up and curious of the performance. Thanks Scott

  2. Alex Post authorReply

    When I got the T-88V, I only powered it once or twice to make sure everything works. So I can’t really tell if there is much difference in sound after the recap. It has been about a year now and the tuner still works. It did not need any adjustments after replacing all electrolytic capacitors, pulls stations strong and there is no hiss or noise so I have to say that the recap was a success.

  3. Alex Post authorReply

    You will have to check the service manual. I have removed all the bulbs and replaced them with a LED strip.

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