The Kenwood BAsic C2 Preamp: What Was I Thinking???

The Kenwood C2 is a well thought of late '80s preamp that retailed for $329. It is notable for better than average tone controls, and both moving coil and moving magnet cartridges with selectable impedance. It is very slim and seemingly very well built.

I was looking for an easy project and what could be easier than a preamp? My C2 had a channel out so why not? What was I thinking?

The C2 is a very nice sounding preamplifier with high quality components, but it is pan built. There is no bottom plate to remove to get access to the controls and boards, you have to disassemble the entire unit. This is not for the spatially challenged. Here is my C2, de-origamied:Yowza. This is how the C2 looked just before I started reassembly.

The main board at the right has to be lifted to replace the caps. It is beautifully made and the caps were high quality Elnas. I am not sure if they existed 20 years ago, but many of the original caps were the distinctive Silmic brown.

There are actually 3 boards at the left for the tone controls. The two larger ones are stacked on reassembly. The smallest is still attached and contains the headphone jack and control. This board has 4 caps and was very difficult to work with. (Fateful words.)

There is a very small board at the front that contains the source selector LEDs. The selector switch itself is still attached to the front panel and has the long blue ribbon that connects in the back right corner to the angled switch.

Next to the selector is the small board with the phono switch.

At the far right is the very lovely blue Alps volume pot.

Here is the C2 partially assembled:
The boards at the left have been positioned and the front and back tacked on. Now the story gets ugly. After connecting enough of the unit to test it I discovered that it had a noisy headphone level pot. Noisy to the point that it seemed damaged. This was very possible since the small knob is exposed at the far left of the unit plus it was the source of some handling when replacing some caps. When not being adjusted the unit was quiet and sounded very good, but when adjusting it was subject to hum and drop outs. I needed some consultation.

I took the preamp by Mike's and managed to lose the knob for the headphone level on the trip. Acck! Losing a knob is just awful beyond the loss of utility. Mike recommended resoldering the pot as a first step, but it might have to be replaced. So, a photo and final wrap up will have to wait a bit. Who'd a thunk a preamp would be so exasperating?