It’s hard to not like these Radio Systems consoles. They’ve held up very well over the years and continue to sound good.
They are subject to aging though. One of the first places they exhibit their age is the power supply. When the capacitors begin to fail the cue and headphone circuits begin to hum.
Earlier consoles used a brute force linear power supply like this one. Later units replaced that with a single or pair of switching supplies.
This is the voltage regulator board from the linear supply. The two large filter caps are failing. We’ll replace them all.
Eagle eyes will notice the power supply is dated 1995, but the console itself is a “millenium” series that was not manufactured until several years later. Angry Audio offers a kit to upgrade the older RS12 consoles to a Milennium. They even include new wood panels and a new control surface. That upgrade has been done here.
New capacitors, no more hum.
The next issue is this. This is the output amp for the telephone output bus. It’s melted and taken a coupling capacitor with it. The rest of the associated components test good, so we’ll replace the socket, the capacitor and the 5532 op amp. Back in operation.
The final problem with this console is a failed switch bank. These silent switches last many years, but when they fail this is often how.
Radio Systems no longer supports these consoles, but fortunately the guys over at Angry Audio do. They have replacement parts available, including soft touch buttons for this switch bank. Price was reasonable too! We replaced both banks of six.
And that’s that. Clean, quiet, new switch buttons. No reason this console won’t operate another two decades.