David, I have owned a Neotek Series One 16X8 console for about 12 years. I > am going to be doing some > work on it in the near future. Would it be a good idea to replace all > the ICs while I am in there? I am > wondering if ICs can degrade with age and if I would benefit from new > 5534 and TL074s?
My experience has been that ICs either fail (get noisy, distort, etc.) or work. Having said that, current production ICs might have a bit lower noise spec. (guessing here as I haven't checked date sheets), but I'm not sure if it would be enough to worry about. If you like the way the console sounds now, then I would imagine the ICs will be fine for a while longer. It wouldn't hurt to pull them out and clean/deox the pins and sockets while you're in there. Caig makes a fine line of products for just this purpose. This will ensure a good connection and protect these connections for a long time. If the console hasn't been recapped, then that's where I'd put my money and time. Try recapping a channel to see if you notice any substantial improvement; if so, then perhaps a recap of the entire board is in order. Cheers, -- Don
