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) MC2300 Power Amplifier (Requires Four 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     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 Please Order Using these Part Numbers PART NUMBER Used In Number of Sets Required Price (USD) MOD-MACLAMP McIntosh Meter LED Lamp Set (Two Lamps in Set) MR 71 Tuner MR 73 Tuner MR 74 Tuner MR 77 Tuner MR 78 Tuner MC2105 Power Amplifier (Requires Two Sets) MC2300 Power Amplifier (Requires Four Sets) 1 1 1 1 1 2 4 $22.00 per Set All products and parts are shipped at the rates shown below.  There is no quantity limit for these rates.  You can combine items from other pages on this site and all will ship together at this one rate! Destination Method Cost (USD) U.S.A. Priority Mail $4.95 Canada & Mexico Priority Mail Flat Rate $11.45 All Other Destinations Priority Mail Flat Rate $13.45 Send Check or Money Order (US Funds Only) to: D.A. Buska Engineers LLC 4805 64th Avenue Kenosha, WI 53144  U.S.A. For mail orders use the order form provided here >> For immediate processing we accept on-line orders and payments through PayPal when using the Order Cart below.  You can change the order quantity if desired when you view the cart during check out.  This order cart can be used throughout the many pages on this site so it is not necessary to check-out until you have ordered everything you need. 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. I just installed a set of the blue LED bulbs in my MR78 tuner, and I love them... The lights are very easy to install, especially with the instructions.  It did take about 15 minutes, and I could not be more pleased.  I had just paid a technician $50 to replace one of the lights and now I have two LED's for about half the cost. - Nathan M., New Harmony, IN     Return to Kits - Mods - Products Page