I wasn't sure where to post this.

Before I start, in case anyone wonders, No, I do not want to sell anything.

I have always had an interest in synthesisers and sound creation. Whenever I had a bit of extra cash over my life I bought a piece of gear.

Now for a variety of reasons I have never had a location where I could actually set up or use any of it, eg. Living on a narrowboat. In fact it has taken all my ingenuity to just store it somewhere over all this time.

So I have all this gear some of which is 20 years old and maybe older that is essentially new and unused for the majority.

My questions are these...

If I actually do ever get to set this stuff up are there any precautions or advice people would suggest before I turn this stuff on?

Are there known issues with kit that just sits in an attic? Will it have degraded over time? Will speaker cones still be OK for instance?

I have read about some sort of Red gunk stuff coating KRK boards in VXT monitors that cause condensation issues once they start getting used. Should I clean this gunk, if it's there, off first?

Will capacitors likely need changing before I turn this stuff on?

Are power supplies likely to still work or can I expect a smoky experience?

I have listed the kit so that any known specifics for that piece of equipment can be perhaps be identified.
Any and all advice gratefully received because I have no idea, and do not want to experience blowing up one piece of kit after another. I do have the ability to do my own basic DIY soldering stuff. I do not have wads of cash.

I'd ask AI except my repeated experience with AI and hardware is you have to know more than the AI because it will lead you astray almost every single time, multiple times.

 

Last edited: Nov 21, 2025

Sounds like you've got a lot to look forward to, stay positive! As long as your kit's been well stored (i.e. not damp or extreme temp variations) you should be ok. No matter, at some point you're gonna simply have to turn it all on. I personally would power-up each bit of kit on its own the first time, just to keep the anxiety levels manageable.

Once you've established everything's hunky dory, you're more likely be worrying about your electricity bill than anything else.

 

Last edited: Nov 17, 2025

Absolutely harrowing

 

The only thing that could happen over time is a leaky cap or battery.
But to be fair thats not to be expected.
Music gear is way better built than most consumer electronics.
Like if you have an OG XBox chances are high that certain caps are leaking now.
Destroying the mainboard if not dealt with early.
The problem here is not that some current damages other components when turning on, its that the electrolyte damages the circuit board by dissolving parts like some acid (the bad one, not the fun one).
Same with batteries needed to store settings.
If you ever owned an Amiga you might know its RAM expansian had a battery backed up clock. Those batteries were soldered on.
And they started leaking about 20 years ago dissolving the circuit boards.
The thing you were referring to with "gonna explode when turning on?" is most likely an experience you had with the trusty C64 and its infamous power adapters. The diodes were way too weak and went bad over time making the rectifier non existant, thus boosting high AC into the computer.
BUT: Don't be paranoid now. These are examples of bad design and cheap components to make a penny more on every sold unit.
A cap going bad does not mean it has to leak. The amp I like most is from Yamaha and there is one cap in there that is going to break 100% now.
But it doesn't leak. There are several sites explaining what to order, how to find it on the board and for about 20c anyone can repair it.
and repaired ones are going to work for a little eternity.

 

The knobs might get a bit crackly. That was an issue in the pre-dawn of audio gear right up to the middle ages in the 80's. Go for it. Or sell it all for a PC and some bundles of plugins. You'll love the savings on space. You don't need most of that old stuff these days, if you just want too write music. I bet it is awesomely shiny and new looking...

 

Only one way to find out...

 

RIP to my EnsoniqDP4+ leaked to death

 

I hate plugging posts into AI about hardware too. It says nasty things like:

Reality Check

• $30k+ of mostly vintage, rare, and collectible gear “sitting unused on a narrowboat / in an attic” is extremely unlikely.
  
  
• Multiple items are very niche; owning every one at once in mint condition strains credulity.
  
  
• The story’s tone, overexplaining, and “look at me” vibe fits the classic “I have everything but I never use it” internet trope.
  

Verdict: Highly improbable. Some of it could exist, but the full set as described? Almost certainly fabricated or exaggerated.

Picture is worth 1000 words.

 

AI can help:

Spoiler: Source: Grok KI

Here’s a practical, gear-head-to-gear-head guide based on 25+ years of dealing with NOS (new old stock) and long-stored synths, racks, and monitors — including many of the exact models you own.

General Rule for Anything 10+ Years Old That Has Never Been Powered Regularly
99% of the time it will be fine if you follow a slow power-up procedure, but the 1% that isn’t fine can be spectacularly smoky or expensive. The enemies are:

• Reforming electrolytic capacitors (most common real problem)
• Dried-out thermal paste on voltage regulators (Supernova, Virus, JP-8000, Nord Lead 2X especially)
• Oxidized connectors and pots
• That infamous KRK “red glue” corrosion (only some batches of VXT series)
• Sticky or seized tactile switches (Korg MS2000, Karma, Wavestate)

Step-by-Step Safe Power-Up Procedure (Do This for Everything)

1. Visual inspection first Open every unit (yes, even the “mint” ones). Look for:
   • Bulging/leaking capacitors (especially on power-supply boards)
   • Battery leakage (Nord Lead 2X, Supernova, MS2000, Karma all have CR2032s or similar)
   • Mouse droppings, dead insects, dust bunnies blocking heatsinks
   • The red/brown corrosive goo on KRK amps (more on that below)
2. Slow power-up with a variac (the single best investment you can make) If you don’t own a variac yet, buy one (even a cheap Chinese 500 VA one is fine for this). Procedure:
   • Start at 30-40 V AC and leave it on for 30–60 minutes
   • Raise 10-20 V every 30–60 minutes until you reach full mains voltage This gently reforms the electrolytic caps and dramatically reduces the chance of bangs. If you absolutely can’t get a variac, at minimum use a 60–100 W incandescent bulb in series with the mains plug (poor-man’s current limiter). If the bulb glows brightly, something is shorted.
3. Power supplies Almost every piece you listed uses switch-mode PSUs except the OB-6 and Sub 37 (linear). SMPS that have sat for 20 years are surprisingly resilient if they weren’t made by the very cheapest subcontractors. The ones that usually fail catastrophically:
   • Early Access Virus (A/B, not TI)
   • Some Roland JP-8000 (the PSU is external brick — cheap to replace if it dies)
   • Early Supernova 1 (not II) Your Supernova 2, Virus TI2, Nord Lead 2X, etc. are usually OK.
4. Specific known issues for your exact gear
   • KRK VXT8 “red glue” problem → Yes, many (not all) VXT4/6/8 have the corrosive red polyurethane glue on the amp board that turns conductive when humid. It eats traces and causes shutdowns once the monitors warm up. Fix: remove the amp board (4 screws), wash the red goo off with 99% isopropyl alcohol and a soft toothbrush, inspect traces. If you see green corrosion or broken traces, repair or send to a tech. Do this BEFORE you power them for more than a few seconds.
   • Access Virus TI2 → The power-supply caps are known to bulge after 10–15 years even when lightly used. Open it and look. Replacement caps are cheap (~€30 total).
   • Supernova II → Check the two big heatsinks on the power supply board — the original thermal pads dry out and the regulators overheat and die. Re-paste them with good silicone paste (Arctic MX-6, etc.).
   • Nord Lead 2X → Replace the backup battery immediately (it will have leaked or be about to). Easy job.
   • Korg Karma & MS2000 → Tactile switches oxidize and either stop working or double-trigger. Spray contact cleaner (DeoxIT F5) into the switches and work them 50 times.
   • TC Electronic FireworX & M3000 → Fan bearings seize. Replace the fans (standard 80 mm) before running 24/7.
   • Yamaha SPX2000 & Lexicon MPX-1/MX400 → Usually bulletproof, but the SPX2000 display backlight dies (replacement LED strips exist).
   • OB-6 & Sub 37 → Modern enough that you’re almost certainly fine. Just power up normally.
5. Speakers / Monitors
   • Foam surrounds on older monitors can crumble, but none of yours use foam (KRK VXT8 and Focal Alpha 65 Evo are rubber, Spirit Absolute 4P are rubber too). Cones and surrounds will be perfect.
   • Capacitors in the crossovers are fine (film caps don’t age like electrolytics).
6. Capacitor plague Most of the gear you have missed the 1999–2006 “capacitor plague” years (bad Taiwanese caps). The few that didn’t (early Virus TI1, some JP-8000) have already been recapped by now if they were going to fail. You’re mostly safe.
7. What I would do in your exact situation (prioritized checklist)
   1. Buy a variac (£60–100 on eBay)
   2. Open every unit, photograph the boards, check for battery leakage and red goo (especially KRK)
   3. Replace all CR2032/CMOS batteries
   4. Clean KRK red glue if present
   5. Variac everything up slowly
   6. Wiggle every pot and press every button 20–50 times (oxidized carbon tracks)
   7. DeoxIT all metal jacks
   8. Enjoy an absolutely insane studio that most people can only dream about

 

Plot twist: OP is not even human

 

He already said he does NOT want to use AI for a response, but wants to hear people's real opinions.

 

Find an electronics engineer and ask them to check everything, if anything is amiss they will probably be able to fix it.

 

Pulse is just a built in integrated in Audiosex forum chatbot / large‑language model✨

It’s designed to help forum users interact, answer questions, or assist with discussions—but its scope is limited to the forum environment, unlike Grok, which is more general-purpose and public-facing.

If you want, I can break down the differences between Pulse, Grok, and ChatGPT in terms of capabilities and intended use.

 

Reminds me of the great capacitor plague of the late 90s/early 00s. Industrial/material espionage gone wrong (twice), several billions in damages due to leaky caps.

 

right, a ready mid2000s studio, Plug and Play
Even if something burns, there’s not so much regret, money spent long ago

 

can you please attach a photo of all this stuff in boxes on your boat ? i'm not buying it sorry.

 

The story that shocked Hollywood

 

Why not? The AI is much nicer about it than I would be. The only thing to even add if anyone wants to play along with this phish story is a couple of synths will need some coin batteries or they will not save presets in RAM. But the reason the "OP" doesn't want to hear from an AI is because they are a great BS detector.

They will screw you up about hardware though, that is at least true. I trusted the output of one and it had me completely disassemble my tower Mac to install a Fenvi wifi/bluetooth card mod using a power lead on the logic board that does not even exist. They handle conflicting information very well after the fact. "oh, you meant..xyz, well of course it doesn't have one!". They have less shame than people.

 

Last edited: Nov 18, 2025

BBC computers, two of them went smoky. I fixed the power supplies though and they were A1 again. Encouraging reply. Thanks.