Well, I'm back.
First, Old Nut.. I cracked that resistor open the best I could and there was no indication that it was anything other than composition of some kind. The replacement ohmed out precisely on my meter, so not a meter problem.
This sound issue was getting me down, with no resolution in sight.. The only benefit was that as I rechecked/remeasured pretty well every component. I found several more off spec. resistors that I replaced, doing even more to improve image quality!
I dicked around with the audio ifs so much that I lost even the small amount of audio that was initially there. In the end I broke down and injected audio directly into the volume control and that is where I am going to leave things. I don't have the equipment necessary to readjust the 3 audio ifs at this point. (Maybe someday!)
The set still functions as it was designed to do. Responds as it should to control changes. No one but I will know that it isn't processing the audio as it should be.
I expect it will live the rest of its life attached to the vcr so its sound source will be forever present
I'll shoot a short video of the set in action, perhaps I can get some feedback on the few small video artifacts it is still displaying.
Here's a link to the short video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MwR...ature=youtu.be
The diagonal lines are from the camera, not there watching live. Just seems to be a bit wonky at the top. Otherwise pretty good.