2. amps-preamps
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How do we remember 1970s amplifiers?

I would be curious to hear some of the memories and impressions associated with the following short list of 1970s amplifiers:

- McIntosh "first generation" SS amps, MC2105, MC2505, MC2300, MC250, MC2100
- Dynaco Stereo 400 and Stereo 120
- Phase Linear 400 and 700
- Bang & Olufsen "slide rule" receivers (i.e. especially blackface Beomaster 4000)
- Original Ampzilla (not Son of Ampzilla)

I've chosen this list mainly because they cover a wide range of approaches to solving the issues of early semiconductor technology, and they were all pretty mainstream products in the U.S. I'm excluding the Japanese receivers/amps not out of predjudice; it's simply that the circuit designs varied quite a bit with each model, and thus harder to broadly classify their characteristics.

I'm interested in impressions of both sonic and non-sonic attributes, and a preferred ranking of the above, if you like.
kirkus
lacee
811 posts
 
Peter53, will finding those old amps not just be an attempt at capturing lost youth?

Nostalgia for any of the gear that gave us our first glimpse at what was really hidden in the grooves I think is more like it.

Because a certain speaker or amp was a milestone,somehow some folks think it still will be today.

I have friend who has gone that route, thinking the best was all behind him.

He set out on a journey to replace all his newer gear with gear that he used to own.
Hoping to find audio nirvana once again.

All he found were the reasons why he let that gear go many years ago.
mpcrnc
18 posts
 
I remember going from a Dyna 416 to a David Berning ea 150 to use with Magneplanar Tympani 1-C speakers and being blown away with the difference. The shrillness of the dyna compared to the Berning was unbelievable. I still have that amp and it is competetive with a lot of modern amps.
barrysandy
192 posts
 
- Acoustic Research integrated with AR5s. Solid state sound hard and glarey. Gave SS a bad name (which it deserved)
- Dynaco ST 120 - more of the same!
- Crown IC 150 and D150 driving Infinity 2000As - World class speakers even today and beautiful looking pre and amp but op amps and boatloads of negative feedback = bleeding ears + empty wallet!
- Phase Linear 700B- Much better but still electronic
- Phase 400 - better still and actually nice with beefier power supply caps. driving T-1Ds (needed ARC!)
- Hafler 100 & DH200 - actually not bad and better pooged.
peterr53
184 posts
 
Hi Lacee...

You are most likely right about the "we left it behind" and should really not go back there. But with that said my new DDX 1000 (after a lot of upgrades) sounds
fantastic, although it cost me thousands of $$$ to get there..LOL
My new speakers are coming in a few weeks and I'll decide if vintage is the smart
way to go... :-)
dividebytube
50 posts
 
I've owned the MC250 - the industrial looking 50WPC amplifier. It uses autoformers and actually sounds fairly tubey. Good bass, a little muddy in the mids, and a not very detailed treble. It had a bit of a grainy smear to the sound - at least with the speakers I had at the time. But still, it was a very enjoyable and musical amplifier, just not very high-end.

I've also used a (rebuilt) Dynaco ST-80. Like the ST-120, it's actually capacitor-coupled to the speaker, so some of the faults could be attributed to the bad electrolytics of the time. The only I rebuilt had modern caps and sounded half-decent. Certainly not world-class, but a nice little dorm amp or something for a second system. Again, it just had a slight grain and a slightly forward/etchy treble.
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