Vintage Tube Amps, I'm Lost

Don't forget Marantz... They made some great vintage amps with a strong very warm sound.

The ST-70 is a good place to start. Very nice output transformers and simple enough that the driver and power supply are easily upgraded/updated.

35 watts is about as high as you are going to see in an integrated and is not enough power unless your speakers are 96 db or more (for my listening tastes anyway... :)

In seperates 50-60 watts is the most you will see for the most part. The Dyna MkIII is, relatively speaking, avoidable compared to the sound of the ST-70, so you will have to concentrate on other targets if you want that kind of power. Of those, the Citation II is perhaps that best platform to work with as it has excellent power transformers and enough capcitance and driver layout space to allow for proper refurbishment, updates and upgrades such that it will keep up with a lot of modern amps with ease.

The Citation V has better output transformers but they won't make quite the same power and the amp for other reasons usually does not wind up sounding as good.

Fisher, Marantz, MacIntosh, and Scott made larger 50-60 watt power amps. The Marantz (model 9) is legendary and impossible to find. The Mac 275s aren't particularly easy either but in recent years was repopped. The Fishers and Scotts are rare too. You pay a lot for these names although the Citation II is much more recognized as a giant beater now then they were 15 years ago. The Scott is probably the least collectable.

In all cases an 'attic fresh find' will need the power supplies completely rebuilt, and all the sockets, connectors and transformers will have to be tested for integrety. I advise you to avoid a unit that is know to have a bad transformer- finding a replacement can be heartbreaking.

All vintage tube amps are now so old that ALL the filter caps in them should be replaced in them regardless of how they measure!

Coupling capacitors, particularly in the output section, should be replaced as even a small amount of leakage on their part can cause the output tubes to destroy some rare transformers! Similarly the selenium rectifiers that are often found in the bias supplies of vintage amps should be replaced.

Whomever does the service needs to be very aware that the piece is collectable and that new parts should be installed with respect to this fact. Often you can wind up paying more for suck a piece than buying something new- so stay on your toes.

It really depends on what you mean by vintage! 30 years ago 50 watts was easy but almost all of it solid state much of it garbage. 40-45 years ago was the quote "golden age." I have a suspicion this is what you want. 60 watts per channel was almost unheard of except for the aforementioned EL34 based Marantz 9 which is a major target for Asian knockoffs not to mention the legitimate Marantz * reissue by VAC. Virtually every thing else was based on two tubes per side EL-84s whether it be the 6BQ5 (same tube) the slightly more powerful 7591, or the most powerful the 7868, they all ran under 30 watts a channel in real life. You simply need to get the right high efficiency speakers to use them. I own 2 Sherwoods with 7591s and 7868s they were a lesser known brand. Most people like the Scott variants and the Fishers, they rarely go for more than $500 except the exceptionally clean rarer models. If you want a real Marantz in great shape (mono blocks), they will cost you more than a very good modern amp, 8- 10 thousand. The Harmon Kardons were never that sought after but I don't know why, you might want to listen to some. Be careful about people who refurbish the amps so extensively they are really not vintage amps anymore, they have been modernized so you lose the vintage sound, if you really want it. I can tell you it has its moments but is not particularily favored in light of what you can get today sonically. Experiment, get one that works well and get some same era speakers and you'll know what it sounds like. Its somewhat dark sounding rolled off not much low bass (that takes power) it can be very sweet in the mids.
If you mean vintage like 30 years ago get the Macs they will drive almost anything. Or if you want the late 70s second age of major audio buying especially the big reciever or integrated amp try the Sansui, Kenwood, Pioneeer, Marantz (Japan), a really good example of a mid line one will cost you only about $300. By about 1980 Japan started outsourcing already to the rest of Pacific rim and quality dropped dramatically. Don't be mad if you find the sound not to your liking. The big problem with these amps and recivers is finding any left over or scavanged circuitboards.The older stuff was frequently hard wired butnot always. Repairs get expensive or are just not possible I spent nearly 6 months trying to replace a circuit board in a top o the line Kenwood and gave up. Therefore I highly recommend if your going this route let someone else do the hard work of getting the item into shape without detroying it's character.-