The Hub: History of Dynaco part 3

In Part 2 of our Dynaco history, we left off with the influence and reach of Dyna's tube gear, still widely used today. Our focus in this entry is the solid-state era at Dynaco, and how the people and products of that era continue to influence the audio industry.

Dynaco was a late arrival to the solid-state show, which, given the general horribleness of many early solid-state amps, was probably a good thing. Greg Dunn's invaluable Dynaco History website tells us that Dyna's first transistor amp, the Stereo 120, appeared in 1966. By 1966 standards, the Stereo 120's 60 real watts per channel marked it as a high-power amp. As a side note, the FTC RMS power-measurement standards were not in effect then, and amps were often rated by standards such as "IHF peak power" or "instantaneous peak power", often referred to as "what it puts out right before it bursts into flames". By all accounts, Dyna's rating was a real, conservative one, as was expected of them.

The PAT-4 (PreAmplifier, Transistorized) appeared in 1967 as a companion piece to the Stereo 120. The PAT-4 was well-reviewed by Stereophile (although that review is unfortunately not yet in their online archives), but years later, in a Stereophile interview with Steven Stone, J. Gordon Holt expressed regrets about the over-the-top nature of that review. "It was several weeks later that I started hearing that it was doing other things less well than the tube stuff I had," Holt said.

Seeking to broaden their product range, Dynaco introduced the A-25 speaker system in 1969, at $79.95 each. Just to give a bit of perspective, that $160 per pair is equivalent to $925 today; so while they were an amazing value, the A-25s were NOT throw-away cheap. The A-25 became a favorite of music-lovers seeking neutrality and excellent overall performance. You can still find used specimens on AudiogoN for $200 or less (such as this pair) and they still provide incredible bang for the buck.

The A-25s were designed and built by the Norwegian-Danish company SEAS, and according to Dunn's Dynaco speaker history, over 1,000,000 A-25s were produced over their long run. The range was extended to include the A-10s below the A-25s, and the A-40s and A-50s above them. All were based on an "aperiodic" (internally vented to a sub-enclosure) configuration, and varied primarily in size, bass abilities, and power-handling. The A-25 was perhaps the best-balanced of the lot, and sales reflected that.

Dyna introduced a stream of new electronics, as well (see complete line-up in the AudiogoN Bluebook). A lower-powered variant of the Stereo-120, the Stereo-80, was introduced in 1969, along with the SCA-80, an integrated amp which featured a simplified PAT-4 and Stereo-80 on one chassis. A later variant, the SCA-80Q, included Hafler's "Dynaquad" circuitry, which synthesized rear-channel ambience for a rear pair of speakers. While not true quadraphonic sound, Dynaquad was popular, and was offered in the outboard QD-1 "Quadaptor", as well. The product lineup was completed by the FM-5 and AF-6 tuners, which were in the true Dyna tradition of offering remarkable performance for reasonable cost.

In 1970, the Phase Linear 700 introduced the era of super-power amps; its 350 watts per channel had previously only been seen in industrial amps like the McIntosh MC-350 and MC-3500. The 700 was rave-reviewed by Stereo Review's Julian Hirsch, likely because Hirsch's reference speakers, the AR-3a, were notoriously inefficient. At any rate, the horsepower race was on in the audio world, despite landfills full of blown speakers and burned-up amps.

Dynaco followed suit in 1972 with the Stereo 400, at least partially designed by James Bongiorno, who soon became better-known for Ampzilla, and started the Great American Sound (GAS) Company to build it. The Stereo 400 became a favorite of tweakers, and a double-the-output-transistors mod by Frank Van Alstine became an underground superstar at a relatively low price. Dyna followed suit with the Stereo 416, a to-the-max version of the 400.

The 400/416 was Dynaco's last hurrah. Founder David Hafler left in 1974 to work with Ortofon, having sold Dynaco to conglomerate Tyco, in 1969. Hafler founded the Hafler Company, which for many years produced high-value components reminiscent of vintage Dyna. Dynaco passed through a number of hands, including speaker company ESS, Stereo Cost Cutters (which became Sound Values, Inc.), and the Panor Corporation. As is the case of many other great American brands like AR, Fisher and Scott, the end came not with a bang, but a whimper.

Today, the sales-volume of Dynaco products is seen in the audio world only in the likes of iPods, where over 250 million units have been sold. Clearly, there is still a market for products for non-audiophile music -lovers. If only the audio industry would awaken to that fact.