2. misc-audio
  3. 1288325648

Your feelings on vintage audio.

Harkening back to the days of my youth.....my neighbor owned a console with a Scott fm tuner, Fisher amp and a TT. I loved playing with and listening to music through it.

And with the resurgence of interest in older equipment in the market, its' impression of quality sound reproduction and build, perhaps nostalgic feelings and wanting to dabble in tubes on my part, I've gone ahead and purchased a Scott 350B tuner.

I'm also looking at another 350 and Scott intergrated.
I know they'll need some work. But for the price it seems like a fun way to step into tubes, satisfy this urge and you gotta admit some of that gear is absolutely stunning looking!

So...What do you guys and gals think? Worth the admission price plus repairs? Waste of time and cash? Could do better DIY or newer used equipment?

Sound Quality? From reading sounds like I might be getting mids but poor highs and poor bass!
Build Quality?

How does CD sound through the gear? Are there difficulties using CD with this older gear?

Maybe some speaker recommendations. Sat/Sub (problems with subs?), monitor, full range or single driver? The integrateds I'm looking at run anywhere from 15 to 30 watts RMS.

Thought this might be a fun pastime; I look forward to your input.

Best
corazon
corazon OP
210 posts
 
Hi Viridian,

Appreciate your and everyones responses.

I had done as you suggested, bought a set of tubes from Jim.

Have yet to install them. And when done I'm sure biasing will need to be done. I've never done that, need to learn. Figure when I pick up my 299B from Mike in Austin I'll have him teach me.

When this is accomplished I'll retrun with impressions.

Wish I was able to hear it with the Amperex since I've read so much good stuff about their sound.

Oh well.

Regards,

Dave
tzh21y
1,654 posts
 
I heard that some of the vintage amplifiers used metals in their transformer wiring that is not available anymore. Is this true? Examples would be Marantz and maybe Mcintosh. I would have to believe if true that it would significantly influence the sound.
corazon OP
210 posts
 
Hi folks,

Just got my 299B back, need to replace some tubes so I've ordered a set.

In the meantime, while waiting for them to arrive, looking for bulk speaker wire.

Any suggestions? I am not asking about sound, but purveyors of decent wire.

Will research on my own, but thought I'd ask you fine folks.

Going to terminate amp end with spades (any suggestions welcome) for safety sake, bare wire on speaker end.

16ga. seems the max that will comfortably fit.

Thanks everyone.

Best,

Dave
corazon OP
210 posts
 
Something else I wanted to ask about.

A gentle cleaning solution for the faceplate, It has some gum residue and what appears to be a cloudiness or haze, perhaps film better describes it,

I would like to remove it without any harm to the lettering.

Have some rust on the plates of the transformer. Want to clean it up and repaint.

Any ideas on rust removal without damaging the plates?

I was told naval jelly might do the trick.

Ideas?

Appreciate it.

Best,

Dave
singleendedsingle
664 posts
 
Take a look at this thread, very interesting stuff.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=258899
More to discover