Is the Eico HF 81 really that good?

Stereophile made it seem like this amp was one of the best ever. I have had loads of Marantz and Mcintosh and they were very good and now own Dynaco mk4's. I never really bothered with Eico gear. Could it really be worth $2000 to have this amp upgraded? Bob

The hf-81 in Stereophile had not only a COMPLETE ground up restoration, but had circuit tweaks. It is the pinnacle of what this little int. tube amp can be. For the majority of us, replacement of caps, resistors, upgrading tubes and vibration/isolation devices is as far as it goes.

That is how far I went with rebuilding/upgrading my hf-81 and it sounds outstanding. One thing about the hf-81 is that they have excellent output transformers but can be expensive if they need to be replaced.

I wouldn't spend $2K rebuilding/upgrading any hf-81. I would recommend finding one that is in good condition and doing a partial rebuild/upgrade that would probably cost in the neighborhood of $200-$400. An hf-81 is going to cost you more these days due to the glowing article but I bet you could still find one in the $150-$250 area.

Having the right speakers is critical, although it's really pretty gutsy. But it sounds its best with pretty efficient speakers. Mine are powering a pair of moderately efficient PSB 800's and sounding good.

I've actually had two of these. The first HF81 I got from my uncle, who bought it factory-wired in 1958-9. When I got it, it hadn't been played in 20 years. It had leaky caps and a loose power supply (bolts needed tightening). I replaced the coupling caps with russion PIO's. The cathode bypass caps on the EL84 output tubes were gone too, replace with Sprague atoms. And the plate resistors had all drifted pretty far off spec, replaced with carbon films. that was all last year. this year I put in new power supply caps, which tightened up the bass considerably.

No, it's not a modern amp (the Manley Stingray is a lot more extended and clean-sounding, for instance), but it's lovely to listen to as a second (bedroom?) system. I've been through a lot of stuff, and this one's a keeper. Yes, the parts are crap. Yes, it looks like shit. It sounds WORSE if you upgrade all the parts (heard one with all audiophile-approved parts--my mostly original one with all the crummy mica caps sounds much better). I guess it was voiced with the components of the day. Yet somehow it all seems to work together.

A lot of them (most?) were kits, many badly assembled, with cold solder joints and mis-wired circuits. You can certainly find really cruddy-sounding ones out there. The last one I got was less than $200, and required less than $150 to replace out-of-spec parts, plus another $150 in tubes. But the result was/is a terrific sounding amp. Go figure. I gave it to my neighbor after she spent a week dog-sitting. She loves it, and I'm pleased every time I go over to visit and hear it.

I wouldn't build my main system around one, but it's certainly more musical than a lot of stuff being sold today as high-end, that deliver detail but lose the magic. Hard to beat the bang for the buck IMHO.

HTH!

My EICO was rebuilt with new caps and resistors for about 500 dollars.

Someone always has to dispute statements So , Larry510 sorry to have to tell you your wrong --- Sam's claim to fame is that he "completely redesigns" and even "fixes " design flaws in the original vintage gear just using the original trans and the chassis and case-which is what he did to the hf-81 reviewed by Peter Breuninger. Read page 159 in Stereophile. That ain't no basic restoration if you ask me. But you can ask Sam himself. Here's his # call him 514 485 3587. I've heard several of his "restorations" of vintage amps etc. They ALL sound great but not very close to the originals. None the less , the ORIGINAL 81 does sound good. BTW Larry510 , did you ever hear Sam's or an original hf-81? Curious to hear your impressions.