Will Vincent "Dynaco" Amps

I like what I see on the appearance side of the amps made by him. I think his work is excellent. But.... I wish he would include a new circuit on the input boards. I think those 7199's are good tubes but there are better tubes used in several other mods. I would seriously listen to mods using 6GH8's, 6DJ8's, 6SN7's, 12AX7's, 6LU8's(a 6GH8 variant) before deciding on the 7199 circuit. I am using a Sound Values Board with Telefunken 6LU8's and it's wonderful. My board was mofified by Tom Tutay as was the rest of my amp. Most of the same mods I have are in the Vincent amps with the exception of the input boards. Some people think the 7199's are excellent tubes since they were designed for audio. After owning well over 50 ST70's of various mods I like mine best. I have owned many much more expensive amps both solid state and tube and my Dyna is still going over 10 years after I bought it and along with my Spica TC60's will make you smile.

Some mods I would choose over his are VanAlstine, GSI, Audio Research C70 (?) and of course Transition Audio Design. Mine is the latter. There are many many different mods for the ST70 and opinions will vary on this topic but I prefer that the 7199's be gone! I hope this does not cause a controversy. It's just my opinion.

bill thomas' work is great too, over at audiocircle. look under the vintage audio forum.

I have one of Will's Dynaco ST-70 rebuilds. I have found it to be a very good amp. It has a nice smooth sound. It also very good bass for a lower powered tube amp. Though the sound was good the way it came, i couldn't help but roll some tubes. I ended up with winged "C" el-34's, RCA 7199's and a Mullard gz-34. With these tubes i feel the amp jumps up another level or two. The tube that made the biggest difference was the gz-34. They aren't cheap, but the improvement it made to the overall sound is well worth it.

I have one of Will's st 70 amps and it is a piece of art.

The amp sounded nice with the el34 tubes in it, but I also wanted to try some tube rolling..... and after a matched quad of gold lion kt66 re issues, this amp has unreal depth, imaging, and much better detail than before.

Now I need a real pair of speakers... I currently have quad 11L mini monitors.

It does not hurt that I am using a classe audio dr6 preamp, but even after adding the pre the magic was not there until I added the kt 66 tubes.

As an added benefit from the kt 66's , they run MUCH cooler than the el 34's and were easy to bias since Will puts in an extended range very high quality bias pots in his amps.

I've got a pair of Will's Dynaco mk iiis; beautiful aesthetics and sonics. Just one word on the looks: WAF was off the scale (glowing tubes!), and everyone who comes in the living room makes a beeline for them.