Rrog, you really think the engineers at Heathkit listened to the amp with different power cords and "voiced" it to their sonic preferences? You need to be careful when applying modern sensibilities to times gone by.
Replace pwr cord w/IEC socket on vintage gear?
I have thought about this many times, as I own a fair amount of gear from the '80s. Yesterday I picked up a KILLER Heathkit pwr amp, but it has a really wimpy pwr cord. The shop where I bought it will install an IEC socket for 1 hr. labor plus the part. Given that this opens the amp up to the world of better power cords, this seems like an attractive, low-cost upgrade.
Has anybody here done it, and how'd it turn out?
Has anybody here done it, and how'd it turn out?
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It's solid state. In fact, here's an ad with specs. I hadn't mentioned it, but the captive cord is 2-prong, and it's quieter than the 3-prong amp I replaced it with. This thing can really dig out the low level detail. 06-27-11: Onhwy61I was originally skeptical of Rrog's assertion, but why would this amp sound so *GOOD*? Here's this heavy, high current amp with a very modest 2-conductor cord. The amp sounds like the design was heavily prototyped, listened to and voiced carefully. It's fast but not edgy, resolving but not hyper-detailed, linear and accurate but not sterile. The same store where I bought it has an '80s Precision Fidelity M-8 hybrid amp, This Stereophile review of an Electron Kinetics Eagle 2 indicates that the Precision Fidelity is the lusher and more musical amplifier. |
Stltrains, Units built in 60's 70's are very often have more advanced engineering than today's 'pure and minimalistic' designs. Having the fact that parameter tolerances for electronic and passive devices were much less precise, designing a well sounding unit was a great challenge. These units might benefit from new parts equivalents but very tiny-likely you'll get desirable ROI from IEC/PC... |
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- 37 posts total