Opinions on Scott 200 amplifier

amb3cog

Electronics Junkie. Looking for a fix
Hi guys. What do you all think about this integrated amp? I have a really nice SET/SEP (switchable) hand made amp that is amazing, but I want to try a PP, and factory one. I also could use a little more SPL, and hopefully stronger bass.

So I thought I might try one of these, since they're less then the 299, or 222 series. And HH Scott seems to be a well liked amp. Plus it seems that these output tubes have a sweet sound.

What do you guys think? And how will this compare to my amp sound wise?

Here's my amps website (every amp should have its own website of course right? LOL):
http://glowinthedarkaudio.com/vital-SE6L6.html

I bought it from the gentleman that runs the site Kevin. Sorry I don't know much about it (or tubes in general), except that it sounds AMAZING. And I no longer want any part of SS amps, except for bass. Well that, and it also makes Eddie Van Halen's guitar sound better on my Klipsch KG 3.5's then it does in person. And I mean completely slack jawed. Completely! I've fallen in love with Traffic all over again. It's truly amazing. I'm just not sure if it's this amp, or SE amps in general, or tubes in general. I just know I love this amp, and these speakers. What a combo!

Thank you all in advance
Andy B.
 
I think you'll love the HH Scott 200. Tube amplifiers which have been around for 40 plus years (this example is going on 60) should definitely be checked out by a technically inclined person before regular use. If you own a soldering Iron and a decent multimeter we can usually walk you through the steps to get it up and running right. Photos of the inside of the amp are very helpful in these cases. For example, I'm rebuilding a scott 99c right now, and when it was built the scott factory was fully stocked with sprague bumblebee capacitors. In my experience sprague bumblebee capacitors all have failed at this point. Your unit may use better capacitors like the American Radionics Cera caps which were also common in scott gear. The Cera caps I have removed from scott gear have all tested as good. It's important to know what you have. Anyway, I would get a photo or two of the amp and post it here and we will be able to tell you more from that. When a HH Scott amplifier comes across my vision, I do everything in my limited power to make sure I bring it home with me. I absolutely love the way they sound and they way they laid them out at the factory. I've rebuilt 4 of them and I have another 2 or 3 in the works right now.
 
Thanks man. This one has already been gone through by a tech and is in use right now on some Klipschorns. So I'm good I think.
I am concerned about the capacitors you speak of, and the selinium rectifier (sp?) I see people always mentioning. I assume this had one when new. I didn't ask the guy about that, but I have a feeling it's already done.

I'm hoping to get it today, but we'll see. I'm waiting on the gentleman right now. If/when I get it. I'll post some pics though. I would definitely appreciate some opinions on it.

Thank you
Andy B.
 
They were around from 1962 - 1964 for the 200 and the 200B was 1964 - 1965. They are very simple and streamlined, lots of room under the chassis and good for about 12 watts RMS per channel, similar to a 6BQ5/EL84 PP amplifier. They use the higher output 6GW8 as oppsosed to the 6BM8 which was a little less output.

Very nice amplifiers.
 
Well I got it yesterday. And the gentleman couldn't have been any nicer. He was a wealth of knowledge too. He replaced it with a 222c that he had just picked up when I got there. And he had my amp playing on his Klipschorns. Using an HH Scott 4310 tuner as the source. Yes that 4310. The holy grail tuner. What a system! I didn't know anything about it, and was touching it like no big deal. Oops! :oops:

I hooked it up just for like 20 minutes, before I had to leave for work, and I'm very impressed. It's a great looking, and sounding unit. But it didn't even get to temp yet. So I'm sure it sounds even better. I'm getting a tuner from him too. He has some extras that he's not using that are restored HH Scott units. He's got all the top ones. I need to do some more research to see what the differences are between them.

The unit has been all gone through. New caps, and the selinium rectifier has been replaced. And it came with 3 NOS Telefunken 12ax7's, an original Scott rectifier tube (I think that's what it is anyway), and 4 Amperex Bugle Boy output tubes. So there's no need to do anything, but listen to it now. It's basically perfect electrically. And it works like it were new. And looks great in the front. The chassis is stained though. As you'd expect from a unit this old.

It does actually need some work on the inputs though. The piece where you put in the tuner, or tape playback is broken inside on the right where the tuner goes. So I will eventually have to fix that, but it works fine as is for now.

So I'm pretty damn stoked. It really increased the bass, and gave me more SPL. Which is awesome of course.

Here's some pics:

IMAG0223.jpg

IMAG0225.jpg

IMAG0228.jpg

IMAG0229.jpg IMAG0235.jpg
 
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I've never had a 200 but many of the others. One thing nice about yours is that the output transformers were not skimped on. Those look larger than the 1st version 299.

I usually associate that with better bass as more power can be delivered into the low frequency range without transformer saturation (in general).
 
A nice little amp. Those ecl86/6gw8 tubes have a special sound somewhat different from the 6BQ5 tube. I suspect you'll really enjoy your new sound machine.
 
Those Scott amps had super-great transformers, probably why they sound so good. I have 5 of them myself!
 
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