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Question about Knight KG-50 Tuner/KG-400 Tube Amp

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deadcityradi

New Member
I have been looking for a tube stereo set up, and recently came across
a pair of tube components someone is selling.

The person is selling a Knight KG-50 Tuner and a Knight KG-400 tube amp.
They're both in working condition, and are being sold as a pair for
around $125.

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I have had no luck searching online for any sort of user experience or
reputation with this brand, let alone these specific units. The only
thing I've found is that these two pieces sound like they might be part
of some sort of "kit", which makes me worried about whether these two
pieces would be worth the money.

I'd appreciate anyones personal experiences with these units, as far as
relative quality and reputation. Also, if anyone has an idea of what
price you would imagine these two units to go for, keeping in mind
they're in working condition.

I'm just getting into tubes (my friends dad has an awesome set up at
his house that makes my vinyl sound great), and I'm really just looking
for a good amp to start with before I invest any serious money into a
setup. Thanks for the help!
 
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Since no one else piped up, I guess I will. Knight is the brand name of Allied Radio's line of stereo equipment. It was generally available in kit form or assembled. Some Knight equipment is decent and some is not quite so decent.
The iron is variable. Check for the size of the output transformers and if they aren't open frame, they are probably Chicago transformers and fairly good.
The KG 400 and KG 50 apparently are pre 1959 as that is the oldest catalog I have and the model numbers are KN 720 and KN 80 for the better models.
I would suggest you check and make sure it is actually a stereo amp. I would almost guarantee the tuner is not a multiplex (stereo) unit. It may have a multiplex output to use an outboard multiplex decoder.
I hope this helps.
 
deadcityradi said:
I'm just getting into tubes (my friends dad has an awesome set up at
his house that makes my vinyl sound great), and I'm really just looking
for a good amp to start with before I invest any serious money into a
setup. Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

You could do a lot worse for $125. Hard to judge how good it is without a picture of the internals though. With a complete signal path recap & maybe for the power supply as well, you could have a nice amplifier on your hands.
 
Thanks for the replies. I'll see if the seller will take the cage off the amp and send a picture my way, that I can eventually post on here.

I'm definitely excited about being able to incorporate tube sound into my stereo set up. It will really be a shame though, if I buy this for $125 and I end up having to put so much money into this that in the end, I might as well have made myself wait for a better opportunity.

Any more information/experiences with these units (regarding sound quality) would be appreciated. Thanks
 
deadcityradi said:
Th

It will really be a shame though, if I buy this for $125 and I end up having to put so much money into this that in the end, I might as well have made myself wait for a better opportunity.
Click to expand...

That is always the case on a piece like this, it is not very desirable because of its lineage (Allied), however it is a survivor and that alone is cool. Consider finding a low mileage Ford Maverick in your grandmother's garage. No, it isn't a Mustang but it is still unique as there aren't many of them around now. That is the way I would weigh a purchase like this.

If you needed to completely go through the amp, you are likely looking at another $150-200 in parts depending on how esoteric you want to get and assuming that everything needs replacement, i.e. all tubes are weak. Will you then be able to get $275-325 back out of it when you go to sell it? Unlikely but you will get a great amount of enjoyment from it as well as learn the basics of modding which to me at least is its own reward. The flipside is just going out and buying something new with your $325. I am not current on what the choices are currently for that amount. There maybe something ready to go very close to that. Others here will comment if that is so. That may be a better avenue if you don't want to slog on with this one.

The last point is negotiating the price down from $125. Even though the pieces "work" now, if they have not been serviced recently they almost certainly will need something to keep them going. You might mention that to the seller. In addition, unless the tuner has a built-in MPX, it is virtually worthless except for its tubes. You might get lucky and find a Mullard or Amperex 12AX7 hiding in it though. The inside shot of the amplifier will tell more. Just looking at the extruded front faceplates tells me that these might just be decent inside.

Good Luck!
 
Just an update, I ended up not buying these units. Both of the units were in stereo, which was good..

But the seller refused to take off the cage of the units to take a picture of the guts. The seller then mentioned that his dad had built these from a kit, which is not a surprise or inherently a bad thing. But since being built by his dad way back in the day, they had never been refurbished, or even brought to a technician to get inspected, they just sat around. All of these details, plus the advice here, definitely made this seem like a crap deal in the end.

Here's to hoping that someday i find an older, less expensive tube setup that is worth my time and money. Is it unrealistic to think that somewhere out there, there are complete (integrated or power/preamp package or receiver) tube stereo setups for $200 that I could play my vinyl through? I'm not expecting to find a high end unit or anything, but I would like something that works when I buy it, that I could put my time and money into, and that eventually when I feel the need to upgrade, I could sell my starter unit to help buy the second one. Craigs List is usually a bust, and I'm just getting into tube stereos, so I don't know which auctions on eBay would actually be worth buying based on what I'm looking for.
 
Wouldn't seem like a bad use of $125 to me if all the iron's good.
Judging by the cosmetics (and the tuner) those date from the first half of the 1960s. I may have some catalog info at home.
The worst thing I can say about the Knight amps is that some used output tubes that are less-than-common today (e.g., 6973s).
 
deadcityradi said:
Is it unrealistic to think that somewhere out there, there are complete (integrated or power/preamp package or receiver) tube stereo setups for $200 that I could play my vinyl through?
Click to expand...

Unless you get lucky (and it can happen; keep looking!)... You'll probably not find anything at that pricepoint that you won't have to invest considerable sweat equity to get it into 'daily driver' condition. But... "Chance favors the prepared mind".

One perfectly decent component that goes for reasonable $ (last time I looked) is the Pioneer SX-34/SX 34B, also known as the Allied or Knight 333. Stereo receiver, 6BM8 pushpull for about 8 wpc. It's not a Fisher 400, but it looks nice and sounds OK. Very cramped below decks, though.

The little Heathkit AA-32 stereo integrated amp (6GW8 pushpull, also about 8wpc) is quite abundant (Heath made these for a long time); I paid $50 for mine. It's a good sounding amp; Ron Oehlert at AA has owned one since new and still loves his.

The little "amp on a board" kits sold by S5 Electronics are cheap, easy to build and sound good. Put one in a box to make it safe, add a good phono preamp like the Hagerman Bugle and a source selector (Radio Shack still has these, although they have both A and V inputs) and you've got what you seek, brand new, for pretty near your price point. Again, some sweat equity involved.

Your next step up are the various flavors of Dynaco ST-35 kit clones. Very nice power amp using EL84 pp (ca. 14 wpc); you'll need switching, volume control, and a phono preamp, though.

Hope this is helpful...

EDIT: BTW, for less than $300, the Bottlehead Seduction tube phono preamp kit might get you close(r) to what you want!
 
My bad. I misinformed you earlier but further research has developed this pdf for you. The amp is apparently from 1965. The iron may be not be too heavy but the the outputs are 7189s which are a sweet sounding tube.
Are you saying that the father that built it never used it either?
Anyway, here is the blurb from the Allied catalog.
 

Attachments

Ol Sparky said:
The KG 400 and KG 50 apparently are pre 1959 as that is the oldest catalog I have and the model numbers are KN 720 and KN 80 for the better models.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine has the KG 50 tuner: any chance you can post a scan of the catalog page for it?

Thanks
 
I had a kg 400 for a short time a while back. Had forgotten all about it till I saw the pic and model number. I picked mine up at the local flea for the princely sum of $5.00 a few years back. My tech friend and I variaced it up and he replaced a few caps here and there in it. He even posted a short story about it on his web site about how there are still deals to be had out there. Worked pretty good for a little tube amp. It did however have a problem with the volume knob being problematic that I never was able to get straightened out. I really didn't have a need for it so it went to someone else who has a use for it.
 
mhardy6647 said:
Unless you get lucky (and it can happen; keep looking!)... You'll probably not find anything at that pricepoint that you won't have to invest considerable sweat equity to get it into 'daily driver' condition. But... "Chance favors the prepared mind".

[\QUOTE]

Actually, if you don't mind being patient, you can EASILY find something in that range. Within the past two weeks, there was a Stromberg-Carlson ASR-433 integrated amp that went for $102 on eBay. I should'a bought it, but my wife would have a shitfit if more tube junk arrived at the house before I sell off some stuff I promised her. Also last week, a Kenwood KW-50 tube receiver went for $60. Plus shipping, of course, but that's generally $40-$60. No way you'll avoid re-capping, but that's maybe $40 in parts including shipping. Oh yeah, both of these amps shipped with full complement of tubes and were in working order.

It's weird what sells for what price on eBay. Console amps have skyrocketed in price lately vs. integrated amps and receivers, and they generally need the most $$ to get to a usable state. Volume control, input jacks, speaker binding posts, cabinet, all that stuff in addition to re-capping, and even then a lot of them won't have enough gain without driving them with an active preamp. But... there was an RCA console amp a few weeks back that went for $43. Go figure...
Click to expand...
 
[\QUOTE] Also last week, a Kenwood KW-50 tube receiver went for $60. Plus shipping, of course, [/QUOTE]

...and it's now on its way to Terry DeWick for a tune up. I can't wait to get it back :banana:
 
I thought that I would bring this thread back to life. I was rummaging thru my dads attic at Christmas and guess what I found. . . . a Knight KG-400 Stereo integrated amp and a KG -50 AM-FM- Stereo Tuner. I just brought them into work today to try and give them a cleaning and test. Just as I assumed, the amp only hums when I hook up speakers to it. I haven't tested the tuner yet.

I will post some pictures tomorrow. The wife gave me the go ahead to get them back up and running since they were my fathers. Isn't she sweet!!! She has put a stop to all other purchases and projects accept for my JBL 123a and Klipsch horn speaker project. These actually might go together nicely!!

Until tomorrow.

Kendal
 
Last week I bought an Allied 333 for $5 at a local thrift. It was a little dusty, but all of the tubes are good (or at least work) including the Magic Eye. After cleaning the controls/switches it sounds fantastic. It looks cool to boot!
 
Allied 333 = Knight 333 = Pioneer SX-34 (or SX-34B, if it has a meter instead of a magic eye tube to display signal strength).
 
Thanks. I gathered that after searching for info about this. Any idea what speakers would work best? I imagine a highly efficent horn would be great. Klipsch, JBL, etc...
 
Ol Sparky said:
I would almost guarantee the tuner is not a multiplex (stereo) unit. It may have a multiplex output to use an outboard multiplex decoder.
I hope this helps.
Click to expand...

The KG-50 tuner is stereo! No multiplex adaptor is needed. I own one that I rebuilt many years ago. The selector switch says: AM, FM mono, FM stereo with a stereo indicator lamp. It has an onboard stereo decoder circuit which uses a compactron, 6AG11 tube, in association with a 12AT7 tube for the stereo indicator. The tuner also has a tuning strength tube similar to the Eico's HFT-90 tuner.

Take a look-see:
knighteicobogentuners.jpg
 
pair of kg-400 restoration project

I am going to resurect this thread. I have just purchased a set of kg-400 of the auction site ofr a song. I was able to get the sales document from this thread, but I am looking for a schematic. Can anyone help?

Thanks!

I'll post pics when they get here
Mark
 
JUst got my hand on a pair of these.
ANyone have a schematic on the kg-400.
Also, does anyone know the deifference between a 12ax7 and the 7025?? The sales brochure linked in this thread specifically designates that the unit uses 5 12ax7's and one 7025. Hmm..

I thought those were na interchangable tube.
 
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