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claricon? little integrated amp, nudes!

ke4mcl

ke4mcl

Super Member
Banned
was digging at my warehouse today and found this little claricon amp in a box with other hamfest end of day free table finds from long ago.

its about the size of the little radioshack integrated amps (sa150?). looks late 60's to me based on build quality. what do you think? anybody remember claricon?
 

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Cool little amp. Are those little output transformers in there? What about the parts with the colored wires on the heat sink early transistors?? Does that work??
 
Looks like the phono inputs are for hi and lo output ceramics; do I disremember, or does that mean no RIAA curve in the phono amp?
 
so here's the AFTER pics. i brought it up on the variac and at about 15v it started working. i didn't go any further as i found out what i needed to know, the silicon is ok.

i recapped the whole unit and gave it new diodes since i boosted the living daylights out of the main filter cap and didn't trust the old diodes. i increased the size of the output coupling caps as well. i took the face and knobs off and cleaned them up.

its pretty quiet for an old sand amp. i expected it to be a hiss box. will hook it to some speakers later and give it a listen. i dont expect much aside from the novelty of it being an early solid state amp.

as far as some of the questions..
yes, its got transformers but i believe they are interstage transformers to couple the drivers to the outputs. the outputs to the speakers are cap coupled. weird...

the output transistors are those tiny little round things attached to the heatsink. theres no way this thing does 10wpc. i think its lucky if it gets 1.5wpc!

if anybody has a lafayette catalog from the late 60's please take a look and see if you see a similar little amp. i wouldn't be surprised if it was sold under other brands.
 

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for those that followed this thread here's the listening impressions...

i like it. i shamefully like it as much as i like my little 6v6 bedside tube amp. i removed the tube bedside system to give this little amp some use over a few nights of late night listening. the system is by no means highend. a decent denon BPC tuner, a pair of energy sat-1's that have had their drivers replaced with german made car audio drivers, and the little claricon amp.

aside from the annoyance of having two volume controls to dicker with, i really like the sound! i'm guessing the interstage transformers and large coupling caps give it a very "tubey" sound because it sounds like a little tube amp. i feel asleep listening to it and power tx was just warm this morning.

guess the claricon is staying in the keeper pile. quite surprising sound from what was probably BOTL stuff.
 
This amp came out under several nameplates and was a favorite beginner amp for kids. Look for them with the Philmore and EV/Game names for a couple off the top of my head without thinking too long.
 
That's cute. It's interesting how it has separate left and right volume pots. I wonder if you could put a rubber band between them to make them turn in unison?
 
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