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Ampex Worth 2500$???

cooljjay

cooljjay

Super Member
Banned
I was browsing estate sale ads today and seen one with an ampex console, figured I would ask the price...she said there is lots of interest and it priced at 2500$. Are they actually worth that much?? :scratch2: Its a really cool console but for that much I would think you could buy a lot better components.

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http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/gms/1212490476.html
 
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Seems expensive to me, even though Ampex tube equipment isn't likely to be cheap.
 
A nice set of tube monoblocks, tuner, preamp, even in all restored condition, I can't see going for over a grand, and these are as-found.
 
Estate sales are usually way over priced until the last day... then they start getting reasonable..
 
i just wrote back to them, suggesting they were setting themselves up for offers they considered ridiculous, aggreeing with toxc that the parts were worth about $1k, even in fine cabinetry.

i guess the way to go is to wait it out. if you get it, cooljjay, i swear i am going to cause an internet outage in vallejo for the next six months, just so i can score something more likely than a broken webcor tube tape recorder...:)
 
cooljjay said:
I was browsing estate sale ads today and seen one with an ampex console, figured I would ask the price...she said there is lots of interest and it priced at 2500$. Are they actually worth that much?? :scratch2:
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Cooljjay: do you smell smoke? cause somebody's blowing smoke up yer...

I am in the South Bay; you see these Ampex Consoles on Craigslist fairly often and they do not sell for $2500; there's a guy in Palo Alto trying to sell an empty Ampex cabinet for $100 and has not been able to do so for weeks now:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/fuo/1206357353.html

If you are serious about wanting a set of the Ampex electronics PM me; I have a set (except for the Garrard TT)...

As a matter of fact you could put my components in that cabinet and have a genuwine Ampex console for a fraction of her asking price...
 
It depends if they are the 10-12" JBL speakers and the 14 wpc amp, or one of the two higher powered setups. I was offered $1200 by a knowledgable local collecter when I walked out of the estate sale struggling to carry mine. Condition is everything, and mine is very close to mint.

For many estate sales, the agent will "shoot the moon" by asking double what they consider top dollar, so they will gladly take anything close to the outlandish starting price. Thay also will gladly "settle" for the 50% off final day price.
 
sheltie dave said:
It depends if they are the 10-12" JBL speakers and the 14 wpc amp, or one of the two higher powered setups.
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The link provided describes an Ampex "Crescendo"; I may be wrong but unless I am mistaken this was not one of the high-end consoles.

Regards
 
toxcrusadr said:
A nice set of tube monoblocks, tuner, preamp, even in all restored condition, I can't see going for over a grand, and these are as-found.
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The last pair of small 6973 mono blocks on ebay sold for $560, the preamps regularly sell for $400-$500, the RTR goes for $125, the tuner is low at $30-$50. The real wildcard is the type of speakers in the unit. Odds are they're the fairly standard ones and only worth $100 or so. So roughly $1300 would be the "as found" ebay price and that's based on individual sales.

Naturally if you're are patient you can get them for half that even on ebay.
 
From an AA thread...
"I have wanted one of these for many years. I live in the SE US, and they are quite rare here. Most I see on eBay are in California or NY.
Ampex made consoles at several price points, but all sold for about what a new car cost at the time. (The cheaper ones maybe a Corvair price, the nicer ones a Lincoln.)

I believe the Signature model was the top-of-the-line. It often had 35 watt EL34 monoblocks. The next model down had 15 watt 6973 monoblocks. The next step down had 6V6 monoblocks. Other consles had a single stereo power amplifier with either 6V6 or 6973 output tubes.

rtarr "
 
madwing said:
i just wrote back to them, suggesting they were setting themselves up for offers they considered ridiculous, aggreeing with toxc that the parts were worth about $1k, even in fine cabinetry.

i guess the way to go is to wait it out. if you get it, cooljjay, i swear i am going to cause an internet outage in vallejo for the next six months, just so i can score something more likely than a broken webcor tube tape recorder...:)
Click to expand...

Oh let me know what they say, supposedly there is lots of interest in this console, but so was there in the huge fisher I posted about but at the end of the weekend it never did leave the house.

I highly doubt I will get this I told them its 2300$ over my console limit..my god I didn't spend that much money to buy both my cars.

Ballylongford said:
Cooljjay: do you smell smoke? cause somebody's blowing smoke up yer...

I am in the South Bay; you see these Ampex Consoles on Craigslist fairly often and they do not sell for $2500; there's a guy in Palo Alto trying to sell an empty Ampex cabinet for $100 and has not been able to do so for weeks now:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/fuo/1206357353.html

If you are serious about wanting a set of the Ampex electronics PM me; I have a set (except for the Garrard TT)...

As a matter of fact you could put my components in that cabinet and have a genuwine Ampex console for a fraction of her asking price...
Click to expand...

I have seen that one up for sale for numerous weeks, I really was going after this one for an investment, figured I could make a couple hundred dollars but at 2500$ I would be losing at least a 1000$..
 
spiderhead69 said:
I found my Ampex model 620 monoblocks a couple of weeks ago and only paid $5.

cant beat that price.:thmbsp:6v6 output tubes?how do they sound?i'm a big fan of 6v6's and intendto one day get myself either a pr of radio craftsmen rc2's or a pr of ampex monoblocks.
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That is a nice unit that needs some basic maintenance. The hum will disappear when a good tech or DIYer finishes the normal restoration process. In the Bay area of California, with tambour doors for the speakers, I would expect they will pull in $1200 to $1500, if it is in great cosmetic shape.

BTW, buying it to make a couple hundred dollars does not make it an investment - it makes it a flip. :D Your Altec speaker is an investment, like your Pederson. I hope you keep them in their glory and use them well for a number of years. :thmbsp:
 
sheltie dave said:
BTW, buying it to make a couple hundred dollars does not make it an investment - it makes it a flip. :D Your Altec speaker is an investment, like your Pederson. I hope you keep them in their glory and use them well for a number of years. :thmbsp:
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That is true, I sold the pedersons, I had to pat my grandmother back the money I borrowed to pick it up. I still have my altec/lansings those won't go anywhere, unless I find something bigger and better :D my altec/jensen for sure won't go anywhere, I would love to find another but thats near impossible, even though was told by a "speaker collector" that its not worth anything and why would you want one speaker. I was like its for my mono setup and do you now how rare it is to find a altec 603B in a jensen cabinet..Then I have my fisher and many other radios that won't go anywhere.
 
I bought an Ampex console similar to that one at an estate sale for $10. Strangely enough, the first guy there stripped it of the turntable and the tuner/preamp and left the rest. I just bought it out of curiousity and was surprised to find mono blocks hidden in each corner. It turned out the tweeters, woofers, and amps were worth about $700.
I remember while I was tearing into it looking up and seeing some guy standing there with a pained expression on his face. He must have been the guy who took the TT and tuner and later on realized there was more to it and came back.
 
EVBoy said:
I remember while I was tearing into it looking up and seeing some guy standing there with a pained expression on his face. He must have been the guy who took the TT and tuner and later on realized there was more to it and came back.
Click to expand...
Yup, that'd explain the pained expression, all right. :D
 
You think he might have learned to buy (and take) the entire console home? :D

I don't care for people who only want to buy and gut 100% of anything vintage. Some - actually, most- of these good pieces that went for $$$$ back in the day are quality furniture and still look good in the correct setting. :thmbsp:
 
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