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Big Dynaco find! (kinda epic)

The Mark IIIs are now part of my main stereo. :) I installed them in place of the Pioneer SPEC-4, wired them to the Paradigms, carefully powered up the system, and boy do they ever sing! :banana: Anyway, here's a pic of the amps as installed (I decided to flip the tube cages around, since the speaker terminals need to be facing the back due to the short speaker cables I used for the test):

markiii_4.jpg


And here's a pic of the Mark IIIs in with the rest of my main stereo setup (apologies for how dark the photo is; I'll have to retake it at some point):

mainstereo_markiii.jpg


audiofred said:
VERY nice transformers in all of the units. Thanks for showing the innards.:banana:
Click to expand...

Glad you liked the pics. Apologies for the amps being dusty in the pics; I will be cleaning the dust off soon.
-Adam
 
Much to my chagrin, one of the 6550s (actually a 6550A, likely GE) in the newer Mark III has an intermittent filament. :sigh: I've swapped in one of the new-production Tung-Sol 6550 matched pairs I picked up recently, and am waiting to see how they bias up. One of them has a bit of blue glow near the edge of the glass, which makes me worry a bit. I'll have to see how that goes.
-Adam
 
Nice score and refurbishment. The newer unit is identified by the green fiberglass circuit board and ZTxxxxx number on the transformer, indicating a later contract (mid to late 70's) while the older unit has the older brown phenolic board with stamped numbers on the transformer endbell. Do the later transformers have cloth or plastic covered wire?

IIRC, the straight sided 6550's were all made by GE. The 6550A has a slightly larger glass bulb and I think had larger holes in the plates. These tubes were in response to higher power needs in guitar amps of the day as I recall.

Still love the original coke bottle Tung Sol 6550's though, they just looked cool!

How were the 6AN8/6AN8A driver tubes?
 
Adam- Thats $.83 / pound* for classic (working) amps!

Congrats (a little late)

Score-a-roony, indeed, and kudos to the seller for honoring his price and not making an auction / scrum out of it.

Mark III- 28 # / ea.
ST-35 16 #


*Does not factor in weight of vintage dust or the offset negative weight of NOS vacuum in the tubes.
-YMMV
-Void where prohibited.
 
Congrats on a great find. Just the tubes alone are worth it.

Do you have any idea how many Dynaco's ended up in the trash. Please don't make me tell my old story of my audiophil neighbor that passed in the 70's and what happened to his stereos.
 
I was wondering why I'd gotten some likes on this thread... :) Yep, I still have these amps. The Mark IIIs are still part of my main system, and are doing nicely (though I haven't had many chances to run 'em as of late). The ST-35 is waiting to get its turn in my office system; the fact that I'm running speakers close to 4 ohms kinda limits is usefulness a little compared to the ST-70, but it's only a matter of time. I'm planning to build a rig which will allow me to A/B compare the two, so I can get a better idea how they compare sound-wise.
-Adam
 
airtime said:
Congrats on a great find. Just the tubes alone are worth it.

Do you have any idea how many Dynaco's ended up in the trash. Please don't make me tell my old story of my audiophil neighbor that passed in the 70's and what happened to his stereos.
Click to expand...

I'd like to hear the story - always instructive.
 
AdamAnt316 said:
I was wondering why I'd gotten some likes on this thread... :) Yep, I still have these amps. The Mark IIIs are still part of my main system, and are doing nicely (though I haven't had many chances to run 'em as of late). The ST-35 is waiting to get its turn in my office system; the fact that I'm running speakers close to 4 ohms kinda limits is usefulness a little compared to the ST-70, but it's only a matter of time. I'm planning to build a rig which will allow me to A/B compare the two, so I can get a better idea how they compare sound-wise.
-Adam
Click to expand...
I have used an ST-35 with 4 ohm speakers in my office system and had no issue driving them. But now my 500B is paired with those speakers.
 
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