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Cool, rare, or odd-ball amps to look out for?

Lucky Pierre

Lucky Pierre

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Greetings,

Killing time here are work...

I have had fairly good luck "finding" gear, word of mouth, trash picked, etc... What are some cool, rare, or oddball amps/preamps I should have on my radar? I am thinking along the likes of Fairchilds, Grommes, really early Realistic gear... Bonus points for gear that was designed to be stand alone, rather than in consoles.

Bear in mind that I am not going to rush out and look for something now. I just want to have ideas in the back of my mind for the future.

Thanks!
 
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I should add that I am looking for ideas other than the usual suspects (Fisher, Scott, Eico, Heathkit, Sherwood...)
 
So you have good karma? My area is not productive or I'm not so lucky. But I aways enjoy a good find story. Please share....
 
Basically, anything of quality

Radio Craftsman
Interelectronics
Leak/Quad/Pye/Radford
ELECTROHOME
National Horizon
Brociner
RCA (yes they made good stuff too)
GENERAL ELECTRIC (hi-fi stuff can be good)
Pioneer
Sansui
Trio/Kenwood
Home made equipment can be a goldmine for transformers
BOGEN
MASCO

Basically just keep an open mind. If you like vintage tube equipment it's much more cost effective to focus on what finds you, rather than look for something specific. There's so much good equipment out there! Size, weight, and fit and finish all play in. Basically go with your gut.. if it's heavy and it looks expensive, it's probably worth your time. If it looks thrown together and cheap. well, move along. If it has no power transformer, that's a definite pass.
 
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Thanks!

Maxhifi, so far I things have found me, rather than the other way around. I did go looking for a pair of AR-5, and found them. Some things that have found me, ranging from free, to dirt cheap, to significantly under market price:

Dynaco Mk III and PAM-1, (unused) another Dynaco Mk III, Dynaco A25 (pair), AR-4x (pair), AR-7 (pair), AR-3, (pair--these were a little steep, but still under market), Sherwood S5000 and S3000, KLH 18 tuner, KLH 20 speakers, KLH 21 radios (three of them, one with extension speaker), KLH 27 receiver (2), KLH 14B speakers (two pair), Realistic mono FM tube tuner (still looking for a matching amp), full Realistic Sterolyne 40 system with original speakers Delta 12 speakers, misc. tube radios from the 40s and 50s, Thorens TD115 Mk II, Apt Holman preamp, Grundig tube radio, pre-JVC tube radio, Zenith Transoceanic s/w (I've had this since I was 10), Realistic Nova 7 (pair), Infinity RS 2000 (unlistenable, in my opinion), Bose 301 series III, couple pair of Smaller Advents...
 
Bogen gear is well built, not super common, and some of it has some truly oddball circuitry that performs very well.

Bell amps are cool too, very unusual cosmetics which I happen to like very much.
 
Sargent-Rayment... don't see it much, but its supposed to be good stuff... Freed-Eisemann,,, old company,, I have a mono tuner/preamp from early 50s, I rebuilt it, sounds pretty good...
 
Partridge transformers are suppose to be something special which I haven't seen listed... Can't say for sure because I haven't heard or even seen a pair...
 
maxhifi said:
Basically, anything of quality

RCA (yes they made good stuff too)
Click to expand...

IMHO I have to agree, with all the love the Maggy pulls get and rightly so you don't hear to much about the RCA amps. The one keeper I've had is an RCA RS-177, very impressive Power Transformer and with some mods to boost the gain this little gem is sweet.
 
Dswankey said:
IMHO I have to agree, with all the love the Maggy pulls get and rightly so you don't hear to much about the RCA amps. The one keeper I've had is an RCA RS-177, very impressive Power Transformer and with some mods to boost the gain this little gem is sweet.
Click to expand...

I meant more like their commercial/broadcast sound stuff, and their short lived hi-fi component line of the 1950s. Console pulls though, I do like how RCA always used the 6CG7.
 
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