First listen Bogen AP-30

[sanford12]

Did the usual cleaning of the controls and sockets. Inspected for any parts going south, nothing found. Bring it up and it started producing sound at about 75 volts and was pushing some volume at 90. About a hour of playing and trannies are barely warm and absolutely no hum but there is a power hiss, not loud though. Normal? I don't know.

This is my first 6V6 amp. Most of my experience is with 6BQ5 amps and 1 7591 based amp. First impression was the power and the bass. I found the sound to be similar to a 6BQ5 with better bottom end and getting louder much sooner. Drives Heresy's effortlessly.

I will sit down for a more critical listen during the weekend and update this post. This is another bone stock amp closing in on 50 years and has no right to sound this good. Very impressive at first listen.

 

[Jcricket]

Did the usual cleaning of the controls and sockets. Inspected for any parts going south, nothing found. Bring it up and it started producing sound at about 75 volts and was pushing some volume at 90. About a hour of playing and trannies are barely warm and absolutely no hum but there is a power hiss, not loud though. Normal? I don't know.

This is my first 6V6 amp. Most of my experience is with 6BQ5 amps and 1 7591 based amp. First impression was the power and the bass. I found the sound to be similar to a 6BQ5 with better bottom end and getting louder much sooner. Drives Heresy's effortlessly.

I will sit down for a more critical listen during the weekend and update this post. This is another bone stock amp closing in on 50 years and has no right to sound this good. Very impressive at first listen.

So, I have a question for you. Would you consider this amp to sound good enough that you would invest $165 into it? I ask becasue mine has the bad output. If I spend that much I can get a new set of edcor output trannies, and all the caps I need to rebuild it.

It good to hear you like it. If you are hearing a hiss, tha is likely a bad cap or bad ps cap. I have many 6v6 amps, The tube doesn't creat that hiss. I'd like to hear more when you get a chance.

 

[sanford12]

So, I have a question for you. Would you consider this amp to sound good enough that you would invest $165 into it? I ask becasue mine has the bad output. If I spend that much I can get a new set of edcor output trannies, and all the caps I need to rebuild it.

It good to hear you like it. If you are hearing a hiss, tha is likely a bad cap or bad ps cap. I have many 6v6 amps, The tube doesn't creat that hiss. I'd like to hear more when you get a chance.

I sat down with it last night. It has hiss in one channel while the other is quiet but has a low level static and even with those problems it is the most lush sounding tube amp I've ever had. It has an incredibly detailed, accurate and full sound. I again went to Chris Issac's Wicked Game and even in it's crippled state it sounds better than any 6BQ5 based amp (Scott 222, Pilot 602, Stromberg Carlson) or the 7591 tubed Fisher KX-200. It's a limited sample but that's how it has played out. It retains all the musicality of the 6BQ5 with the plus of more power and that lush, full, creamy sound that must be rarity as I've never heard an amp quite like that before.

Yes it would be worth it if this is going to be a personal amp. Don't know what these go for so I don't know if you could recoup your investment but I don't worry much about cost when it's for personal use. If the sound of this amp can be retained after the resto it will be an amp that will have a permanent place in my collection. If you go for it good luck I think you'll like it.

This amp is out of service till it gets the treatment.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

So, I have a question for you. Would you consider this amp to sound good enough that you would invest $165 into it? I ask becasue mine has the bad output. If I spend that much I can get a new set of edcor output trannies, and all the caps I need to rebuild it.

It good to hear you like it. If you are hearing a hiss, tha is likely a bad cap or bad ps cap. I have many 6v6 amps, The tube doesn't creat that hiss. I'd like to hear more when you get a chance.

I'm a fan of Bogen amps and think many of them are underrated. However, if you replace the Bogen OPTs with Edcor, the amp sound would possibly be colored more like an Edcor amp than a true Bogen AP-30.

 

[sanford12]

If any has a copy of the owners manual I could use one. The Free Info Society has the schematic. Thanks. Mark

 

[gadget73]

That hissing is very likely a leaky cap or a dying resistor. I wouldn't be remotely surprised if it went quiet when you recap it. In fact I'd be more surprised if it did not get quiet.