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Hadley

BlackScholes

BlackScholes

Active Member
I cleaned up the faceplate and knobs on the 621 and was happy with the results so I thought I'd upload a photo of all three models made by Hadley Laboratories (601, 621, 622) in the same photo.

For the uninitiated: https://www.psaudio.com/article/hadley-labs/

i-tTC8j73-XL.jpg
 
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When I saw the title, the only thing I thought of was: This is the 1800's you can sue her.

Seriously, though, looks good.
 
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I owned a 621 about 20 years ago. Got it at a "junk store" for 20 bucks; I'd never heard of it, didn't expect much, but figured the knobs alone were worth more than that (solid aluminum, turned on a lathe). I opened it up when I got home — and stared in awe. This was serious gear! Everything was hard-wired by hand. The Volume was not a pot, but a double-deck resistor-ladder — and it had a neat trick: if the 24-or-so resistors couldn't give you fine enough adjustment, there was a switch that would cut in half, and give you the mid-way volume level, turning it into the equivalent of 48-or-so steps, enough for the most sensitive ears.

Transistors were a "new thing", and the Hadley's weren't soldered to a board, they all had gold-plated little legs that plugged into ceramic bases, like miniature tubes. Beautiful. And you could actually "roll" the transistors like tubes, to tailor the sound.

I really loved that Hadley, especially its unsuspected quality, and the way I found it and saved it from the junkyard.

But you have a whole system — I envy you.
 
bimasta said:
I owned a 621 about 20 years ago. Got it at a "junk store" for 20 bucks; I'd never heard of it, didn't expect much, but figured the knobs alone were worth more than that (solid aluminum, turned on a lathe). I opened it up when I got home — and stared in awe. This was serious gear! Everything was hard-wired by hand. The Volume was not a pot, but a double-deck resistor-ladder — and it had a neat trick: if the 24-or-so resistors couldn't give you fine enough adjustment, there was a switch that would cut in half, and give you the mid-way volume level, turning it into the equivalent of 48-or-so steps, enough for the most sensitive ears.

Transistors were a "new thing", and the Hadley's weren't soldered to a board, they all had gold-plated little legs that plugged into ceramic bases, like miniature tubes. Beautiful. And you could actually "roll" the transistors like tubes, to tailor the sound.

I really loved that Hadley, especially its unsuspected quality, and the way I found it and saved it from the junkyard.

But you have a whole system — I envy you.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

Every knob feels absolutely lovely on the 621. I used to have a Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 with a stepped volume control, but it didn't feel nearly as good as this one does on the Hadley 621. As far as the transistors, I noticed they were in their own sockets. I've seen this done on the Marantz 19 as well. I imagine there would be some room for improvement if the transistors were to be updated and since they're sockets, I could pull out the originals and replace them later if I wanted to. Borgonio definitely took the knobs with him to SAE.

I actually have a second 622 that has some very sorry looking paint. I'm considering repainting it.
 
BlackScholes said:
I imagine there would be some room for improvement if the transistors were to be updated and since they're sockets, I could pull out the originals and replace them later if I wanted to.
Click to expand...
If, that is, you can find them with the little legs that fit the sockets...
 
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