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Heathkit AA-1800 (250W/450W Leach Superamp) - $500 + shipping

swechsler

swechsler

Frog Whisperer
Prices of these seem to be on the increase, so this looks like a decent price. Front panel condition is good, but some paint is scratched off on the heat sinks. I used one of these to drive my Kappa 8s, it had no problem with the low impedance. 250 watts/ch into 8Ω, 450/ch into 4Ω. The amp has a second line cord to enable remote turn on (it doesn't have dual power supplies as some have assumed) by plugging into preamp's switched outlet. This is why there is no front panel power switch.

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I love mine. Rebuild and sounds amazing.

Given the stock state and cosmetic blems around the unit and damaged speaker post, the price seems a bit high. But I havent been watching recent sale prices so maybe I'm off???

What the heck does the seller mean by removing the transformer and packing it separate for transport????
 
PPstereo said:
What the heck does the seller mean by removing the transformer and packing it separate for transport????
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If you have the original manuals, you'll see they mention that you can't ship the amp without first removing the power supply transformer (which fortunately is connected with Molex connectors). Almost certain damage will result if you don't (if you look at the flimsiness of the metal that the [massive] transformer is attached to at the bottom, you'll understand why).
 
Wow what an odd design. Must have been the trade off in keeping it affordable.
I guess given heathkit in nature it isnt as odd a requirement.

If I were the seller I wouldn't want to sell it to just anyone with such needed installation and connection requirements on ebay. Personally I'd lower my asking and attempt to sell it locally or a place like this with extensive communication beforehand.

Good lord I can only imagine how many were shipped without doing so. And understandably so. Amazing there arnt loads of threads out there talking about it.

Thanks much for the info.
 
Most sellers are aware of the requirement to remove the transformer, and even if not, as long as it's well packaged, if the box isn't violently dropped when on its side or upside down, it will probably survive (if dropped while right-side-up, it will probably survive with some minor bends to the chassis). I'm guessing that heavier boxes would be more likely to be kept upright by the shipping company.

I'm assuming that since the amp was originally designed as a kit, and most would be shipped that way, it wasn't worth the extra expense to strengthen the chassis.
 
Not sure most sellers would know. Or how anyone would hold such statistical info.

But hopefully this thread pops up if folks google the amp in the future and it becomes better known.

In my googling after acquiring mine it never came up.

No intention of selling mine any time soon so no concerns here.

Again thanks for the info.
 
PPstereo said:
Not sure most sellers would know. Or how anyone would hold such statistical info.
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I have a watch out for whenever one of these comes up on eBay. Most of the time the seller says that they are aware of the requirement.

I actually own two of these, one is working perfectly, the other is in protection mode and I haven't had a chance to debug it yet. Hopefully it's just a fuse. When I got my first pair of Kappa 8s about 18 years ago, I hooked them up to this amp and played the combo to see what they could do (answer: play louder than any sane person would want to listen for any length of time, at least in the 11x20 room I had them in). I ended up putting it into protection mode when it hit a low bass note, assuming I had really blown it, but my father, who had built many Heathkits and was an electrical engineer, found that it was simply a fuse (I believe there are at least two fuses per channel plus a power fuse). Unfortunately he's no longer around, so I can't have him look at the other one. But I do have the manuals, somewhere, so hopefully when I have the time, I'll be able to figure it out.
 
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Yeah I snagged mine at a local estate sale. There was a pic of it in the ad I saw. Its what got me to come to it.

Ended up getting it for less than $100 after discovering it didnt work. Ended up being a bad emitter resistor if I recall.
All the original outputs were fine thankfully.

Its now rebuilt along with its matching preamp (also rebuilt).

The original power cord on the amp is pathetically thin for the potential current draw of the amp.
Thats one thing I have yet to upgrade.

Also I remember reading on a post of how the internal RCA cords that run from the rear jack to the amp boards
were reported to be of poor quality. The fellow in the thread stated that after replacing them with quality modern
RCA cables there was a noticeable improvement. Another thing I need to do.

BTW Selling England is a favorite Genesis album of mine along with Foxtrot. But I find myself listening to Lamb Lies Down
more often than any other these days. Such a great concept album.

I got lucky and recently found this Steve Hackett Live DVD at a thrift store. It opens with Watcher. Good move :)

You may well have already seen these videos but I love seeing young kids performing vintage classics.


The keyboardist wearing the Dream Theater shirt reminds me of how my high school band performed Pull me Under.

This 13 yo girl did a damn fine job IMO.


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PPstereo said:
Yeah I snagged mine at a local estate sale. There was a pic of it in the ad I saw. Its what got me to come to it.
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Funny, that's how I got my first one as well. Also got the matching power meters, an Adcom preamp, and a pair of Advent utilities. $75 for all. I sold the meters for more than double what I paid for the entire thing.

Of course this was > 20 years ago, deals like this rarely come up these days.
 
Mine was 2 or 3 years ago.

Also got a Bogen tube amp, an A&B amp, a Fluke meter and a bunch of other gear.

Got to know the guy who ran the outfit doing the sales. Ended up doing some computer
work for him and additional deals.

Yeah its out there.
 
Well, the above unit is on it's way to me. I've been wanting one for a while and the price seems decent. It will make a good little project.

I currently have its little brother, the AA-1600. It's the last piece left from a full rack of Heathkit components I bought in the early 90's - tuner, preamp, LED power meter, AA-1600 amp all in the original Heathkit rack unit. Sold the pieces off over time, making back the original cost and then some.

The one thing I *am* looking for are the build manual and schematics for this beast. Does anyone have a line on a good source for these?

Thanks,

-bill
 
The amp arrive today. The seller did an excellent job of shipping - the transformer was double boxed and the chassis was bagged and then wrapped in 3-4" of styrofoam on all sides.

For those that were asking about the "pull transformer out to ship" guidance, realize the tranny weighs in at about 23 lbs. which is right at half the weight of the complete amp. It's bolted in at the bottom but would run a real risk of tearing itself loose from the subframe mounts during shipping. It's secure enough for moving around but would not take a "jolt" well.
 
wrankin said:
The amp arrive today. The seller did an excellent job of shipping - the transformer was double boxed and the chassis was bagged and then wrapped in 3-4" of styrofoam on all sides.

For those that were asking about the "pull transformer out to ship" guidance, realize the tranny weighs in at about 23 lbs. which is right at half the weight of the complete amp. It's bolted in at the bottom but would run a real risk of tearing itself loose from the subframe mounts during shipping. It's secure enough for moving around but would not take a "jolt" well.
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As the person who questioned the removal of the transformer as he didnt know heathkit instructions.

I'm very happy the seller followed the recommendation and your fine amp arrived as tip top as one would hope in any purchase on ebay.

I do stand by my assumption that the majority of sellers on ebay, I wouldn't assume they were as well informed as yours. But I certainly hope they are.

Your in for a treat. It's a great amp. I'm not sure if you said, did you already own this amp in your past heath rack?

I wasnt alive when it was issued so I'm not in that camp. But I feel I missed my prime nerd audio community era for such things.

What speakers will it be driving?

And congrats on the purchase! It's a damn good amp imo.

Rebuild it to its deserving level.
 
I certainly meant no offense, up to this point I had never seen the guts of an AA-1800 and having now 1) held the transformer in two hands, and 2) inspected the mounting point for the transformer, I see the wisdom of the recommendation. :D I agree that it would be a worry that some sellers on eBay don't have the background to understand the need. On the other hand, I would also fear them mucking around with 40-year old molex connectors trying to get them open.

I also have an AA-1600 (in need of some TLC) and the manual makes a similar recommendation regarding shipping.

Speakers? Not sure at this point - initially a pair of Vifa-based 2-ways (M18/D27 combo) that I built many years ago.
 
wrankin said:
On the other hand, I would also fear them mucking around with 40-year old molex connectors trying to get them open.
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No kidding.

Good god I wouldn't trust 85% of the sellers on ebay to know how to perform that surgery and pack correctly lol.

The amp might have better survival odds if they didnt and simply packed with allot of bubble wrap and styrofoam.

And yeah molex connectors suck. So happy when pc computers gave up on em for the new style SATA power connections. Those loose female/male contacts hanging from a wire are terrible. At least on the heath one end is soldered to the pcb.

Yeah it's a great amp. And might be the only consumer power amp in history for its maker to suggest its users to remove the power transformer for transit?

Congrats again
 
swechsler said:
Manuals come up on eBay every once in a while. Couldn't find any currently online.
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I have a AA-1800 that I purchased new as a kit in 1982 - price then was $419.97 + about $15 shipping.

Anyway, I do have the 120 page manual, larger assemble diagrams, and schematic. If you still need information on this, I can scan the portions that might be useful.

I had mistakenly posted a copy of the schematic, but after reading further, apparently that might be a copyright violation, but I will help any member who requests it directly from me.
 
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Regarding the shipping of this amplifier, there is also a red sticker that should have been stuck on top of the power transformer, with a warning about shipping the amplifier with the transformer in place. The sticker is obscured, but can be partially seen through the top cover.
 
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