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Leak Amplifiers?

T

thedonutman

New Member
My dad's was clearing through some old equipment, (He does architectural acoustics) and I found a pair of "Leak" valve amps. Being totally ignorant to audio gear with the exception of guitar amps (See my other posts haha) I took some pictures of them:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/867382/Leak/leak (1).JPG
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/867382/Leak/leak (2).JPG
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/867382/Leak/leak (3).JPG
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/867382/Leak/leak (4).JPG
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/867382/Leak/leak (5).JPG

The other looked to be in better condition, as it was kept in a case. But both are missing the valve on the far left, marked Preamp. Both of them have a pair of Mullard EL34s, a 12AX7 and something else I didn't recognise.

Anybody got any info on these?
 
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H. J. LEAK & CO., LTD. was one of the greatest names in Britain´s Audio history.

That looks like a TL-25 mono model.

There´s no valve misssing on the left. That´s a connection for a pre-amplifier cable.

Jorge

P.S. - I´ll be glad to take that old crap off your hands.:D
 
thedonutman! don't know those exact amps, but I bet they're worth $2000 the pair!
 
I don't have any experience with Leak amplifiers. All that I read is that they are excellent. You should keep them! Don't let hifi_nut get them, send them to me ;)
 
ya the mono's are real sought after nice find you have there! I bet they have all mullard tubes in them as well
 
Yeah, I bet those are sweet. I did a fair amount of reading on Leak awhile back, after finding a pair of original Leak Sandwich loudspeakers, which I still have. The aluminum skin on the woofers looks it's age, but they still play nice, & have a sweet midrange. I haven't tried standing on them, lol. :D
 
An in law of mine had a set. One day his mother put it out on side walk as junk! And that was that. He has being crying ever since.
 
Update!

















I didn't really know what to look for, so I just took pics of everything.

Anybody know anything about these and how to hook them up to see if they are working?
 
I have not looked at this posting properly but I suppose you know there is bomb there. Leaking/ old electrolytic caps.

Very nice stuff, I have leak amps but not their tube ones as they are now so expensive.

Don't try and power anything up until properly checked out.
 
Don't plug them in!!!

They look like they're in excellent condition, but I see at least one electrolytic capacitor in there that has breathed it's last! A full recap is probably in order, and will be well worth it!
 
Is a leaking capacitor going to physically explode? Is it safe to leave it around unfixed for a while?

I'll have to find an amp tech in the area to have a proper look at it - I don't know anything about tubes amps other than tube types (and how to use my guitar amp :D)

(Plugging it in is a problem anyway, since I have no idea where the power lead for it is)

Also, regarding the EL34s, I assume you can only put them in one way? In that case, it looks like some of them are backwards since they aren't all facing the same way.
 
Leaking, not leaking but old, yes can really be dangerous and scary, also do a lot of dexpensive damage to the equipment.
 
Don't throw tubes away if this has happened. Tubes probably Mullard and worth a lot. Probably even if peg is broken.
 
Be careful of those centre pegs on EL34, I have broken one off. Epoxy resin fixed that.

You will see the amp in my avatar has EL34s (Mullard).

I think the most sought after and best Mullard EL34 have XF2 marked on them (check, I'm no expert).

The amps value should be very considerable.
 
thedonutman said:
Is a leaking capacitor going to physically explode? Is it safe to leave it around unfixed for a while?

I'll have to find an amp tech in the area to have a proper look at it - I don't know anything about tubes amps other than tube types (and how to use my guitar amp :D)

(Plugging it in is a problem anyway, since I have no idea where the power lead for it is)

Also, regarding the EL34s, I assume you can only put them in one way? In that case, it looks like some of them are backwards since they aren't all facing the same way.
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You're asking good questions. :yes:

Take your time with these, so you don't accidentally do anything irreversible. They look like prize amps to me.

Make sure you find a tube tech who works primarily on HiFi stereo equipment, rather than your local guitar amp expert. Sometimes they are one and the same, but if a guitar guy starts monkeying with it you might regret the outcome.
 
Those are valuable. The best thing that you can do is get them to a tube hi-fi expert (not a tube guitar amp expert) and get them checked out.

They will undoubtedly need some recapping work, but these amps are well worth sinking some money into. They will never really depreciate either.
 
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