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New (in 1958) Bell 2315's

DonQuixote99

DonQuixote99

just give me some truth
I brought home two of these today. Here's my first look-see:


Front Panel. Center 'loudness' switch is actually 'volume.' Push-pull on this knob is on-off.
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Rear showing ins and outs. Last owner only used 'aux,' this shows.
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Tube deck. Here, one 6V6GT is a Realistic, made in England, and the other in an RCA. Two RCAs in the other unit.
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Under chassis. The seller said he had the units serviced and 'some' capacitors were replaced when he got them, 15 years ago.
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Of course I had to hook up speakers and an input (a CD). Didn't regard a more cautious power up as necessary, and we'd had them playing at the seller's place. More on next rock.
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those are cool, I kinda want to get into tube audio but I don't really have the budget for most things like that. how much did you pay for those?
and any clue how many watts per channel those do? would be kinda interesting to know how powerful things where back in 1958.
 
The first song I played on it was 'Pink Moon.' It suited these amps capabilities well, they rendered the voice and acoustic guitar with precise grace. I smiled.

The little Sony surround speakers aren't much good, but the sound that came out was very clear, and I got a lovely little soundstage at 3 feet, at low volume. At high volume (and I did eventually crank it) I NEVER reached a point of clipping, and I never heard a whisper of noise from the amps, and I had to move back from 3 feet.

I can create distortion, but only by turning up the input gain too high. If I left it at '5' everything stayed good all the way up.

Gotta hear 'em with proper speakers!
 
Dylan-M said:
those are cool, I kinda want to get into tube audio but I don't really have the budget for most things like that. how much did you pay for those?
and any clue how many watts per channel those do? would be kinda interesting to know how powerful things where back in 1958.
Click to expand...

I gave $100 for the pair. More discussion of the deal is here in dollars and sense.

They spec at 12 watts per channel. Don't know any other numbers yet.

On edit--I guess the right way to say that with mono amps is 12 watts each.
 
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yeah if I found those in my area for $100.00 I jump on them and buy them for sure.
your lucky lol I been looking around my area for anything with tubes that at least kinda works for a lower price and could not find a single thing. well nothing in my current price range. I just kinda want anything with tubes like maybe even a old table top radio. just something cheap for me to fool around with.
 
Right. Need to buy one of those somewhere.

I have a picture of the cover of the Sam's, from an ad. Squinting at this is where I got the 15 watt number from...

[on edit--above is inaccurate. Sam's gives amp power as 12 watts.]
 

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OK, I bought and downloaded the Photofacts from Sam's. Can report I didn't squint at the cover quite accurately--it actually says the unit is a 12-watt amplifier.

(I'll edit my messages above accordingly).

Here are the facts from the cover page:
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Oops. Trouble.

I was setting-up the 2315s in in the living room. Was going to see how they did with bigger speakers, and a/b compare sound with the HK-330b. Well, when I hit the power switch, the one I've named 'Beast' (his serial number ends with 666) lived up to his name with a dramatic power cord short. There was a pop, a big fat spark emmitted from the corner where the power cord goes in, and the fuse was blown. My fault--I had a bunch of bendy strain on the power cord there. The 1958 lampcord has brittle insulation. It all shall be replaced.
 
sorry about the blow up... when you get this all squared away and playing through some decent speakers, spin a copy of the LP your avatar is based on and give us your impressions.
 
DonQuixote99 said:
I brought home two of these today.
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I am glad that worked out. They look to be in great condition. Anyone can buy Dynaco or Scott but Bell is uncommon. Do fix the cords ASAP and monitor the topside filter caps. If either starts getting warm then hot, time to replace it. Honestly, they should probably be replaced anyway. All the underside caps should go too. They are getting elderly and will likely let go once they are in regular use. Serviced and with tested tubes, you'd see a nice appreciation on what you spent. Absolutely a great way to enjoy the tube realm.

:thmbsp:
 
Here's the bad power connection. The question of the minute--how does one remove/replace that strain relief bushing on the cord?

BTW, the interior view shows the cord cut--I tried to just pull in through, but no go. It also shows a bunch of insulation that fell off whn I touched it, and exposed aluminum conductor! That explains the pyrotechnics. Aluminum wire zipcord, and not rated for the hot interior there. I hope the tech who worked on it 15-years-ago didn't install that stuff....
 

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Push down on the inside top of the strain relief and outward at the same time. It is spit on that upper section, and when pushed in from outside, compresses and then expands into the hole. You can see the separate upper part fits into the lower part. There should be a cast strap to keep the 2 pieces together when not in use.
 
Actually the "Loudness" control is like the loudness button on later gear. The "Level" control is your volume. Turn the "Level" control up a bit and then turn the "Loudness" control back and fourth, the midrange should change in relation to the bass and treble.
 
soundmotor said:
You need needlenose pliers to put enough pressure on the bushing. Squeeze and push outward.
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In fact, I need bent needlenose pliers, becuase there's a transformer in the way of going straight at that thing with pliers. But I managed. (TY to Taquala for the hint I needed.)

I also take it back about aluminum wire. It's very fine stranded copper, tinned. And it was rated for 80C, but after 50 plus years it was shot.

The new cords I just grabbed at Parts Express have 75C and 60C stamped on them. Neither of those is 80C, and I'm not totally happy about that.
 
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tshoejohn said:
Actually the "Loudness" control is like the loudness button on later gear. The "Level" control is your volume. Turn the "Level" control up a bit and then turn the "Loudness" control back and fourth, the midrange should change in relation to the bass and treble.
Click to expand...

I see your logic, tshoejohn, but that turns out not to be the case. I can say that both from experience turning the knobs, and from looking at the schematic. Both the Level control and the Loudness control are right in the only signal path, and attenuate the whole thing. Level comes after the pre-amp, Loudness between AF2 and AF3 stages.

By contrast, the Bass and Trebel pots are in parallel.
 
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tshoejohn said:
Actually the "Loudness" control is like the loudness button on later gear. The "Level" control is your volume. Turn the "Level" control up a bit and then turn the "Loudness" control back and fourth, the midrange should change in relation to the bass and treble.
Click to expand...

i was just about to post this as its the same on my 2315.fwiw it's the same type of setup with sherwood integraqteds of the time .thanks for pointing that out to the original poster.

DonQuixote99, glad you got the amps amd they look to be in good shape:thmbsp:sorry to hear about the short circuit and hopefully all thats wrong is a blown fuse.the next thing you need is the matching tuner :D
 
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