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Pilot stories

Redboy

Redboy

a few good watts
For the new owner's sake, here's the short story of a certain Pilot SP-210 preamp's recent travels...

It came out of a console in the Chicago area some years ago when ekmanning5 found it at an estate sale. Original thread here.

Local good guy and AK member goat67 did a little Pony Express work for a deal that ekmanning5 and I worked out, when I traded my fully refurbed Pilot SM245A to Ed for the SP210 and SA232. We were both happy until we realized the SA232 was toast. Thread here. :sigh:

I told Ed to keep the Pilot integrated anyway, since it had been sitting on my shelf unused around here. Last I knew, member Snade was using and loving it. :thmbsp:

(On a semi-unrelated note, I finally got my Pilot SA-232 :))

Fast forward to another AK trade deal when I picked up a great Pilot SA-260 from Peter 1koolcat, and I actually traded the SP-210 to Rex Everything for a great set of output tubes for it. Thread here.

As part of that same deal (man, they musta been some sweet output tubes!!), I built a power supply for the preamp. Thread here.

Looks like Rex Everything is now sending the preamp on to BmWr75.

To be continued, I'm sure...




(and you all thought Jack was the Pilot guy around here... :smoke:)
 
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So....Whadda ya think of the SA260? Is yours stock? I've got one I completely reworked, but wondered what your impression is of the basic unit.

Dave
 
Dave, I really liked the SA-260... while I had it. It was a beautiful amplifier with great tone, and I only parted with it because it shared too much in common with the MC30s I have (approximately the same output power), and I figured one of them had to go. In retrospect, it would have been nice to keep that one, but I haven't figured out how to keep them all.

Mine was reworked by my local tech, but he mostly just replaced the power and coupling caps. The amp was just a tiny bit noisy, which he attributed to poor filtering in the power supply - he showed me a couple of different schemes he'd tried to address it, essentially adding an extra R-C stage to the supply. The amp as it was found (and most likely as it was built) didn't match the schematic as drawn in that area, so Pilot may have experimented a bit with it over the years, too.
 
Thanks! That amp has a rather unique design approach, in that it uses very little global feedback compared to most designs of the day, and employs a low pass filter on the input as well. The results (for me anyway) is a very slightly rolled off high end, and a slightly accentuated bass region due to reduced damping. I know that folks almost universally love the amp as designed, and I'm hardly trying to trash it here, but I do find it to impart a coloration because of these design elements.

Dave
 
jaymanaa said:
I have a smallish pile-o-Pilot iron buried under the house.:yes:
Click to expand...

I got some buried Pilots too!
A 232 that I got from Nate. Which I think Nate told me came from AKer Diamondsouled, IIR.

I've also got one of Jacks old 245s. A 245-A, I found somewhere. A 602, which was my first Pilot about 2-3 years ago. And three or 4 Pilot tuners.
 
Saint Johnny said:
I got some buried Pilots too!
A 232 that I got from Nate. Which I think Nate told me came from AKer Diamondsouled, IIR.

I've also got one of Jacks old 245s. A 245-A, I found somewhere. A 602, which was my first Pilot about 2-3 years ago. And three or 4 Pilot tuners.
Click to expand...

I remember that one :yes: Only traded it because I found a gold one. Or did I sell it? Mmmmmm. :D

Cheers

Lar
 
I grew up listening to my late father's Pilot receiver.
It powered a pair of home brew speakers using Wolverine full-range drivers, crossed over to a set of E-V horn tweeters.

Steve
 
Hi all,

I hope this note finds all my old AK friends well. I just had to write to say that to this day, my most listened to Tube Amp and Speaker combo is still my vintage Mono Pilot AA-903B (EL 84) Integrated Amp (which I pulled out of a twenty dollar Mono Pilot Console). That lil' Pilot along with my Stephens Tru-Sonic Horn Speaker still reigns supreme!

Regards,
SixCats! aka Tom
 
I have a gold SA-232& SP-210 combo that was once belonged to Tinyelvis and before that I believe doucanoe.

I'm sure we all have something from WhiteSE, for me its a SA-260.

C-1076 console pulls SA-232. SP-210 and a FA-540 and a SA-232 and cage from epay
 
I have a little "Different" Pilot, a TV-37 3" TV from 1947-48...They were the FIRST TV under $100-$99.95 in '48, & were marketed to college students, & as a "2nd" TV in a day when most people were still trying to get their 1st set. One reason they were so cheap was that they used an oscilloscope CRT, & the "Cabinet" was actually a heavy cardboard on a wooden plate. Nevertheless, a lot were sold, & quite a few have survived, they are popular w/us old TV guys. You see them reasonably often on That Auction Place. They ARE kinda "Cute", have a very definite "Antique" look about them, & are always conversation starters. Mine has a "Green" phosphor replacement CRT, the original "blue" phosphor ones are long since gone. Be warned, however, if you decide to get one-1940s TVs are INSIDIOUS creatures..You get one, it gets lonely, so you hafta get another one...Then you'll see ANOTHER Forties set that wants to come home w/you, first thing you know, you'll have TVs sittin' EVERYWHERE...Mbwahahahaha...
 
Sandy, that sounds kinda like the TV tester CRT I have in the basement. I guess it made it easy to find out if the problem was with the CRT, or the set. One of these days, I hope to get the old mono Pilotuner (actually a pre/tuner) up & running. :yes:
 
i picked up my fa-690a/sa-232/model 100 multiplex combo in a console 1090 a couple hundred miles from here for $75, and the amp is *still* apart on my bench. fortunately i picked up another sa-232 ($50 :banana:) that i recapped with russian PIOs that now plays wonderfully as my amp at work.

unfortunately, a long-missing AKer sealforvr never sent me the tubes or the sp-210 preamp that was part of the deal, and hasn't been back since (march of '09). he even sent me the knobs from the 210, so i can't figure what's what with his story... :thumbsdn:

those are my pilot stories, and i am sticking to them!
 
I have a Pilot 602 Receiver previous owned by Sanford12 and then Vaughn! One of my best sounding pieces but is currently on the shelf with what I suspect to be a bum resistor somewhere as it has a red plating problem in one channel and is completely recapped including PS cans.

-Kory
 
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