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SAE Mark IIICM

N

Nick Pentell

New Member
Hey all, I know nothing about any of this! Bad first sentence I know. I bought some stuff out of a place that went out of business and there was an amp in there. From the research I have done on the net it looks to be a SAE Mark IIICM but I am still not positive. Anyhow, I see that they have some value so I plan on selling it but I do have an issue. I'm getting no sound. Everything powers up, when I turn the knobs I see the analog meters moving, but no audio. I tried running an RCA cable from the L and R outs on a tuner into the A channel and B channel on this amp. As I said, I don't know a lot about vintage stuff but I guess I was just assuming there would be a L and R input for each channel. Am I doing this wrong? Any advice would be very helpful I am sure. Thanks in advance.
 
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Looks like the speaker relay is not energizing for whatever reason. Do you hear a click shortly after turn on? The meters are before the relay so that is why they are still active.

Craig
 
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It sounds like you have input (meters move).

Assuming there are speakers connected.

I don't know them personally, but I'd guess there should be a protection relay as mentioned above.
SO, you should hear a "click" within a short time of turning it on.

If there is no click, that indicates that the amp has failed (it is broke).

Since it has value. Either sell it as-IS, or have someone that knows what they are doing (a vintage gear tech) look at it and/or fix it.

Please do not go poking around on it yourself.

SAE is typically a bit complicated to work on. At least all I have repaired.
 
Thanks for the quick replies all. It sounds like the worst.( or lack of sound that is). I don't hear a click. I'll have to check again but when I say the meters move I mean right when I turn it on. Basically, if I recall right, When I turn it on the meters both move to 50 and I think they stay there. If I turn the dials up or down they move to a different number. Should they be fluctuating as the "sound" would be passing through or would they just be staying the same like they are. I agree, I don't want to go poking around. I'm just trying to figure out what the price ranges are for working vs non working. If its $50-100 nonworking and $800-1000 working then it might be worth might time to have someone skilled at this kind of stuff to fix it but if we are talking about a much smaller price difference then I might just post it up as a project piece. Thanks again in advance.
 
Meters "sitting" on a location on the dial, moving when knobs twisted, sounds like a solid internal fault.
If they don't "dance" with the music, it has a real problem.

How serious that problem is, is a tough question to answer here.

FWIW, the last SAE I rebuild was fairly major in rebuilding. I had to go through everything and it took a lot of parts.
Two others I had the pleasure of working on, that didn't work at first, took a lot of work to get going.

It seems, at least to me, that SAE problems are real difficult and lengthy to repair.

You may do better but it will need a good vintage tech to sort out.

If it were mine and I intended to flip anyway. I'd describe it as much as possible and run it as an auction and let her go.

But, if it were mine. I'd rebuild it and try to keep it. I like SAE gear.
 
Very helpful information. I will check once more to verify that the dials are standing still. If that is the case, and I know this could be a big range but, do you have any idea what I should expect to get out of one that's in need of repair?
 
Value is just about unknown.

SAE gear is rare and broken is another unknown.

A wild guess is $50-$100.
 
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