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Stromberg-Carlson? Anyone?

dyche01

dyche01

"Buy high. Sell low"
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I am looking at an old Stromberg-Carlson AR 415 mono amplifier. Apart from a few passing references, I have not found much discussion of Stromberg-Carlson tube amps in this forum.

Anyone have any general thoughts? Any favorites? Any dogs? Any specific thoughts on the AR 415?
 
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The ASR-333 is kinda legendary, I think. If I have the model number right. They made some pretty good stuff.

I thought S-C came up fairly often, but it may be hard to find depending on how you search. S-C, Stromberg-Carlson, etc. You can just search 'Stromberg' too.
 
THey made nice stuff. I have an ASR-433 and a pair of Signet/33 PA amps. They look a little messy inside, but they had a well thought out grounding buss system and ran fairly conservative specs on the tubes. They performed well but don't chew up parts. S-C also made a lot of telephone gear for Bell.
 
Owner of a few SC pieces.Im still waiting on a pair of SC ap55 mono amps my tech has been working on,a complete rebuild so its been takeing some time.
Also own a SC sr-445a tuner that will be part of the SC system when done,just looking for the matching tube pre now.This will be my last{keep telling myself that} completed system to add to my HHscott and Fisher completed systems.

hunter
 
Owned by General Dynamics. Built like tanks, with generally very well regarded transformers. Got out of the audio business as solid state was dawning - the only piece of solid-state S-C gear I've ever heard of was an add-on mutilplex decoder for their tuners.
 
When did they become part of G-D? One of my Signet 33's has Stromberg-Carlson logos, the other one has a GDE logo. I think they were made about 2 years apart, so '62 and '64 maybe. The S-C one does say that it is a division of General Dynamics. I don't recall if my ASR-433 says that or not. I want to say the 433 is from about 1960.
 
just rebuilt an ASR-433 for a friend. It's a wonderful sounding integrated, especially with the Wharfedale W70s I got for him. I also am in the process of rebuilding an SAU-33. It'll most likely become a guitar amp
 
I have a S-C AU-58b PA that I believe to be from around mid to late 50's. It is also labeled as Stromberg - Carlson, a division of General Dynamics.
 
GD acquired Stromberg Carlson in 1955. They discontinued consumer products around 1962, made PA amps for a while longer (and of course did military production). I applied for a job there in the early '70s, just as they were closing down (moved remaining operations to San Diego). There are easily a half-dozen Rochester companies started by ex-GD people.
 
Well, I just picked up this nice old Stromberg-Carlson AR-415. It is a single-owner, 12-wpc, monophonic amplifier that, as far as I can tell, has never been cracked open. It appears to have spent its entire working life hooked up to the same record player.

I love the way it looks, but I am trying to figure out exactly what do do with it now. Should I find a nice, old, high-efficiency speaker and keep it as a monophonic record player, or should I wait around to find another one and use them as mono-blocks?

SC_AR415.jpg

SC_manual.jpg
 
Why not both. It would make a dandy mono system with something like an Electrovoice Aristocrat, until you come across another one.
 
I have a 1962 Radio Shack catalog and they were selling SC turntables and a 15" coax speaker at big discounts.
 
Those S-C turntables were interesting. The PerfecTempo is the one I'm thinking of. Kind of a predecessor in design to the AR and Thorens type spring suspended units.
 
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