Unique Dynaco MK-III build

[RS Steve]

Saw this on the auction site (no affiliation) and was intrigued by the build design. I have seen quite a few mods for these but not this one, curious if it has been done before on AK and how the results were.

TWO DYN-EICO MK II-89 VACUUM TUBE POWER AMPLIFIERS CUSTOM DYNACO MK III REBUILD

 

[trainbuftony]

Workmanship looks ok, the board is gone.
Circuit boards are lame anyhow.
This looks really sweet actually, does the ad go into any detail about the mods?

Could be the seller isn't the builder.
I see a lot of crappy Dynakit stuff has been eliminated with prejudice.
The terminals for the speaker are nice plastic industrial style. No phenolic board.
Quality American pots, quality American sockets. If I had money burnin a hole, I'd be seriously considering it.

Just noticed a couple flying leads on the output sockets the builder used resistors on the plate and screen leads which have one end floating (presumably with only about 500 volts chillin on it) I'd get that fixed up real quick in my own lab by depositing said resistors in the cap checker.

 

[RS Steve]

Workmanship looks ok, the board is gone.
Circuit boards are lame anyhow.
This looks really sweet actually, does the ad go into any detail about the mods?

Could be the seller isn't the builder.
I see a lot of crappy Dynakit stuff has been eliminated with prejudice.
The terminals for the speaker are nice plastic industrial style. No phenolic board.
Quality American pots, quality American sockets. If I had money burnin a hole, I'd be seriously considering it.

Just noticed a couple flying leads on the output sockets the builder used resistors on the plate and screen leads which have one end floating (presumably with only about 500 volts chillin on it) I'd get that fixed up real quick in my own lab by depositing said resistors in the cap checker.

Yes, a ton of detail in the ad but I was thrown by the ad amount and didn't get much read time before heading to work.

 

[RS Steve]

Workmanship looks ok, the board is gone.
Circuit boards are lame anyhow.
This looks really sweet actually, does the ad go into any detail about the mods?

Could be the seller isn't the builder.
I see a lot of crappy Dynakit stuff has been eliminated with prejudice.
The terminals for the speaker are nice plastic industrial style. No phenolic board.
Quality American pots, quality American sockets. If I had money burnin a hole, I'd be seriously considering it.

Just noticed a couple flying leads on the output sockets the builder used resistors on the plate and screen leads which have one end floating (presumably with only about 500 volts chillin on it) I'd get that fixed up real quick in my own lab by depositing said resistors in the cap checker.

Here you go!

 

[trainbuftony]

The ad definitely had lot of words.
A word salad so to speak.
I scanned it pretty quickly and didn't glean a whole lot of useful info.
Dude can sure name drop and pontificate, perhaps he will get his asking price, perhaps he wont.

 

[RS Steve]

The ad definitely had lot of words.
A word salad so to speak.
I scanned it pretty quickly and didn't glean a whole lot of useful info.
Dude can sure name drop and pontificate, perhaps he will get his asking price, perhaps he wont.

Yeah, I was just curious if what was done improved anything.

 

[milanomike]

I've got an ST 70 and PAX3X that my Dad built years ago. I used to use it all the time back in the day., recall it as dead reliable, he would replace the EL34's once in a while and that can capacitor. Someday I plan on learning a bit about tube gear and restoring to its former glory to start. So, I kind of read about these amps in between other projects.

All I know is, if I had $5,170.00 bucks to blow on audio, which like most here, I don't, can anyone tell me why I would buy these? Maybe the guy is smarter than Hafler and his group of engineers and everyone else out there, but for $5K or more I'd call some of the proven guys. Conrad Johnson come immediately to mind as an example of something I would mind having in my room. Just some idle thoughts....

 

[trainbuftony]

If the seller cleaned up a few loose ends, gave a meaningful performance report, and did better quality work than dynaco, who am I to say what he should charge.
Theoretically a person could plug them in and have 10 years of trouble free tube amplification which looks good, and (probably) sounds good.
As a builder, who puts lots of time into doing my very best work, I hope he gets it.

There are lots of Audiophile types who love tubes, but simply cant grasp, or have no desire to grasp the technical aspects of tube amp ownership. They oftentimes will lay a lot of money down to have peace of mind.
My mind works differently.
I have got to know its working correctly and my life experience suggests that paying a high price, is no guarantee that it is.
I get peace of mind when I verify working voltages, check bias current, and do a bandwidth test at full rated power.

 

[RS Steve]

If the seller cleaned up a few loose ends, gave a meaningful performance report, and did better quality work than dynaco, who am I to say what he should charge.
Theoretically a person could plug them in and have 10 years of trouble free tube amplification which looks good, and (probably) sounds good.
As a builder, who puts lots of time into doing my very best work, I hope he gets it.

There are lots of Audiophile types who love tubes, but simply cant grasp, or have no desire to grasp the technical aspects of tube amp ownership. They oftentimes will lay a lot of money down to have peace of mind.
My mind works differently.
I have got to know its working correctly and my life experience suggests that paying a high price, is no guarantee that it is.
I get peace of mind when I verify working voltages, check bias current, and do a bandwidth test at full rated power.

Yep, I try never to question what someone would want for their work, especially when they have far more knowledge than I do.

 

[Pio1980]

The VTA 120 is similar, with the restrictions of the single VTA power supply and the underrated/overstressed single 5AR4.

 

[zackthedog]

I saw those. They look very nice, but I too thought the price was a bit steep.