My Latest Acquisition

[John L]

The other day I was tooling around E-Bay, and visiting old hunting grounds that I have not traveled in a few years, and lo-and-behold I came across this nice little gem. I used to be a fan of not just vintage gear but also the ones that packed the biggest "Johnson". I had always set my sights on a nice big Sansui 9090db, but never got around to taking the plunge. After all I have so many pieces of gear that I was super-saturated.

However, I have since turned away from having the biggest and baddest, and again concentrated again on tube audio, and very early solid state. Regardless of what some will tell you there IS a difference between tubes and solid state. Maybe it's not just the tubes, but also the way the rest of the circuitry is hooked up. For instance my Marantz 2250 sounds so tube like that it is amazing. But like the early Marantz, and some others, they are an exception. Only gear of the first few years of the change-over still retain that classic warm sound. And their weight too.

So I again went prowling around and somehow hit upon the Olson name and coupled it with 'tube' and came up with this.







What a beautiful and obviously well made piece of machinery. Just look at the way the innards are put together. I marked the auction for reference and keep prowling around. But I eventually came back to the Olson again, and went to Google and typed in the name and model number for reference. What I was looking for was whether or not I could get a service manual for it. We all know how important that is. Regretfully, no such luck. But I did find another member of one of the forums I frequent, who owned one like it, and had replaced the caps and had a fine sounding receiver. I even found where he had gotten on another forum and had even talked with one of the remaining Olson brothers, who is now 94 years young. Most interesting.

So I carefully reread the seller's advertisement, and having been burned several times in the past, decided to contact her(yes a her), and asked her some rather direct questions about how the unit REALLY sounded, hum wise, distortion wise, etc. Most sellers think that just because it works that is all that matters. Naturally we know better, don't we?

Anyway, she had already had several interested parties, who had inquired about this gem, but had not committed to the $205.00 "Buy It" contract. Now I have gotten to the age that I realize that some things are meant to be, and some are not. It's a religious thing. So, I realized that if it went before I committed, it would be for the best. With that in mind, I told her about my not being able to find a service manual, and how difficult it would be to repair it, and how I REALLY needed to know about it's quality of service.

Again, a frank and candid answer from her. I began to think I could actually trust this person. Also, she appeared to be very knowledgable with audio, so I took a deep breath, and went back to the auction. I immediately committed to the "Buy It" contract, and payed via PayPal right there on the spot. There had been seven bids by hesitant buyers, but they were not sure of themselves.

Anyway, she is going to send it out, completely encased in Bubble wrapping. This tells me that she knows what she is doing in the shipping end. I now have my fingers crossed and hope that my trust in her is not misplaced. I don't relish the thought of having to pay another couple of hundred dollars, or even more, bringing it completely up to spec, without having enjoyed it first.

I'll let you guys know how it comes out when it arrives.


PS: I never had an Olson store near me growing up, but I understand they were somewhat like a Radio Shack, or Layfette Electronics chain. Unfortunately, the Olson boys sold out and settled into retirement, unlike the Grommes business. Incidentially I have a Grommes unit too. Unfortunately, I believed the seller when he stated that it worked well, and it doesn't. But that's another story.

[dhaen]

What a lovely thing! I'm sure you did the right thing.
It's a shame there are very few receivers of this class that come up for sale in the UK.
Having said that, I just noticed a Fisher 800C on eBay Fisher 800C ... and no, i'm not bidding (this time)

[DaveInVA]

Cool unit! Looks like its in great shape. I used to hang around the local Olson store when I was younger and bought all kinds of stuff there. If I remember correctly that receiver was made by Kenwood for them. Another cool receiver like that is the Allied 333 which was made by Pioneer. I grew up with Grommes stuff as my Dad worked there. He was an engineer there around 1954 and was General Manager later.....

Dave

[John L]

Originally posted by dhaen
What a lovely thing! I'm sure you did the right thing.
It's a shame there are very few receivers of this class that come up for sale in the UK.
Having said that, I just noticed a Fisher 800C on eBay Fisher 800C ... and no, i'm not bidding (this time)

I'll have to leave that up to you. However, consider that he has replaced all the tubes, or at least he says so. That is not the most important thing though. Most assuredly all the Power supply caps, and some of the output caps will probably need replacing to bring the beast up to 'snuff'.

The fact that it is local works in your favour though. Shipping will be low. I have a 500C, which is different from the 800C only in the absence of AM reception. It's a very well constructed baby. And too, the cabinet can be reveneered fairly easily, to make it look brand new.

On that note, have you seen my new speaker project over in the Single Driver Speaker Thread? I am just getting to the point where I am about to start veneering the two cabinets. You may get some enjoyment at watching me struggle through this thing. Veneering hexagon enclosures will be more difficult than working with 90% corners I'm sure.

[John L]

Originally posted by DaveInVA
Cool unit! Looks like its in great shape. I used to hang around the local Olson store when I was younger and bought all kinds of stuff there. If I remember correctly that receiver was made by Kenwood for them. Another cool receiver like that is the Allied 333 which was made by Pioneer. I grew up with Grommes stuff as my Dad worked there. He was an engineer there around 1954 and was General Manager later.....

Dave

Interesting you should say this. I find that the employees of those old electronics companies are very loyal to their old jobs and owner bosses. On the forum that Mr Olson posts, the members have nothing but praise for the old company, and how they just loved their old jobs and the owners.

I suspect these companies had some very dedicated people trying to make things work. Unfortunately times change, and keeping up with the times produced winners and losers that were unavoidable. Now only Radio Shack and Grommes remain, and each took opposite paths to success.

[Eli Duttman]

I agree with John. That unit looks as well built as the proverbial brick outhouse. Obvious TLC has been shown to unit over the years too. I don't see all that much needed to put the receiver into tip/top operating condition.

[John L]

Originally posted by Eli Duttman
I agree with John. That unit looks as well built as the proverbial brick outhouse. Obvious TLC has been shown to unit over the years too. I don't see all that much needed to put the receiver into tip/top operating condition.

Yes, look at the holding clips on the tubes. Obviously attention to detail was important with this unit. Everything seems so well thought out, I am very pleasantly suprised.

Now, if only I can come up with a service manual.

On top of all this, the receiver is simply beautiful to the eye. Even the Fishers and Sherwoods of that day would be hard pressed to outshine it in the looks department.

I have no idea as to what the casing is made of, but a nice custom wooden casing would further enhance it's beauty.

[tubelab.com]

I never had an Olson store near me growing up, but I understand they were somewhat like a Radio Shack, or Layfette Electronics chain.

We had all three near my house as I was growing up. The Radio Shack, Heathkit, and Lafayette stores only sold their own brand items in their stores. The Olson store sold Their own stuff, and several popular brands as well. There were 3 Olson stores in the Miami area, 2 Lafayette stores, 2 Heathkit stores, and several Radio Shacks.

In one of my past lives I was the service manager for an Olson Electronics store (1971 - 1972). The Olson chain had been bought up my the Teledyne corporation. I could not get the service manuals for anything that was more than a year old, so the manual may be unobtainable. The store that I worked in was next to the campus of the University of Miami so we didn't see much of the older gear. We got new customer base every year and they were gone after 4 years. Even in 1971 we rarely saw tube equipment for service. Most of what I saw was in for obvious customer related damage (tube amps do not like beer), so they didn't die on their own. Getting parts (transformers) was nearly impossible and took forever. Many of the customers were affluent, so we sold a lot of high end stereo equipment, Fisher, Garrard, Acoustic Research, and even Lowther speakers. Teledyne also owned AR, so they were heavilly pushed.

The Olson branded stuff was specced out, and built by a contracted manufacturer. Kenwood (Trio) was one of the manufacturers. The Olson branded guitar amp was made by Electro Voice. It didn't sound (or sell) that good, so the price dropped until it was discontinued. I bought several at closeout just to get the 12 inch SRO speaker. The later solid state stuff was of varying quality depending on the manufacturer. Certain models had a high failure rate, contributing to the downward sales spiral. I got a job at Motorola and left Olson in 1972. The store which had been the #1 Olson store in the US, closed about 2 years later.

[John L]

Someone mentioned that Kenwood did indeed make much of the audio gear, so it is possible that what I bought is really a Kenwood model that has only some superficial changes.

Anyway, it certainly looks well made from what I can tell of the pictures showing the inside. I'll just have to wait and see how things shake out when it arives here.

[DaveInVA]

tubelab, glad to see another Motorolan here. I started with them in '76 at the Semiconductor Division (SPD) in AZ and spent 20 years plus with them...

Dave