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Help with Counteropoint 5.1 preamp

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piecor

piecor

Member
2013-02-28 11:05 am
Southern Italy
  • #1
    Dear All,

    after I owned a Counterpoint SA 3000 for a decade or so, I would like to buy the venerable Counterpoint 5.1 all-tubes preamp. The problem is that most of them are sold in the USA, but I live in Italy where the main is 220Vac.

    Doing some internet research I discovered that Michael Elliot, founder of Counteropint and later Aria Audio Ltd, discontinued his business. He was also selling Counteropoints upgrades and repair. I contacted him on an old e-mail address, but no answer.


    I'd like to get a 5.1 preamp but I want to be sure that I can manage to make the PSU working. Looking at some pictures of the rear PSU I had the impression that (as was usual at time) the PSU trafo can be arranged to accept several voltages.

    Is there somebody out there that has a schematic, or have any experience with the PSU AC input voltage?

    I hope somebody can help.

    Regards
    Pietro
     
    piecor

    piecor

    Member
    2013-02-28 11:05 am
    Southern Italy
  • #5
    thanks to all. From what I read, I understood that the trafo's primary can be rewired to work with 220Vac/50Hz input.

    May be If I manage to find one at a good price, and the rewire is not possible, I may decide to upgrade the original with a Plitron transformer. This was one of the upgrade suggested by Micheal Elliot... although that webpage is not online anymore.

    What is still a mystery to me is: where is Micheal Elliot, there is no trace of him around, that's strange. How can a brilliant designer (perhaps one of the best of his generation) disappear?



    Best Wishes

    Pietro
     
    Last edited:
    Lingwendil

    Lingwendil

    Member
    2008-04-16 2:34 am
    Antioch, California
  • #6
    From what I understand he had issues with technicians that worked with him, one passed away after an auto accident (while riding his bike I think?) And another was unwilling to relocate with him when his business changed locations. He made an announcement that he was closing doors, and effectively retired. He seems to have practically washed his hands of the business after he finished some remaining jobs. Details that I remember are sort of fuzzy otherwise.

    From what I understand many of the tube products he offered were frequently down for repair- makes sense that to keep him truly retired he would end support, even if it does seem a little callous.
     
    Pars

    Pars

    Member
    2004-01-21 3:29 am
    Chicago
  • #10
    From what I remember of mine, there was a terminal strip on the transformer that allowed rewiring for different voltages.
    Bear in mind that Counterpoint stuff often has mistakes in them, typically in the power supplies, and quite often uses parts which weren’t rated high enough for the application. Mine had a PCB for the PSUd board that had an error on it which caused hum... dead quiet once I fixed that.
    Contact anatech here; he used to be Counterpoint’s service center for Canada. He knows a lot about these.
     
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