Stromberg-Carlson AP-80's probably the oldest. Or the RCA MI-12188A's though they are idle at the moment.
I recently finished re-capping my SAE 3CM and re-zeroing its offset voltages. The corroded/original RCA sockets were replaced as well. Hoping to (re) hear it soon. The re-capping included the power supplies.
Somewhere along the line someone bridged all of the electrolytics in the signal path with 1uf poly capacitors. I retained those mods. I didn't find any ceramic caps in the signal path, happy for that!
Not all good, though. Along with the poly capacitor additions, a lot of the connectors had been soldered together. Probably by the same owner who added the poly caps. I had to undo the connector situation so I could remove the boards for the re-capping procedure. After completing that I re-engineered the connectors using mini banana plug jacks on custom-made PCBs. More substantial than the original connectors so that worked out well.....if future owners don't care so much about having a "pristine" rendition of the amp.
The downside to using this thing is the WEIGHT. It has two separate transformers for the VCC and VEE supplies. Heavy iron for sure.
Somewhere along the line someone bridged all of the electrolytics in the signal path with 1uf poly capacitors. I retained those mods. I didn't find any ceramic caps in the signal path, happy for that!
Not all good, though. Along with the poly capacitor additions, a lot of the connectors had been soldered together. Probably by the same owner who added the poly caps. I had to undo the connector situation so I could remove the boards for the re-capping procedure. After completing that I re-engineered the connectors using mini banana plug jacks on custom-made PCBs. More substantial than the original connectors so that worked out well.....if future owners don't care so much about having a "pristine" rendition of the amp.
The downside to using this thing is the WEIGHT. It has two separate transformers for the VCC and VEE supplies. Heavy iron for sure.
My new PLC uses connectors that are screw / pin type, the screws take the wires that are connected to the machine, and the top half of the connector has pins that fit in a socket, and the top is screwed in on both ends after insertion into the bottom socket for secure connection.
A convenient feature, remove two screws, and about 16 wires can be removed, without worrying about polarity or order.
It is described as a plug in screw terminal connector, basically the bottom is soldered to the PCB, and the removable top has screw terminals, so the wires are not disturbed if you need to separate the PCB for maintenance.
Stright and staggered types are available, so I can use pairs at more density.
A convenient feature, remove two screws, and about 16 wires can be removed, without worrying about polarity or order.
It is described as a plug in screw terminal connector, basically the bottom is soldered to the PCB, and the removable top has screw terminals, so the wires are not disturbed if you need to separate the PCB for maintenance.
Stright and staggered types are available, so I can use pairs at more density.
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I'm a fulltime tech dealing with primarily 70s-80s stuff so I'm always dealing with stuff from any point in that range.
But the oldest I currently use in my own systems is the Kenwood 700M power amp in my main system (with matching 700C preamp) and the Pioneer SX-850 in my living room receiver. Both are those are from about 1976-1977. The golden time where designs were well refined but before cost cutting and digital features came in.
But the oldest I currently use in my own systems is the Kenwood 700M power amp in my main system (with matching 700C preamp) and the Pioneer SX-850 in my living room receiver. Both are those are from about 1976-1977. The golden time where designs were well refined but before cost cutting and digital features came in.
Hi, I'm the lucky owner of a SABA hifi studio 1 from 1968/69 which is a tuner-amp and maybe the last of this series with mainly tubes...I bought it cleaned and tuned up ,for quite a hefty price but its wonderful warm sound and the quite noble look stands out...My mainly used and still undergoing refurbishment is an ITT Schaub Lorenz HiFi 8041 from the mid 80's .Cheers Frank
