So what is your favorite vintage stereo amp? McIntosh, Marantz, Fisher or???

I have an H.H. Scott 208. It's supposed to be mated to a 355, but it didn't come with it, and I already had a 130.

I'd love to have the $ to have the chassis chromed, as it's badly corroded, but it sound great.

 

I've had a few Scott amps and they were all quite nice. Most don't have chrome and the faceplates and or wood cabinets were designed to hide the chassis, so it's not really a big deal. I most recently restored an old Stromberg-Carlson integrated amp for myself but haven't put it into service yet. It's got a cool front panel layout but the chassis is a bare steel type. It must be coated with something as they don't rust too bad, rather get a white chalky oxidation on them first. Maybe it's a zinc coating of some type, but it isn't galvanized.
-Bill

 

EICO is the best sounding. Fisher and H.K. get honorable mention. In my opinion.

 

The Fisher 800-C is the only one I've owned, so...

 

Scott 222C here with a full set of original Telefunken tubes 12AX7 - 6U8 - 7189....

 

McIntosh MC 30 x 2

McIntosh MC225

I couple each at different times to a McIntosh C22 with 6 Mullard 12AX7 10M goldpins.

Add nicely mastered midrange bloom and MMMM,MMMM, GOOD


For solid state, this comes about as close to McIntosh's tube signature I have heard.

MC2255, a heavy bad-boy.

 

Any opinions for McIntosh MAC 1900?

I think I can get one

 

For tubes, the H/K Citation II:

For solid state, the rare and exotic CM Labs 35D:

 

I've only used a couple integrated amps along with half a dozen or so receivers. For me, in my experience, the clear winner is my current Sansui AU-7700.

What a beautiful sound...




Even John Cusack's character owned one in the movie "High Fidelity."

 

Harman Kardon 930 Receiver‎

 

Some real beauties here, once I'm back in the US I will see if I can get my hands on some of these vintage babies.

 

I come down on the Marantz 7/Marantz 8B side.

 

My Marantz 8B. I restored it myself, going to great lengths as to preserve the original look by restuffing the filter cans, etc..

 

By the way, one of the pictures posted by McGyver is from my own SX-1980.
I completely restored that unit, then sold it back in 2006 for around $2800. A record I believe!

I guess somebody copied the pictures from the ePray auction.

That's the backyard of my old house in El Cajon!

 

Nice to see some other vintage Sansui enthusiasts here! For receivers, I really like the G-9000, its awesome. Integrated amps: AU-717, 919, D-11 are great to name a few.
Separates: BA-F1, CA-3000/2000, and of course my very favorite, the mighty 300 Watt, 108 lb, Sansui BA-5000. (honorable mention also goes to the other 300 W model, B-2301, and matching C-2301 preamp). Most of these are in my collection, I'll have to take a better/clearer pic of my basement setup, but for now:

 

Warning: You will get hooked!

I did when I decided to put together a little vintage set up for my bedroom/computer. It's a lot of fun.

Only problem is finding a sweet deal on a Sansui or Marantz is hard these days.

But there are some great deals with other brands

Right now I have a Pioneer SA-7700 running and some Dynaco A-10's hooked up.

Here's an image from classicaudio.com

 

Nice. I got a SX-850 sitting in the basement right now. It's on loan from a friend but there's problems with it. I'm debating whether I should offer $20-30 for it and get it fixed.

The amp cuts out after only a few minutes powered on and both phono stages have static even when no t/t is plugged in. I'm too much of a novice to fix it myself though.

Great sounding receiver though - well before it clips!

 

I had no idea this model was a classic. I passed one of the up at a flea market last month for $50. {{{{{FACEPALM}}}}}

 

RE, Pioneer SX-850. Its not unusual at all for a 35 yr old receiver to need some of its old components replaced/upgraded. Or any vintage piece of electronics for that matter.

The main thing I recommend is that if you do decide to buy it from your friend is that you have the receiver brought back to life by someone who is knowledgeable and appreciates classic 70's amplifiers and so forth. I dont think the local neighborhood shop or a modern home-theater sales store would make an effort to totally take apart the amp and properly test all of its functions, etc as some others would who have established their reputation on various hi fi forums, such as AudioKarma etc.. I'm sure there is a lot of info on the SX-..50 series online and you can find out if there are any common age-relates issues that need attention when doing repairs & upgrades.

I acquired the Sansui G-9000 shown in my pic from a seller who totally upgraded the amp (even added a switch to turn off the display to conserve bulb life) and it really sounds fantastic. Every time I listen to it, it always sounds lively and ready to play anything I give it with rich, hi fi sound quality. Being nice eye-candy is also an added plus +

 

I think I will. It really depends on how much my mate wants for it. I don't think he really wants it lying around anymore so I'm hoping it will be a good price in the region of FREE.

Agreed. I think there are a few proper hi-fi repair guys in the city so I should be ok.

I did do some research on the SX-850 online and over at AudioKarma.org. I noticed that other SX-850, indeed other SX owners have had similar problems. It is old so it's expected.

I need to put an end to this vintage theme though as I'll windup with too many components.

 

Don't ever tell that story again. Please pretend like it never happened.

 

Here are some others including the Leak Stereo amp:















-Bill