Need help with vintage amplifier(s)

Folks, is this is the wrong forum, please direct me to the appropriate place. This evening I have purchased four items from my local vintage emporium, and I’m trying to figure out which one is worth addrsssing first . . . Or at all. (and, maybe, a few misc questions as well). Here we go:



This is the Shell 20/20. 7189 based integrated amplifier. AMAZINGLY this is the first tube amp I ever owned. Picked up 25 years ago in college off a tree lawn after a failed yard sale. Worked!!! Found this tonight in a basement. Tubes light, but does not work. I believe the 7189 is an EL-84/6BQ5 variant. These are “Westinghouse” and marked Germany for whatever that is worth. I love el-84 based amps. Would love to get this piece of memory candy working. Btw, what is that glass bulb in the front?? What’s that do? It’s lights up a cool green.



Look at this beauty!! A Sansui SP220 stereo preamp. Tubes light, no sound. Super nice cosmetics (in great shape otherwise). And just looks FLY with this next bad boy:



This is the Sargent Rayment SR 540 EL-84 based power amp. Basically looked very similar to the Dynaco ST-35 power amp, but aesthetics are a bit nicer and has bigger iron. looks AWESOME with the Sansui pre. This chunk of funk works!!! Chilling to some Donald Byrd Ethiopian Knights as I type this. (Running a Bluetooth dongle from my phone into it, so phone is the pre at the moment).

I’ve never restored/repaired a tube amp before. I’m willing to spend some blood, sweat and tears (and a few $$$) to get things right. But effort is at a premium. Which way to go here??

Justin

 

The amps are old and so are the capacitors. The amps need a rebuilt. If interested I perform rebuilding vintage tube amps. The first amp with the glass tube in front is called an eye tube. It lights up a bright green and has a variable pattern. Most likely monitors power output.

 

The Shell looks most interesting to me.
Some info on it and a schematic and instruction manual are here, there is some question about which tubes were correct, and the eye tube indicated the balance on that model-
Stereo Amplifier 'The Manhasset' Ampl/Mixer Shell Electronic

And it had an ad in High Fidelity Magazine, March 1960, page 125, which you can access here
HIGH FIDELITY - Consumer audio and music magazine

It had a matching tuner model, and apparently that was all from that company except for a tube tester.

 

Check out the Audiokarma website.

They specialize in older equipment.

 

The Sansui is beautiful.

 

Good day

If you need any help with the Sansui equipment, you are welcome to contact me.

Hennie

 

Those are amazing finds these days. Nothing like that around here in years. You should really have these professionally serviced. it'll cost a little bit more but be way worth it in the quality of repairs and peace of mind. I repair and restore these types of products regularly. If you don't address it right now, things can go downhill quickly. Even the "working" unit probably has some dire needs at this point. Those pieces are about 60 years old now.
-Bill

 

They are all nice, and with all the knobs! They look to good to experiment on them, get someone very experienced to restore them.