Can an owner's manual and schematic be found for an Electron Kinetics eagle 7a power amp


Hi Guy’s, out there in Audiogon world! I just picked up an eagle 7a power amp, the guy that I got the amp from said it had been in storage for years and it was still in the shipping crate but no owner’s manual or schematic. can anybody tell me if this is a good amp or a waste of money for $300.00, I don’t know much about this power amp, but I would like to power a pair of Acoustats 6+6 I am willing to purchase a manual and schematic from anyone on the forum if that is possible. The strange thing about this amp is it don’t have a power switch. and are there any techs that can work on this amp, what things should be updated on this amp since it has been sitting in a crate. I had the guy plug it up and it played fine, does the a after 7 mean anything on this amp on the model number? I would feel comfortable having looked over and not after it goes up in smoke. any help would be appreciated. Thanks, guys!

gmosley

I can't speak to the condition of your unit, but that is an excellent amplifier, and well worth the money if it is in good condition.

I have the 7A amp too! Designed by John Iverson in the late 70's. TAS reviewed and liked it. If it works and sounds fine leave it alone! It can drive electrostatic speakers with ease! If you use it with the Acoustats leave it on 24/7. That will assure a long and healthy life! Turning it on and off every day will just stress the parts/caps unduly.

$300 was a bargain price! I saw one for sale awhile ago for $1200. I'd put my 7A up against any of those $100K made-in-Switzerland amps - CH Precision and Soulution.

@gmosley  Any Electron Energetic product is now old enough that the filter capacitors in the power supply are suspect and should be replaced. Failure to do so can lead to power transformer failure which would be a very hard and expensive part to find and replace.

Turning it on and off every day will just stress the parts/caps unduly.

@jasonbourne71 Just so you know, the statement above is false. Leaving an amp on this old with original filter caps is asking for trouble!

@gmosley, you may have found a treasure.

I have some experience with Eagle amps, but first listen to Ralph. As usual he offers sound advice.

For background, long ago I owned an Eagle 2A amp which was very musical and powerful. After that I had a pair of 400 mono blocs. However they sat in storage a few years before I sold them. I tested them briefly before selling them. Unfortunately the new owner then damaged his speakers, almost certainly because of filter cap failures.

Back when the 7A was a current product a friend bought one to drive his B&W 801s. Iverson told him there was no on/off switch because he couldn’t find one that didn’t burn out quickly with use, so simply plug and unplug the amp! My friend soon tired of that so found a knife switch to put inline on the power cord.

A guy who worked for Iverson later set up a repair/modification service for Electron Kinetic products but may no longer be in business.  I suspect schematics are not available.

Since you may not be familiar with Iverson and Electron Kinetics, search for an article from TAS on his strange disappearance, a truly weird story.

@atmasphere is so right, and thanks for mentioning that very important caveat. At its age, the caps are likely needing replacement. 

Jasonbourne71 and all the rest of you guys in audiogon world!! 

Thank you, guys, for all the advice about this amp, I will take you guys advice as it will be a task to find a tech that can do justice to this amp, as I look down this amp I do see two big cap's that are blue, would these be filter caps? and would these be the ones to change out to new cap's and match to the same spec's or better? if so I will try to find them.  I will not be leaving this monster on until it gets new caps.

Again Thank You guys!

Here is the link to the repair/upgrade service.  It appears to be quite old so no idea if Russ is still in business.  But it verifies what should be looked at.

 

http://www.eagle-audio.com/upgrades.htm

FWIW a good number of the semiconductors have been hard to find for decades now. So its a good thing they aren't damaged in this amp. Just get the filter caps replaced and you should be good. Not a bad idea to check the bias as well.

imhififan, thank you for finding the schematic and atmasphere I will take your advice, I kind of figured that semiconductor's will be hard to find, so I did reach out to Russ at Eagle -Audio and he told me after 6 years of not offering service, it will be some time, months, before he is ready to service Eagle 7 series again and he needs get his service processes back in order, but he was offering me an Eagle 2c so he told me in 2014 a full rebuild of an Eagle 7 is $ 1,995.00. I asked him if he would sell me a copy of the Manual and he never answered my email nor did he offer to sell me a schematic, so when I see poor communication about service from someone that I'm going to pay for service, I don't purchase their product or services in other words he would only answer questions he feIt like answering and he did tell me a eagle7a is not what I need, because it's too much power for me, even though I'm using this amp with Acoustats 6+6. but you guys have been great with advice that was not offered from Eagle- Audio.

Mr. Jasonbourne71, since you have an Eagle7a would you sell me a copy of the owner manual? or any other important information for this amp. Thank You

@gmosley Any competent technician can replaced filter capacitors! You don't need to send the amp to someone who specializes in them if that's all it needs.

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....found in a suitcase in 'parts' beneath a rough Satanist  statue.....just outside of Humptulips, WA.  

Found by a 'hippie type' buzzed on an unidentified substance who'd opened the suitcase and became somewhat psychotic as to the details, the remains were claimed to be that of Iverson.  DNA n/a, since the case and contents were burned per ritual in the closed community....

...y'all are So superstitious....

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viridian, it was not a review, rather some history on the designer of no longer available (new) products.  So whatever biases that may have bothered you shouldn't apply to that article.

Or simply ignore it.  ;^)

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Well, "total fish wrapper" sounds pretty inclusive to me.

I happened to be a charter subscriber to TAS and continued for several years.  Over that time I learned from the magazine as well as found things I didn't agree with.  So it was helpful but didn't become an audio bible.

Otherwise, anything to add about the Iverson article?  He and Electron Kinetics are the subject here. 

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As is the case with many smaller vs. bigger amp models from the same company, the lower-powered Eagle 2A was considered the overall best sounding Electron Kinetics model. It was particularly known for it’s unusually good reproduction of bass frequencies, so I got one ($400 used) to drive my subs (KEF B139 woofers in transmissionline enclosures). I haven’t used it in years, guess I should take a look at the power filter capacitors.