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How do we remember 1970s amplifiers?

I would be curious to hear some of the memories and impressions associated with the following short list of 1970s amplifiers:

- McIntosh "first generation" SS amps, MC2105, MC2505, MC2300, MC250, MC2100
- Dynaco Stereo 400 and Stereo 120
- Phase Linear 400 and 700
- Bang & Olufsen "slide rule" receivers (i.e. especially blackface Beomaster 4000)
- Original Ampzilla (not Son of Ampzilla)

I've chosen this list mainly because they cover a wide range of approaches to solving the issues of early semiconductor technology, and they were all pretty mainstream products in the U.S. I'm excluding the Japanese receivers/amps not out of predjudice; it's simply that the circuit designs varied quite a bit with each model, and thus harder to broadly classify their characteristics.

I'm interested in impressions of both sonic and non-sonic attributes, and a preferred ranking of the above, if you like.
kirkus

Showing 1 response by atmasphere

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atmasphere
12,098 posts
 
I had a set of Fulton J-Modulars as well. For a long time I ran them with dual modified Dyna ST-70s monostrapped until I got my own amp going. Fulton was a local so I spent time with him at Bob Fredere's house in Minneapolis, which is where I first met Bill Johnson of ARC (I had a D-51 for a while also...).

I also ran the Rabco- an ST-7 that I had modified with a new servo circuit and a carbon fibre rod for the arm tube (hi tech back in those days), mounted on a Technics SL-1100.
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