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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 barrysandy

barrysandy
193 posts
 
- Acoustic Research integrated with AR5s. Solid state sound hard and glarey. Gave SS a bad name (which it deserved)
- Dynaco ST 120 - more of the same!
- Crown IC 150 and D150 driving Infinity 2000As - World class speakers even today and beautiful looking pre and amp but op amps and boatloads of negative feedback = bleeding ears + empty wallet!
- Phase Linear 700B- Much better but still electronic
- Phase 400 - better still and actually nice with beefier power supply caps. driving T-1Ds (needed ARC!)
- Hafler 100 & DH200 - actually not bad and better pooged.
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