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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 lou_setriodes

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lou_setriodes
702 posts
 
Kirkus - truly great thread here.  Enjoying reading all about this 70's gear.  This was a little before my time getting into high end.  Back in the 70's, I was still with my HK 330c receiver not getting into separates until in the mid 80's.

Actually an interesting neighbor let me hold onto his Dyna MKII amp, Mac C22 pre, MR71 tuner, and Thorens TD124 TT w/SME tonearm in the late 70's.  Not knowing a thing about tubes back then, I turned it on and wondered why it didn't come on immediately and why it sounded so terrible after 5-10 seconds and ran so hot.  I gave my girlfriend the TT and she said, "what is this POS?"  If only we knew......

Wish they had a long discussion like this about 1980's gear.  That is my go to era in audio and when I made lots of purchases......
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