Old SS amps
What are people's experiences with old SS amps. And I'm talking old like close to 20 years. I guess this can be called vintage(though to me it's yesterday.)
Either you bought it new and have had it that long or you bought it used.
Is buying it used a really bad idea even though it was owned by one person with no service issues? Like an old Pass.
I hear something about capacitators needing to be replaced. Should it be avoided like the plague? Am very interested in one but don't want to be stuck with a cat in a sack.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Techs who work on high-end gear are scarce, and really good ones are rarer than flying pigs. They (justifiably) command high rates. The downside of this is that at $100+/hr it doesn’t take long for a repair to become economically unfeasible, or the tech won’t touch it if it’s not straightforward and / or looks like it’s going to take a lot of research time. So there are definite plusses for dedicated audiophiles to learn how to do it for ourselves. @invalid - KSA-300S are beautiful amps.
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I am running a pair of MacIntosh MC2100 SS Amplifiers that were built in the early to mid 1970s... one has been fully recapped; the other is (I believe) all original. They are fed by a PAS3 Tube Preamplifier that was built in 1968 I believe. The PAS3 has had a new power supply installed, and new tubes. Other than that I believe all the caps and transistors are original. Sound quality is pretty much identical from each amp. The only issue I have found is that the all-original amp runs a little warmer than the recapped unit. I will be recapping the original unit within the next few months, just to be on the safe side. I think there is a certain 'charm' and sound quality to the vintage stuff that the modern units just don't have... but that is just my own opinion. I do think, objectively, that if you have a desire to run the vintage equipment you should try it. In reality, if you start by purchasing good quality brands that are still in good shape - you shouldn't run into anything that would be any more difficult to remedy than if you had an issue with a modern unit. |
@devinplombier yes, some amplifiers are not worth putting too much money into repairing, the better built ones like many of the old Krell amps is a different story. To buy a modern class A/B amplifier built like the old Krell amps would cost tens of thousands. |
Still using my sunfire amp from late 90s in my second system. Sounds pretty darn good but not quite up to my Triode Lab PSet 45 monoblocks in my primary system. I’ve swapped them several times not and keep going back to the TL. There’s also a 10x cost difference so I probably shouldn’t be that surprised.
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