Your feelings on vintage audio.

Hi all,

Been a while! Crazy at work; you all know.

Got my 299 back recently! Hadn't been able to hook it up so it was sitting atop a file cabinet in my office. I was on the computer and my daughter was there talking to me when I noticed she had her hand in the amp. She was curiously touching things.

About a week later I was thinking I have the time so lets hook it up. I remembered my daughter and thought "I hope she didn't mess with the bias". When I saw her and asked she said yeah she had played with it.

Well I thought I will take it back to the tech when my 299b is ready and have it re-biased. Gotta learn how to do it anyway. It was then I noticed one of the weaker tubes was white on top. I remembered reading that indicated the vacuum was compromised. I went to remove the tube and as it came out it was cracked at the base! DOH!

Can't get mad at my girl, I love her curiosity. Part of the reason I began this trek is to introduce her to good sounding music, good looking gear. Other than her iPod and portable CD player.(Not bashing iPods!)(or portable CD players!)

She has already developed a preference for the higher fidelity offered by our modest stereo. Insists on using it during good movies, watched Cars with her this afternoon! What great fun! She loves to listen to her favorite FM and CDs on the stereo.

I love she is discovering this! I suppose a little delay in set-up is acceptable.

So I now have 3 original H.H.Scott Amperex 7189s. One weak and 2 strong. The 2 weaker ones were on one channel and I was told they would need replacing soon. But as the tech said to me "I like to let fine horses like that run 'til they die". Thought that was kind of colorful!

Currently looking for replacements and will return when it is up and running!

Best,

Dave

Still the cleanest midrange speaker I have heard a Quad 57.

Hi Viridian,

Appreciate your and everyones responses.

I had done as you suggested, bought a set of tubes from Jim.

Have yet to install them. And when done I'm sure biasing will need to be done. I've never done that, need to learn. Figure when I pick up my 299B from Mike in Austin I'll have him teach me.

When this is accomplished I'll retrun with impressions.

Wish I was able to hear it with the Amperex since I've read so much good stuff about their sound.

Oh well.

Regards,

Dave

I heard that some of the vintage amplifiers used metals in their transformer wiring that is not available anymore. Is this true? Examples would be Marantz and maybe Mcintosh. I would have to believe if true that it would significantly influence the sound.

Hi folks,

Just got my 299B back, need to replace some tubes so I've ordered a set.

In the meantime, while waiting for them to arrive, looking for bulk speaker wire.

Any suggestions? I am not asking about sound, but purveyors of decent wire.

Will research on my own, but thought I'd ask you fine folks.

Going to terminate amp end with spades (any suggestions welcome) for safety sake, bare wire on speaker end.

16ga. seems the max that will comfortably fit.

Thanks everyone.

Best,

Dave

Something else I wanted to ask about.

A gentle cleaning solution for the faceplate, It has some gum residue and what appears to be a cloudiness or haze, perhaps film better describes it,

I would like to remove it without any harm to the lettering.

Have some rust on the plates of the transformer. Want to clean it up and repaint.

Any ideas on rust removal without damaging the plates?

I was told naval jelly might do the trick.

Ideas?

Appreciate it.

Best,

Dave

Take a look at this thread, very interesting stuff.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=258899

Most of that equipment was built to last. The junk made these days, now that is a different story...