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In Reply to: RE: EAR 509 reissue, seeking opinions posted by Plinius_Fan on June 29, 2016 at 19:37:53
I owned the originals, and they were a true pain to bias - - had to open the bottom of the amp up and run it on its side, using all three of your hands to touch the two probes onto the right spots on the circuit board and also adjust the trim pot. As I only have two remaining hands, this was tricky (even trickier was convincing a family member to offer the third hand for this clearly dangerous undertaking!).
The new accessible trim pot and probe points is a good move forward. EAR's philosophy is pretty much parts is parts, and I don't believe they upped the parts quality in the reissue.
Nice sounding amps, overall, really open and powerful, great bass for tubes. A bit on the lean/bright/detailed side IME. Replacement tubes are getting to be harder, I believe.
Follow Ups:
Interesting -- my experience was "rolled off & slightly dead on top". But I agree with you about impressive bass.
Jeremy
"using all three of your hands to touch the two probes onto the right spots on the circuit board and also adjust the trim pot"
It was only dangerous because you were doing it in the most hazardous manner possible. Both the connections for the bias should have been CLIPPED to the DVM before the unit was powered up. For safety you should only have ONE HAND in the powered on amplifier at a time and that hand should be adjusting the bias with a plastic screwdriver. The other hand should be behind your back. This is standard safety procedure.
You suggested method is not news to me, but my amps only had smooth circuit board traces where you pressed the probe tips to get your readings, nothing where you could clip onto. Truly a serious design flaw in my book.
Years ago I had a pair of Cary 100 monoblocs. The bias pot control was located INSIDE the chassis. I soon drilled a hole in each one and remounted the bias pot with the control top side. Not that big of a chore, but why would an otherwise intelligently designed device be produced with such an inconvenience?
"The piano ain't got no wrong notes." Thelonious Monk
All double-action iron-frame pianos are tuned to 'equal temperament.'
So they will actually have quite a few wrong notes, audibly so, to me.
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Oops, too late for that . . .
But if you were a fan of his music you would understand his meaning.
"The piano ain't got no wrong notes." Thelonious Monk
Yep. Had a Cary SLA-70 Sig. years ago and it was the same story. Probably would have put up with the inconvenience if it had beat out my CJ MV50. But it wasn't even close, the CJ was the far sweeter amp and very convenient to bias.
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