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In Reply to: RE: Heathkit SA-2 posted by triamp on April 21, 2016 at 03:12:14
IMO, another great classic 6BQ5 amp with excellent ultralinear output trans, although this one is an integrated amp. I converted mine to a no tone control model and removed the 6au6 in the circuit. The thing about this amp is that besides the awesome 50's cosmetics, is the excellent build quality. All point to point wired and the chassis is made from aluminum so no rust! I found that it is the perfect amp to try the Broskie Garter Circuit, as there is a solder lug in right spot for wiring it up. To, me this is one of the best integrated amps from the Heathkit line. Cheers, Dak
Follow Ups:
Your mods to the AA-151 are absolutely required in order to turn it into a good amplifier. I've owned two, and both had a "squawkish" quality to the sound that drove me nuts. The majority of the problem was in the tone controls. I elected to sell them rather than tear them apart. Don't know if the SA-2 exhibits similar characteristics.
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
I don't like tone controls. Not on principle just in practice. They have too many things that can go wrong. And so many connections that "massages" the signal, to put it nicely. But a 6au6 in a tone control seems like a rather odd choice. I can imagine that it was a money saving decision. regards, Dak
Valid technical reasons are low Miller capacitance and high single stage gain.I too am not a fan of tone controls. However, if they are wanted/needed, do it "right". Max Robinson's "unity gain" take on Baxandall style is about as good as it gets. "Unity gain" makes for ease in totally defeating the circuitry, which rates to be the "normal" state of affairs. IMO, 2X 12AX7s/channel is OTT. However, it's easy enough to replace the cap. coupled cathode followers with DC coupled ZVN0545A source followers, which lowers the bottle count to 1/channel and reduces the number of caps. in the signal path too boot. Use the Sovtek 12AX7LPS, a genuine 7025 equivalent, if AC heating is to be employed.
Eli D.
Edits: 04/24/16
I immediately turned around and bought my first tube product ...a CJ PV-5... The speaker being used for that shoot out was KEF 105...I turned to Tony who owned the store and his face was crestfallen. As he heard the same thing, I did ... I said "what were you expecting from the ML 2's... Magic?"
He says "I just paid a 1000 USD for these mono blocks and I have to sell them" I smiled and said... Better sell the Heathkit first"
The Mind has No Firewall~ U.S. Army War College.
Yes I was pleasantly surprised to find that the chassis was aluminum.
And- let's give credit where credit is due - whoever the original 1962 kit-builder was who soldered together the SA-2 that I worked on, my hat is off to you! The SA-2 I worked on was very well made. Great soldering and wire-routing. Not a cold solder joint to be seen. So, anonymous (and possibly no longer among the living) kit-builder, here's to you!
It's too bad that there never developed a tradition of signing the kits you built; it would be interesting to know who, where and when.
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