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Got a pair of these mono preamps. Interesting although they will need a lot of work if simply in cleaning them up. They are obvious early 50's . being mono, but they offer some unique features, among other things cartridge impedance loading. I notice fairly high prices for them, is the sound deserving of those prices?
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Vintage preamps, when properly rebuilt with a film cap power supply,high quality metal film and carbon film resistors strategically placed,Schottky diodes,film and foil coupling caps or paper in oil on the higher voltage stages,are unbeatable. So much of the quality of the vintage preamps rest with the fact that they are point to point wiring. They do have a few switches that can be bypassed or disconnected..
Honest amplification is better than excessive 2nd order distortion anytime.
Question Michael, with a preamp that only has power iron, would it not be possible to get identical results with a new build of one of those vintage circuits (minus cosmetics of course)?Dave
Edits: 10/06/14
David
You would think so and in the case of the Marantz 7C,so many have been built on circuit boards with the tonal EQ removed.
Honest amplification is better than excessive 2nd order distortion anytime.
Those boards would be more interesting to me if they left the tone controls on.
Dave
Hi Mike,
Do you have a rule of thumb as to where to use carbon film and metal film resistors? Do you use carbon composite for gridstoppers?
Dave
Dave
I use metal films from grid to ground in phono and high gain stages and carbon film in the plate loads and carbon comp on grid stoppers.You can experiment tho but metal oxides I would not use except on the cathodes of output tubes.
Honest amplification is better than excessive 2nd order distortion anytime.
Edits: 10/07/14
Thank you for the concise answer, Mike! I will call you before I tear into some of my tube gear. Right now I have to fix my gas furnace, that did not fire up. I was able to fix the air conditioner this summer. They really don't seem that complicated. It is a DIY life for me! For audio, I have a Rotel power amp and a Revox turntable on the workbench.
Dave
The PA-913 made by Pilotone mid 1950's is a very flexible preamp. It sounds a bit slow and rolled off.
The attraction IMO is cosmetic. They look amazing. The earlier model PA-902's sound great.
As an investment and as an industrial art item it would have good value. Those preamps are kinda rare and the few I've seen on epay go for around a thousand bucks each. There are a pair on and off the past year or two for silly money.
I have only heard one (mono) PA-913 over ten years ago and it was bone stock.
I've collected and enjoyed Pilot and Pilotone gear for the past 15 years.
Edits: 10/02/14
Mossback I would be interested in discussing a few of the amps you have spoke of if you care to discuss these amps let me know I see you dont do emails I tried. So let me know if you want to kick some ideas around?
Either way thanks,
Sent you an email.
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