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In Reply to: RE: Vintage Olson Model: AM-240 posted by Brian McGowan on November 17, 2015 at 09:50:12
My memory is somewhat hazy on this but here goes. In the Early 70s, Olson Electronics was owned by a conglomerate called Teledyne. Teledyne at that point had also purchased Acoustic Research, believe it or not. Olson sold speakers and electronics under the Teledyne label, which sounded cooler than Olson. Some of the speakers were actually AR speakers that had been rebranded as Teledyne. Olson obviously had access to Acoustic Research in- house.
There is something about this amp design that to me says Acoustic Research. I can't be sure of that, but I took one look at the photo and that is what struck me about the appearance.
Now, some people think Acoustic Research electronics were prone to having problems and issues. Some of the other guys here may know more about that accusation.
Olson had a small chain of bricks-and-mortar stores including one here in Lexington KY. In the 60s they were famous for their newspaper-like flyers they mailed and were not considered the equal of or as upscale as Allied or even Lafayette, but they grew up as a company in the 1970s.
David
Follow Ups:
More info on this Olson unit is in the attached link. This is not a piece of AR electronics - it uses tubes and was made in Japan (AR's were solid state and made in the US).
Definitely Japanese. It has the same electrolytic cans that were in all the Sansuis and the output transformers look Japanese. It will be a decent little amp, but many of the Japanese budget amps had some very serious compromises in the circuits. At least the ones I have worked on. They were built to a price point. The pots are usually sealed though and the iron is pretty good. The Sherwood S5000 will run rings around it though, but it also costs a lot more..... If you can buy if $100 - $150 sure...but I wouldn't pay much more. Save your money for a Sherwood or a good Scott
Thank you for the link with all the information!
Thank's for all that information as I found it very interesting!
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