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These days, Ampex 6973 mono amps r worth hoarding...

First, these are some of the best sounding vintage, consumer available amps. Sonically, they are right up there with the more famous, more "fit and finished" looking amps. They are cute; like a Fairchild 255 but not as pretty as the Fairchildren. The Mullard type front end has tons of gain and the output iron was special Triad ultralinear outputs with 16 Ohm opt taps.

Unfortunately, there will not be any lit to be found about these Ampex amps, other than the sales brochures of their now very rare console offerings. I don't remember seeing any Ampex console amps in any magazine featuring amps or reviews; other than the 6V6 based speaker/smps.

I did "test" these trannies almost two decades ago when I had my pair of these great sounding amps. I also had a spare pair of opt iron, which I mounted on a pair of Craftsmen C400 chrome amps and gave to a close friend. He has moved away and traded off the amps since then. I no longer know where my Ampex 6973 amps reside, as they too were traded away.

When I did have the iron, they were tested and compared with the likes of Dynaco Stereo 35 and Heath UA-1 or 2 iron; very sonically rewarding. In fact, they were tried in a PP triode 6B4 amp and worked very well without the screen taps or feedback. It takes a very good PP UL tranny to work with triodes without the ultralinear taps and overall feedback connected...

The S-144 might have some catalog listing, but I doubt it has the bandwidth of the special Triad unit found on those 6973 amps. Good Luck finding the original opt iron...It will be worth the search. Besides, those cute chassis do not take up much room...


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