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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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In Reply to: Early solid state receivers posted by Satxhifi on April 6, 2014 at 21:23:50:
Not sure it is hit or miss other than the current condition. Between makes, designs and models there are hits and misses but if still working today, then a hit.
Some early ss units also transitioned to pcb using wave soldering such as the early Fisher units. These were a definite miss back then because the wave soldering technique was not well enough understood or advanced and helped kill US Fisher production with an almost unsustainable amount of warranty issues related to cold solder joints. If you have one today and it is working it may have been fixed or on the edge.
Likewise, early germanium transistors were prone to high failure rates, as much from less than optimal unit design as the inherent characteristics of the transistors and finding replacements today can be like finding a hen's tooth. Later transistors were more reliable as much because of better circuit designs and understanding of them such as speaker protection systems as the transistor, itself.
OTOH, some of the earliest designs I think were the high point in the looks and build department. For instance, the Fisher 600-T used a tube chassis and cast from and back plates and screws were not self-tapping but machine thread. Avery put all he had into this unit to assure it the best of anything he did. During that period it with the TFM-300 tuner, the TX-100, TX-300, and TFM-1000 were possible the best built and designed units of any maker eclipsing even Marantz and McIntosh. The later popular receivers such as the 500, 450, 250, etc. series were almost as good. Today, though the 600-T and its offspring from the period including the much coveted TFM-1000 are like a vintage car, not a daily driver though when online can still kick plenty of sand.
That said, somewhat later designs after engineers figured out how to make a ss circuit that generally are based on using silicon transistors are and still can be daily drivers; these usually date from the later '60s, say '67 on. Again it is hit or miss as to good or not but most of the recognized names put out at least competent units. The hardest part is cross referencing the transistors and seems to be light bulbs. Some are proponents of doing a full cap replacement while others simply replace those out of spec presenting issues, your call. Either can end up revoicing a unit. When I sent my daily drivers to the tech, my instructions were they were to be daily drivers and therefore do whatever was best to put them in that condition. In every case wholesale replacements was an option that the well respected tech decided against and every unit has been in either near constant use as a daily driver or online intermittently for more than 6-years with no problems.
If getting into the hobby, you should consider a number of things before taking the plunge including:
1) What is you goal within the hobby, building a system of a collection.
2) If a collection, look at the path and objective; key to a brand, specific spec or feature such as the power output or small chassis, Pioneer, units in production in 1967, hybrid tube-transistor, etc.
3) If a system, physical size, voicing, flexibility, etc.
4) In either case will you be step building buying and hopefully selling at a profit to invest in something closer to where you are going or, just going for the end result.
5) Are you interested in investing time, effort and money in doing some or all repairs, etc? If not find maybe 2 techs depending on your roadmap. For instance there is a local repair service I use for pieces that I am interested in keeping for some reason but not interested in enough to invest in other than assure it meets specs. The local service has a tech who likes to work on the older units in between things like microwave ovens. Then there are the techs who either have the years experience or have focused on repairing, restoring and rebuilding vintage units. This group is where to send the units you want to keep and willing to invest in. BTW, I have not found the former to be less expensive than the latter or vice versa so not a question of cost savings as logistics and ability to do a really good job. The former tech would not spend hours cross referencing some old transistor or necessarily know what make, series, etc. capacitor or resistor is better in some particular part of a circuit. If DIY, you can get a lot of help on this site about repairs but it can be a daunting task and in the beginning work on some throw aways.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
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- RE: Early solid state receivers - Brian Levy 06:10:08 04/07/14 (0)
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