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In Reply to: harmon kardon a300 v Fisher x100 posted by triode1 on December 12, 2006 at 15:43:55:
Hi,I have a the above mentioned hk amp, class a, its decent, i am new to tube audio (2 yrs) and it was the first i could afford. I was called by a guy who rehabs amps and said he had the Fisher, class b. Its $200 USD. Any thoughts on this? Am i making a lateral move? I am not too convinced it is a real 'upgrade' I would love to hear anything about either amp and your thoughts.
Follow Ups:
I did not have experience with x100, but I had some with other 6BQ5/EL84 amps, and I am no fan of these tubes.Many would agree that 6V6 (or its up-rated version 7408 that A300 uses) is, if not the best, then one of the best-sounding power pentodes.
A300 is somewhat weak in the bass, but it has amazing mids, highs, and imaging. X-100 is in no way upgrade over A300, it has about the same power and same bass performance.
Better spend your money on A300 upgrades. Stock tubes on best A300s were Tele 12AX7 and Amperex 12AU7, and they are preferred for this circuit. Stock coupling caps on best amps were Sprague black beauties; for even more transparent sound, you can use Russian teflons. Radionic and ceramic disc caps definitely should be replaced. With perfectly matched power tubes, bass significantly improves.
Also, much depends on your music. A300 is great with all kinds of acoustic music. It is not for rock at concert level.
thank you very much for the info, of incredible value. I am mostly into all kinds of music. The power conditioner, not incredibly expensive one, was a huge plus, knocked out all the hum i was experiencing. It does well w/ rock at a decent level. jazz, folk, and experimental sound great. The same guy w/ the fisher has the ability to re cap/tube the whole thing at a decent price. Didn't think the a300 was all that great due to not finding much out about it anywhere. Thank you again!
Hi, a bit of follow up for me to understand...when you say get 'perfectly matched tubes, do you mean the serial numbers a perfect pair? and when it comes to caps, should i just replace them across the whole amp?And what should i request for 'caps'? I had one 'bad' one replaced. everything else is stock as far as i understand. Is it even worth putting $$ into the hk a300? thanks for you assistance!
Output tubes that are matched by current characteristic. Because the a300 is fixed bias you need tubes that draw the same current to maintain bias equally.
Do you want to put a lot of money into the a300? Probably not if you expect to get anything out of it later. However if you want to do the work yourself, info is readily available to learn. It's easy to work on and not especially complicated. Once up you really appreciate your efforts. I have one I did years ago, my secound try at saving an old amp. Those 6v6/7403 outputs do sound great.
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