Audiokid

FIRE AND BRIMSTONE! When I was in high school in the 1960's, I worked for the local Klipsch dealer doing audio repairs. They sold a house brand of speaker at a very reasonable price. This store was located near a Black church, and the minister purchased his audio equipment from this store. Well, one day I came in and saw a house brand speaker burned... the upper cabinet, grill frame, grill cloth, and woofer cone were badly charred and burned. The story goes that the church used a pair of them as PA speakers, and a visiting preacher was giving a sermon on hell, and was yelling about fire and brimstone when the speakers caught fire!!! Couldn't have been planned any better! True story!

DON'T DO IT! Your veneer will warp if you 'dampen' it (my mother used to 'dampen' the clothes with water before ironing them). Now if you're talking 'DAMPING', that's a different animal. (Just one of my pet peeves). Dave

I've been soldering for many years, and also teach thru-hole and SMT soldering/rework in industry. I used to use Weller, but since they were bought out by the Cooper Group, their quality went 'down the toilet'. I also concur that Hakko is about the best for the money. I use the 936 ESD in my lab, as well as their SMT stations and desoldering stations at work. They are repairable, and just last and last. Dave

When I worked for a Klipsch dealer as a tech, I saw the problem you describe twice... the first time was a customers unit, a CW I, and I found leaks along the baffle board. I was able to seal it by tightening the screws on the supports and applying wood glue. The second one was my beautiful 'busy grain Oak ' CW II's (1985)... which were purchased with the employee discount. After about a year, I got a terrible fluttering sound at certain bass frequencies. I discovered that the cabinet had warped and split in the seams. Jim Hunter later informed me that they had purchased some wood that was incorrectly stored and it later developed warps. They replaced the speakers with a new pair, also 'busy grain Oak', and included 'matched' drivers with B&K spectrum analyzer response curves. Anyway, if you have access to an oscillator, try to find the offending frequency and play detective. Dave

In the mid 1970's I ran an Audio Research SP-3A with a McIntosh MC-2105. The preamp presented a large DC turn-on thump as it warmed up (it had no muting). I simply build a 1 minute turn-on delay timer for the power amp, and problem was solved.

Nothing has a better effect on the sound of a system than a nice glass of wine!

---------------- On 7/9/2005 3:54:33 PM GOPHER wrote: Has anyone experience using Mcintosh or other brands equipped with muti-voltage transformers? I have some old stuff including two turntables. Do the multi-voltage units sound as good as the regular types? Will the turntable spin at the correct speed, accounting for the different frequency? 60 vs. 50 Hz? Finally, is it possible to have the plugs rewired to the US type? Thanks very much guys.... ---------------- PM, Generally on older equipment with a power transformer, the only change is a voltage tap on the primary of the transformer. As for turntables, there are two scenerios. A table with an AC motor requires rewiring (tables like Dual make this easy), and will also require a new motor spindle bushing for the line frequency. If it's a quartz table(electronic speed control), only the voltage will require changing. Usually the strobe discs have both 50/60 Hz, but if not you'll need a new one of the proper frequency. AC plug adaptors are available to convert the plugs, or you can just snip off the old one and attach the proper plug. DrDave

My bridged-center channel box is a passive summing circuit and in no way resembles the Hafler circuit. It works with both tube or transistor amps, and doesn't use the stereo flanking speakers to derive the phantom center channel. I designed it over 30 years ago while in college, and showed it to PWK when he visited Rochester in 1972. PWK's "minibox" is a low level circuit which requires an additional amplifier, mine does not. Regarding the Hafler/Dynaco circuit... I've experimented with a 4 speaker version of the one NOS Valves described; results with some recording were stunning... Grand Funk's "Closer to Home" was scarey! I'm sure Win (Dodger) remembers those experiments in the early 1970's, in the basement of my parents home. BTW, PWK was NOT a fan of 4 channel audio... in the talk he gave to the IEEE at RIT (which I still have on R-R tape), he had little good to say about 4 channel audio. He told of a demo he'd heard "where the soloist soared from the front to the back of the hall". Dave

Ben, I suggest that you try moving another tube in that position. If you find that the position still doesn't work, then the amp needs servicing (actually, any amp that age needs restoration for troublefree operation). Does the tube in the position in question get as hot as the others? Let me know how you make out... you can contact me off the board at: dave500@frontiernet.net DrDave

Ben, Welcome to the forum. You'll be very happy with the 8b... if you have any questions, this is the place to get the answers, or you can email me directly (I have a great deal of experiance with Marantz tube gear). DrDave

Al, From one engineer to another, I admire your crossover designs very much, but have to disagree with you about Marantz tube amplifiers. I have 3 Marantz 8b's (and multiples of all other Marantz tube models) and have serviced or updated many more over the past 35+ years, and have never experianced tar leaking out of a Marantz transformer. Comparing McIntosh's first generation soild-state venture (although I agree it was a good design) to the refined Marantz tube units is like comparing one of your fine crossovers to one from Radio Shack and saying they sound the same! Marantz ran their amps (EL-34 only) class AB, unlike the cooler running class B that McIntosh used on their tube amps. I have to say that your father's amp had some fault, likely a failing selenium rectifier in the bias supply, which would account for you having to continually adjust bias, which caused tubes to draw excessive current and overheat the transformer (thus the leaking tar). A properly maintained Marantz tube amp requires only periodic checking of the bias, it should rarely drift. From a guy with many years of Marantz amplifier experiance (and many satisfied customers), it's a very well designed unit, built to last for many years (with proper maintenance, like any tube unit). BTW, having worked for a McIntosh dealer during the period of the MC-250 and beyond, I was in a position to make similar comparisons. DrDave

Hi KT66, and welcome! I have a great deal of experiance with Marantz 2, 5, 8, 8b, 9A and 9R amps. First let me say that I've used them with Heresy's, LaScala's, and Klipschorns. The 2's and 9's have a switch for Ultra Linear or Triode operation, and the 5's and 8's can be internally wired for triode operation. IMHO, the sound is better in this mode. The soundstage opens up, harmonic structure sounds right, voices sound more natural, etc. One thing I've always admired about the Marantz tube amps is their uncanny ability to make the speakers disappear and create a wall of sound, wider than the speaker array. They also have a nice, deep soundstage, without sacrificing focus. If you're using Marantz tube amps, feel free to contact me directly for some suggestions or info. As you can tell, I really like them. PWK told me (1972) that many Klipsch employees used them with Heresy's. He confided that people favored the model 9 over the McIntosh 275 in his tests. Being the proud owner of both the McIntosh and Marantz units and having compared them directly on Khorns, I have to agree. DrDave

I beg to differ with DrWho... never, I repeat, never allow a tube amp to operate without a load. I've seen several open output transformers caused by a no-load condition. He is correct with regard to a solid state amp though. -DrDave

Hi Thebes, I got a call from Win (Dodger) regarding your lucky find. You have a great amp there. I've looked over the pictures, and, although the coupling caps to the EL-34's were replaced, the input coupling and HPF caps were not. What's worse is that the bias supply cap (the large one on the lower right in the photo) was not. I've seen many of them dried out by now. I also can't see if the old selenium rectifier is there... if it is, it should be replaced with a silicon rectifier. If you need any advice on this amp, I have many year of experiance with them, contact me at dave500@frontiernet.net Again, from a long time Marantz enthusiast, congratulations! DrDave

Welcome to the forum, and hopefully to the Klipschorn Klub! PWK suggested a bridged center speaker, and I can assure you that it makes a big improvement to the soundstage. You end up with a wall of sound... "wide stage stereo". Everyone who hears it has the same response... their jaw drops to the floor!