philipbarrett Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 Firstly, greetings from a newbie. I have a pair of La Scalas soon to go under the Crites knife (new crossovers & tweeter), however, as well as cleaning up the top end I would like a little mo' bass out of them, something I feel my homebrewed SE amp is lacking in. My household's musical tastes range from Classical to Screamo (I have teenagers) and all points in between! My reasearch (including extensive searching of these forums) has led me towards the Dynaco particularly as there seems to be a healthy market for kits & services for these amps. My question is, for what I am looking for would I be better off with a pair of Monoblock IIIs or Ivs or an ST-70? Thanks in advance for any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedball Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 Welcome Phillip, Do a forum search for Dynacos and see what happens. Tubes sound....well, I really don't know but they sure look kind of neat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philipbarrett Posted December 18, 2008 Author Share Posted December 18, 2008 Thanks - as I mentioned above, I've already read everything I could find on the forum related to the Scalas & Dynacos but none really addressed the low end differences between the 2 types. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg928gts Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 I have some experience with Dynaco ST-70's (stock, old, not rebuilt) and a pair of MKIII's lightly restored by NOSValves on La Scala I's. I've always loved the sound of ST-70's when I first turn them on, but after a while I find they leave me unimpressed. BUT, of the 4 ST-70's I've had over the years, none of them were rebuilt when I used them, and a couple I probably had no business plugging into the wall, let alone hooking up to LS's! But they are really cool amplifiers that work well with horns and there is a myriad of choices out there for rebuilds. My MKIII's were not upgraded per se, but just cleaned, with a few parts replaced, and a couple of new tubes, so basically a stock sound. They generally sound a little dull on the highs. On Cornwalls I found them to be flabby with bass, on LS's much better, very warm and musical. Power output seems to be a very good match to the LS's efficiency. I forget now what he suggested, but Craig said that there was something he could do that would really improve the bass of the amps, but I decided not to do that option due to cost. Overall I think the vintage Dynaco amps are a great match to LS's and unless you buy a very expensive upgraded unit, you will most likely always be able to get your money back out of them at a later date. Hope that info helps. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 since the lascalas are so efficent, the notion of needing mono blocs to eliminate cross talk generated from shared power supplies of standard stereo amps in my view if a weak argument. A good design is the ST-120 offered up on ebay in kit form which is basically a pair of MK III's on a single chasis with a shared power supply producing 60 watts per channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1101 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 The dynacos are a platform you see lots of upgrade kits for and various modifications available for. The kit mentioned above is great. I have one. For the money you can't go wrong. I would stay away from the stock ones myself unless you plan to upgrade/rebuild or send out to rebuild. Depending on your budget there are even more exotic variations that are well above and beyond but related......like Nosvalves VRDs. Cost more but you get more. All these will sound great with lascalas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 The dynacos are a platform you see lots of upgrade kits for and various modifications available for. The kit mentioned above is great. I have one. For the money you can't go wrong. I would stay away from the stock ones myself unless you plan to upgrade/rebuild or send out to rebuild. Depending on your budget there are even more exotic variations that are well above and beyond but related......like Nosvalves VRDs. Cost more but you get more. All these will sound great with lascalas. VRDs are far better than any upgraded vintage I have heard. When I replaced my fully modded Scott 208 with the VRD ST45 my first thoought was why did I wait so long to buy the VRD. To compare to Dynacos a Scott 208, Heath WM monoblocks, Fisher are other robust alternatives with very similar performance. Tubes and Horns RULE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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