AndyKubicki Posted October 5, 2002 Share Posted October 5, 2002 What a tale! What a find! Craig- go for the Marantz instead! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonelobo Posted October 5, 2002 Author Share Posted October 5, 2002 I'm back from my edit session and boy were you little devils busy while I was gone. First things first, Craig...you have been most helpful and generous with your time and knowledge and I am truly grateful. I will give you first shot at the Mark III's when I decide what to do, but that is the problem. I just don't know what I'm going to do. It's like my dear old grandmother used to say, "If you had a really big johnson and someone offered you a million dollars for it, would you cut it off? She insisted this was an old philosophical riddle she was taught in Catholic school way back when by Father Damien, but I think she just made it up to embarass my mother. So, my advice would be to bid on your ebay prospect. I won't be selling anything till my head stops swimming and it's in a deep pool right now. My options are driven by unique circumstances and I am still in analysis. But that is another story... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonelobo Posted October 5, 2002 Author Share Posted October 5, 2002 Ok, a little payback for all the help you guys have given me in my short, pathetic tube collecting career. It seems everyone asks where I'm finding these things. It's simple...everywhere old geesers die..."I hear dead people's stereos" is my motto. I live 30 miles north of the DFW metroplex and usually go to garage sales and estate sales every Thursday and Friday and sometimes Saturdays when I'm not working. There are usually between 50-120 garage sales and 5-8 estate sales listed every week. Since I look for old tools AND stereo gear AND bakelite am radios AND anything I know more about than the seller I almost always find something. But I can go for weeks without finding anything substantial. In fact before last week, I had hit a dry spell of several weeks. I usually catagorize the sales by general area and description and I know who the better professional Estate handlers are. But descriptions are deceiving and I find most of the cool old audio stuff at sales where it's not even advertised because they don't think it has any value. It's like used pickle jars to them. With tools, the early bird wins every time as it's very competitive, but I find great audio stuff late in the day or even on the last day of the sale . The valueable pop lp's will be gone in the first 1/2 hour but the same collectors walk right by vintage tube amps and don't even examine them. The $5 Scott 222C was bought on the 2nd day of an estate sale and nobody had even asked about it (I know because the none of the sales staff knew what they were asking for it--they had to make something up on the spot) But I also have a flea market routine for every month. The weekend before the 1st Monday of every month is Weatherford trade days, the weekend before the 2nd Monday of every month is Bowie Trade Days, the weekend before the 3rd Monday of every month is McKinney Trade Days, and the last weekend I usually skip. Trade Days in small Texas towns started back when there were only a few circuit riding judges and the whole town filled up on the weekend that court was in session in each county seat by horse traders looking for ranchers, farmers looking to sell eggs, hookers looking for johns, johns looking for horse traders, buyers looking for hookers, and wives looking for their husbands. They've continued to this day and they still sell horses and goats and chickens...oh my! At the Bowie Trade Days, I usually run into a whole family of dwarf farmers who raise.....can you guess...pigmy goats and miniature horses and guinea fowl. Go figure.... Oh, then on Monday nights there's an auction about 30 miles away that gets a a lot of Scottish and English containers that have a lot of good vintage tools. Tuesday morning there is a flea market a few miles down the road that starts at 5am with everyone running around with flashlights trying to beat each other out of a great deal. That's where I found the Atwater Kent E Series speaker. Nobody knew what it was, "cept it's some real old speaker offin somethin." I've found lots of tube related stuff there, like tube testers and signal generators. A good flea market is like an estate sale funnel. You can't get to every sale yourself, but you can be sure that flea market vendors get to many more than you. So you pay some markup, but in theory, you should see more good stuff in a condensed area. But ebay has ruined most of them these days and where you used to be able to find good American fleas now all you find are cheap imported fleas or reproduction fleas. Then I check about 5 papers weekly for classifieds. Now I haven't even touched the Dallas market. It's just too crowded and congested and expensive for me. But I believe there's more high end audiophile equipment there just because of the many universities and history of personal fortunes. The bottom line is that I find stuff because I look for it. Everywhere....I once found a very rare 18th century British tenon saw in a tiny town in far west Texas in a video rental store in a bucket under the videotapes. I ask people if they have any old tools or stereos they need to get rid of (though this is hit and miss). The other bottom line is to know what you are looking for. Most of the tools I look for are 80-180 years old and most people don't even know what they are so they're usually mislabeled or put in with other unrelated junk I know nothing about. I am starting to develop an idea of what to look for in audio gear, but I can still screw up big time (reference the VOT and EV speakers of Friday). So as you can see, these things don't just drop out of the sky, they have to be plucked and you have to know which cloud to pillage. Anybody can do it...the stuff is everywhere. Here are 2 insider tips that I'll let you in on. Look in neighborhoods where University professors and retired military personnel live. Professors of the audio era we seek didn't have computers to impress their geek friends with, so they bought nice audio gear and just like the computer era we live in today, there was always something newer and better to upgrade to. And contrary to public opinion, they are all not that smart. Military personnel got great deals in PX's and commissaries all over the world and moved a lot, so they have lots of weird stuff you wouldn't normally find in "Little Pink Houses for You and Me". Fort Worth at one time had Carswell AFB, a Naval Air Station, and some other military posts that I can't mention without killing all of you first. So, it's about time to wrap it up. I think I should be nominated for the "Longest consecutive posts to an audio forum" award for my last couple of posts. I'm usually not this verbose. Thank you very much..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted October 6, 2002 Share Posted October 6, 2002 Well I still can't believe that your not just keeping the Marantz's and selling your pour old no one in my area has any of this stuff buddy craig the Mark 3's. I thought for sure you would find deep in your heart that my name is on them babies !! Even your best friend said he thought you would let me buy them. Just name a reasonable price I don't care if you make some cash for your talented and time consuming quest !! PPPPLLLLLLEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEE I'm begging here !! Don't make me buy off some Ebay Vulcher !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Landau Posted October 6, 2002 Share Posted October 6, 2002 Lonelobo, I would love to buy the model 5's from you(it would be a nice 60's birthday present for my father). I am willing to give you almost anything for them. Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKubicki Posted October 6, 2002 Share Posted October 6, 2002 Lonelobo, thanks for sharing that with us. Sounds like you do put in a lot of time beating the pavement, so you earned the fruits of your labor. I don't live far from LA (about 35-40 miles), most everything around me is an extension of LA. The upside is that there must be diamonds to be found. The downside is that there are many, many more looking for the diamonds. Ultimately, you are proof that persistence pays! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 LoneLobo, I'm real suprised you havn't called me back yet to come thru with the sale ?? What's up !!!!!!!!!!!! Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 I didnt have time to pour through this thread... but am I getting this straight? IS he NOT keeping the Marantz Model 5 amps???? The Dynaco amps are a pale comparison here (they are some good amps and have the DAvid Hafler transformers...but need LOTS of mod work; the iron and circuit is not to the level of the Model 5 amps)! I cant believe he wouldnt keep the Marantz 5... It is one of those lifetime finds! Holy regret. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 Mobile, Much to my disapointment at this time he is keeping both. He said I have first dibs on the Mark III's though. I realise the Marantz amps are way better but I thought for sure he would keep those and off the Mark III's to finance the entire purchase. I almost got on my Knees while on the phone with him and he wouldn't budge LOL !!!!! So I'm waiting in Limbo !! Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 Why is he keeping both? AT least he is keeping the Marantz 5 which are very rare to find. I was hoping you would get one or the other to sample some tube amps, monoblocks no less. BTW, having two pairs of monoblocks is always a pain; I bet you he sell them to you sooner or later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 I'm hoping your right. I'm getting real tired of searching for a clean set to do the super mod job too !! These Mark's would be great canidates for super mods. I'd love to lose the existing phase splitters/drivers and go with a all triode front end. I've already read up on a few replacement boards that do this. I really would love to lose the boards all together. I hate circuit boards !! Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipped and Shorn Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 Craig, What are some of those mod boards you have found for the Mark III? Links? I want to go there at some point myself. -c&7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 Dynaco Mk. III Mods: Triode Electronics http://store.yahoo.com/triodeel/mkandmk2boa.html Roger Stevens Dynaco Mk III Mods http://home.netcarrier.com/~rstevens/mk-III.html Curcio Audio http://www.curcioaudio.com/mk3upg_3.htm Welborne Labs http://www.welbornelabs.com/2000%20mods%20catalog.pdf Maybe you'll see this one... Do a quick search at Tube Asylum or in Google and you will come up with most of this stuff yourself. Doing the leg work is half the fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 Mobile covered most of the bases there for you Clipped. I like the Triode board so far because it switches them to use a all triode front end. Although the Pentode/triode seem to do a first class job in my Scott amps (they did a ton a engineering to make this a none issue). I think the reason they used them was to achieve more gain then a 12AX7 or 12AU7 could achieve. Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipped and Shorn Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 Craig, Did you look at the Welborne mod, seems pretty rad and expensive. I need to set up a bench and plan some of these projects for the winter. mh, what do you think of the mosfet and ss aspects of their mod? eliminates tube rectification. -c7s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 Well, to be perfectly honest, I dont think I would even elect to get this amp to mod as I dont like circuit boards either and think their are a host of other amps I would rather set my sights on compared to the Dynaco. If I already HAD one, it would be one thing, but there are just so many other better amps out there to start with. IF you read some of Roger Stevens comments, he even took issue with the board the Triode Ned offers, having to do some resoldering etc to get it to snuff. I dont always agree with Roger regarding parts etc, but that raised my eyebrows. I prefer tube rectification over solid state 98% of the time although there are ways to make SS rectification do very well; but even at best, it seems to be missing a bit of the relaxed feel somehow imparted by tube rectification. With so many great vintage, point to point wired amps out there with even better output transformers than the Dynaco gear, I just wouldnt start this whole ball of wax. Obviously, if you lucked into some Dynaco Mk III for peanuts, then that is different. But to answer your question, with almost every tube amp I have owned, I prefer tube rectification. I still have one EL-34 amp that is SS rectified. Perhaps that has a little bit to do with the fact that it's sitting on a table in my bedroom, acting as fine sculpture. If going with SS rectification, HEXFREDs do a better job with some sort of snubber circuit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 If you remember the ad campaign for Yellow Pages a few years ago, I've accused Ron ('lobo) of having Ron's Amplifier Shop. If he sold it, he wouldn't have a shop. :-) He's supposed to be bringing the amps up on Variac this week. I think, for one thing, he wants to know the stock condition before selling it or them. That's fair enough. For another, I've got to have the 5's in my system for a bit before they go away!!!! Beyond all that, he's been booked for video work pretty steady lately and I've not even heard from him in several days. Friday, he came over and we took a bunch of pics of them. I've not had him show me the image upload system and I've had no time to figure it out. If someone wants to gimme a quick tutorial I'll get some posted. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 Dave, mail me the pics and I'll make a webpage for them as I dont like the way this board does pics either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipped and Shorn Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 I already have a couple of Mark IIIs and a stash of 6550 on hand. I could probably use this somewhere in my triamping project, or in a secondary system out in the rehearsal studio. Another way to go, is not to mod, but just upgrade slightly and not put a lot of $ into it. -c7s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 WEll, if you have the amps, by all means. btw, am I the only one with something due YESTERDAY, hence the hours wasted on here? THE Forum is the most perfect form of procrastination yet devised as it gives you the impression you are doing someting worthwhile, even as you waste your hours away, the due date disappearing in the distance like a ship drifting in the Gulf Stream... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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