jtice Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 The doorbell sounded especially musical Friday afternoon. The HF-81 had come back home after a two-week road trip to the NOSValves Spa and Resort for vintage tubes. No way could I just set that box aside and get back to work--the work week was over. I had to pull the covers and examine all the little parts and the slick little solders--nearly indistinguishable from the factory solders. And of course I had to plug it in for a few minutes of careful listening. Well, a few minutes turned into a few hours, continued on past midnight and was interrupted only briefly by a dash for a Wendy's salad and Barnes and Noble for some new reading material--NOT. Jazzy new CDs forced their way into my hands and onto my credit card. Delayed gratification had been delayed once again; Diana Krall's earliest and Mark O'Connor's latest among the notables. The Bill Evans Trio, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk also turned in mulit-disc performances. If I'd been smart and stayed with the up-tempo stuff I might have endured longer, but around 3:15am I forced an eye open, still sitting upright in the sweet spot chair, as Anne-Sophie Mutter put the finishing touches on Beethoven's Sonata No. 9 for Violin and Piano. Maybe our subconscious acts in our own best interest sometimes. The HF-81 is sweeter than I imagined it could be. Gone is the fuzziness at higher volumes. Punchier, tighter bass is most apparent, more airiness and clarity overall. Symbols ring brightly. The tonality, which was excessively warm is more neutral with more separation. No hum--just nice pure sound through the Heresys. Bypassing the focus pot effectively makes the gain control more sensitive and produces more volume at a given settting. This combined with the tighter bass and improved clarity makes the amp feel more robust. Some characteristics may be influenced, more or less, by speaker cables. A friend (confessed audiophile) loaned me some cables that he had replaced with Kimber cables. These are Audioquest Midnight+ (replacing 12g copper). They could be mine at an as yet unknown value price. Question is, what price and are they over kill for my relatively inexpensive system? I guess since DIYCable sells Beldon 89259 kits for a hundred bucks, and since my setup is worth less than 10% of my friend's system, a hundred bucks may be plenty. Anyone have any experience with Audioquest cables to relate? Anyway... Craig has done a geat job on the HF-81. In addition to his fine craftsmanship, he's a fountain of knowledge and quite willing to help us novices get oriented to the vintage tubes. The HF-81 is extremely satisfying--a miraculous improvement over SS consumer grade electronics. Thanks to Craig and the others here who have generously shared knowledge and helped me put together a very pleasing little system on a budget. As my brother-in-law said, "Hey that old amp don't sound too bad." I agree. John Eico HF-81, NOSValves Rebuilt Original Rega Planet CD Player Klipsch Heresy II Audioquest Midnight+ (loan) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 I love how this vintage gear can still breath new life once again, usually sounding 100% better than some new components! The classic gear was built to last, that's why I enjoy my Mac so much. Enjoy your EICO (lucky dog)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 I'm not going to take the credit on this one completely. The unit in question was a perfect factory wired amp that had been treated very well. John really scored on this one. It took some proding to get him to send it when I quoted what a complete rebuild would cost. My standard opinion seemed to put in a great state of mind. "investing $500 in one of these vintage amps nets you sound quality equal and exceeding amp 4 times that they are well worth putting into safe piece of mind electronic condition" John's amp is the best sounding HF-81 I have ever heard !! I could not believe how dead silent it turned out which really adds to the blackness and air arround the instruments. John, Play that amp as much as possible when those Russian Film and Foils settle in its really going to please you !! In fact with that amp being completely rebuilt except for the main Can cap which tested like brand new I have no problem if for now you leave it on for a week to let them settle in. After that in my opinion the wear and tear on the amp, tubes and your electrical bill make that a bad choice. Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 jt1stcav, One of these day's someone is either going to send me a Mac or I will buy one I'm dying to see how awesome they are. I bet they sound and I know they look awesome !! Another amp I would love to try is a HK Citation Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 Craig, this may be a stupid question, but I wanna make sure... I own a SS MC250...if I ever experienced any problems with it, could I send it to you for repairs? Or do you only work on vacuum tubed components? If you don't touch SS, could you recommend a top notch service tech for vintage SS (preferably McIntosh) amps? I love my old amplifier. The McIntosh MC250 (same as ALK's for his Belle Klipsch) is the warmest sounding SS amp I've ever heard. This old 50 watt amp completely blew away all my Carvers, an SAE, and even my Mac MC7200 200WPC mammoth amp! Maybe its Autoformers have alot to do with it, but to my ears, this classic is the most tube-like of any SS amp I've heard to date (haven't heard a Monarchy Audio SM-70 yet, but I hear good reviews about this little gem as well). Hope you get a chance to experience a McIntosh MC225 or a pair of MC30 monoblocks...I think you may be pleased with the results! Thanks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 jtice, Congrats on your Eico HF-81. I wouldn't spend any money on premium speaker wire. Of course, some will disagree, and that's what makes the world interesting. But remember one important thing: Eicos and all other vintage amps were listened to and designed by engineers who used plain ordinary speaker wire. If you told them there were going to be people who spent thousands of dollars on interconnects and speaker wires 45 years in the future, they wouldn't have been able to stop laughing. Another thing, Paul W. Klipsch himself thought fancy speaker wire was bullsh*t, and ran tests demonstrating it. He recommended plain old zip cord. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 jtice and others with Eico amps, You should check out an informative Eico users group online: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eico/ No wild arguments like there are on the Klipsch forum, but it's an unsurpassed source of information on Eico. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKubicki Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 What excitement! It's like a kid on Christmas Eve (or morning, depending when Santa visits)! Congrats on the Eico! So many amps, so little $$$$! I want to taste them all, but my dream amp would be a tube Marantz! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 Paul, Just joined the group looks like it will be fun ! Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 Yeah, I went over there and joined. It looks like a cool list. No politics or personalty disputes. Lots of good info. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 Glad you guys joined. Most of the member base is in Hong Kong. I actually mentioned this Eico group on the forum months ago, but I guess the post got overlooked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtice Posted March 16, 2003 Author Share Posted March 16, 2003 Paul, I just signed up for the yahoo group. Thanks for pointing us to it. Should be interesting. I guess it's hard to get any statistics on the old Eico amps. Would be interesting to know how many factory assembled vs. kits were produced and during what time period. Seems like the majority of HF-81s I've read about were 1959 models. May be some of this stuff in the archives, but I can't get in until I'm confimed. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted March 16, 2003 Share Posted March 16, 2003 Unfortunately, if statistics about EICO production even exist anymore, they aren't known to any collectors. The EICO-lovers group is compiling a little bit of data on audio equipment from members, but it's just a drop in a bucket compared to total production. EICO made hundreds of different types of test equipment; the extent is hinted at by running a search on eBay. I imagine that accounted for more of their sales than amps did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.