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Which Classic Amp

andy831

andy831

pfm Member
My Small flea power amps are fine powering my Tannoy Grf Autographs when I am in my listening room alone, However these 2 watt amps are just not powerful enough if i want to crank up the volume when i am working in different parts of the house.

As the Tannoys are happy being fed anything up to 500 watts, it occured to me I should maybe buy a solid state amp for those occasions, which would include parties etc when room filling, nay, house filling sound levels are required.

If I am to buy something it seems an opportunity to perhaps buy something classic and fairly well respected. This can be a power or integrated amp.

So come on chaps what would you recommend. I would like to keep budget to under £200, but would extend this considerably if the conclusion was "you just must have this xyz amp" but its £800. You know where I am coming from I am sure.
 
No reason why you can't use your existing tube pre, so how about something like a Quad 303? The pairing of the 303 with 15" Tannoys (SRMs) was very common in a huge number of 1970s studios and many great records were recorded that way. Should get a decent one for 120 quid or so plus another 50-80 or so to get it serviced. It's a reliable workhorse. Another alternative would be a 80s 'flat earth' integrated, e.g. Onix, Exposure, Myst, IncaTech etc - all would do the job, but again all could do with a service by now. An A&R A60 is worth a look too, it's a damn fine amp and would only run you 60 quid or so, it's got bloody DIN sockets though (as I think the Myst has). The Quad and A&R can still be serviced by their manufacturers as far as I am aware.

Tony.
 
I listened to a solid state amp with a pair of modern Tannoy Sandringham and I wasn't impressed with the sound. I would find a more powerful valve amp. If you like vintage, how about a nice Leak Stereo 60 using a pair of EL34 with 30W per channel in push pull or a pair of Leak TL25+ monoblocks? These Leak amps hold their values and they can sound superb with Tannoys.
 
Tony

I like the Quad idea, and I had thought of a Quad power amp myself, but, and its a big but, I know absolutely nothing about Quad equipment/heirachy and basically did not know where to start. Had a peak on Ebay, there seems to be plenty 303`s and several 306 and 406 amps available. Are you saying the 303 is better or more powerful than the others, or is it just older, and the 306/406 would be equally as effective?

Bottleneck / Hifienthusiast.

My valve power amps are Bi amped already.

I have heard several push pull amps and they just dont float my boat like a set amp does.

I like and enjoy my set amps, this amp is not a replacement its just an alternative for the situation i have described. I had honestly thought someone would weigh in with a battleship build jap amp from the 70`s or early 80`s
 
Avoid the 405 - it costs more and isn't as good as the 303 IMO (fancy 'current dumping' technology which wasn't all it was cracked up to be - the 303 is just a nice solid conventional amp). I don't know much about the 306, it is more recent so no doubt more expensive. The 303 was good solid studio fodder, the things were everywhere.

Tony.

PS the problem with 70s Japanese amps is keeping them on the road, they are complex, unsupported and largely bespoke. A Quad is simple and fully supported and will cope admirably with your specific requirement - it will happily play parties as long as it's in good order you give it proper ventilation (they can get pretty hot when really pushed).
 
Hi Andy,
I wouldn't rule out anything for the situation you describe.. except maybe Naim. Naim just wouldn't work with the Tannoys. How about a Rogers Cadet tube amp?. Also agree with the Leak suggestion. I ran a disco off TL50 monoblocks in the late 60's

Mull
 
Hi
Having had a couple of pairs of bread + butter 10" and 12" I would have thought the Naim Nait1 or A&R A21 or the Radford el34 amps would all be peachy.
More modern are the Big Lumley's, Beard and EAR amps,modern classic's, rated at 100 RMS watts, will no doubt give that full physical impact that the Tannoy's can do so well.
Or go and find out if the Musical Fidelity Superchargers do what they are designed to do to your current power amp.
Lucky man, nice speakers.
Regards
 
I knew someone many years ago who used the 15" Berkleys with a QUAD 405, I was awe struck by the physical realism, great system and also went to a great party even more years ago where a pair of Monitor Golds were fantastic, driven by an early Leak 30 Transistor amp, the audio world is full of the the unexpected.
 
I have seen what a QUAD 405 does to a loudspeaker when it goes bad and dumps the rail voltage to the speaker line. :( Not pretty. Think about those beautiful and expensive Tannoys.
 
PeeWeeKiwi said:
I have seen what a QUAD 405 does to a loudspeaker when it goes bad and dumps the rail voltage to the speaker line. :( Not pretty. Think about those beautiful and expensive Tannoys.
Click to expand...


If the 405 is fully serviced and/or, carefully updated to at least mk2 standard, there's no reason why it won't be like a bigger 303 into big Tannoys (303's can go wrong too you know...).

I love EAR amps. They're beautiful to look at, the valves are sensibly under-run for the most part and a dealer friend I trust swears by their long lived reliability and long valve life. I think your Tannoys would love a pair of 509's, or one of the smaller integrateds would be just fine - they sound good into ESL63's too...
 
Took all your comments on board thanks and went with Tony`s Recommendation for the 303, basically cos it was cheap to buy £85 and i can get it fully serviced for £69 or updated for about £250. Will probably just go the service route for now and see how it pans out.

Looks like I will have to buy some of those funny din plugs again.

Will let you know how it sounds when I source some cables.

Thanks lads
 
Andy,

You have made the correct decision. I acquired Quads of the 405 and 303 variety. If you are a fiddler with electrical bits the 303s are more fun in my humble opinion. You can even biamp with two or go monoblock, Parts are easily acquired and there will always be sad gits who will give you support, The Quad community are very friendly in my experience.

Mike.
 
A further query about the 303/405: how well do they deal with demanding speaker loads, and do they move current well? Not that andy needs to worry about it with his well-mannered Tannoys, but inquiring Shahinian owners want to know.

I've always been a sucker for the idea of old Quad stuff.
 
kasperhauser said:
A further query about the 303/405: how well do they deal with demanding speaker loads, and do they move current well? Not that andy needs to worry about it with his well-mannered Tannoys, but inquiring Shahinian owners want to know.

I've always been a sucker for the idea of old Quad stuff.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that the 303 was designed to run 8 ohm speakers and it only puts out 45 Watts. Into low impedance speakers the amp suffers a bit due to the current limiting design which is there to help the amp cope with low impedance speakers without frying. Some folks suggest the amp can be modified to allow high currents at low impedance. This improves the performance in principle with the loss of safety. In the raw state 303s can cope with a short across the speaker terminals for some time.

By chance my speakers are KEF Q series objects which are 8 ohm nominal and reasonably sensitive. These speakers are a good match for the 303s. I also run a centre speaker biamped by a 303. This speaker is a kit again with 8 ohm impedance and reasonable sensitivity. I am in audio happiness.

M.
 
If you do some Googling as I did recently (sad git that I am...) you'll find pages and pages regarding the 303 and 405 and what can be done to them both.

As original supplied, both power amps have current limiting and the earliest 405 mk1's were all but crippled into a real life speaker load. The 405 went through a few minor changes before the mk2 appeared and this one as well can have its op-amps replaced and the current limiting removed (caution here is advised as the thing runs hot enough WITH the protection).

The 303 always sounded very natural, slightly sweet if anything and practically everything can be changed on it - even brand new amp boards can be obtained from DADA Australia, together with the better known (in the UK) Net-Audio upgrades which can be very comprehensive indeed, including relaxing or removing the current limiting on this one as well once the output trannies are changed for better, modern equivalents.
 
You don't really want to run a 303 or 405 on sub 6 ohm loads. They work but output falls.
IIRC the Mk1 405 can pass about 3.5A and the the Mk2 around 8A before the limiter kicks in.

Great for old Spendors, Harbeths, Rogers, Chartwell etc monitors and also fine with more modern easy to drive stuff like the two way Epos designs.
 
Robert said:
You don't really want to run a 303 or 405 on sub 6 ohm loads. They work but output falls.
IIRC the Mk1 405 can pass about 3.5A and the the Mk2 around 8A before the limiter kicks in.
Click to expand...

Well, poo. Foiled once again by my addiction to the Shahinians.

Thanks for the info.
 
All my Quads have been Netaudioed by me including the new front plates and complementary output trannys. I left the current capability the same. I still like the 303s for some reason.

If you want to remove the high current protection, a certain person (see ebay) suggests the quads will produce lots more watts into low impedance speakers. The Net audio output transistors are the same as the ones that can be found on certain 90 watt units.
 
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