HMV Stereoscope 555

[Audioflyer]

Here are a few pictures of the of my rebuilt 1959 Stereoscope 555 integrated valve amplifier.
I've also found out they were made by Clarke and Smith famous for making the Ferrograph equipment.

I've owned it for over 20 years and I paid about £60 for it so I've no idea what it worth now?

I rebuilt it about 10 or 12 years ago as most of the components had suffered due to the heat.

All the resistors were replaced in main areas with 2 watt high-stab carbon film and the ceramic capacitors were replaced with polypropylene ones.

As for it sound quality it very good having comparing it to the small valve TL12's and the Stereo 20 it had a similar sound but it just sounded more neutral.










Side view of preamp.




Front view.




Left hand underside of preamp.




Right hand underside of preamp.




Underside of poweramp.


These old integrated amp are now extremely rare as most of them have overheated in such a small case, this one was in a very bad state when I bought it.
They are well worth restoring if you fancy a challenge!

Does anybody know any more about these amps?
Most of the info I found on the net talks about it being a monitor amp for use in studios?

Sharif.

[DSJR]

Good grief. That thing terrifies me just looking at it. It would have been a huge labour of love to build it originally, let alone restore it so nicely. A real "Top End" product for its time I reckon

[Alex_UK]

Amazing! Keep it and cherish it forever Sharif - one of those items you will always regret selling, I suspect...

[Audioflyer]

I remember it took 12 evenings and a couple of weekends to rebuild it.

At this moment in time I trying to find out where a broken wire goes on one of the input switches and it looking like I going to have to dismantle the preamp section.
It also doesn't help that I lost the schematic diagram!

So if all goes well I'm going to take it to the 'Scalford Hi-Fi Show' in March.

Sharif.

[Jonboy]

So if all goes well I'm going to take it to the 'Scalford Hi-Fi Show' in March.

Sharif.

Looking forward to it

[MartinT]

Very nice indeed, Sharif. It looks a bit of a bastard to rebuild compared with a Stereo 20. You must be very pleased with it.

[shane]

One of my great regrets is having owned two of these thirty or so years ago, and not being able to remember what happened to either of them One of them was the first time I got an inkling into what a valve amp can do. It came in to our shop as a PX, so just for a giggle we unhooked a Sugden P51/C51 combo from our then reference system to see what would happen. The EMI wiped the floor with it (they came badged as HMV, EMI and various other things as well). Bit of a shock, that was. Fortunately I was able to persuade the boss that it wasn't up to much and I might as well take it off his hands!

Wonderful things, but definitely a quart squeezed into a pint pot. They do appear on Ebay very occasionally, generally around the £400 - £600 mark.

And go on, admit it, you really, really love the 'scope on he front....

[Rare Bird]

I used to have one of those, sounded good but i'm afraid i had to let it go it was in too bad a state cosmetically.

[Alex_UK]

I used to have one of those, sounded good but i'm afraid i had to let it go it was in too bad a state cosmetically.

Did it have a finger print on it?

[Rare Bird]