Radford Revival Exclusive on Hifi Pig

[stupinder]

Just a quick one to say that Hifi Pig has secured a world first review of the new "Radford Revival" valve amplifiers.
The amplifiers are a limited edition reissue of the classic Radford STA 15 and STA 25 valve amplifiers. There's an initial news story on the Hifi Pig site here (http://hifipig.com/radford-sta15-and-sta25-amplifiers-revived/)
The reviews will be live in 3 to 4 weeks.

I'd also like to publicly thank Marco for allowing Hifi Pig to post news on AOS. Thanks, Marco it's really appreciated!!:)

Cheers,
Hifi Pig
Stu

[Barry]

Interesting - I wonder how many they will sell. Any idea who is making the transformers for them? And where do they source the valves?

Since it is highly unlikely these new amps will be used with a Radford preamp, I can't see the point in the octal socket on the front panel. I would prefer it if it was replaced by a good quality mains connector that would allow users to choose their own mains lead.

Still it's good to know someone is going to restart manufacture of these amps using the latest high quality components.

I wish them success.

[Ali Tait]

Interesting. The price is reasonable too.

[DSJR]

£2800 is still a huge amount of money for a power amp these days, BUT, in the well off far eastern market where £10,000 EAR amps are sold and highly respected I believe, this price is very low.

They do look good and bring back fond memories of mine, which noone really wanted to service back in 1976 :( That's why I sold them (stupid boy.........)

[Ali Tait]

Well when you see what the vintage ones go for these days, I don't think it's too silly, especially when it looks like they wind their own trannies.

[stupinder]

They don't do their own transistors
"After contacting a transformer manufacturer highly recommended by John Widgery, brand new Radford transformer sets were specified for both the STA15 and STA25."
The new transistors are machine wound and conform to todays safety regs. Steve at RR reckons they are better than the originals!

[Ali Tait]

They must be very good indeed then.

[stupinder]

Here's what the website says about the transformers "We have been able to recreate these famous high quality transformers exactly according to the specifications written by Arthur Radford himself."

[Jonboy]

they look reasonably priced in todays market, i believe the original transformers were all wound by one woman

[IHP]

This whole venture and website looks to be really interesting and I wish all involved tremendous success. Not an easy time to be kicking off a new business, especially in the 'luxury' market. They look the part too. Beautiful. I'll be bothering them for a Radford badge for my 15.

Look forward to reading the review Stu, and looking at HiFi Pig, which I've only just heard of ! Was the review at the side of an original Radford ?

[Wakefield Turntables]

I think that this is an excellent piece of news for the hifi industry! My only concern is that it might be considerably cheaper to refurb an old Radford v's buying a new one??

[IHP]

I think that this is an excellent piece of news for the hifi industry! My only concern is that it might be considerably cheaper to refurb an old Radford v's buying a new one??

I've given this thought too but if the new one is going to perform better then there's your answer. Plus availability is an issue, the only (fairly) regular source of these that I know is ebay and there's been some real dogs on there recently (as well as a few clean ones).

Plus the new ones are very shiny !

It's a fair point you make though Andrew. I'd be tempted but haven't got the entry fee !

[Ali Tait]

I'd say there needs to be a review of new versus old. If the new ones are made with modern components I doubt they will sound like the originals.

[stupinder]

Interesting - I wonder how many they will sell. Any idea who is making the transformers for them? And where do they source the valves?

Since it is highly unlikely these new amps will be used with a Radford preamp, I can't see the point in the octal socket on the front panel. I would prefer it if it was replaced by a good quality mains connector that would allow users to choose their own mains lead.

Still it's good to know someone is going to restart manufacture of these amps using the latest high quality components.

I wish them success.
I spoke to Steve at RR this morning and he answered a few questions for me that folk have raised here and elsewhere.
The octal socket on the front panel will not be connected on the retail product but can be connected if that's what buyers want.
i suppose its a bit like the Big-Blower Bentley reproduction they had on Top Gear a couple of weeks ago where the supercharger block on the front wasn't actually a supercharger at all - difference being that the octal can be connected if that's what you want.
To have he amp as a "Revival" of the original but look very different would defeat the object a little to my mind.

[Marco]

You're very welcome, btw, Stu. Good luck with your site and Radford Revival in selling these superb amps. They're just the thing I'd look at buying, if I didn't have my copper amp! :)

Marco.

[IHP]

I'd say there needs to be a review of new versus old. If the new ones are made with modern components I doubt they will sound like the originals.

Good point but arguably an old one won't sound like an original if it's refurbished in terms of undercarriage components, and to be fair this really does need doing if they're going to be used regularly. Fully agree with the old vs new review, that would be really interesting.

This venture seems to be in the spirit of modern production LS3/5a perhaps ?

[Ali Tait]

Yes, components will be different, but so will the transformers I'd have thought. Same design maybe, but different materials etc.