down under in Tasmania

[quin partis]

pretty much into Vinyl...emigrated to Australia in 1970...brought with me a sinclair Neoteric 60..... Garrard zero 100... and Sony reel to reel..still have them all and going strong...the neoteric can be a little scratchy but it warms up ok and the hi load cut out works...just wondering if there is anything I can do to clean it internally...? cheers guys.

[walpurgis]

Hi Quin. Welcome to AOS.

Blimey. A Sinclair Neoteric? They're rare enough back here. Could it be the only one down under?

I reckon some of our amp buffs can advise you on that one. Start a thread in the Blank Canvas section and ask. I'm sure you'll get some useful replies.

Tell us what music you listen to and if you have any plans for the rest of your system.


Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

[Barry]

Welcome to AoS Quin,

A Sinclair Neoteric, and a working one at that!? Not only could it be the only one in Australasia, but the only one world wide, apart from any that are in design museums.

http://www.sinclairzx.com/i/past/03_neoteric_60_amp.jpg

Sad to say, the Neoteric was designed to be a compact as possible, beautiful to look at, but to the detriment of sound quality and reliability. Sinclair was obsessed with making everything as small as possible with little thought about heat dissipation. He also used a lot of components bought cheaply as 'seconds' from the computer industry. As such, the reputation for reliability of Sinclair products was poor.

When you say it "can be a little scratchy", are you referring to the controls? If so, some commercial aerosol switch cleaner will help.

Enjoy the forum

Regards
Barry

[quin partis]

Thanks Barry . and Geoff..yes i am sure there is a dust and grim accumulation around the push in controls and as you suggested when turning volume,treble bass... it crackles... it still likes to be driven hard and is matched to kef bookshelf speakers,,,,have nt tried getting it to drive the AR9 s ( will leave that to the Naim.)
The amp had one modification which i think was recommended in practical wireless and was to deal with heat,,,40 odd years on I am not sure. but everyone had a soldering iron on heat ! in those days ,,and if the manufacturer did nt do the mod ...we did. Talk about Ikea... i think we all had half finished amps in the bottom of our Wardrobes. Music wise...the Beatles on Reel to Reel....i still have a tape recording of mAGICAL mYSTERY TOUR I recorded off the telly on an RCA recorder....26/12/1967....
I did email the Sinclairs about the amp because i was after the Magnetic cover they put over the headphones port....but they didnt have a box gathering dust!..Still we tried .looking forward to enjoying the rest of the Site....thanks.

[Spectral Morn]

Welcome to AoS



Regards Neil