Help - S\S Integrated Amp <£250?

[Mothman]

It looks like I may be after another integrated amp and need some suggestions as to what to look out for within my budget. Ideally sub £150 but could stretch to £250 for the right amp. It will be driving a pair of MA9 Gold’s with a Rotel RCD-965BX as the source, I listen to mainly blues & rock. To get something decent I guess I’ll be looking second hand, but owing to recent experiences old kit that is likely to need a re-cap is out, unless it has already been fettled that is. Recent purhcases are:-

A&R Cambridge A60
Liked the sound of this but it died shortly after purchase so didn’t live with it long enough to form a real opinion.

Hlly T-20 – Tripath amp
Not for me, great detail for the money but the bass had gone AWOL

Sansui AU-505
Best of the three, in standard trim it didn’t seem anything special but flick the loudness switch and it really brought the MA9’s to life. Unfortunately it has now developed a loud crackle, so the old girl is probably well overdue for a re-cap.

Gentlemen your suggestions please?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Hlly 90 would give you that bass back!

[Welder]

You might be able to pick up a Cyrus 6XP second hand within your price range. Smashing little amp.

[Rare Bird]

A&R Cambridge A60
Liked the sound of this but it died shortly after purchase so didn’t live with it long enough to form a real opinion.


I'd get that A60 sorted

[Macca]

I'd get that A60 sorted

So would I

[The Grand Wazoo]

Me too - you can do a lot of A60 sorting for a lot less than £250

[Mothman]

Any suggestion where to send the A60 to get it sorted? Theres no power, I've tried replacing the 4 internal fuses but it's still dead.

Alternatively does anyone know of one for sale that's already been updated?

[Rare Bird]

Why not do it yourself. It'll probably be the PSU (Which is simple enough)

[Rare Bird]

Any suggestion where to send the A60 to get it sorted? Theres no power, I've tried replacing the 4 internal fuses but it's still dead.



Rich theres a fuse on the chassis infront of the transformer, the four you checked are on the PCB! you might have over looked the mains fuse as it has a thick rubber cover over it..

[chelsea]

As others have said get the the a60 done.
I to have one that needs to be sorted.
Power light comes on but no sound.

Well worth getting sorted.

[Mothman]

Rich theres a fuse on the chassis infront of the transformer, the four you checked are on the PCB! you might have over looked the mains fuse as it has a thick rubber cover over it..

Andre many thanks for the picture, You are right I hadn't spotted the power supply fuse and it is blown, but I can't tell from the fuse what rating it is, do you know?

Thanks

[Rare Bird]

They are 630mA Anti surge 5mm x 20mm glass fuse.Should also be on a white sticker afixed to the brown card the fuse holders mounted on.(you can see it in the pic)

Just out of intrest whats the unit number (On the rear)

[Mothman]

Doh:doh:, Apologies for the dumb question. I'll see if can get hold of one tomorrow

Serial number is 3553

[Rare Bird]

Doh:doh:, Apologies for the dumb question. I'll see if can get hold of one tomorrow

Serial number is 3553

Blimey thats an early one (2 pin Din Speaker outputs)! i recon a recap is in order. The phono stage in that one is descrete doesnt employ the 'NE5534' op amp the later ones did.Power supply is also unregulated

[Mothman]

Replaced the fuse but it blew again as soon as I turned the power on:( Does it sound like that the transformer is knackered?

[Reid Malenfant]

Transformers tend to age pretty well, i think you'll find that it's much more likely to be a shorted output stage as silicon interfaces with copper substrates don't age very well at all ;)

Heating & cooling eventually starts breaking the bond between the two metals in the output transistors & they start suffering from thermal runaway & the end product is blown output transistors :(

[Rare Bird]

Rich:
Don't worry about the transformer.Do you know anyone near yer that can do the work?

Considering the age of the unit & with it being an old one anyway it really needs some work doing on it.But first If i were you (& it needs it anyway) get someone to swap the Power Supply Reserviour Capacitors & the Bridge Rectifier Diodes..The caps may be open circuit anyway..& Rectifier duff.

The original Caps in your amp should be a pair of 6,800uF, get em swapped for a pair of 10,000uF..

Just a few things to note: make sure the replacement caps are the same diameter as the original (no bigger or you wont get the wooden lid back on), they need to be as near as possible the same length if you can as they are fasterned to the PCB with cable ties, one of the ties are quite near the end of the cap,a too shorter cap won't allow you to strap it down.. also they want to be solder terminals as original not snap ins.

Get the Diodes replaced with something like Schottky '50SQ100' these are very good diodes, you might have to enlarge the holes in the PCB where the old were mounted slightly as the replacements have slightly thicker legs.

Your engineer should know this but i'll mention: The caps must be fitted the correct way around (Check polarity against originals) & also the Diodes must be fitted the correct way (Silver band is the cathode)

oh & you need another fuse :)

[Mothman]

Andre, thanks for the detailed reply. I don't know of anyone near me who can look at it, however a kind soul from the PFM forum has offered to take a look at it for me in exchange for some beer tokens. He's based in the north but parcelforceing it to him shouldn't be a problem, hopefully I can now get it sorted:).

Once again thanks for all the help

[DSJR]

The A60 when new had a habit of popping its fuses for no real reason (these fuses looked ok too...) and the TIP3055/2955? output stage could sometimes be a little fragile when faced with demanding loads, BUT, and it's a HUGE BUT, this amp is well worth having fixed and re-set up.

A60's changed slightly during their production life, getting a bit tighter in bass control, whereas the earlier ones seemed more "valvey" in a positive sense. Today, it doesn't matter, as the amp still sets great standards and its neat looks still worthwhile. A lovely amp to have, even as a standby or even as a headphone amp, and there are enough good people around online who can make top quality DIN to phono leads for a fraction of the retail prices charged in shops for Chord Co etc.

[Rare Bird]

A lovely amp to have, even as a standby or even as a headphone amp.



They are great headphone amps thats why i have this (Sorry about the crap pic) :lolsign:

[Effem]

It looks like I may be after another integrated amp and need some suggestions as to what to look out for within my budget. Ideally sub £150 but could stretch to £250 for the right amp. It will be driving a pair of MA9 Gold’s with a Rotel RCD-965BX as the source, I listen to mainly blues & rock. To get something decent I guess I’ll be looking second hand, but owing to recent experiences old kit that is likely to need a re-cap is out, unless it has already been fettled that is. Recent purhcases are:-

A&R Cambridge A60
Liked the sound of this but it died shortly after purchase so didn’t live with it long enough to form a real opinion.

Hlly T-20 – Tripath amp
Not for me, great detail for the money but the bass had gone AWOL

Sansui AU-505
Best of the three, in standard trim it didn’t seem anything special but flick the loudness switch and it really brought the MA9’s to life. Unfortunately it has now developed a loud crackle, so the old girl is probably well overdue for a re-cap.

Gentlemen your suggestions please?

If it were me, I would be looking out for a Marantz PM7200 at that price range, in fact I might buy one myself as a back up amp. This humble little amp made an Electrocompaniet sound positively broken at the last bakeoff I went to. The owner was reluctant to connect it up because he thought it wouldn't keep up with the other esoterica we had brought along amd instead it became the star component of the day :eyebrows:

[Mothman]

Good news, just heard from the amp doctor and he thinks the patient can be saved. The diagnosis is

"Three of the output transistors were short circuit and R165 (120 ohm resistor that is in parallel with the other output tranny Q120) is burnt out"

He is currently working his magic replacing the output trannys and the resistor and then will hopefully be in a position to start replacing the electrolytics once the parts have been sourced.:)

[Reid Malenfant]

Yes, good news & just as i thought :eyebrows:

Chances are anything with a reasonable age amplifier wise will be output transistor failure, it's not always the case but in reality they are the most stressed components ;)

You should have many years of fun with it when you get it back :cool:

[Mothman]

Just to say a big thank you to fellow forumer Frank (Analog Addict) for all his hard work repairing and re-capping my A60. Frank is a recently retired RAF aircraft engineer and I have to say that to my uneducated eye his work appeared to be of a high standard and was very neat and tidy. I would certainly have hesitation about using Franks skills again, which may be sooner than I imagined as I can't help wondering what a re-cap would do for my aged Sansui AU-505:).