Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[jandl100]

A year back, maybe 18 months, I bought and sold a really clean and just-serviced Leak St20 for £300 - they're going for way more than that now. ... it's funny how audio fashion comes & goes.

Same thing with Celestion Ditton 66 speakers - couldn't used to move 'em for £300 ... now they fetch £600+ on fleaBay.

[Ali Tait]

Even then,that's bloody cheap Jerry! Worth getting one or two at that price as an investment.If I'd known 10 years ago how much much vintage stuff would go up in price... Some stuff you couldn't give away then.

[Marco]

... this is a Marco-style "don't evade the issue" !!

Hehehe... We can't have any of this 'evasive wankery' going on, can we, old chap?

Dave, you owe the man an answer, so slip out of yer floral nightie, put some pants on, and come out from hiding!

Marco.

[DSJR]

Come on DaveSJR - after all those humourous emoticons, you owe me an answer as to whether you'd formed your opinions on the AI500 with el34 choobs or not!


... this is a Marco-style "don't evade the issue" !!

I've been doing something known as work, don't you know.....

I can't remember what the A500 had now, but i'm sure they had EL34's didn't they?

I just found the two i heard a bit rolled off and "nice" sounding, in the same way you may find a big pro amp a bit relentless (opposite in other words). One of the A500 owners "upgraded" to the mono's with preamp and I found them much less rose-tinted myself.

Is that a sort of satisfactory answer?

[Barry]

I've heard one that had been totally rebuilt with all new components.It was a while ago now,but I don't remember it being particularly forward,in fact it sounded very like a KEL 84,not surprising since they are both PP EL84,so rather nice really!

Barry,I'm not surprised one will drive the Quads.I used to use an original Sugden A21 with mine,which at 7w/ch drove them very well indeed,and a very synergistic pairing too IMO.

As for KK,he probably bought a few before he wrote the article!

Hi Ali,

My second amplifier consisted of the output circuits of the Sugden A21 amp (I knew someone who knew Jim Sugden, who could get me the parts) fed by the Sugden C51 preamp. The A21 was supposed to be 12.5W. I found this insufficient when I got my Quads, yet as I say, I have run the Quads with the Quad II amps and (not surprisingly) it's fine. 15W is only 0.8dB more than 12.5W, so I can only assume that the sensitivity of the power amplifier section of the A21 is less than the 0.5V that the C51 produced.

Regards

[Ali Tait]

Yes,possibly.I found no lack of volume with mine.I did like the way it sounded too!

[Spectral Morn]

Sorry Jerry

I am coming a bit late to this thread.

AI Series 500 is a very good amplifier imho. I have owned and still do own one since new back in 1990 ish. They were supplied with El34. I used mine this way and loved it. Dave DSJR seems to indicate that they are warm and wooly...nope. A bit veiled perhaps, but not warm and wooly, and on a bad day it can be brightish.

Reliability on AI kit was very good (got the odd bad one. When they went it was spectacular though. Bridge rectifiers were a particular issue as was EL34's shorting) compared to many items at the time late 80's to mid 90's. The general opinion and this would be Guys as well, is that early ones are better than late ones (better output transformers). If yours has outputs for 4,8 and 16 Ohm, then its one of the better ones.

Using 5881 valves is a worth while upgrade/change. I use these in my AI series 1000 Mk3 monos. Replacing the pots, selectors and crap RCA jacks on the side is a good option and worth doing. Rewiring is also worth while.

I know that Eric Anderson (the designer) had issues/concerns with Peter Q about the case design(when I met him a few years ago we had a laugh about it)...Eric thought it would overheat, Peter preferred the way it ended up looking (as do I). AI kit at the time was regularly referred to, as "The Manhatan Skyline" especially the series 1000 pre and first or second audio amplifiers.

We sold bucket loads of AI kit over the years.

Its a great classic amplifier imho.


Regards D S D L

[The Grand Wazoo]

Reliability on AI kit was very good (got the odd bad one. When they went it was spectacular though. Bridge rectifiers were a particular issue as was EL34's shorting) compared to many items at the time late 80's to mid 90's.

So is my info on returns incorrect then Neil?

[jandl100]

I can't remember what the A500 had now, but i'm sure they had EL34's didn't they?

I just found the two i heard a bit rolled off and "nice" sounding, in the same way you may find a big pro amp a bit relentless (opposite in other words). One of the A500 owners "upgraded" to the mono's with preamp and I found them much less rose-tinted myself.

Is that a sort of satisfactory answer?

Yeah, that's fine. Thanks Dave.

The general opinion and this would be Guys as well, is that early ones are better than late ones (better output transformers). If yours has outputs for 4,8 and 16 Ohm, then its one of the better ones.

Yes, mine has the 16 ohm taps.

Using 5881 valves is a worth while upgrade/change. I use these in my AI series 1000 Mk3 monos.

Excellent news!


Its a great classic amplifier imho.


Regards D S D L

Thanks Neil - I do like it a lot. Currently using it via the tape inputs to bypass some of the switchery, and that has focussed the sound up quite nicely. Using the Chord amp's pre-outs at the moment but as soon as I can get round to it I plan to try my Eva2 LDR passive pre.

I've some 83dB/W sensitivity speakers on order, it'll be interesting to see how well the AI drives them. I'm not a headbanger like some folks here and a lot of my listening is to small scale classical, so it might just work!

I'm planning to try a bit of input tube rolling - it started out chez Jerry with a solid line of Mullards (2 ecc88 and 3 ecc83) - I've now swapped out the Mullard ecc83 for a couple of Watford TADs and a Telefunken - the sound was a bit too warm for me with the Mullards - I got on to the Watford site to order a triplet of cryo-ed TAD 12AX7 only to find that I was 5 hours late and they were now on hols til the 23rd Feb!

[Spectral Morn]

So is my info on returns incorrect then Neil?

I can only speak from my own shop based experience at the time. Reliability was very good. If it had not been, 1 I would not have bought AI gear myself then or now and 2 Which should probably be 1, I would not have sold it.

Regards D S D L