Bargains on ebay?

[Barry]

This arrived the other day:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Bought because a musician friend reckons that the amp sounds nice, he has plenty of stuff to compare it to. eg. Rogers Junior Stereo power amplifier, Quad 44, two Quad 405's (upgraded and serviced by yours truly), Affordable Amplifier Company EL34 amp (pretty good), several NAD,s Tannoy 12" Chatsworths, Quad ESL63 and more.

Well, I have to agree with him, B&O Beolab 1700 is very nice sounding. The tuner has a fault on one channel, will have to look at that.

Both tuner and amp were very dirty outside, but pretty clean inside. They cleaned up pretty well. Inside, sealed in miniature envelopes, were circuit diagrams, a nice touch.

Pic after cleaning and using Teak Oil on the wood.

The flash has caught it and shows where it's not cleaned that well. Not noticeable in ordinary light.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/...90c47744_b.jpg

Excellent purchase there Paul.

I paid £20 for the tuner alone, but am very pleased with it. It could well be the tuner (out of six that I have) that remains in my system. I would place its sound as lying between that of the Leak Troughline and the Quad FM3.

The tuning cursor on yours is in better condition than mine. Mine has becomed slightly cloudy; possible due to being exposed to solvent fumes. You have cleaned both up nicely - no doubt through following the excellent advice provided by AoS members in the Library article.

Regards

[spendorman]

Excellent purchase there Paul.

I paid £20 for the tuner alone, but am very pleased with it. It could well be the tuner (out of six that I have) that remains in my system. I would place its sound as lying between that of the Leak Troughline and the Quad FM3.

The tuning cursor on yours is in better condition than mine. Mine has becomed slightly cloudy; possible due to being exposed to solvent fumes. You have cleaned both up nicely - no doubt through following the excellent advice provided by AoS members in the Library article.

Regards

Yes the friend that I referred to also has the Beomaster 1700 tuner, bought it new when they first came out. Never had any problems with it, reckons that the sound is very good.

My Beomaster, as mentioned is dead on one channel. I have got a Sterofetic that had a similar faullt, found a faulty transistor after the decoder. Replaced that, all OK.

Trouble is that the 1700 tuner does not look that easy to get at things. I will have a try at repairing some time.

Actually, I informed the seller of the B&O amp and tuner that the tuner was dead on one channel and he offered a £17.50 refund.

The power on light in the 1700 amp was not working, did not have filament lamp the same, so replaced it with a LED.

If you can get your tuning cursor off, you could try Brasso or Duraglit on it, bet that would sort out that cloudy problem.

I've been cleaning up and sorting Hi Fi for a long time, over 40 years, there seems to be no cure.

[Rare Bird]

I liked the Beolab 5000 amp, The beogram 3000:TD124 based vinyl grinder was cool aswell..

[Barry]

Gosh, that's gorgeous, Dave! What does it sound like?

Also, what valves does it use?

Marco.

For information on the SC22 you might like to have a look at:

http://www.bonavolta.ch/hobby/en/audio/radford.htm

and read (not easy, due to the small print):

http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page...966/106/738456

The SC22 used 2 x ECC83 valves with a BC107 transistor in the disc circuit per channel. It also took its HT and heater supplies from the power amp as was usual at that time (the Quad 22, Leak, Lowther and Rogers preamps did the same). The CS22 used +375V on pin 7; earth, pin 2; with 6.3V AC heater supply on pins 1 and 8 of the octal connector.

Without wishing to in any way to scupper Dave’s success in selling the preamp on eBay, I have to say that it, along with the other preamps mentioned, now sound quite poor compared to today’s offerings. Good in their day, but now best regarded as hi-fi objects d’art. Unless, of course you use a Radford power amplifier and want to have the matching preamp.

Like you Marco, I think the Radford has the lovely retro looks of the ‘60s, along with the Quad and Leak gear. It could serve as an elegant chassis/basis for a re-build, using more up-to-date circuit topology and components. If you like the look of the SC22 with the heavily chromed trim, spun metal knobs and (very British) push buttons, why not consider the Sugden C51?



Interestingly (or perversely, if you prefer) it too takes its power supply from the power amp, but in this case it is one of 16-18V DC. You could even use a couple of PP9s batteries and have yourself a battery-powered preamp. Like the Quad 22 it had provision for plug-in modules for the ‘Special’ (disc) input. One of the modules obtainable was for the Miniconic strain gauge pick-up (Soundcraftsman were not the first). It uses a lot of obsolete Farranti ZXT transistors, and like the valve preamps being discussed, it’s performance fall somewhat short by today’s standards.

Regards

[Techno Commander]

Townsend Elite Rock/RB300/Denon 103 packege for less than £300 with a day to go..

[spendorman]

These might be a bargain:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DITTON-CELESTI...item35acb2ce37

It is from the seller that I bought the B&O 1700 tuner and amplifier from.

[aquapiranha]

Not really a 'bargain' but look as if they would sound amazing to me anyway!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tannoy-FSM-hig...item45f59d640e

[Reid Malenfant]

They look good don't they Looks like a 15" DC mated to a 15" bass driver, i bet they make some nice noise & lots of it to

[John]

This looks like it could be really interesting not heard it myself but looks like it could be really good
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Tannoy...item27b57bc22f

[Reid Malenfant]

Look at those lovely great big heatsinks Not a fan in sight, now watching in "my ebay"