Bargains on ebay? (Part 2)

[Jeff Wood]

just seen this, nice little amp

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LFD-Mistra...sAAOSwh2xYA2Hn


The seller's description isn't totally accurate.

These amps were made in the UK, (Clacton On Sea to be exact),

It wouldn't have been made in 1990, it's not as old as he says, it would have been made around 96-99.

Also he said it has a phono input. But it probably doesn't. LFD integrateds all have the phono input sockets and phono written on the source select, but it was an option to have a phone stage actually inside. So beware the seller would either need to try with a turntable or take the lid off and have a look to confirm. But not many were built with phono stages inside.


And just to let you all know, these amps can be fitted with the bigger transformer from the Integrated LE which will mean a boost in power to out 80watts per channel. No idea if Richard Bews still has any of these lying around, but he might.

[montesquieu]

just seen this, nice little amp

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LFD-Mistra...sAAOSwh2xYA2Hn


The seller's description isn't totally accurate.

These amps were made in the UK, (Clacton On Sea to be exact),

It wouldn't have been made in 1990, it's not as old as he says, it would have been made around 96-99.

Also he said it has a phono input. But it probably doesn't. LFD integrateds all have the phono input sockets and phono written on the source select, but it was an option to have a phone stage actually inside. So beware the seller would either need to try with a turntable or take the lid off and have a look to confirm. But not many were built with phono stages inside.


And just to let you all know, these amps can be fitted with the bigger transformer from the Integrated LE which will mean a boost in power to out 80watts per channel. No idea if Richard Bews still has any of these lying around, but he might.

Not sure if you are aware but there's a thread for this sort of post http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...045#post796045

Also I have to say £500 seems a bit pricey to me for what this is.

[Jeff Wood]

sorry, if its in the wrong section. I'm still new here

I think the price is OK ish, but he's put Best Offer, I actually offered £300 which he declined, but say £400 would be a good price especially if it has got a phono stage, as the phono stage is basically an LFD MMO.

[Neil McCauley]

just seen this, nice little amp

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LFD-Mistra...sAAOSwh2xYA2Hn

The seller's description isn't totally accurate. These amps were made in the UK, (Clacton On Sea to be exact), It wouldn't have been made in 1990, it's not as old as he says, it would have been made around 96-99.

Also he said it has a phono input. But it probably doesn't. LFD integrateds all have the phono input sockets and phono written on the source select, but it was an option to have a phone stage actually inside. So beware the seller would either need to try with a turntable or take the lid off and have a look to confirm. But not many were built with phono stages inside.

And just to let you all know, these amps can be fitted with the bigger transformer from the Integrated LE which will mean a boost in power to out 80watts per channel. No idea if Richard Bews still has any of these lying around, but he might.

I believe that all the information above is correct. That said, sending a copy of the ebay ad direct to Dr. Richard Bews (LFD founder, designer and builder of all things LFD) might be useful. He can be contacted at lfd_audio@yahoo.co.uk

The only LFD integrated I know for certain that has the switchable mm/mc option was the Zero LE III series and even then, one without this option could not be retro fitted to accept it. Dr B was strangely dismissive of his on-board phono stage seeing it as something akin to a 'get you home' addition. However, my colleague Howard's experiences with both the Zero III with phono stage and the the same amp coupled to the external and current LFD LE phono stage demonstrates (he tells me) that the differences are small.

[Jeff Wood]

Trust me on this Neil, I almost definitely made this amp myself, it was also me who came up with the name "Mistral"

These amps were not made until 96, maybe 97.

Also, they could be supplied with the phono board inside, which is basically an LFD mmo board but from memory different caps but pretty much the same as the MMO.

It could be changed to MC by soldering across a couple of pins, or was it cutting the solder joint, cant remember which way round.

But it was far more than a get you home phone stage

A phono stage board could be retro fitted to these amps, but as it happens this one definitely does have the phono board inside, I messaged the seller and asked.


Btw, not a huge difference between the mistral and the LFD int zero, wiring and caps tbh, same main pcb and transformer.

The Int Zero LE had a bigger transformer and heatsink which actually meant about 90 watts, its the same transformer that went into all the bigger lfd amps at the time.

I did suggest to Richard that we should make a super mistral with this transformer, cant actually remember if any were made though, might have been...

[walpurgis]

Nice looking pair of Radford 180/50 Monitors at a reasonable £295. Located in Calne.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Ra...0AAOSw-CpYBQ6f

[montesquieu]

Nice looking pair of Radford 180/50 Monitors at a reasonable £295. Located in Calne.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Ra...0AAOSw-CpYBQ6f

Rather cheaper at auction https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/a...0-a4b100add724 just up the road too from Calne (funnily enough I drove through there on Sunday).

Having said that I always fancied a pair of Arthur's speakers, he was quite passionate about them by all accounts though bested by Peter Walker of course at least in this department

[Barry]

Rather cheaper at auction https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/a...0-a4b100add724 just up the road too from Calne (funnily enough I drove through there on Sunday).

Having said that I always fancied a pair of Arthur's speakers, he was quite passionate about them by all accounts though bested by Peter Walker of course at least in this department

Radford was one of the first to exploit transmission-line loading in speakers. Ably helped by Dr Bailey, who acted as a consultant (he also suggested using an ECF82 as a more linear power splitter in the Radford valve power amps).

[struth]

Nice old ferrograph

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ferrograph...XszKp#viTabs_0

[dantheman91]

I'll give it ago probably wont work but most of their stuff is tested so this isn't is ringing alarm bells but we will see

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2016889401...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Ive got a remote somewhere for this too....

Update

Well this amplifier arrived sure needed a good clean seems to have come up well as of yet not tested

The one thing the seller did not mention was the Rust/Oxidized RCA inputs jacks....Any idea on how to remove this from them?