Ignorant new user looking for a new habit

[MacGeek]

Pick up a cheap garage/Thrift sale receiver for $5 or $10 for practice and have no fear.

[Magnaryder]

There's alot of good information in this thread. I have several pieces of tube gear and love them all. Don't be afraid to jump in but beware of the high voltages as they can be dangerous. One of the best rigs I ever heard was a 12 watt amp powering some little Polk speakers at CarverFest several years ago. Great soundstaging, bass extension and a nice lush midrange. The little amp came out of a console got cleaned up and sounded fabulous. Good luck on your journey!

ray   

[Mad Dog]

Learning about all this myself and was seeking a tube amplifier specifically for vinyl. When people mention consoles, are they referring to the old "hi-fi" cabinets that have a built in record player and look like a piece of furniture?

[RuralTom]

Learning about all this myself and was seeking a tube amplifier specifically for vinyl. When people mention consoles, are they referring to the old "hi-fi" cabinets that have a built in record player and look like a piece of furniture?

That is correct, folks like to pull the original amps and set them up as 'free-standing" units.

[Dicky]

Mad dog:  http://vintagehifipgh.com/forum/index.php?topic=2324.0

[RuralTom]

Great thread there, never saw that.  Thanks Dicky.

[Mad Dog]

Thanks Dicky, I was reading that thread... and of course browsing craigslist. Also got me thinking. Is it feasible to salvage tube amplifier from organs? I see them for free on there all time

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

It can be, but the gain matching is all over the place.   An amp from a console will usually have inputs at least close to modern source outputs, but organs (being self contained) have gain stages all over the place.   If you are good with circuitry (I'm not) you may be able to design mods.   I usually go to AK and ask if such and such makes a good stand alone amp.   So far, nothing has.

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

Plus, there is the issue of stereo VS mono.   If you find two of the same organ, you could have killer monoblocks.   If not, you just have mono.

[Dicky]

In other words, you want to find one of these for under $50. http://vintagehifipgh.com/forum/index.php?topic=2727.0

[SunnyDaze]

Is it feasible to salvage tube amplifier from organs?

Yes and no.

Some are as simple as swapping a few resistors here and there. Others require a complete overhaul to be used as a stand alone hi-fi amp. Of course, all degrees in between those two extremes exist.

FYI / FWIW: Some of the best sounding tube amps I've ever heard are bmwr75's Hammond 6L6 monoblocks.

Caveat emptor.

[Mad Dog]

Doing a craigslist search a lot of vintage consoles come up. I did a Magnavox search, since that seems to be a common topic on here, and found a few. It appears most people don't know what they are selling. Can you tell if it's a tube amp from the pictures of the turntable and receiver without getting the model number?

[SunnyDaze]

Not completely.

Anything that says Astro-Sonic is solid state.

If it doesn't say Astro-Sonic and is one of the more "conservative" appearing designs, then it's most likely tube.

Another indicator is a stereo console with the presence of FM but no FM Stereo option. Typically those were the earlier consoles that came about after mono fell out of favor but before FM multiplexing was commonplace.

You can try to join the Magnavoxfriends Yahoo! group if that's your thing. There's good info there. Sometimes they take a while to approve new members. I also wouldn't go in there and announce the fact that you are going to chop up a Maggotbox console for the amp. A lot of those folks don't take very kindly to that sort of thing. 

[Sir Thrift-a-Lot]

Or separete dials for tuning AM and FM.   Those come from the early 60s and are usually tubed.