Really I should be content with the multiple stereo systems
throughout the house, garage and shop.
They all crank more than I can realistically get away with,
and while each component is a quality piece,
the prices were so cheap I'd do each deal again.
So what the hell happened last weekend?
I was doing fine.
While working on the chocolate and cheese roadster,
the Sansui 9090 was so sweet with the Klipsch kg4's and heresy's.
It's a great sounding system.
Well I had found one of these old Mcintosh amps while scrounging craigslist.
It was too far to be convenient.
The ad lingered for a while and finally disappeared.
Of course I had contacted him early on,
so I emailed out of curiosity to see if it had sold.
Dang it if the guy had just gone out of town.
Now he had me baited for when he got back.
Yeah this was the reason for that trip to Santa Ana the past weekend.
The amp wasn't as nice as the picture which he had ripped from another website.
The sound was crispy clean and loud,
but it was not a babied unit, dirty and one of the meters was busted.
After multiple emails and phone calls,
and now a decent drive into Orange County,
this wasn't the deal I was expecting.
I gave a lowball offer,
he didn't take it,
and I told him I'd have to think about it in the car.
Right when the key was in the ignition,
he came out and said okay take it.
**************************************
Grateful Dead - Deal
Why would I want something like this?
Okay check out the first minute of this video.
Around the 1:00 mark,
they show a stack of square lights,
than they just show one square meter.
Thats it!
Holey Chit!
Check out all the amp stacks around the drums.
***************************************
The thing is almost 130 pounds and the mercury felt every bit of it on the way home.
After plugging it in,
it sounded clean,
but there was something not quite right.
I ripped it open.
Check out the cans on this thing!
The insides weren't too bad for the age.
Oh yeah,
that was one weird thing about this amp.
There were about 4500 of these made,
and they were easy to date with the serial numbers.
This one didn't have a serial number which was odd.
So after opening it I found one of the little capacitors? was broken.
Great.
Using the cheap but trusty Hakko Red soldering gun,
it was an easy fix.
I feel comfortable doing wire to wire repairs,
but haven't had too much practice with board repairs.
Kinda make me want to try one of those electric repair kits.
One more thing to do!
Through a stroke of rare ebay luck,
I was able to locate a NOS meter.
These meters are the older DB only style,
and I can't believe I found one.
The box arrived yesterday and man is this thing cool.
It better be cause it was more than some of my smaller sub-100w receivers!
So now I got to figure if swapping meters is something I want to tackle.
The job doesn't look terribly difficult,
just a bunch of wires.
I'll let you know.
Yeah I'm an addict.
I'm blaming my old friend Chip for this one...
TP
throughout the house, garage and shop.
They all crank more than I can realistically get away with,
and while each component is a quality piece,
the prices were so cheap I'd do each deal again.
 |
| mcintosh mc2300 |
So what the hell happened last weekend?
I was doing fine.
While working on the chocolate and cheese roadster,
the Sansui 9090 was so sweet with the Klipsch kg4's and heresy's.
It's a great sounding system.
 |
| mcintosh mc2300 on test bench |
Well I had found one of these old Mcintosh amps while scrounging craigslist.
It was too far to be convenient.
The ad lingered for a while and finally disappeared.
Of course I had contacted him early on,
so I emailed out of curiosity to see if it had sold.
 |
| mcintosh mc2300 rear shot |
Dang it if the guy had just gone out of town.
Now he had me baited for when he got back.
Yeah this was the reason for that trip to Santa Ana the past weekend.
The amp wasn't as nice as the picture which he had ripped from another website.
The sound was crispy clean and loud,
but it was not a babied unit, dirty and one of the meters was busted.
After multiple emails and phone calls,
and now a decent drive into Orange County,
this wasn't the deal I was expecting.
I gave a lowball offer,
he didn't take it,
and I told him I'd have to think about it in the car.
Right when the key was in the ignition,
he came out and said okay take it.
**************************************
Grateful Dead - Deal
Why would I want something like this?
Okay check out the first minute of this video.
Around the 1:00 mark,
they show a stack of square lights,
than they just show one square meter.
Thats it!
 |
| Early Wall of Sound - 1973 |
Holey Chit!
Check out all the amp stacks around the drums.
***************************************
 |
| mcintosh mc2300 guts |
The thing is almost 130 pounds and the mercury felt every bit of it on the way home.
After plugging it in,
it sounded clean,
but there was something not quite right.
I ripped it open.
Check out the cans on this thing!
 |
| broken green thing |
The insides weren't too bad for the age.
Oh yeah,
that was one weird thing about this amp.
There were about 4500 of these made,
and they were easy to date with the serial numbers.
This one didn't have a serial number which was odd.
So after opening it I found one of the little capacitors? was broken.
Great.
 |
| work station |
Using the cheap but trusty Hakko Red soldering gun,
it was an easy fix.
I feel comfortable doing wire to wire repairs,
but haven't had too much practice with board repairs.
Kinda make me want to try one of those electric repair kits.
One more thing to do!
 |
| fixed |
Through a stroke of rare ebay luck,
I was able to locate a NOS meter.
These meters are the older DB only style,
and I can't believe I found one.
 |
| HOYT Mcintosh MC2300 meter |
The box arrived yesterday and man is this thing cool.
It better be cause it was more than some of my smaller sub-100w receivers!
 |
| Mcintosh MC2300 meter - HOYT |
So now I got to figure if swapping meters is something I want to tackle.
The job doesn't look terribly difficult,
just a bunch of wires.
I'll let you know.
 |
| McIntosh Addict |
Yeah I'm an addict.
I'm blaming my old friend Chip for this one...
TP
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