jdandy
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Sometimes I romanticize the appeal of old gear I owned many years ago. A good example of this for me was the Advent Model 300 receiver. I purchased one new in the mid 1970's to use in a second system. The Model 300 had a decent FM tuner, and a relatively clean 15 watts per channel at .5% THD for rated output. I bought it new for less than $300.00. I liked that little receiver and kept it for several years. Move a head about 38 years and I ran across a very clean Advent Model 300 for sale for $200.00. Remembering my fun with the original Model 300 I owned, I bought the used one. I had absolutely no use for it, I just wanted it. Well, long story short, in today's world the Advent 300 just didn't reignite the original excitement of my mid '70's experience. I played with it for a month, then sold it. I let my imagination and nostalgia get the best of me when I bought it, but it did not live up to today's modern standards. The Advent Model 300 came, stayed 30 days, then left with a new owner. The good thing is I didn't lose any money and was happy to get my $200.00 back. Sometimes hindsight isn't 20/20.
On the other hand, I have continuously romanticized one audio component since selling it in 1974. I owned and loved the McIntosh MA230 integrated amplifier. It was McIntosh's first integrated amp and had a solid state preamp and a tube power amp on the single chassis. I purchased my original one from a friend who had it stored in a closet because it had a frying type noise in the right right channel so he had stopped using it. I spotted it one day when he had the closet open and made him an offer that he accepted. I got lucky because in less than a month the McIntosh Clinic came to town so I carried the MA230 into the audio dealer hosting the clinic and met Dave O'Brien, the McIntosh tech who kept the McIntosh Clinic on the road. Dave put the MA230 on the bench, replaced all the tubes in the power amplifier and all the transistors in the preamplifier with what he said were newer, quieter ones. Dave also swapped out some capacitors he didn't like the looks of. He never opened a service manual while he was removing parts and adding new ones. That made me a bit nervous. I remember asking him why he wasn't referring to the service manual. Dave chuckled and said not to worry, that he knew the MA230 like the back of his hand. He warmed up the amp, set the output tubes bias, then put it through testing. The integrated amp tested its full 30 watts per channel at 0.5% THD. That was the factory spec on the MA230. Even better, it was now dead quiet. Best of all, there was no cost for the work Dave did. The McIntosh Clinic was free for owners of McIntosh gear. I kept that integrated amplifier for a number of years because it sounded so good, but like a typical audio fool I got excited about a McIntosh receiver and let the MA230 go. Within days I began regretting that move.
Fast forward to 2014. For nearly 40 years I had lamented the absence of the MA230, not because I was not enjoying the equipment I presently owned, but because the MA230 was so good at endearing itself to me every time I listened to it. I never forgot how much pleasure that integrated amp provided me. One day a member in another forum read a post I put up about wishing I had not let my MA230 go all those years ago. He contacted me and said he had his dad's old MA230 in his basement that he had inherited and it had been in storage for 30 years. He said if I wanted it, I could have it. I was so excited. I ordered new McIntosh factory double boxing and shipped it to Gary, and was more than happy to pay shipping to get the MA230 from New York to my home in Florida. When it arrived I put it on my test bench. Knowing it had not been powered in at least 30 years I brought the voltage up slowly using my variac transformer and began some casual testing. I could not get the power tubes to bias properly and the left channel was much weaker than the right channel even after swapping output tubes. I made the decision to let the expert in McIntosh repair bring it back to its glory so I contacted Terry DeWick in Tennessee and got the amp into his repair queue and shipped it to him. The wait was nearly 3 months when an email arrived from Terry with a repair invoice and return shipping cost. He said the MA230 was now in good health and had been merrily playing on his test bench for 3 days. In another five days the MA230 was back in my home connected to a pair of JBL 4312A 3-way monitors and sounding fabulous. All totaled I had just over $700.00 in factory shipping cartons, various shipping destinations, and the repair. I have been thrilled with the entire event. The MA230 is still driving the JBL's, with an Olive 04HD music server and a Tandberg 3011A tuner as source components. It amuses and pleases me to know I am the first to pass an analog signal from a digital source through the MA230. Man, oh man does it sound good. This is one of those times when romanticizing about a long gone component lost absolutely none of its original glow. I am as happy to power on the MA230 today as I was over 45 years ago. It's good to know there is always two sides to every coin.
On the other hand, I have continuously romanticized one audio component since selling it in 1974. I owned and loved the McIntosh MA230 integrated amplifier. It was McIntosh's first integrated amp and had a solid state preamp and a tube power amp on the single chassis. I purchased my original one from a friend who had it stored in a closet because it had a frying type noise in the right right channel so he had stopped using it. I spotted it one day when he had the closet open and made him an offer that he accepted. I got lucky because in less than a month the McIntosh Clinic came to town so I carried the MA230 into the audio dealer hosting the clinic and met Dave O'Brien, the McIntosh tech who kept the McIntosh Clinic on the road. Dave put the MA230 on the bench, replaced all the tubes in the power amplifier and all the transistors in the preamplifier with what he said were newer, quieter ones. Dave also swapped out some capacitors he didn't like the looks of. He never opened a service manual while he was removing parts and adding new ones. That made me a bit nervous. I remember asking him why he wasn't referring to the service manual. Dave chuckled and said not to worry, that he knew the MA230 like the back of his hand. He warmed up the amp, set the output tubes bias, then put it through testing. The integrated amp tested its full 30 watts per channel at 0.5% THD. That was the factory spec on the MA230. Even better, it was now dead quiet. Best of all, there was no cost for the work Dave did. The McIntosh Clinic was free for owners of McIntosh gear. I kept that integrated amplifier for a number of years because it sounded so good, but like a typical audio fool I got excited about a McIntosh receiver and let the MA230 go. Within days I began regretting that move.
Fast forward to 2014. For nearly 40 years I had lamented the absence of the MA230, not because I was not enjoying the equipment I presently owned, but because the MA230 was so good at endearing itself to me every time I listened to it. I never forgot how much pleasure that integrated amp provided me. One day a member in another forum read a post I put up about wishing I had not let my MA230 go all those years ago. He contacted me and said he had his dad's old MA230 in his basement that he had inherited and it had been in storage for 30 years. He said if I wanted it, I could have it. I was so excited. I ordered new McIntosh factory double boxing and shipped it to Gary, and was more than happy to pay shipping to get the MA230 from New York to my home in Florida. When it arrived I put it on my test bench. Knowing it had not been powered in at least 30 years I brought the voltage up slowly using my variac transformer and began some casual testing. I could not get the power tubes to bias properly and the left channel was much weaker than the right channel even after swapping output tubes. I made the decision to let the expert in McIntosh repair bring it back to its glory so I contacted Terry DeWick in Tennessee and got the amp into his repair queue and shipped it to him. The wait was nearly 3 months when an email arrived from Terry with a repair invoice and return shipping cost. He said the MA230 was now in good health and had been merrily playing on his test bench for 3 days. In another five days the MA230 was back in my home connected to a pair of JBL 4312A 3-way monitors and sounding fabulous. All totaled I had just over $700.00 in factory shipping cartons, various shipping destinations, and the repair. I have been thrilled with the entire event. The MA230 is still driving the JBL's, with an Olive 04HD music server and a Tandberg 3011A tuner as source components. It amuses and pleases me to know I am the first to pass an analog signal from a digital source through the MA230. Man, oh man does it sound good. This is one of those times when romanticizing about a long gone component lost absolutely none of its original glow. I am as happy to power on the MA230 today as I was over 45 years ago. It's good to know there is always two sides to every coin.
