Amplification components
Gennady Croc review listening impressions vintage
Harman Kardon Citation II stereo power amplifier
Although its number is 2 this the first power amplifier that was developed by Harman (Citation I is a pre).
It was manufactured between 1959 and 1962 and costed then 230$.
It was designed to be as neutral sounding as possible (forget about vintage mellow sound) and with high bandwidth.
This was achieved by usung fantastic transformers, television 12BY7 input / driver tubes and high 30db feedback (not very fashonable today).
In the bottom line Harman succeed to achieve frequency response of 18 - 40,000 Hz (at 1 watt) - pretty exceptional even today for a tube amplifier.ago.
Wait - there is even more !!!
It produces full 60 watts output at 20 - 20,000 Hz (!!!) bandwitdth with only 0.5% THD.
This is absolutelly unbelievable for 45 years ago era.
No wonder most of those amplifiers ended at recording studios.
I got it about 6 years ago and almost immidiately got Jim McShane kits installed for overhauling power supply and capacitors.
The result was very good - sound became cleaner and more transparent, bass (surprise surprise) became eve firmer.
In short - i highly recommend it.
Tube rolling:
Originally i got the Citation II with General Electric 6550 tubes.
Those sound very clean, a bit on a cold side, with crisp high extended treble, firm deep bass and overally highly ebergetic sound.
I replaced them by Electro Harmonix KT-88's.
They do loose a bit in bass and treble extension departments but overal I liked more their warmer and more natural sound.
Lately (January 2009) i put Ei KT-90 type II - they indeed sound more powerfull and with better control over tough speaker loads (i needed that form my "new" JBL L-200's).
VTL The Ultimate Preamplifier
This top of the line pre-amplifier produced by VTL (Vacuum Tube Logic) when David Manley still was hart of the company.
It's from ~1989.
It's a fully dual mono design - separate power supplies, power cords, input selectors etc.
It also has built in phono stage which is considered to be quite qood.
I actually didn't figure out how to make it work with MC cartridge but it works great with MM and High Output MC.