Eico HF-22's...revisited
Hey all!
Sorry that I left this thread just kind of hanging.
Skypilot_one asked..."so, how do they sound?"
Well, at the time I was waiting on a pair of 5U4GB's to come in (hoping they would help with the hum issues that I was experiencing) before I posted any listenig impressions.
At the same time, I discovered that my C-70 had a tone relay that went south, also a big restore (Grommes/Seeburg) job got dumped in my lap as well as a pair of Yamaha NS-690 the needed a lot of help, and retrofitting a RCA 67V1 console.
So now that all that stuff is either restored or repaired, and the new tubes are in...on to the Eico’s.
The first thing looked for was the hum…it was totally gone, except for the slightest hint at max volume, and that was with my ear up against the grill. Cool…very cool!
I figured the critical link in the chain would be the speakers, seeing the Eico’s spec a power output of 22 watts / 44 peak per channel.
Source is a Denon DVD 2200.
Preamp is a Yamaha C-70 (did try a Kenwood Basic C2, but came back to the C-70).
So after about 20 min to let the Eico’s warm a bit, I started in on some speaker swapping.
First were some JBL 4410A’s and they sounded pretty good, but they sound much better with my Fisher 800c.
Next were some home grown, home designed MTTM’s…nah, that’s not a match.
Next were a pair of recently acquired and refoamed Infinity RS-3000’s. Now that’s more like it. The bottom end was lacking a bit, so I hooked a little homegrown 8” powered sub to the C-70, just to flesh out lows and that did the trick.
After fiddling with the C-70’s parametric tone control for a bit (sorry guys…I’m a fusser) I started running a variety of my favorite music thru the system.
“So, how does it sound?”
After all the work I put into these amps, my hopes and expectations were fairly high. I’m happy to say I’m not disappointed…quite pleased as a matter of fact.
The first thing I noticed was how wide open the sound is, really good separation, with each instrument distinct and accurate.
The high end cymbals are clear and not in the least bit harsh. The vocals smooth, articulate and out front when their supposed be. Strings have good clean decay.
As I mentioned before the low end lacks, but I’ll chalk that up to the speakers themselves. I’ve no doubt the Eicho’s would really shine with the right speakers. I’ll just have to keep looking for that perfect synergy. At the moment I quite content with the present setup, knowing, that they can still sound better.
Anyone out there with recommendations on what might pair well with these Eico’s?
Thanks for all the help along the way.
Martin