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Magnavox 175 Monoblocks

U

Urizen

Lunatic Member
Over the last weekend, I had the pleasure to travel to jaymanaa's soldering pit. We took an old set of Magnavox 6v6 amps, pulled from a console and extension speaker, and completely gutted them, leaving only the power and output transformers. We then rebuilt them using a modded 175 schematic.

We installed new ceramic tube sockets, gold-plated RCA input jacks, speaker binding posts, power switches, fuse holders, and pilot lights. Jay put the finishing touches on them with some beautiful mahogany trim cases.

Jay modified the circuit slightly, in ways I am unsure of. Hopefully he will chime in with the details. I am listening to them as I type, pushing a pair of Klipsch KG 4, and they sound fantastic, with little audible hiss or hum, unless I put my ear within inches of the horns. On Jay's more sensitive Altecs they had a very low noise floor, and only heard if you put your ear within a foot of the drivers. We are guessing output of about 15 watts per channel.

Thanks for your guidance and a great time in Kansas, Jay!

Here they are, still needing finish on the cases and a pair of Maggie logos installed:

magnavox175mono2.jpg


magnavox175mono3.jpg
 
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That Ken is a solder slingun son of a gun. I'm still pickin it out of my hound dogs coat.:no: All joking aside, he was a very quick study and took to amp building like a duck to water.:thmbsp: We took a lot of care to keep the amps quiet and I think it paid off. I've got some amps that cost WAAAAY more that aren't as quiet on the Altecs as these were.:thmbsp: He built those in three days, so it was pretty fast and furious. I hope you enjoy them for years to come Ken. You done good:thmbsp:
 
Dang those turned out nice. Excellent work guys.

My next project is going to be my first attempt at a rebuild and it will be some Maggie mono blocks.
 
Wow! Those are beautiful! Make sure you post pics after you put the badges on them. Can I buy a pair at any price?
 
You guys and your magnavox's....I might have to pick one up sometime to see what all the huplub is all about:scratch2: Great work guys:thmbsp: I love the wood trim.
 
I see it was a trip to RAT SHACK for resistors......

... I think it's time I invest in one of those magnifiers. The eye's ain't as good as they used to be.....
 
I can't wait for "Jay's Tube Rebuild Summer Camp"

I never got to go to camp as a kid, so this should be fun.:lmao:
 
Excellent work on some great looking amps.If they sound half as good as they look you're stylin'.



David
 
ejfud said:
I can't wait for "Jay's Tube Rebuild Summer Camp"

I never got to go to camp as a kid, so this should be fun.:lmao:
Click to expand...


Heck, we could even have canoes and tell audio horror stories around the camp fire.:yes:

All the credit for these goes to Ken. He worked his butt off and put up with me glaring over his shoulder for three days.:D I did have the foresight to stock up on Jr. Mints though, so hopefully my breath was fresh as mountain air.:smoke:
 
jaymanaa said:
All the credit for these goes to Ken.
Click to expand...

You're being modest, bro. They really sound nice, with enough guts to push the KG 4 to levels I don't listen at, without overly compressing or becoming flabby.

I would guess we put about 30 hours of work into them. I really learned how to solder. I feel much more confident with an iron now.

Echowars joined us Saturday night for some tasty steaks and gave me some great info and demos on floating old joints, and how the signal path works on these amps.


Here is Jay at bench with EW observing:

build2.jpg
 
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