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Are H.H. Scott solid state tuners and amplifiers any good?
Why did they come with rack mount faces/handles?
Does that mean their elite or something?
What's an "audio analyzer?"
Are they not in demand cuz they suck or just cuz they don't look
flashy?
How hard are they to fix if need be?

Thanks

[soundhaspriority]

"Bret Ludwig" wrote in message
oups.com...

wrote:
Are H.H. Scott solid state tuners and amplifiers any good?

In those days, tuners had gangs of tuned circuits that had to be peaked
together, and IF (intermediate frequency) amplifiers the coils of which had
to be stagger tuned using a special generator. The demultiplexor circuits
also required alignment. None of this was very stable. Every few years, back
to the shop for an alignment.

The first tuner with remotely modern design was the Marantz 10B, but even
that isn't great by modern standards. Any vacuum tube, even the fabled
nuvistor, has higher self noise than a quiet FET transistor. So the best
tube tuner cannot pull as well as a good solid state tuner, but people love
their memories,.and will unintentionally lie to you.

Don't go into this for performance. People will tell you all kinds of
romantically tinged stories, but the fact is, the electronics used to build
hifis was in rapid evolution till at leat the early 80's.

It is true that by the 1960's, if not sooner, everything was known about
vacuum tube amplifiers. It was possible to build as good as today's tube
equipment. The same was not true for solid state; many more years of
advancement occurred.



Some were ok for their day. Few are worth the difficulty of working on
them today. Some disagree.

Why did they come with rack mount faces/handles?
Many were sold to radio stations.

Does that mean their elite or something?

Means they actively marketed them to radio stations.

What's an "audio analyzer?"

Depends. Usually it's a THD and level meter with or without its own
source.

Are they not in demand cuz they suck or just cuz they don't look
flashy?
How hard are they to fix if need be?

Audio analyzers? Get a manual for a HP 339. If you can understand
every circuit and what any change or fault will make it do, they aren't
too bad. The 339 has the same circuits as most of the others and HP
manuals are easily available and well written. If you understand it you
understand ST, Krohn Hite, Amber, and Potomac copies of it (they are.)
Audio Precision dose the same things but often in DSP rather than in
analog circuits. Repairing one at component level is probably beyond
the hobbyist-but they are a lot easier and simpler to use.