Altec 1593B strange bias issue

**bowtie427ss** · December 2nd, 2014, 11:36 AM

It's my understanding that the 1593 and 1594 were "voiced" to be drop in, plug n play, solid state replacements for the 1568 and 1569 amplifiers which were being phased out of production and support.

**mazur** · December 2nd, 2014, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by 604man

Good to hear the amp is working . do you think the transformers affect the tonal quality ?
Ironic for years and years designers were trying to get the iron out , And here in a SS
design, They are in.............GC

I'm sure the transformer does affect the tonal quality a bit, but interestingly I have a hard time telling the 1593B apart from my quasi-complimentary amps, but I can definitely tell it apart from the BGW 205D which is fully-complimentary. So the question is: is it the transformer or the topology? McIntosh has been using autoformers (which is really not a true transformer but I believe has the same issues of saturation and bandwidth) for years with great success. I guess the devil is in the quality of the transfomers. I remember reading that Altec bought Peerless back in the day because they understood the importance of quality control for the output transformers.

Elias

**VolvoHeretic** · December 3rd, 2014, 01:20 AM

Man, I sure envy you people that can speak electric. I am totally stupid electronic, but have had the pleasure of knowing two gentlemen that could build or fix anything, one was a florist/ ham operator and the other was a gas company service man and both who's hobby was to fix TV's or anything electronic. Unfortunately, they have both passed on and electronics is a sadly dying hobby.

**604man** · December 3rd, 2014, 10:32 PM

Originally Posted by VolvoHeretic

Man, I sure envy you people that can speak electric. I am totally stupid electronic, but have had the pleasure of knowing two gentlemen that could build or fix anything, one was a florist/ ham operator and the other was a gas company service man and both who's hobby was to fix TV's or anything electronic. Unfortunately, they have both passed on and electronics is a sadly dying hobby.

Let Bob Pease be your guide and mentor, Go here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E_zUJ-SKRE

;-) ..........GC