Altec 1568A Amplifier

[126Mhz]

Hello all:
I just traded for a pair of these is very good condition. They powered right up and we were able to test them on a pair of klipsch La Scala speakers.
Does anyone know the production dates and if they might make good vintage amp for a home audio application?
I tried to download the information from this site but my old beat up puter would not download it.
Any information or suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks,
Bill Woodward
aka "126Mhz"
Portland, OR.

[Todd W. White]

Ooooooh! You are so fortunate!

The 1568A and 1569A were two of the BEST sounding amplifiers ANYONE ever built!

Are they sutitable for home audio?

ARE YOU KIDDING! OF COURSE THEY ARE!

But, there's a caveat: you need to be VERY careful about the AC power you feed them - they were designed to run on NO MORE than 120 VAC. Often, modern systems go up to 140 VAC at the outlet. You can ruin your wonderful amplifiers doing that!

There are several possibilities to solve this problem, and I am sure many of the guys here will be happy to share with you what they did to combat it, but, no matter what you do, I would strongly recommend changing the rectifier tubes to 5AR4's - they ramp up more slowly that did the original ones spec'd, and, thus, will save your power supply caps, which are VERY hard to replace...

Hope this helps - the sound on those amps is SO wonderful! Clean, transparent,...lovely!