My first Tube Amplifier

H.H.Scott 299

Like others here, I am of the generation where I thought all of us argued over whether Heathkit, Dynaco or McIntosh was the best.

In 1968, when I was 14, I put my money from mowing neighbor’s lawns and shoveling their snow into a Dyna Stereo 70, still considered a classic that -especially with upgraded caps, etc - performs as well as many of today’s amps costing 10 times as much or more.

In 1978, I graduated to a pair of Dyna MK III mono blocs.

I still own these amps for back up or parties.

In 1986, I moved on to a pair of The NY Audiolab version of the Julius Futterman output transformerless monoblocs, The OTL-3.

Two years ago, I had Jon Specter, formerly of The NY Audiolabs, convert the OTL-3s from pentode to triode and upgrade all the caps to Jansen foil/oil audio caps. Jon’s cousin, btw, is Al Kooper.

Scott 299

@ unreceivedogma

You had experienced tube amp at early age and had gone through lot of interesting tube amps.

I had not listened to OTL tube amp, so I am curious about it.

Maybe I may try out OTL amp if good used one come out at reasonable price.

Shkong78,

The OTL3s are almost impossible to come by. I’d be surprised if there were 1,000 pair surviving, most in Japan most likely. I can ask Jon to keep an eye out for a pair, but short of having him build a new pair from scratch, you may be waiting a long while.

I believe that Atma-Sphere makes a pair but I am not sure, and I think there is a company in Texas that introduced a model a few years back. I never heard either so I cannot vouch for them. I have heard a recording of Mikis Theodorakis’s “Canto General” that was recorded and mastered by Atma-Sphere: I found it to be a little disappointing from an engineering point of view, sadly so since artistically it competes well with the Farandouri performance.