Is the Eico HF 81 really that good?

hi Lolo

from page 159 of June Stereophile,

"The EICO was restored by Sam Kim of Sam's Audio Labs in Montreal,Canada. The work done included replacing the output and filtering capacitors and all out of tolerence resistors, rebuilding the volumn control, rewiring the undercarriage and resoldering every eonnection."

The author goes on but nowhere does he mention modifying the circuit. As far as I can tell from reading this it was a complete restoration.

Yes I have a restored EICO HF-81 and it's a great amp. I paid a total of 600 dollars for it. In spite of JA's measurements it sounds great ( much like SET amps )!! For copmparison I have tube amps from Cary Audio, Wright Sound Labs and Conrad Johnson.

For the price you pay it's unbeatable and can keep up with many " state of the art " modern amps at a fraction of the cost.

All I can say is get one and listen to it, you will be astounded and wonder why you spend so much on the new stuff.

Larry

I think the Eico HF-81 has incredible musicality. If you allow yourself to have an open mind see how you just widely smile hearing real acoustic instruments and voice on this amp played through todays better speakers (use ones with an easy load for amp with efficiencies over 90db/m). Some complex musical crescendo at higher volumes, for example, get blurred but these nits aside check the threads on audiogon and elsewhere about this low parts quality but timeless circuit amp. These accolades came long before the Stereophile review. BTW: The mono versions of this amp HF-12 are a super value and give the benefits of dual mono-design.

The Eico was not modified. Only restored. The volume control had to be rebuilt because of bad sweeper pad. At low volumes the left channel was down 20db.

Sam also resoldered everything.

I have heard four of these and my mint unrestored one sounded great although it was soft in the bass---it needed electrolytics. The two Sam did are tighter and more open on top. These amps are really really good.

Peter Breuninger
Stereophile Contributing Editor

I suspect you have have not heard one of these 6bq5s vintage amps on efficient speakers.

Don't shoot the messenger until the message gets delivered :)

I had a jaded x-reviewer over who thought this was all total nonsense. He was floored when he heard the Eico over the Bozak Concert Grands. He is a Krell man and thought the sound was in the same league of his $50,000 system.

Again, don't shoot the messenger!

Peter B.

Peter,
Thanks for making an appearance on this thread. Even though I now run Apogee Scintillas I used to run vintage speakers such as JBL Hartsfields with Vintage Marantz tube gear. The sound was quite good in the midrange but not very extended at frequency extremes. I used to be a collector of vintage audio. I never gave the Eico's a second look which was obviously an oversight on my part. I have listened to many vintage speakers but have not heard the Bozaks. Are there any other gems that you are using at present?