Antique Sound Lab Hurricane MK1 vs MK2

Carlsdg- Keep in mind everyone's tastes and systems are different. It would behoove you to try a pair, connected to the equipment you own, to determine your satisfaction with them. Further: The people that raved about them did so based on the design's faithfulness to the original signal, and ability to recreate the live experience. Those are not everyone's criteria when judging a component or system. The driver and power tubes can also be rolled(to NOS's) to enhance the pair's accuracy and your pleasure. Were it not for the number of tubes, I'd own a pair myself. My Cary monoblocks' 6 tubes each(added to everything else in the system), heat up my listening room within the first 2 hours of music. Great in the winter, but the summer is a bummer. I don't run the AC when the system is turned on, to keep the voltage up and line noise down. If they are available to you- Hop on them! I seriously doubt you'll be disappointed.

>>I would not represent them if they were not going to live up to there reputation or reviews.<<

How do you know this ahead of time?

Based on their history, Greg Norman is a better wager.

Hi Rodman, I know about the different capacitors mounted in the Hurricanes. HP from TAS say that the first were the best, although other people preferred the newest versions. I have a pair of Lumley Reference monoblocks (120W) with 4 kt88 per channel, and I know that this equipment can heat up the room!
I cannot try a pair of Hurricanes before to try, but I can buy the MKI or MKII version (with the tubes on top of the trafos), for that I want to know if they have different sound.

Justsound, i will keep in touch about your experience with the MKII

Hello Carlesdg
I have listened to about 30 pairs of Hurricane amplifiers and spent a lot of time with every version manufactured.

To try to answer your original question, the latest MKII is not that different sonically than the later MKI versions (horizontal aluminum chassis). The circuitry is still the same and they both use the green Illusion oil capacitors.

The MKII now has balanced inputs standard which is why you see a different input tube arrangement. Transformers are slightly improved as is the bias circuit.

Obviously they have gone to a new chassis which weighs in at about 80+ lbs. each.

Response34, you are a specialist in the Hurricanes , really. I like more the look of the MK1, but I was not sure if both versions sounded similar. I think that the latest versions of the MK1 have the triode/pentode switch, but I wasn't sure what capacitors that mounted.
Do you think that this amps have a bad reliability?