Acoustat servo amps ??


hey!
I'm looking for any info on acoustat servo amps for monitor III speakers. right now i have the transformers (not the medallion) and love them w/ my arc vt100mkII. however i keep hearing that the servos will bring these to a new level.

i'm debating on whether or not to go for the servos and sell my arc.

mostly i listen to jazz 50% lp, 50% cd and am using the speakers with a vandersteen 2wq sub.

anyone have thoughts? is it worth it? how much can i expect to pay for the servos? where should i look? should they be upgraded and how? who works on them...etc.

how about a passive pre w/ these? recommended?

im also interested in thoughts on the model IIIs compared to the other models... 4s, the 2+2s, X, spectra 1100, 22, etc.

any info is appreciated.

thanks in advance
kublakhan
Dennis, a mint pair of Monitor 4's sell for $550.00 to $650.00, look elegant, and will sound similar to your 3's. That means the servo amps are going for about $1000. Not bad if they are also mint, but not a bargain. If you can pry the amps away without the panels for about $700-$800, that's a bargain. Obtaining 6HB5's is not a problem, Michael Percy and Caddock will have the other parts you'll need.Ed
Kubla,

To determine which panels you have you need to look at the wires coming off the panels. If they are the very early panels, the stranded wire is relatively coarse and silver in color. If you have the OFC panels the wire will be fine copper stranded. The 5-wire panels use the same type of OFC stranded copper wire, but obviously there are 5 wires per panel instead of 3.

Lou, I never said that the model 3s were Spectras, so perhaps you are confused. BTW, The Spectra panels are the same as the late 5-wire non-spectra panels except that they have high-voltage resistors wired in to limit the high frequency reproduction to a more narrow section of the panel. In theory this seems like a plausible approach but I'm not sure how great it worked in actual practice. Some say the late non-Spectra panels are more transparent because the signal isn't being routed through resistors. So it would seem there is a trade off between transparency and dispersion at play.
guys thanks for all your help.

for the record and future searches on acoustat here are some good contacts:

for upgrades to the acoustat servo amps email mike at analogue associates: savuto@swbell.net. upgrades are all they do! i spoke to mike today and he seems like a great guy and i can tell this is a labor of love for him. he's an accountant by day.

for repairs on stock servos try 'sounds like new' at 561-736-0041

I'm thoe echthited!
If anyone needs it, the former owner of Acoustat (Jim Strickland) works at the Rockford tech. department in Phoenix, AZ. The phone number I have on file is (800)366-3565. By the way, the lady at "The Upholstery Company" in Mesa, AZ. used to make the socks for Acoustat back when they were in business in Florida. She just made me a new set of black ones for my 1+1's.