I recently bought two Leak Stereo 30 amplifiers, on a whim.
The first one (A) was sold as "working" but is in poor (but not terrible) cosmetic condition.
The second one (B) was sold as non-working, but is in pretty good cosmetic condition.
A is full of bright red capacitors and has Mullard AD140 (to name one) transistors.
B is full of blue capacitors and has "no name" AD140 transistors.
I cleaned the switches and pots thoroughly, and slowly powered them up using a variac.
I am currently listening to A, and it is sounding very, very nice!
Using the TUNER input it works perfectly, and both channels are the same loudness.
Using the PICKUP 1 input it works well, but the Balance knob must be set to 2 o- clock for the two channels to be equal.
When I tried B, it plays perfectly on one channel (using the TUNER input) but the other channel is dead.
My initial plan was to combine the 2 into one refurbished working unit, but now I think that fixing B is quite possible, and then both can /should be playing! It seems a shame to butcher one of them.
Any thoughts on this? I know some do not rate them highly, but I personally think the sound is wonderful.
Some pictures:
The above is B.
The above is A.
Mr Leak on his transistor amp.
The first one (A) was sold as "working" but is in poor (but not terrible) cosmetic condition.
The second one (B) was sold as non-working, but is in pretty good cosmetic condition.
A is full of bright red capacitors and has Mullard AD140 (to name one) transistors.
B is full of blue capacitors and has "no name" AD140 transistors.
I cleaned the switches and pots thoroughly, and slowly powered them up using a variac.
I am currently listening to A, and it is sounding very, very nice!
Using the TUNER input it works perfectly, and both channels are the same loudness.
Using the PICKUP 1 input it works well, but the Balance knob must be set to 2 o- clock for the two channels to be equal.
When I tried B, it plays perfectly on one channel (using the TUNER input) but the other channel is dead.
My initial plan was to combine the 2 into one refurbished working unit, but now I think that fixing B is quite possible, and then both can /should be playing! It seems a shame to butcher one of them.
Any thoughts on this? I know some do not rate them highly, but I personally think the sound is wonderful.
Some pictures:
The above is B.
The above is A.
Mr Leak on his transistor amp.
