[Otis]

Oh my,  someone scribed some numbers into the front side! You can't buff that out!


Ortho, do you mind a suggestion?

Suppose you scrubbed and polished that one, brought it up and got it working. It'd probably bring +/- $400 or so, on ebay or wherever.

Then, take that money and  buy a new or used Ultravalve from Frank.

The advantages are -

You get rid of a potential problem.
Frank still gets the business.
If you buy used you might save money and...
You end up with a much nicer amp.

[orthobiz]

Oh my,  someone scribed some numbers into the front side! You can't buff that out!


Ortho, do you mind a suggestion?

Suppose you scrubbed and polished that one, brought it up and got it working. It'd probably bring +/- $400 or so, on ebay or wherever.

Then, take that money and  buy a new or used Ultravalve from Frank.

The advantages are -

You get rid of a potential problem.
Frank still gets the business.
If you buy used you might save money and...
You end up with a much nicer amp.

Not a bad idea, but I've got this penchant for keeping stuff that's "been there." The fact that a buddy owned it, regardless of the financial soundness of it all, weighs in. Probably why I redid my Dahlquist DQ-10's (still my main speakers) and upgraded my Linn Sondek and thechairguy's VPI HW-19 and kept all my dad's prehistoric Craftsmen wrenches and on and on and on!

I'm not sure what's burned out on this amp and what's not, so I'm not gonna mess with it too much before I send it off for AVA rehab.

Paul

[pansixt]

Paul,
This is a bad Android Phone Pic of my Ultimate 70. If I wasn't so lazy, I would pull it from the bottom of the rack and dust it off a little bit and take a proper pic.

Done about three years ago, and at the time it was received at AVA,  Dean e-mailed me that it was one of the cleanest he had seen, but he added that he was confident that it would be a great build despite that fact.

I am running a Quad of NOS Sovtek Power Tubes and I am currently pushing Maggie MMG's with it.
And fairly successfully I might add. Sure the Maggies could use more power but everyone who hears my system is impressed and agrees with Frank's statement about this build. And that it is one of the purest sounding amps he has heard.

We have tried many other tube amps in my system and I keep coming back to the U70. I might be a little biased (pun intended), but the sound for a two channel system is just nice and it is home to me. I bought the stock Dyna ST-70 in the late 80's
and pushed my 75 Cerwin Vega T15 Towers and my old Electrovoice 6's for years flawlessly.

Bottom line is this is a great build that can last a lifetime and is worthy of the meager price to restore a giant of an amp that already holds a prominent place in audio history.

You won't be sorry,
James

Edit: I should add that with the Ultimate70 pushing the MMG's and a nice little 8" Pinnacle sub, my 14' W by 23' L room is an awesome Cinema room as well.

[pansixt]

The advantages are -

You get rid of a potential problem.
Frank still gets the business.
If you buy used you might save money and...
You end up with a much nicer amp.

Otis,

You should compare the U70 to the Ultravalve. I have a few times. And Frank will tell you that they are so close, that it is not worth pondering.

Frank could chime in on this but I believe in the upgrade page on the website he stated that you get the same sound if you upgrade your ST-70. Of course if you don't have an amp to upgrade, then the next best choice would be the Ultravalve. And A Brand New Amp at that.

James

[orthobiz]

Paul,

Bottom line is this is a great build that can last a lifetime and is worthy of the meager price to restore a giant of an amp that already holds a prominent place in audio history.

You won't be sorry,
James

Thanks so much, James. I think I'll clean the chassis a bit more and send it in.

Paul

[orthobiz]

I spoke with Frank. Gonna box it up hopefully by the weekend to send it off to Minnesota!

Paul

[Wayner]

Good call. I have a Dynaco Stereo 120 that I had Frank redo into the Insight+. Glad I did it. It still looks like the Dynaco that I remember, but sounds a whole lot better and will last longer then I will. I think I have one of the nicest examples of the 120 in existence today with almost no blemishes to speak of. I think I used some Flitz polish on the stainless steel chassis with great results....

Wayner

[sfox7076]

My ultimate 70 is beautiful.  Wish I didn't have to sell it to clean out space in the apartment.  I replaced the U70 with 1625 based monoblocks and my Office/listening room is becoming the younger son's room...  Sigh.

[orthobiz]

I took the next step today:

Wrapped the amplifier with generous amounts of medium bubble wrap.
Put it snugly in a small box.

Lined a big box with 5/8" foam insulation sheeting.
Lined it with crumpled industrial paper.
Lined that with thin cardboard.

Put the amplifier box inside the big box.
Sealed it and sent it.

Frank told me to wrap it so it could survive a fall down a flight of cement steps.
Hopefully it arrives OK!

Paul

[pansixt]

Paul,
That is great to hear.
Franks AVA sticker can be strategically placed on the right side front to cover some of what may be there. But obviously any minor blemishes on the chassis won't bother you once you start listening.

Wayner,
I'll bet the 120 sounds magical. BTW, great to hear you're back working with AVA. I'm thinking about my Grado cart as a Longhorn. I'll PM you if I have any questions if that's OK.

Shawn,
I know you hate to part with your U70. Did it ever sell?
And I heard you'se guys  are expecting more snow this weekend. Sheesh!!!

James

[sfox7076]

No.  And I won't give it away, so it will wait here.  Just not willing to throw away a great amp for less money than it is worth.   

[pansixt]

No.  And I won't give it away, so it will wait here.  Just not willing to throw away a great amp for less money than it is worth.

Please believe that I wasn't suggesting that. It would indeed be a lucky party that attained that amp. I tremble at the thought of my family member that may inherit mine. The swine nephew maybe. Whom I have been unable to convince of the worth of
importance of musical reproduction. Gamers...There's that Sheesh word again.

[avahifi]

Well, I received the old ST-70 from orthobiz for our Ultimate 70 rebuild.  It was well packed and arrived here safely.

Good news and bad news.

The good news is that the amplifier basically still works, this means the transformers and choke are working as normal.  This actually was a VERY old factory wired Dyna ST-70 back when Dynaco was at Philadelphia 4, PA before zip codes were invented.  Of course the good news about that is that it was correctly and carefully wired in the first place, no "spilled plate of spaghetti" wiring to redo completely.

The amp actually came up and biased properly.  It had one defective output tube and the quad filter capacitor is on its last legs so there was lots of excess output hum, but those issues will be resolved in the rebuild.

The bad news is that factory wired ST-70s had lots of small parts hard riveted to the chassis rather then using #4 machine screws and nuts like with do it yourself kits.  This means extra work for us with the Moto-tool to grind off the rivet heads on the inside of the chassis in order to replace the input and output jacks.  Oh well, our problem, win some loose some.

I will have Mary go over the chassis with cleaners and wax after I have it stripped as far as needed.  However it does look like it did spend many years in a salt water seaside dust factory and after the dirt is gone, there will remain pitting in the chrome finish we can't fix.

Anyway, another project to keep me busy.  I still like resurrecting these old amplifiers and the sonic results are rewarding.

Frank Van Alstine

[orthobiz]

Thanks so much Frank. You've seen so many of these that you can tell much more about them than I could ever know.

So, funny about how you pegged where the amp resided: my friend had it since he lived on Long Island, NY but it has spent the last 30 years in Marblehead, Massachussets! "Seaside," yes; "dust factory," only figuratively!

Keep me posted,

Paul

[orthobiz]

Oh, one more thing. I directed my roommate to this thread, he thought it was cool. He added that the amp (and preamp) spent the last 25 plus years in his garage in Marblehead, MA. That would further account for the corrosion and dust!

Plus I'm gonna pick up that used PAS Three Frank has to be the "tubular" mate for the U70!

Paul

[OzarkTom]

Back in the early 80's, I was very proud to have become a Conrad Johnson dealer. The MV75 and MV45 amps were all the raves of the audio mags back then. I took a Van Alstine Dyna 70 on trade and was shocked the CJ's were not nearly as good.

[pansixt]

Tom,

As I probably have posted previously, the only other amp I have had in my system that I like nearly close to as much as the U70, is a CJ M75 A1 that Bill Thalmann recently worked his magic on. This is a CJ amp that belongs to our own AC'er jarcher.

It is one of a few CJ amps that he has, but is the one that I am confident he will never part with.

That amp, with a very nice CJ PV 10 preamp he pairs it with, is simply captivating. And it was a very hard combo to give back when the time came.

That being said, the U70 with my T8 preamp is darned close to unbeatable IMHO.

Frank and Associates, I am indebted to you all for the magic you work. I know I am not alone in this thought.

Thanks,

James

[orthobiz]

So Mary sent me an invoice today with a PIC!

It's coming back to me already. Thanks to Frank and everybody at AVA.

Paul

[jtwrace]

Setup yet?

[orthobiz]

No, actual arrival tomorrow. Then off to vacation, may take a couple of weeks.

Thinking of ordering some Blue Jeans cables...

Paul