This Counterpoint hybrid power amplifier was rebuilt by Michael Eliott of Alta Vista Audio. Mr. Eliott is the original designer of this venerable 1990s amplifer and has designed some amazing updates to its power supply and reliability.
The basic
$1,900 rebuild "...replaces the original circuit board and output MOSFETs with a clean, simple differential triode driver stage, regulated power supplies and rugged bipolar transistors in the output...[he uses] very high-quality components, including ceramic tube sockets with gold pins, Nichicon ES and TRT capacitors. The new board is double-sided with heavy copper cladding."
"All that remains of the original SA-12 or SA-100 is the chassis, the heatsinks, the power transformer and the power supplies. The rest is either replaced, modified or bypassed. The finished product is called the NP100. Gone is 20dB of feedback, gone is the thick, closed-in MOSFET sound, gone is the fragility of the MOSFET output stage. Three indifferent-sounding polypropylene coupling caps (per channel) have been reduced to a single Dynamicap capacitor/channel. The signal path is cleaner, simpler. The rebuilt amplifier retains the basic liquidity of the old design (same designer, after all), but with greater dynamic liveliness; deeper, wider soundstaging; deeper, more powerful bass; greater dynamic nuances; and sweeter, more transparent treble. The amplifier sounds luscious and rich, the music seems to emerge from a silent background."
My amp comes with a matched pair of NOS RCA CRC 5692 tubes (the 5692 is a JAN 6SN7 equivalent.) Additionally, all five of the fuses have been replaced with HiFi Tuning fuses.
Unfortunately, the amp's copperish looking face plate has a tape stain on it (see photo.) Otherwise the amp looks good and plays great.
I'm
asking $750 OBO plus shipping which is less than half the costs of the updates without taking into account the cost of buying a good original Counterpoint amp to update.
I accept PayPal but the buyer is must pay their 3% fees.
