Dynaco solid state amps

[Gary]

Hi 'yall!

I am building a surround sound system without the benefit of a proper surround sound receiver. Hopefully it won't sound too foreign to my McIntosh tubes when I eventually move this to my reference system. Yea, right. :rolleyes:

Well, anyway, I'm gonna try!

So, I was told that these have the "Dynaco" sound. As I had the ST70 for a period of time, I must say that it's a good thing! The six outputs for the DVD-A player (Panasonic RP82) will be routed to my HK amp and two Dynaco amps to see what they sound like. This is my house system. I decided to test things first - and I may leave my yummy 2 channel as a yummy 2 channel. We'll see.

The two amps.

Dynaco SCA 50
Dynaco 4-Dimensional Amplifier

They look the same. I was hoping the 4 Dimensional amp would be a quad amp but it has just about the same options ind inputs as the SCA 50.

Any opinions on the Dynaco amps? Or my attempted 5.1 set up?

I know, I may be missing some electronic wizardry by not using a proper surround amp. But I want to avoid digital gimmics and try to keep the sound as 'pure' as possible. Does this make sense?

So what say you? Have I lost it? Or do I have some hope that this'll work?

[indy mike]

Well, I run some dinosaur ST-150's meself - they're both from around the 1977 era and while definitely not the smoothest of solid state amps, they are verrrrrrrry dependable and have taken a lotta Animal House style parties to a deafening level! At the normal listening level (missus acceptable level is pretty low) they do a-ok... The ST-120 was pretty well known as lousy sounding (one of Dyna's earlier solid state attempts). Play around with your Dynas and experiment - the only cost is your time - have fun - Dynacos can be heap big fun, yesindeedy!

[Sckott]

That's very true. Dynaco ST70's were a lot of fun to me, but I didn't get into their SS amps, because they weren't as analitical as I wanted to be WITH it. The amp doesn't sound bad though.

"Whatever works for you" is key. Gary, you could find even the simplest amps paired together for surround is fine. I've noticed though, solid state matched amps (not too analitical) and speakers work best in surround. That being the case, I would suggest there will be nothing wrong with getting a unified 5.1 reciever. To be honest, for the first 3 weeks, just having mismatched (but seperate) amps and speakers drove me batty for a while until I got the details down.

HOWEVER, Dolby Digital soundtracks, knowing the way they work, you do NOT have to be very analytical. In fact, it works best if you put good power into the mix, and simplicity. I really don't think tube amps are really the way to go, that's just MHO. Fast, tight, sensitive. I've been more impressed with that sound in HT.

That being said, I'm the dork still using a spare ST70 for rear surrounds. That's about to change, but still.....

[FabFourFan]

Originally posted by Gary
... I had the ST-70 for a period of time ...
So, I was told that these have the "Dynaco" sound.
-Dynaco SCA-50
-Dynaco 4-Dimensional Amplifier


Here's some information on those 2 little Dynaco integrated amplifiers:

The SCA-50 is a direct-coupled transistor design from the 70s, and it's a nice-enough-sounding 25x2 integrated amp.
It should be useful for your experiment.

The SCA-80Q ("4-Dimensional") is a 40x2 integrated amp with the option to connect a pair or rear 'ambience' speakers in accordance with the Hafler/Dynaquad matrix circuit; just ignore that part.

Unfortunately, however, the SCA-80Q is an old transistor design from the 60s.
It does NOT sound anything like an ST-70 (a classic tube design from the 50s).
In other words, um, you may not be especially impressed with its peformance...
However, for temporary, emergency use, the SCA-80Q should be of some use, why not?

Good luck!


FFF