60s console amps good and bad...


Any recommendations here? Most are very simple designs (a good thing) and there seems to be quite few single ended 6bq5 types. Plenty of Magnavox, some Motorola, RCA, but a few seem better than others. Pilot SA232 is great but too pricey. Also, I've heard an old Magnavox germanium amp and was pleasantly surprised.
cocoabaroque
Pilot is by far worth it over motorola & magnavox. There's a lot of nice fishers, scotts & lafayettes as well. Figure that most of them will need work. If it's equal cost to recap and retube a Pilot vs a Magnavox, what would you chose?
I've played around with some of these. I have a couple of Magnavox amps - one Stereo EL84 based (9302), and one Stereo 6V6 based (8802). The Maggies are popular and not bad sounding. I also have a pair of Thordarsen mono amps that are 6V6, 6SL7 based - they sound amazing.

These are all easy to work on, and you can find some plug n play if you look.

Here's some pics Vintage amps