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How do we remember 1970s amplifiers?

I would be curious to hear some of the memories and impressions associated with the following short list of 1970s amplifiers:

- McIntosh "first generation" SS amps, MC2105, MC2505, MC2300, MC250, MC2100
- Dynaco Stereo 400 and Stereo 120
- Phase Linear 400 and 700
- Bang & Olufsen "slide rule" receivers (i.e. especially blackface Beomaster 4000)
- Original Ampzilla (not Son of Ampzilla)

I've chosen this list mainly because they cover a wide range of approaches to solving the issues of early semiconductor technology, and they were all pretty mainstream products in the U.S. I'm excluding the Japanese receivers/amps not out of predjudice; it's simply that the circuit designs varied quite a bit with each model, and thus harder to broadly classify their characteristics.

I'm interested in impressions of both sonic and non-sonic attributes, and a preferred ranking of the above, if you like.
kirkus
lacee
811 posts
 
Transaudio-was that Trancendental Audio on the Niagara Blvd?
I remember it well when I was a newbie.

They had some Dan fellow working there that I think tinkered around with amps and may have sold a couple over the years.

I believe he is still at it to this day.
jeffga
89 posts
 
Sold my car to buy a high end system as a Freshman in college -1977. Talk about a killer dorm system. First amp was a Phase Linear 400....it flamed (literally) -- However, I thought it sounded very good. Then went with a fabulous Harman Kardon Citaion 16 amp and a GAS Theadra preamp, Dahlquist DQ10's (Denon TT w/ Supex 900 MC cartidge). It was fabulous. The HK amp was a tank and sounded superb. I replaced it with an Ampzilla in the 80's and regretted it. The Ampzilla was always breaking and was not as smooth as the HK...much better mids with the HK. The Ampzilla was very transparent sounding and had major balls in slam and low end energy. BTW, I got the "bug" after owning a nice Yamaha receiver w/ Infinity speakers. The rest is history and am still spending way too much money on stereo gear.
timlub
2,039 posts
 
Kenwood L07M (mono) was reasonable as was the Grandson of Ampzilla. I had heard the ampzilla, it was rough around the edges, I had heard Flame Linear 400 and 700B, harsh.
Pioneer had some old Class A amps that I recall sounding quite nice... They were Series 20 or 30, don't recall exactly.... Compared to today, no contest
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,254 posts
 
My system in 1978 was a GAS Son of Ampzilla, GAS Theadra preamp and a GAS Sleeping Beauty cartridge mounted on a JVC Direct Drive turntable. Speakers were Rectilinear 7's. Never could get the 7's to sound as good or better than the old Rectilinear 3a speakers that I traded them for. I also had a Sansui Tuner which I should have kept.

I loved my GAS electronics, quite smooth yet revealing in their day. The piece de resistance of my system was my Teac reel to reel recorder (can't remember the model).

I was working in retail at a mom & pop audio store so I changed my equipment quite frequently back then.
peterb
108 posts
 
Sweet memories....
I owned a Phase Linear 200B (which outperformed a Quad 405 in a straight shoot-out).
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