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Hi All; Can the HF 81 power trans and output trans work with the Ikes? Heybeor is making clones of the HF 81 amp for some guys on the Joelist. They claim to be exact copies wound the same as the originals. 66$ for the PT and 45$ ea. for the outputs. Any thoughts on whether this is a good way to go?

the EICO HF81 was an EL84 based amp with 14 wpc, much like the Dynaco ST-35, so these would be fine for the ST35 based amp, but not for a bigger amp like the IKEclone

leadtower wrote:Hi All; Can the HF 81 power trans and output trans work with the Ikes? Heybeor is making clones of the HF 81 amp for some guys on the Joelist. They claim to be exact copies wound the same as the originals. 66$ for the PT and 45$ ea. for the outputs. Any thoughts on whether this is a good way to go?

Hi leadtower,

My two cents:

First, a while back I bought some output trannies from a gutted Eico integrated that are almost identical to the HF-81/HF-86 transformers, but lack the 32 ohm tap. Since all of these lack ultra-linear taps, I theorized that it would be good for a 6B4 version of the Ike. This project is still on the back burner.

Second, I rebuilt my Eico HF-86 this fall, and used it for several months as my main system. I gave it a shot, but I don't like it. The iron is just a cheap EL84 output. It isn't in the same class as the classic iron in the big boy Eico's, like the HF-87 and HF-89. Nor does it compete with the Dynaco Z565. I refer to mechanical feel, bench tests and listening tests. I think the pentode sound is just inferior to a UL setup. My HF-81 rebuild is now on permanent hold (but not for sale .

Shannon

Do you guys have any experience with the Eico ST series; 40/70?

leadtower,

I have an Eico ST-70 that is in pretty good shape that I have not even powered up yet. I got it from a friend about a year and a half ago. It was working at that time but I got so interested in building amps with Shannon's boards that I didn't spend any time tweaking the Eico ST-70.

I think once I finish the 832 amp I'm building I'll fire up the Eico and see how it sounds. I also have an Eico tuner I'm going to try out as well, but I have to say I almost never listen to radio any more. I'll be glad to tell you when I fire all this stuff up how it sounds.

Regards,