Spectro Acoustics

[tubesaregood]

I got myself a Spectro Acoustics 500-SR poweramp today. Big huge f'er - 4 space rackmount, 250 watts per channel at 8 ohms and the biggest tranny I've seen that isn't on a telephone pole.

Does anyone know anything about them other than that one of the former Phase Linear guys started this company?

 

[darien87]

Phase Linear? That's a name I haven't heard in a LONG time. I had Phase Linear speakers in my car WAY back in high school. I thought the speakers were great. Didn't know they were still around.

 

[highfihoney]

I remember them from my youth at the hifi botiques,your right they were made by one or several of the engineers who left phase linear,im not sure if bob carver was involved with spectro or if he had allready started carver but from what i can remember offhand phase linear,carver & spectro all shared the same design characturistics.

I vaguely remember seeing some spectro stuff back in the late 70's to early 80's set up at a botique in an expensive vinyl system so im sure it was well made & expensive gear in its day,its worth holding on too thats for sure.

 

[stratman]

Spectro Acoustics was founded by Bob Gudgel, Tapco and Carver were by Gudgel and Bob Carver.

 

[highfihoney]

Ha,im glad somebody else remembers this stuff,i was starting to feel like the geezer of the group

 

[stratman]

Ha,im glad somebody else remembers this stuff,i was starting to feel like the geezer of the group

Hey I'm only 44,000.

 

[tubesaregood]

It's a shame about this amp, too, because the left channel needs a new cap because it's only about half the volume of the right channel (new cap = $$$$$, they must be in the hundreds of thousands of microfarads). And the right channel has some ridiculous buzz and oscillation issues. The woofer on the right speaker was falling victim to a strong 1 or 2 Hz signal that pushed it pretty good. Anyone know where I should begin looking on the right channel for that issue?

I am determined to get it back to spec, though.

By the way, the Phase Linear name was bought by Pioneer in 79 or so, and then they sold it to Jensen in the eighties.

 

[tubesaregood]

Does anyone have any idea what the rating of the caps are off the top of their heads? I'm going to guess 10000uF and at least 100V. I'll try to break it open tonight to see if the ratings are on the caps themselves.

 

[tubesaregood]

I'm back.

Caps are 13000 uF at 150 V, if I remember correctly.

Still can't find any info on these pieces. I'm also wondering why they're not worth a whole lot considering their famous pedigree, excellent construction and extreme rarity. Here's some pictures of the innards.







An interesting note... on the circuit boards, there are names and words printed on them, my best guess is that they were nicknames of people who manufactured the amp. "STRAW BERRY" and "TINKER BELL" are two I can remember off the top of my head.

 

[cmk59]

How about a Spectro 202?

G'day, all!

I just bought a Spectro-Acoustics 202 amp that had (according to the seller) been re-capped and the PCB's 'refreshed' with new components. I have no reason to doubt the seller, but he can't answer one nagging question: The 202 has red lights on either side of the amp...allegedly to show clipping or shorts or somesuch (hey, I'm tired). At any rate, the lights appear to be always on when the amp is plugged in...is this normal? I don't want to plug in speakers or a pre-amp and have things go kaboom! (This is only supposed to be a short-term backup for the SPEC-4 amp I'm saving for, after all...)

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this. I've emailed boB Gudgel, but I don't know if I'll be able to get an answer, so I'm kinda 'shotgunning' the question out there. Hope someone can help!!!

Chuck
Norman, OK

 

[jamie2112]

Red lights on an amp is not a good thing. I wouldn't hook up any speakers until you put a electrical OHM/ watt tester on it.

 

[Maverick2010]

Hi there, just wanted to let you know that I used a Spectro Acoustics 500SR back in the 80's running a disco! It was superb and robust, I ran it with an "Ice" mixer and EV S15 3ways - the whole setup was brilliant - the amp never missed a beat although I do remember blowing a couple of capacitors in the speakers!

 

[hatrack71]

I would love to find another of these for repair or parts.