The Best Vintage Stereo Amplifiers – If You See These Models At A Garage Sale, Buy Them!

Vintage Stereo Amplifiers

Have you ever passed by a garage sale, or been in the “audio” section of Goodwill and noticed an amplifier and wondered if the gear was worth picking up? Restoring? Well, this week on pt.AUDIO’s The Occasional Podcast will help answer some of those questions on vintage stereo amplifiers for you.

Joined by Justin Webber of ampsandsound, S11E1 is the first installment of a series on vintage HiFi gear, starting with stereo amplifiers. The conversation is a full rundown of some of the best garage sale finds for vintage stereo amplifiers, including which McIntosh options are the best, which amps to avoid and even the skill required to fix some of the more popular models. If one is up to the task, it is possible to get great sound from an older amp with nothing more than a few replacement parts and soldering iron. But one must be up to the task. Otherwise a local repair shop could be the answer as well.

The new season of The Occasional Podcast brings many changes to Q4! First, the site refresh on pt.AUDIO casts a new bucket of red on the site with a new logo, look and navigation. Also, S11 brings new PTA merch! The pt.AUDIO record weight now comes in COPPER. A new silhouette new material and new patina commiserate the new season in a style only TOP can. There is also a special 25% off code in the beginning of the show that can be used on the site here: https://4929f5-2.myshopify.com/products/copper-record-weight

The Occasional Podcast recently interviewed Michael Lavorngna from Twittering Machines, and covered the future of digital and class D with Michal Jurewicz of Mytek and High End Munich 2024, but previous episodes include how tos, tips, tricks and education in all things high fidelity audio from episodes like last week’s Hot Headphones For The Holidays, an Interview With John Devore, Measurements explained with Andrew Jones, 3 things to know about streaming audio, 5 things to consider when buying a tube amplifier, interviews with Steve Guttenberg, how to’s and more from audio’s greatest talents, including Michael Fremer, another interesting conversation about the History Of The BBC’s LS3/5a Loudspeaker,  A Beginner’s Guide To Tube Amplifiers and A View From The Booth: Reference Systems, Accuracy & Why Audiophiles Love Jazz So Much: including rare interview with the late audio legend engineer Al Schmitt. The finale from season 5 includes the yearly “best of awards” and you can also find episodes covering British HiFi, Subwoofers/Setup/Tips, and the how to: Budgeting From Entry Level To High End. Season 4 highlights include Joseph Audio, Pro-Ject Turntables, and Rob Watts. One can still download this season’s educational show with TOP’s Beginners Primer To High Fidelity Digital Audio alongside the latest on Two-Way Speaker Design. Fan favorite What Is Mastering? What Happens When An Album Is Remastered? is also still available as well. If you are interested in further exploring the analog realm, the Guide To Buying A Turntable (and records) might point you in the right direction. 

Options to stream this week’s interview with Vintage Stereo Amplifiers, direct from the embed below or subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform including iTunes, Android, Google, Deezer, Spotify, iHeartRadio and more.