Tower of Power

[zebbo]

Who, Mugwanya? Certainly no mug if he got those amps for £500 !

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

that is the man, just buying some of the trade in cables. I am sure he will tell you all about them once they are up and running.

[Mugwanya]

Hi

Yes, I bought the 'Tower of Power'. Drove down to Leicester to pick it up, the previous owner says he remembers them being delivered to him in a sports car over 20 years ago. I picked up the cables from the Post Office on Saturday, will be clearing out a room that will house the system during Monday and Tuesday evening this week, with a plan for a first listen on Thursday evening. They will be driven from a Mantra Manticore TT into Martin Logans and are replacing....nothing. Haven't had a hifi since before these items were delivered to Leicester, so this is my first dip. They were meant to be an interim step whilst I saved up for either high end Musical Fidelity or Sugden Masterclass amps, which I've listened to and love, but after reading comments on this forum maybe I could love these as much as the Sugdens. Maybe I could clear out that room in one evening, if I work really hard.......

[Fretless]

There's a whole bunch of people eagerly awaiting your findings. Best of luck with sorting your room out - if you need any help the expert (Doc) is always on hand with friendly and direct advice. The rest of us chip in with what we know.

I'd put off considering the Sugden and MF until you've lived with these for a while. Enjoy.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

As you are a newby.

A word of warning, never touch the ends (plugs) of the speaker wires together when the amps are on and leads plugged otherwise they will have to come back for repair. So to test these as they are old 2nd hand amp switch amps on with no speakers connected, just by blipping the mains switch. If the light (LED) goes off immediately there is an amp fault so give them back and get your money back. If LED stays on and dies slowly amp should be OK. So switch on, connect speaker leads to speakers and then to amps. If as you plug in there are loud buzzing noises then again the amp is faulty. If the amp is quiet then try music.

Better to be safe than sorry with old amps. The sports car they were delivered in was a red Alfa Romeo cam tail Spider.

[Mugwanya]

So please don't laugh at my lack of understanding. I'm moving the ToP up to the Audio (bed)Room, on target for setting up Thursday evening. Looking at the captured cables, what I had previously assumed were PSUs for the power amplifiers actually connect into the P80. I thought that a passive Pre either wouldn't need a power connection or it would be so minimal (maybe for a phono circuit?) as to not need two heavy lumps of engineering, with the power amps plugging into the mains separately.

Where am I thinking wrong?

Derek M.

[Daniel Quinn]

The doc will be along in due course .

but NVA did not always do passive pre amps . they did have active pre amps in the past and you are correct the phono input will need lecy juice .

Sounds like 2 psu for the pre amp . one for the line in and one for the phono ?

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

It is 4 pin din plug leads in the units of that age that transfer the power from the PSUs to the pre-amp.

[Fretless]

Possible that if you are not using a TT that the PSU(s) for the phono stage will be unnecessary. I assume that the line-in side is passive (Doc?).

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Early ones were active, but by the time this was built the line side would be passive.