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Major Surgery Revives 35 Year Old Amp

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  • Views 64.1k
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  • Hard to choose between my speakers or the amp, but I remain pretty confident 2.5 years later that the M22 is the best piece of gear I've ever owned.

  • darkhawk22
    darkhawk22

    Thanks for all the great info. in the previous comments. I just purchased an M-22 a short while ago and did a fairly extensive rebuild myself.  I replaced all the Electrolytic Caps and burnished

  • This thread is way too awesome and deserved a bump. Just a crazy piece. Is this real life?

Posted Images

Gene,

I have this little Blue Hawaii space heater that needs some tender loving care, shall I bring it up to Maine for you? :indra:

Whose Blue Hawaii space heater would that be? :dotu:

  • Author

^^^ hmmmmm? My east coast law firm(s) suggest that possession is, indeed, 9/10 of the law, so at least for the summer, it's Nate's and mine. :)

I expect the west coast firm to challenge, but be soundly defeated on appeal.

BTW these amps are all that and a bag of chips! I'm going to get mine done over by the folks that tuned up Gene's seeing that is it 30+ years old.

Gene hope you enjoy your summer of BHSE

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I bought an M-25 new back in, ummm, can't remember. I think I used it to run DQ10's. Anyway, it was a very nice amp.

  • 1 month later...

Dang that's a nice piece of iron! (or should I say aluminum?)

Seeing it makes me wanna run out and get one.

It would look great perched on top of my vintage SX-1010 monster receiver.

I absolutely love mine, with three months of solid daily use I hope it is past new gear love syndrome. At a somewhat bloated audiogon price of $1000 I still consider these to be great bargains. It is better sounding than my already very good sounding McCormack DNA.5 with SMC upgrades and 845 Dared Tube amp.

Still want to see about getting it checked over but there is ZERo noise coming from it so I think (hope) all is well under the hood.

  • 6 months later...

I decided to join the M22 club. I've always wanted a M22 and this thread did not help. I found one on Ebay for $600 and had it sent to the same place in Illinois that agile_one used. Hamad did an outstanding job restoring the amp. I've been using a restored Threshold S/200 as an amp for my HE6 and LCD-2 headphones and the M22 is an improvement over that. I like the sound so much I decided to sell my BA and get a real preamp to drive the M22.

post-1235-0-44285500-1303931946_thumb.jp

post-1235-0-95304800-1303931960_thumb.jp

I have the feeling that the M22 would be an outstanding K1000 amp.

Congrat

  • Author

I decided to join the M22 club.

Congrats, and welcome to the club.

You may want to monitor the temps of the gear above the M22, as I'm sure you've seen by now that it runs very hot - true Class A always does. I've got mine sitting on a ceramic tile on the floor with nothing above it. Have fun choosing a pre amp, and enjoy!

I have the feeling that the M22 would be an outstanding K1000 amp.

Congrat

It is, Steve, it is. :D

Edited by agile_one

I decided to join the M22 club. I've always wanted a M22 and this thread did not help. I found one on Ebay for $600 and had it sent to the same place in Illinois that agile_one used. Hamad did an outstanding job restoring the amp. I've been using a restored Threshold S/200 as an amp for my HE6 and LCD-2 headphones and the M22 is an improvement over that. I like the sound so much I decided to sell my BA and get a real preamp to drive the M22.

Congrats on the M22 it is an outstanding amp, the BA should function as a top flight pre amp have you tried it as such? If you have and are still considering another what would you get to top that a Shindo?

If you have and are still considering another what would you get to top that a Shindo?

Good question. I'm using a Forte F-44 I had laying around for now. I did use the BA as a preamp but the lack of features plus liking the M22 as a headphone amp so much made me decide to sell the BA. I was thinking a tube preamp like a Audio Research but the heat generated by the M22 might make me look for a cooler running non-tube preamp. It gets pretty hot in my small listening room.

The audio research stuff seems to be hit and miss, I had a sp-9 which I liked at the time but in retrospect is was just ok.

If you are using the M22 as a headphone amp, and I am not entirely sure why, why not use a passive pre amp since you'll not be needing pre amp gain.

The audio research stuff seems to be hit and miss, I had a sp-9 which I liked at the time but in retrospect is was just ok.

If you are using the M22 as a headphone amp, and I am not entirely sure why, why not use a passive pre amp since you'll not be needing pre amp gain.

Any recommendations?

  • 2 weeks later...

John, did the M22 I bought from you ever go into the shop in Illinois for rebuild? Just curious, and if not, I will probably get it in there before the end of the year. It does sound great to me, but it seems a nice bit of security for not too bad of a price.

  • 6 months later...

I decided to join the M22 club. I've always wanted a M22 and this thread did not help. I found one on Ebay for $600 and had it sent to the same place in Illinois that agile_one used. Hamad did an outstanding job restoring the amp. I've been using a restored Threshold S/200 as an amp for my HE6 and LCD-2 headphones and the M22 is an improvement over that. I like the sound so much I decided to sell my BA and get a real preamp to drive the M22.

I sent a Pioneer M-22 to Hamad to restore 4 1/2 weeks ago. I sent a couple of e-mails in the past week asking for an approximate time the amp might be finished. He hasn't responded, yesterday and again today I left phone messages, so far no response.

From past experience is this typical behavior that Hamad won't respond to any e-mails or phone messages? I have conformation of delivery with signature so I know he received the amp.

I'm starting to get nervous that I might not see my amp again.

Thanks for any help.

Right after Gene first posted about Hamad and the Pioneer renovation I sent Hamad an inquiry and he responded right away. Not sure about your experience but I would be patient and try calling him again.

Right after Gene first posted about Hamad and the Pioneer renovation I sent Hamad an inquiry and he responded right away. Not sure about your experience but I would be patient and try calling him again.

I heard back from him, feel much better now.

"I was in England for a short vacation and have been trying to catch up with work and family.

We have your unit open and it is second in the restoration queue now.

Once the work begins, I will send you pictures or a youtube video link showing the restoration work done".

  • 1 month later...

I found a Pioneer A-27 integrated amp cheap and sent it to Hamad to be updated. I really love the sound of the M-22 amp Hamad restored for me and am looking forward to the A-27 in my speaker rig. Here is a picture of the amp as received by Hamad:

post-1235-0-85922800-1325714131_thumb.jp

Here is a link to a Youtube video he made of my almost complete restoration:

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