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Major Surgery Revives 35 Year Old Amp


agile_one

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

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.

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  • 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

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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
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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?

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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.

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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.

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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?

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 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.

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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".

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  • 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:

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

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