New VTA-70 Amp

I just purchased this amp on Audiogon. Does anyone recognize it? The person that I purchased it from, was not the builder. It looks to have the 1st generation of low gain board, and came with three NOS Mullard CV4003's. I will receive it, in a couple of days. My 1967 ST-70 was starting to exhibit power supply problems, and I am looking forward to giving this one a try.

Mike

Interesting, looks like an original chassis with dynakit transformers and a vta board. Note those two bias pots aren't connected.....

The bias pots were installed, just to fill the holes, since the amp does not have the Triode kit installed. I believe that the entire kit is a Latino VTA-70. The prior owner has all the build manuals and such. It is interesting that these Latino amps are getting multiple owners, as the years go on!

Mike

its an early version VTA driver board, it has the 4x individual biasing for each power tube.
Looks like the bias test point are nicely provided between each set of power tubes.
Nice set of Russian PIO's!
You could always remove the old bias potentiometers and install the pentode/triode switches in their place. Will need some re wiring, but nothing too complicated.

Just ordered the Triode kit, and it will be installed soon! Any idea what brand the green caps are? I will not get the amp for a couple of days! These amps are like folk art. Everyone adds their own little touches!

Mike

Bob. Based on what you see, can you estimate a range of possible build dates?

Mike

Sorry. Based on this being a 1st generation of the "low gain" board, when were these types of boards shipped? I am not sure when the board with the LM334 was introduced, but this kit would appear to have been shipped prior to that.

Mike

Interesting! It must have either been one of the the Dynakit kits with a 7199 board, converted to VTA low gain later, or Individual Dynakit parts with the VTA driver. Are the Dynakit transformers and chassis different from the Latino kit? I have always been a little confused between the Dynakit products and the Tubes4hifi products!

Mike

As I understand it, the Latino transformers are beefed up relative to the original spec trannies. Further, iirc, you would want the updated transformers if you were going to run bigger power tubes than el34 tubes. Tubes such as the KT 77, KT 88, etc.