Klein + Hummel's origin
is the development and manufacturing of very high quality studio equipment.
Many parts and units found in the hifi gear are derived from the
professional equipment. Many output transformers are of outstanding quality.
Later they made a legendary hifi tuner, FM 2002.
The VS55 was the first
ECL82 tube amp from K+H
to be introduced in 1961 with a gold/black color front with a red Telewatt
logo.
The circuit is typical
for K+H integrated amps: too many switches and controls, fixed grid bias, a
trim pot to balance the output tubes, CCIR/RIAA switch a.s.o.
The slight surface
noise, which can be noticed on speakers with higher efficiency, results from
the input stage. Every input channel (also the high level inputs) must pass
the first tube, although this would only have been necessary for the low
level inputs (microphone and phono).
The VS55-60 has not the
mechanical quality of the VS71, but some audiophiles prefer these smaller
units for their great sound in the high frequency range.
Using good ECL82 tubes
the amp sounds very, very nice. The output transformer has only taps for 4 and 16 Ohms
- very German!
Carefully check the
"WIMA sweets" coupling caps which tend to leak. |