a rather scarce S-R amplifier

[Firedome]

Recently acquired this rather scarce Sargent-Rayment SR-17-17 amplifier. S-R productswere made in Oakland CA and distributed mostly on the West coast, with very limited distribution in the East... 90% of what little you will see today will be found in California.

This one came out of a custom console along with it's sister tuner (which I didn't acquire, an excellent tuner but I'd had one before) in mint condition. Like early brass-faced Fishers it's common to find the solid brass faceplate on these with brown corrosion blotches that are not removable. When I saw it I had to have it. S-R is a company I wrote a history of in Vacuum Tube Valley issue #20 around 2003, and I interviewed Mr. Rayment a number of times as part of the research (a very nice gentleman, he has since passed on). I've always been impressed by their Hi-Fi products. They also made radiation detectors during the Cold War.

SR products were very well designed and made. They had existed as a West coast radio company since 1926 and had been a contractor for the US Navy in WW II making ship-board radio equipment, a testimony to their quality. This amplifier is a classic PP 4-7189 design with 5AR4 indirectly heated rectifier and 4-Telefunken 12AX7 and 2-6AN8. The xfmrs were made by Magnetic Windings, who also made them for the Marantz Model 2,5 and 8b iirc. I had 6 or 7 pieces made by S-R in the past but parted with them years ago, a mistake now rectified (pun intended). It's unusual to see them, however I believe there's a few SRs on eBay now, quite atypical.

[hermitcrab]

Never seen or heard of one before... looks like a nice heavy duty unit, any specs on the the amp itself?

[electra225]

I haven't heard of this brand, either. It appears to be well-built with plenty of RCA jacks for input, I assume?

I also noticed it says you can use either a 7189 or a EL84, 6BQ5 output tube. What did they do to this amp that would make the two types compatible?

[William]

Me too neither on hearing of this brand, but it looks impressive. The front kind of reminds me of Heathkit and the photo of the tube layout looks like something Fisher would have done.

Bill

[Firedome]

Yes it had lots of input options, it's rated 17W/ch, hence S-R 17-17
It was built to use 7189s and it's always safe to use 6BQ5s as they have a lower plate voltage, but you can't do the reverse if designed for 6BQ5s. I'd guess that was done as the latter tubes were far more available, being used in so many amps. The output xfrms are about 20% larger than then ones I had in Fisher X101s for example. Typically quality is as in military equipment, with excellent chassis layout and detail. I'd rate S-R to be at least an equal of Fisher et al, but in the end it didn't matter, the market could support only so many.

Although more than competitive in performance, S-R just couldn't compete in volume with the "big boys" like Fisher, Scott and Sherwood. By 1961 financial problems overtook them, and the banks they'd borrowed from put it up for auction. They were bought by NY investment bankers and the new owners hired a new Chief Engineer to replace Mr. Rayment. The new guy began a product simplification and update program, but in less than a year the money to resurrect it ran out and they were liquidated at auction once again. Most of the records were tossed, and any kind of factory info like schematics and manuals are super hard to find now.

A couple of years after wrote the article I continued my research and came across the gentleman near Seattle who had bought all of the remaining S-R parts inventory and had an ad for them on eBay, He also had a few remaining records from the last "regime". I bought some OEM parts from him for S-R stuff that I had, and told him of my research and he kindly offered me several manila envelopes of remaining S-R records and papers. These consist of the notes, plans, and a few original and revised schematics for updating the product line. I copied all of them and donated them to the Rayment family. I still have the originals and it's pretty interesting to see how they had planned to simplify, revise, and improve the last products in production at S-R in 1960/61. Planned were a new receiver, revised amps, tuners, and preamps. Needless to say none came to fruition.

The remaining files are very are interesting and someone more qualified than I might make sense of what was planned and why. I tried to find the last Chief Engineer but came up empty, this was over 10 years ago and he'd likely be dead by now. I also have a pretty good inventory of original and copied S-R brochures, mostly from the Postwar era, but some back to the TRF radios of the '20s and 30s, that were given/lent to me by Mr. Rayment. S-R was highly respected from the start, with laudatory articles in 1920s and 30s radio publications, but little known outside of the West coast It's been my goal from the start to preserve knowledge of their history. Some years ago the California Historical Radio Society contacted me and one of their members also spoke to Mr. R. before he passed and they were able to publish that in their journal. I'm hopeful that this small company and their excellent products won't be forgotten.

2 S-R pieces currently on eBay, I had both of these in years past, they are typical of superb S-R design and quality, kind of wish I still had them, but more compact is good around here.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/294480648859?h ... R-7D4POpYQ

https://www.ebay.com/itm/153429925072?h ... R-DD8_OpYQ

[Firedome]

Here's the specs:

https://www.hifi-archiv.info/Radio-Werb ... 8%2001.jpg

I've spent much of today trying to find out who the last engineer was, Dec '60 to Oct '61,
after Mr. Rayment was forced to sell the company founded by his father by the bankers.
The internet is amazing for sleuthing about stuff... his name was Robert Griesinger, and
he was a Univ of California Berkeley EE graduating in 1953. It appears he's now deceased.
That's all that I could find, I would have liked to interview him. He'd planned to simplify
the Fall 1961 S-R product line and introduce several transistor based units, I even have
his hand drawn schematics for them, but he never had the chance as S-R went belly up
just 9 months after he started.

[Firedome]

And here is a brochure I have for one of their earliest products in 1929, the S-R model 7 came out in 1926 to excellent reviews.

[William]

Interesting stuff, Roger. I have never heard of that company, and they definitely produced a high-end product. Someday maybe I will be lucky enough to see one in person and even be able to hear it.

Bill