Magnavox console amps

[Firedome]

Reading Trevor's post about his amp projects, I realize that I'm relatively ignorant regarding the flavors and permutations of Maggie's amps (and a lot else besides!), particularly in the era that's most interesting, about mid '50s to early '70s. It'd be great if we had a sticky that maybe showed pics awithbrief descriptions, since so many here seem to have them. Even the SS amps are interesting to me up to about 72, when they seemed to be starting to really cut corners: black plastic faceplates and increasingly cheesey cabinets. Was there any such amp info on the old site that can perhaps grafted over from there? Pics of console models would be nice too have too.

[Hydrolastic]

Hello, I saw that post somewhere but can't find it now. quick couple of questions on amps I have a 1958 continental with the AMP 182. I also picked up last year the 61 French provincial imperial it has the 8103. Other than the molex plugs on the chassis they look very simular. Biamped with the same angled transformers and tube layout. If not the same amp, what are the differences? Imperial 8103 is the dirty one. Hydro

[electra225]

It would take a sticky six pages long to list all the variations to Magnavox alone, then it might not be accurate. Magnavox was one to mix and match components, many times within the same series of instruments. They held the information on their stuff pretty close to the vest. Better to take it on a case-by-case basis, then develop your own method of documentation. I have mine on an external hard drive.

81 series amps are basically all the same. The only difference in the "suffixes" are the external connections to the amp. If you look on the Sams for the 81 series amps, you'll see the different suffixes covered by the service literature. About the biggest differences in the 81 series I'm aware of is that the really early models had output controls for the bass amps, where the later ones didn't. My 1960 model doesn't have the controls for the bass amps. These changes are duly noted on the service documents.