Is Altec Lansing 1590c worth buying?

I just took another look at your pics.

Have you ever seen a chip amp with such huge heatsinks? Of course not, they dont use them at all, for they generate almost no heat at all.

Heatsinks are always coupled to the output transistors for heat dissipation. In your case they are coupled to the Darlingtons, which, as I said, are in fact packs of many miniaturized transistors.

Jorge

QUOTE (Superfly @ June 15, 2007 11:24 pm)

Why are chip amps talked highly of when it is a Sonic T or the like but in a full on receiver it is shunned? I have a chip amp that I posted about a long time ago on another forum and everyone said chip amps were crap.

I know very little about the workings and therefore functionality of these things so i can't decipher what to think of all this.

That's a very interesting receiver.

I think you can call it a hybrid audio device.

It has a voltage amplifier - from Sanyo...?!

- which is nothing more than a electronic device that increases the input signal in the form of a voltage, delivering an output signal that is larger than the input by a specified ratio.
The Marantz pm55 have that same voltage amplifier.
IMHO, you should keep it with your life...

it's quite rare. user posted image

Congrats for that piece of audio history.

I don't think it is anything special. I have only tried it a few times and it seems to work well. The receiver has some cool features and works like new. As mentioned on another forum it is not very tolerant of anything outside a 8 ohm load. It very well could not be a chip amp although I was told it was on that forum. I was just throwing it out there for discussion. This was tossed in with other gear I got all together and i was not really even needing / wanting it. It is in like new shape so I kept it. Guess who's name is on the front?

Started a new thread here if anyone wishes to discuss this further...

http://www.sound-thinking.org/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=3021

QUOTE (Superfly @ June 16, 2007 05:53 pm)

I don't think it is anything special. I have only tried it a few times and it seems to work well. The receiver has some cool features and works like new. As mentioned on another forum it is not very tolerant of anything outside a 8 ohm load. It very well could not be a chip amp although I was told it was on that forum. I was just throwing it out there for discussion. This was tossed in with other gear I got all together and i was not really even needing / wanting it. It is in like new shape so I kept it. Guess who's name is on the front?

Honestly i do not know.
Sanyo...?

This thread is a perfect example of why the concept of "highjacking" is overrated. This discussion is infinitely more interesting than I expected from my initial, (completely unrelated) question, you know, in that OTHER thread...

i think thread hijacking is similar to swapping around different components in your system. the worst thing that can happen is you dont like the sound so you put things back the way they were. often times you end up with something completely unexpected and delightful. experimentation should be encouraged, not hindered.