Salvage Yard find

[squeegy200]

This weekend, I dropped off some garbage at the Trash Disposal site and noticed a Thrift Store warehouse in the complex. Out of curiosity, I went inside and discovered a huge inventory of discarded items that staff deemed wasn't yet worthy of the landfill.

Amongst the shelves of electronics, I saw what looked like a stereo amplifier.
It was a Rotel RB951--The outside casing was scratched and it was missing the cover for the power button. On the back, it was missing a speaker binding post which is why I suspect someone discarded it.

I inquired with the staff who informed me that there is no guarantee of functionality and if I was okay with that, I could buy it. Cash, no sales tax, no delivery, and no warranty.

This is what I bought (The iTouch was for testing)



I took it home, replaced the broken speaker binding post, hooked up a pair of speakers, and powered it up. The amplifier works and works well. Gain controls, mono bridging, clipping protection are all functional. Internals were clean and no signs of abuse or misuse.

Purchase price of the amplifier was $2.00
Replacement binding post from Radio Shack $4.49

[dakatabg]

You are a lucky guy!

[bobsticks]

Clearly so much about our hobby is subjective that it's hard to come up with absolutes...

...but that's gotta be the best sub-$7 amp out there today...

Congrats on the good find.

[budgetaudio76]

Man totalled on the first repair! Nice catch.

Taps toes, well how does it sound? Other than sounding like a Rotel of course!

[poppachubby]

Well done! That's a fine amp which would sell for a few hundred in good condition. Enjoy...

[thekid]

Great find!
Congrats on rescuing a nice piece.

[JoeE SP9]

That's a nice find.

I'll give you $18 for it. That's around 200% profit. Seems fair to me.

I'm always amazed at the disposable attitude many Americans seem to have.

[harley .guy07]

Very good find, I think I would just enjoy having a good quality amp for the price of a 6 pack of beer. Hell if it were me I would take the top panel off and paint it flat black so the scratches aren't there and make it look as good as possible for cosmetic reasons and just enjoy what ever you are going to use it for. Who knows it might give your carver a run for (well I would say money but thats not fair) its ability. Rotel might surprise you compared to the carver on how rotel sounds just like people used to be surprised by adcom amps and how they sound for the money.

[bobsticks]

Very good find, I think I would just enjoy having a good quality amp for the price of a 6 pack of beer. Hell if it were me I would take the top panel off and paint it flat black so the scratches aren't there and make it look as good as possible for cosmetic reasons and just enjoy what ever you are going to use it for. Who knows it might give your carver a run for (well I would say money but thats not fair) its ability. Rotel might surprise you compared to the carver on how rotel sounds just like people used to be surprised by adcom amps and how they sound for the money.

Harley, your reasoning is impeccable but from an audio-addicts perspective he should clearly start a second system...get some nice used KEFs or Paradigm monitors or B&W CM-1s and an old California Audio Labs tube cdp...throw that puppy in the head and duggan-time becomes a treat...

[jrhymeammo]

Hey Squeegy,

I think Rotel's $200 RQ-970BX phonopre comes stock with Blackgate electrolytic caps. How about this amp?

[harley .guy07]

Harley, your reasoning is impeccable but from an audio-addicts perspective he should clearly start a second system...get some nice used KEFs or Paradigm monitors or B&W CM-1s and an old California Audio Labs tube cdp...throw that puppy in the head and duggan-time becomes a treat...

Good point right after I wrote that that thought came to my mind. A second system with it would be pretty cool especially if he could find some more bargain offerings to go with it and then make it a show piece of what you can do if you search around in the right places.

[squeegy200]

Hey Squeegy,

I think Rotel's $200 RQ-970BX phonopre comes stock with Blackgate electrolytic caps. How about this amp?

I didn't know that. I'm now curious. I'll take a closer look at those caps to see who manufactures them.

[squeegy200]

Very good find, I think I would just enjoy having a good quality amp for the price of a 6 pack of beer. Hell if it were me I would take the top panel off and paint it flat black so the scratches aren't there and make it look as good as possible for cosmetic reasons and just enjoy what ever you are going to use it for. Who knows it might give your carver a run for (well I would say money but thats not fair) its ability. Rotel might surprise you compared to the carver on how rotel sounds just like people used to be surprised by adcom amps and how they sound for the money.

Some of the AudioReview folks may remember how I came to acquire the Carver.
It is a similar story. I held a garage sale to clear out some of my projects and a gentleman bought a reciever I had repaired. He informed me that he had a nonfunctional amp that he'd be willing to give to me if I was interested. He could not tell me what was wrong with it but said it would not power up.

I went to his home the next day and picked it up. Only then did I become aware that it was the Carver TFM 45. When I got it home, I plugged it in and no lights came on. So I hooked up a source and some speakers to it and was surprised that it came to life! It wasn't dead at all, it merely had burned out light bulbs on the front panel. Without power indicator lights, the Carver appears to be dead since there are no other lights on the front panel. It was clean both inside and outside. Uncharacteristic of Carver amps from this era, there were no visible leakage in any of the capacitors. It really sounds musical with my DQ-10s since Dahlquists really respond well to large amps. When connected to my modified Magnaplanars, it takes the musicality up another step.

I searched eBay and found replacement filaments for the VU meters for a measly $11. These replacement filament bulbs require soldering which is a simple task. Good as new for less than a trip to StarBucks.