Heathkit

[nurdlinger]

Lafayette

Lafayette was another catalog-order electronics merchant. In the late 60s and maybe beyond that, they had a retail store in Warren MI which I frequented.

Also back in those days was Olson Electronics, a catalog merchant with retail stores as well. I retrieved and revived a few things from their junk/clearance table.

Wasn't Radio Shack's captive brand "Realistic"?

 

[whirlcool]

In fact, right across the street from Allied Radio on N. Western Av in Chicago was an Olsen Electronics store. Going into Allied was like going into a major league department store with everything laid out very nicely for the customer to examine.

Olsen, on the other hand was like walking into a cheap Dollar store. Most everything was on pegs on the wall. It was controlled disorder. But I could have spent days looking in both stores for the electronic wonders. Allied had a special section for their Knight kits as well as a repair facility on the second floor.

 

[joeekaitis]

 

 

 

We had a Heathkit store in Pomona.  Now it's knock-off of a 99cent Only store.

 

[twintubdexter]

leaves a bad taste in my mouth...

When I was young (Denny's still had a pterodactyl egg omelet on the menu) I built a Heathkit AR-14 receiver...one of their first that was solid state. I already had a couple of used tube receivers and wanted something high-tech. After assembly I plugged it in and switched it on because I wanted to see the dial light up. Well it did, then there was a faint zap and then nothing. I was not a happy kid. I ended up having to send it back to the Heathkit people for repair which cost me over a third of what I paid for it. They were nice enough to explain to me that without a load connected (speakers) the output transistors would short out...there was no protection fuse and nothing to warn you of this in the instruction manual.
I kind of knew when I opened the box and saw all those resistors and diodes and stuff that I'd gotten in over my head.

 

[lordkenmore]

Wasn't Radio Shack's captive brand "Realistic&#3

It was one of their house names. I'm not sure how many they had--they seemed to have other names. Sort of like Sears, I guess, with many different house names. Also like Sears: they farmed out the actual making of the product to others--at least in some cases.

 

[firedome]

Heathkit engineering

was completely in house. They were mostly mail order direct marketed products. They started right after WWII making kit airplanes, of all things, using surplus parts and quickly segued to DIY test equipment like VOMs, o-scopes and signal generators, then around '53-54 capitalizing on the new HiFI craze brought out a W-1/W-2/W-3/W-4 and A-7/9 line of Williamson amps, Ham radio stuff, by around '58 the respected W-5 and W-6 amp using Peerless (Altec) transformers, small products like clock radios, next into transistor audio and TVs and even the Thomas Color Tune organ, finally computers and educational products. Love to see them get back into audio and Ham products, so we can re-live our childhood!

 

[abcomatic]

electronic organ

My geometry teacher in high school built a 2 manual electric organ from Heathkit. It was the church model and sounded ok for electronics of that period (1970).

 

[tolivac]

Will someone out there------PLEASE BRING BACK DYNAKIT Hi-Fi amp kits.Esp the tubed classics such as the St70 and the Mk2 60W monoblock.would be SO interested.todays tubed amps are just TOO OVERPRICED!!And a note to the future Heathkit folks-besides the solid state Hi-Fi-Please bring back the Williamson tubed Hi-fi amp kits.Would think with the sudden reinterest in tubes as with LP's the Heath and Dynaco tubed amps would sell like crazy-they were simple-----BUT WORKED!!I would love to reamp my home theater with tubed amps-just want to use those instead.Lets see--3 Mk2 for the front channels-and two St70 for the rear.one channel unused-serves as a spare!

 

[firedome]

Wishes can sometimes come true...

Dynakits have been back on the market for several years now. please mosey on over to: http://www.dynakitparts.com

 

[firedome]

A little Dynakit tip...

having built/owned a Mk III amp/ PAS3-x preamp rig 35 years ago and several others over the decades past, and having listened/reviewed most Dynacos at Vacuum Tube Valley (RIP) my feeling is that the ST-35 was/is the real sleeper of the bunch - that is, if they've managed to truly duplicate the superb Z-565 output transformer, one of the best of it's type ever.

 

[cfz2882]

tube amp kits

several years ago velleman had a stereo tupe amp kit-IIRC,had four EL34s as well
as a few smaller tubes sticking up out of the chrome plated chassis.As i remember
a fiberglass PC board was used.Made in belgium,the kit was something like$899 with
a fully assembled version offered for around $1200

 

[swestoyz]

I have very little experience in building and soldering together electronics projects, however, I have heard a variety of different Heathkit and Dynakit radios and stereo's over the years. My favorite was a factory built, Dyna SCA-35. Not as powerful as it's bigger brothers, that little stereo tube amp had the most magnificent sound in comparison to even TOL 70's Marantz equipment.

I sold it several years ago when I needed some cash. I'll never forget the sound and hope to own something similar again.

Ben

Dynaco SCA-35 Integrated Amplifier

 

[firedome]

The SCA 35 integrated amp had the same outstanding trannies as the rarer ST-35 basic stereo amp, excellent piece.

 

[twintubdexter]

speaking of Heathkits...

...this still-in-the-box clock radio sold on eBay last week for $511.51...someone must have wanted it very badly.

 

[cfz2882]

a couple years ago i found the early 1980s era heathkit weatherstation complete/
unbuilt on ebay and placed a bid-bidding went WAAAY beyond what i was willing to
pay LOL