In this picture, I have wired up the heaters of each socket and done some of the transformer wiring. As per Morgan Jones' "Building Valve Amplifiers", it's important for the heater wiring to approach and leave the socket in the same direction, all the while staying away from the grid and cathode pins.

All done! That was quick. You can see how the grounding buss bar connects to chassis at the right of the power inlet and then zigs and zags throughout the chassis in reverse signal order: amp/driver/pre/phono. Also note that I had to move the first two oil filter caps onto the top of the chassis and way at the other end. This was less than ideal, but it worked out all right, because I returned B- to the secondary center tap by a 16 gauge insulated wire (not the buss bar).

Topside, we see the two oil filter caps just North of one output tranny. Originally, we were going to keep the EICO input selector switch, but it crapped out at the last minute, so a replacement was used.

Lastly, the rear apron: The IEC inlet had to be inverted to clear the power tranny core. All unused holes are closed with hole plugs or bits of Garolite. New-old stock speaker terminal strips were used instead of modern double banana posts for the sake of economy. For convenience, I added a phono ground terminal. So, how did it sound? Quiet... so quiet, in fact, that it's the quietest HF81 I've ever heard. At 1 kHz and 12.5 watts RMS, the distortion was an astoundingly low 0.6%, with both channels driven into 8 ohms. I didn't believe it, either!

A really clean Fairchild 255 (with original manuals and sales slip!) that was one channel of my home stereo for over ten years

A Dyna Co. PAS preamp that sold on eBay.

A charming Art Deco Lafayette PA amp that used two 6V6s in push-pull. I re-purposed it for axe by copying the classic Fender tone control circuit and added 1/4" phone jacks for Input and Output. Note the shock absorber underneath the first preamp, 6J7, this little guy was a tad microphonic. Of course, some players may like that, so it's easily removable.

An American classic: The Heath (Williamson) W-5M

A Dyna Stereo 120. Yes, those are transistors you see behind the cage. I occasionally fix silicon-based life forms, too. This one ran the output transistors in Class B! It actually sounded pretty good. The secret may be the regulated power supply?

A pair of Sylvania 6SN7s.

A University Acoustic Baton S-6 3-way bass-reflex corner cabinet. The woofer is a conventional 15-inch, but the midrange and tweeter are horn-loaded.

A used pair of Western Electric 274Bs (equivalent to 5U4).

A matching Harman-Kardon A230 integrated amp and T220 tuner.

A darling little amp from Alamo. The 'Amp 3' uses a 6SL7, a 6V6 and a 5Y3. Also a 10-inch Jensen AlNiCo-5 speaker.

The 099 tube. It's so old, it predates the two-digit numbering system.

An Ampeg R-12-RB Reverberocket which used two 7591s in push-pull. I added a "standby" position to the top panel power switch.

The recording preamp from an Ampex 601 portable tape recorder. Makes for an excellent tube mic preamp.

An Akai GX-620 open reel deck.

Acoustic Research AR-2a in unfinished birch.

A Philco PT-41-30 table radio.

An E-mu model 7000 'drumulator".

a pair of NOS red base General Electric 5692s.

A Meguro Wow & Flutter meter.

A Jensen XP-101 high frequency driver

A Gates Radio Sta-Level vari-mu all-tube compressor using the legendary 6386 and a 6V6 push-pull output.

A Teac A3340S 4-track open reel deck.

An EICO HF81 restored with a fresh coat of 'EICO brown' paint.

An EICO ST40.

An ELAC STS240 stereo cartridge.

An Electro-Voice SP-8-B 8" driver.

A direct-drive Garrard DD75.

A pair of Lafayette KT400 monoblocks using KT88s in push-pull.

Circuit cards from a UNIVAC that was donated to our high school and disassembled in 1979.

A BIC T-3 two-speed cassette deck.

An EICO 625 tube tester in a blue hamertone color scheme!

H. H. Scott 350 wideband FM tuner.