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Plug interconnects into the two RCA jacks on the bracket on top of the amp chassis.
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The "On" light and all control knobs are inoperative except for treble which controls volume (and on/off on the blackface amps; on/off is a separate knob on the brown-face AA-161). All jacks on the back of the chassis are inoperative. The bypassing of all these controls and jacks is, in itself, a major sonic upgrade.
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For the right hand channel (looking from the back of the amp), connect speaker ground (black) to screw terminal marked “C”. Connect speaker + (red) to appropriate impedance: 4,8, or 16 ohms. For the left hand channel (seen from back of amp), connect black short wire coming out of chassis top to appropriate impedance-marked screw. Connect speaker ground to "C" and speaker + to screw marked "S".
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Mount amp on wood shelf or bare floor (NOT on carpet) with two conepoints (or for interim use, two brass cap nuts) under the rear wood rail and one conepoint (or cap nut) under the front rail—all cap nuts flat side up.
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Plug in amp and try both orientations of the AC plug (the plug is non-polarized). One orientation will sound much better than the other—tighter bass, cleaner attacks, more transparent treble. Mark the plug's best orientation with a magic marker.
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Break in amp with music for 10-20 hours—BOTH THE NEW CAPS AND NEW TUBES NEED PLENTY OF BREAK-IN. then sit back and watch the little Heathkit smoke one solid-state behemoth after another.
Further Upgrades For Heathkit Amp
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Mount on Ultimate Triplepoint brass cones for a remarkable improvement in bass extension and bass tightness as well as a major increase in mid/treble clarity, detail and image focus. (The brass cap nuts give you about 1/3 the full improvement of the Triplepoints). Adding a maple platform and Isoblocks will double the improvement achieved with Triplepoints.
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For a surprising increase in both warmth and detail add Tube Anchors to eliminate tube vibration. If you're budget-limited, do the two small tubes first (they are the driver tubes for the 4 output 6BQ5's).
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For further tightening of the bass and extra midrange/treble sparkle and detail, add a set of Heavyhat Triplepoint brass weights: 1 small one on each output transformer and 1 large weight on the amp chassis right by the output tubes.
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Adding a Clearview AC Power Cord gives significantly more exciting dynamics, quieter significantly more exciting dynamics, quieter background, lots more detail and transparency. If you get our AC Power Cord Kit you can you to cut off the old cord just outside the chassis and then connect our AC Cord to it using butt splices crimped on with pliers. The MKII AC Cord gives extra warmth and bass relative to the MKI.
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