Turtlerock Forum

Matched pair of vintage TELETRONIX LA-2A 's.. :-)

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/VINTAGE-matched-pair-TELETRONIX-LA-2A-universal-audio_W0QQitemZ130141992269QQihZ003QQcategoryZ23793QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I wonder what makes these "matched" other than the fact that the seller tells us so. Haven't been turned on in more than 20 years, but should be just fine, eh?

Hmmm.

the seller is the one and only vincent gallo.. not known for letting stuff go cheap.

Doesn't seem to be known for using it, either...

I just Googled him - seems like quite the eccentric artiste...

He certainly is after expensive audio gear!! http://www.vincentgallo.com/classifieds/index.htm

How did you pick it was gear from him on EBay??

TimS..

these La 2a are the early eighties REISSUES and in my opinion well worth the price tag !
i just dont need to be thinking along those lines tonight - thanks tim thanks a lot

rick wrote:these La 2a are the early eighties REISSUES and in my opinion well worth the price tag !
i just dont need to be thinking along those lines tonight - thanks tim thanks a lot

Sorry Rick!! :-|
Was just more amazed at the matchaed pair rather than anything else.. and their price tag..

who knows what "matched pair" means when it comes to LA-2As? The key ingredient in a LA-2A is the optocell and the part that would need to "match" it's mate in the second unit. Opto cells are one electronic component that no matter how hard a manufactuer tries they all come out slighty different from each other. People who make LA-2s hand select the optocells so that their main characteristics of attack and release time and distortion fall within a desired range. The strike rate of cells that meet the desired characteristics can be very low ( lots end up in the bin ). So even two brand new consequentively serial numbered LA-2A will be very close to each other but not exactly the same. To confound the issue with "vintage" units, the opto cell can degrade with time pushing the unit further away from having "matching" to another unit.

Rob

My comment about "matched pairs" was meant to be facetious. Here we have a seller who states that he hasn't turned the units on in over 20 years; they are not consecutive serial numbers... "matched pair" reads to me like it means that he has 2 of them and wants to maximise the price he obtains for them.

Fair enough, but let's not trip over techno-babble.

more uleless info on la2a


i have had a long conversation with THE la 2a guru in la la land ( all he does is fix up la 2as )
he told me the key ingredient given that the thing works is the not the opto but simply
the main amp tube a 12ax7 !
more often then not the guy who thought his la2a was the best sounding one he ever heard ,
when he got it back from the guru
was listening to a particular 12ax7 set of characteristics !
the mystic RCA black plate seems to be the choice tube althuogh he told me sometimes a sovtec would do the job
and it seems that la2a circuit is a good one for "listening" to different 12 ax7 do their thing

interesting...since the implimentation of the 12AX7 in the audio path is absolutely bog standard and you'll find the same circuit in many ( most?) audio amps using 12AX7s then surely the rational that a particular brand is the smoking gun would apply to all these 12AX7 based units.

i was really suprised myself at this but i think his quote was something like " everybody thinks its the opto but i know its for a fact its the 12ax7 that makes them sparkle" i then had a long chat about this , decided not to send him my la2a until i tried a new tube, i put a new chinese 12ax7 in it and it still sounded dull , tried a sovtec and it sounded dull , put an unnamed but probably siemens ( telefunken ? ) one in it out of an old techtronix bit of test gear and the damn la2a came alive, much more sparkle and more tops during compression .

later because i did not quite understand this i bought a nos tb4 and put that in the la2a and i could not hear any difference then i swapped back the european 12ax7 for the chinese one and it was obvious .
so i guess the thing is if your la2a sounds dull , maybe the tube is not up to scratch ?
you with me rob or agin me ?

oh i'm with you on this one Rick! But my comments about the optos and the tubes stand. This is all part of the mystery of that surronds the differences between what we can measure and what we can hear.

Just out of interest I wonder what brand of tubes they use in the new Universal Audio re-issues.