Power Amplifier - SAE 2200

I’ve always liked the looks of SAE gear. Their design is a good balance of bad ass and post-modern minimalist. Very industrial, very serious. I imagine they would fit perfectly in a sleek, futuristic, black-walled bachelor pad. You know the place – there’s a single, low-wattage bulb hanging from a bare wire in the corner above a brass sculpture of Orpheus that your ex-girlfriend made for you two weeks ago, right before you told her you’re life is just too complicated. The air is thick with the languid, subterranean tones of Bauhaus emanating from a pair of custom black lacquer Cerwin Vegas. Save for the red LEDs on the 2200, your SAE stack is camouflaged against the wall on the far side of the room. You sit and watch the crimson lights dance the tortured beat. Each ruptured pulsation of the woofers brings you one breath closer to insanity. “Bella Lugosi’s dead, undead undead undead. . .” Suddenly there’s a knock on the door. It’s the pizza guy, but you didn’t order a pizza. You pay for it anyway, sit back down on the futon, curl up a slice and take a bite. Anchovies. . . You hate anchovies, but Rebecca loved them. Ahhh, Rebecca. You take another bite, think about calling her, then stare back at the LEDs, those damn dancing LEDs.

How does it sound? Surprisingly cheerful! I only had this amp for a few weeks, and ended up trading it to some guy who collects all things SAE. He already had three of them in various stages of completion. The amp was fairly neutral as I recall. Nothing out of the ordinary. SAE started making these in 1978 and they were a respectable 100 watts per channel at 8 ohms. I never played Bauhaus through it, although I do remember a rousing rendition of Margaritaville on one of my test CDs sounding quite nice.

SAE, by the way, stands for Scientific Audio Electronics. They were founded in 1968 and taken over in 1985 by DAK electronics. DAK, in turn, folded in 1992 when its parent company went bankrupt. Don't you just love Wikipedia?

Here's some useful information the SAE 2200 from a guy who rebuilds them.

Have any photos or stories about your SAE 2200? Please leave a comment or email and I'll share them with the community.

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Tuner - SAE T101

First off, sorry for the lousy photo quality. This SAE T101 is part of a friend's collection and I took these as well as a few other pics for HiFiCollector.com with my cell phone camera. I'll bring my regular camera on my next visit.

My friend traded a pair of Advent Loudspeakers for this tuner a few years ago, and I'm about to do the same thing to acquire it. I'm not thrilled with my 33-year-old Pioneer SX-1050's tuner section as there's quite a bit of static when I move the dial and it's having trouble locking on to stations. One day I'll have it professionally serviced, but in the meantime, I'll use this SAE T101 as an outboard tuner for it.

According to my friend, it locks on to stations and sounds great - we'll see. I'm taking his word on good faith as I didn't feel like 'calling him' on his claim prior to our trade. It works both ways - he didn't ask to listen to the speakers I'm trading either. . .hopefully we'll do business again in the future.

How does it sound? - Stay tuned (ouch).

If you have any photos or stories about your SAE T101 tuner, please leave a comment or send me an email.

Want to hook up your iPod to your vintage stereo? Visit my Audio Accessory Store for some great values!