The one on the left I found on ePay circa 2004. So I put it away and bought a new VTL-ST85. I used it for a year or two (along with a Fisher 100 monobock on the other side), but it had a leaky filter cap which caused one of the transformers to heat up after a couple hours use.

I replaced the cracking power cord and powered it up. It was laying around in my Dads basement and actually came with the very rare tube cage. The one on the right was purchased new by my grandpa (and I'm 59 ). After reading that article I knew they had to be something very prized! I'm really sorry I didn't stretch on that now. Sometime before Katrina hit here I'd watched and bid on a set of 255 amps but they needed restoration which isn't something I am able to and I bowed out as they sold for about 750.00. The fact that Fairchild built those tube amps in the 50s and they were so much more expensive compared to the competition, it's easy to see why their priced like a Bugati. I started this thread because I had read an article about 9 years back about Mcintosh tube amps that referenced Western Electric and Fairchild as being better equipped and sonically better than Mcintosh which pointed my ears and made me start asking everyone I knew about this, but no one locally here in New Orleans seemed to know anything about them other than that they were known for their semi conductors? I'm sure if anyone takes a quick look at Ebay in hopes of finding Fairchild amps for sale, they'd also feel that the semi conductors are their main stay. Did you noticed the price of early Fairchild mono phono cartridges ? Like Western Electric, Fairchild is a well respected brand and anything bearing this name is usually rare and expensive.

More detailed technical informations about the design of the Fairchild amp's and their special transformers can be found in the NOV.1956 issue of RADIO & TELEVISION NEWS (p.72)Īnd yes, the most sought-after studio tube compressor ever was made by Fairchild (model 670) and if you're lucky enough to find one for sale it will cost you around 25,000 to 30,000$ Unfortunately, as you have probably noticed, finding a pair (at any price) is very difficult even on the well-know auction site. The Fairchild's are outstanding amp's and are not overvalued. I own a pair of 260's and would not trade them for any Marantz or MacIntosh tube gear.

The Fairchild 275 output transformer would deliver 70 watts at below 20 cycles with extremely low distorsion.

Very few amplifier manufacturers used such expensive materials for their transformers and Marantz was one of them. As far as the circuits are concerned these amps are fairly conventional but used a very high quality grain-oriented C-Core strip output transformer (especially made for Fairchild by Todd Transformers Corp). Rarity + quality + reputation are the main reasons.

Fairchild 260 amps