Hundreds of thousands of Dynaco SCA-80Q integrated amps were sold, a large percentage of them in kit form. More than 40 years later, many are still in service. Many others are no longer working, but they still sit in storage because their owners are unable to part with their first serious hi-fi crush.
According to Dan Joffe, the manager at Akitika LLC, the company that makes Updatemydynaco products, “You can build and install a new power supply and stereo amplifier section with about 8 hours of work. Being able to build your equipment and have it sound this good is still a thrill for a lot of people.”
The upgrade kit costs $142, and may be ordered now from Updatemydynaco.com.
The kit features low distortion and clean sound, much cleaner than the original SCA80/Stereo 80 power amp section. It also has timing circuits and speaker relays for completely civilized turn-on and turn-off. It upgrades the power amplifier and power supply sections and it’s an easy alternative to the rather difficult repair of the amplifier section of these units. The resulting amp includes a speaker relay for pop-free startup and it’s also a cooler running, more efficient amplifier. The original amp modules dissipate 13 Watts at idle, all of it running through the 4 big power resistors. The new amp module dissipates 8.6 Watts, but all of that power biases the output stage, greatly increasing its linearity.
The kit includes full assembly and installation manual and a new power supply PCB and components; New power amp PCB and components (both channels); Precision pre-machined heat-sink: all the wire and hardware needed to complete the upgrade.
Additional kits
This kit re-uses the existing C9, C11, and C7 caps. Updatemydynaco also supplies upgrade kits for C9, C11, and C7 separately. The SCA80 C9 Replacement kit doubles the capacitance of the main filter in the power supply. This reduces noise and increases the amp’s ability to deliver bass. If an SCA-80 is humming a lot more than it used to, this kit (and perhaps the C11 kit also) will go along way to making any SCA-80 quiet and strong once more.
The SCA80 C11 Replacement kit replaces the simple 3-section silver can cap for an electrically regulated precision power supply. It drops right in, and provides steady and quiet 24V and 17.5 Volts for the high level and phono stages of the SCA-80's preamp.
The C7X2 kit replaces and upgrades the output coupling capacitors, going from 5000 uF to 9900 uF. Just like the power supply caps, the output coupling caps lose capacity over the years. The C7X2 kit allows restoring and improving the bass.
www.updatemydynaco.com
You can also contact Daniel Joffe by email here.
