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H.H. Scott TYPE 2550W "Scottie" AM/FM Receiver
The H.H. Scott 2550W "Scottie" offers
proof positive that Scott never let go of its 'one parts bin'
approach to manufacturing. An "H" chassis with two
boards, the Scottie is as close to design perfection as one
can get. The entire amplifier portion sits on a bottom facing
board, the tuner, minus its preamplifier (like just about every
receiver out there, the Scottie uses the phono stage as its
preamplifier) and power supply, both integrated on the other
board.
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Since the Scottie has a tiny symmetrical
output stage, a fixed a/c. and cathode bias, there's no
adjustment points on the amplifier. In the absence of
any technical literature to supply specifications, I rely
on my instincts to tell me that this little amplifier
puts out four splendid low distortion watts in class A
before pooping out badly in Class B.
Four class A watts being sufficient, I connected
the Scottie to the Quad ELS. Like the Stereomaster 341
that is its chronological brother (both being introduced
in 1968), the Scottie is sufficient for normal amplitude
listening. The Scottie utilizes a loudness curve and thus
provides a bit of extra bass emphasis, which the Quads
love to bounce out. Because the loudness setting is further
away from optimal with the Scottie in comparison to a
382B, another e.q. compromised contemporary, an appendix-like-operation
may be on the books..
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The Scottie can be connected to a 12 volt battery.
Coupled with a pair of screamingly efficient speakers, like
Jay Bee's home built pair or my Wharfedale W3's, the Scottie
could do the weekend party with plenty to spare. After all,
the Scottie will give up about 10 watts per side in B2 on the
sharp side of C before things fall apart badly enough to disturb
Louie Louie, or Layla.
The Scottie was marketed with a sweet little pair
of speakers to sensible types who heard a bargain at $200.00.
Plenty of Scotties were sold for use in the professional market.
The one shown here is equipped with an extra Cannon jack. It
supplied a signal that could drive cable lines for miles from
a receiving antenna to a retransmitting antenna. The Scottie,
alignment sweetened, doubtless served well as a stereo replacement
tuner for a 310C. A quick examination
of the tuner p.c. board will quickly convert any skeptic. The
parts quality is exceptional, and the circuits are all first
line, which is to say the Scottie's a 382B, not a 341. But the
Scottie betters the 382B. It has the i.c. phono stage that was
introduced in the 341 and would later be reserved for premier
products like the R74S.
The Scottie is a technically perfect tuner-preamplifier
that has this summer-ish amplifier attached to it. The box is
quiet. You can connect the loudspeaker signal to a power amplifier.
Scottie won't faze it. It is quiet. I hear velvet silence through
the Sennheiser 424's. That's good. But also important is the
Scottie's good manners. There are no turn-on transients with
it. It is because of this that the Scottie is perfect. It has
all of the quality of the best Scott AM tuner as evidenced by
the 382B or the 357. The front end is open, but Scott built
all of the critical tunable circuits into shielded boxes and
there's plenty of room for a cover to be added to provide further
shielding if necessary. In fact, the only thing that separates
the FM tuner from 2 uv performance is a bit of front end shielding.
The tuner is otherwise as close to qualitative perfection as
you can get. It looks like another piece of industrial art from
Scott.
The Scottie is for me, a perfect thing. It plays
loud enough into the Quads to satisfy me and my neighbours will
certainly appreciate Scotty's limitations. It won't play loud
into the Quads. But on the other hand, the Scottie uses very
little electricity. Since electricity and audions equate heat,
the Scottie is the perfect little summer amplifier. I can leave
it on all of the time, fie heatwave.
Lots of Scotties found their way on to yachts.
Because the Scottie shown below utilizes glass epoxy boards,
it is uniquely impervious to the effects of weather. Phenolic
predecessors did not do so well. Since the Scottie was made
between 1968 and 1971, and Scott made a gradual switch to epoxy,
some early Scotties may have been made with phenolic boards.
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Scott i.c. phono stage makes the Scottie
a reference piece
All of the tuner fits on to a single printed
circuit board
The Cannon jack points to a professional
purpose
A nicely implemented 5 transistor multiplex
adaptor
The 3 cans above the tuning capacitor house
the FM trim circuits
Two aluminum strips keep the output transistors
cool.
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