JBL Question

[lpd]

Hi guys. I recently bought a JBL SA-640 amp but can't find any information on it except a Japanese page with specs. Anyone here know how to access a manual or have any information on it?

[BMWCCA]

Crickets:
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?32653-Anybody-familiar-with-the-JBL-SA640-vintage-amplifier-any-good-or-collectable

The Japanese site translated shows a year of 1980 and a matching pre-amp, neither of which I've ever seen. Could be Japanese market only.

[lpd]

Crickets:
http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?32653-Anybody-familiar-with-the-JBL-SA640-vintage-amplifier-any-good-or-collectable

The Japanese site translated shows a year of 1980 and a matching pre-amp, neither of which I've ever seen. Could be Japanese market only.

Retailed for a lot of $$$. Wonder if it lives up to its price tag? There are 120v and 220v on the market but mostly in Japan.

[BMWCCA]

Retailed for a lot of $$$. Wonder if it lives up to its price tag? There are 120v and 220v on the market but mostly in Japan.Nothing about it really screams "JBL" to me. Wonder if JBL Japan farmed it out elsewhere and just rebadged it. :dont-know:

Can you open it up and see if it has any indication of where it's made, or maybe who made it?

[lpd]

Nothing about it really screams "JBL" to me. Wonder if JBL Japan farmed it out elsewhere and just rebadged it. :dont-know:

Can you open it up and see if it has any indication of where it's made, or maybe who made it?
It's JBL. Check out this thread bill888 designed. Tried to contact to no avail. :)

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?18576-Why-You-chose-JBL/page3

[BMWCCA]

It's JBL. Check out this thread bill888 designed. Tried to contact to no avail. :)

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?18576-Why-You-chose-JBL/page3

What was I supposed to see there?

[lpd]

What was I supposed to see there?

If you read bill888 comment in the thread, he designed this amp for JBL as well as L220 and a few others. It's a JBL product.

[Dave Cawley]

If you read bill888 comment in the thread, he designed this amp for JBL as well as L220 and a few others. It's a JBL product.

This is it :


Long and boring…

It seems that JBL and I chose each other. In 1958 when I was in kindergarten I was in the same class as Bill Thomas’ son Nikki. We went through elementary, junior high and high school together. In grade school years my friend and I would go to Nikki’s mansion in Los Feliz for play dates and Nikki would throw their dog in the pool for laughs (he was sort of a spoiled child and a little difficult to control). We didn’t know that Nikki’s father was the owner of JBL…we were just told that he had an “electronics” company. In 1977, I needed a job to pay rent. My girlfriend at the time worked as a cashier in a Hollywood carwash and met Arnold Wolf. Through that connection I got a job at JBL’s Sherman Way facility as a warehouse Packer…that is I put finished products in cartons for shipment. It was a crap job but I only did it for five months because I transferred to the engineering department in Northridge as a Junior Draftsman doing DCN (Document Change Notices). My junior role only lasted couple months because I was an engineering major in college so they quickly put me in new product design. The first products I worked on were the SG620 preamp, SA640 power amp, L220, L150, and the ferrite transducer changeover. Over the years I’ve worked on the Radiance series, L40, L50, L96, L112, L250, 4400 series, J series, biradial and constant coverage horns, Everest, K2, T series auto sound, and other products I can’t even remember. In 1985 I left JBL and along with seven of my former JBL engineering coworkers went down the road to Rocketdyne to work on rocket engines…and most of us are still here today. I still own JBL speakers (L300 and L100) and I’ve owned many others in the past (4333, 4315, L26, L40). I haven’t been back to JBL in 20 years but I still know many people that work there.

[lpd]

This is it :

Got the amp yesterday. Pretty stout beast. Boards looks well populated with quality components. Cleaned it up a little and will test drive later this week.