Here’s a great story about Michaelson & Austin TVA-1 tube amplifier by Tom Nuyts from Ilumnia. “Out of approximately 2000 units ever made this original Michaelson & Austin TVA-1 is probably the most valuable still in existence. This TVA-1 was sold at Audiofan in Antwerp in 1980 and only used for about 10 hours. It passed the QA test at the factory but was delivered with a production fault. One solder point was missing or very badly applied (see picture). The first owner who bought it back then was in the middle of moving to another house and stored the amplifier at the attic. Due to personal circumstances he never looked back at the amplifier. Now, 40 years later, he moved again and found the amp sitting there waiting patiently to show his magic. The solder point (together with the bias capacitors who also died due to this failure) has been repaired and we can genuinely speak of a NOS TVA-1 amp.”
“It gathered a beautiful patine over the years and on the inside it looks as can be expected : brand new.
The complete history of this amp has been documented by use of emails from the purchase of the original owner, as well as the original schematic of this specific amp (I haven’t found any schematic on the net which matched 100% with the values of this amplifier).
The TVA-1 is the grandfather of almost all of the Tim de Paravicini designs, such as amps build by Michaelson & Austin, Mentmore, Papworth and of course EAR Yoshino.
Looking at the history of HiFi this amplifier represents an era of tube amplification and a milestone in tube circuit design. It touches your soul like no other can and therefore deserves the title of being an “Icon”.”
