EXTREMELY RARE USA JBL SA660 INTEGRATED AMP. A RESTORED PIECE OF AUDIO HISTORY

Description

This may be the Holy Grail of Vintage Audio! Incredibly rare iconic JBL SA-660 integrated amplifier. This is one of the very first fully solid state
High Fidelity
integrated amplifiers made on the planet. It was made in the 1960's - probably ~ 1966-67? It has become legendary for its awesome design and still excellent quality sound, and it borders on being a cult item for collectors in Asia . . .
I have only seen a couple of these available for sale in the last few years while I have been working on
this one. Simple parts specific to these like the side panels and the front corners sell for very high prices.
Note that I said I have been working on this unit for 2-3 years now on & off. Please notice the last picture I have posted to see the huge number of capacitors I replaced in it. I replaced EVERY electrolytic capacitor in the unit ( I left 2 of the large power supply caps in it simply to hold the existing rectifier circuitry in place - however, their respective values have been replaced with higher value caps).
At the time these units were produced, electrolytic capacitor manufacturing had not yet developed into yielding parts with long life. Most of the parts I took out looked bad, and measured low. Replacing these was absolutely necessary to preserve the original sound quality, and in no way detracts from the "original" nature of the unit.
Note that, in all the years I have owned this (25-30 years), I have never seen anyone offer one of these for sale (or its little brother - the SA600) that had the electrolytic capacitors replaced (very hard to work on). Part of the 2-3 years I have worked on this were spent sourcing the unique, correct value capacitors. People have been selling the SA600 & the SA660 with old low value capacitors for K-K.
The only other parts that I replaced where most of the phono circuit transistors. Again - at the time of manufacture of this unit, technology had not yet advanced enough to make "very low noise" transistors (usually an annular ring design), and the original transistors where a bit noisy ( I could hear it). I replaced these with very low noise metal can military grade transistors, and now the phono circuits are better than new. I also replaced the front panel lamp with a slightly higher voltage (38v vs 32v) so it would last a long time. Everything else in this unit is exactly as it left the factory.
I have put this unit through multiple tests under load, made the factory calibrations, and months of listening tests since I rebuilt it. It meets all original published factory specifications, and it sounds great (thus the months of listening tests). Every circuit works as intended by the genius designers.
Cosmetically it is in excellent condition - the photos speak for themselves. The walnut side panels are rare, and factory originals.