Eico HF-87 with Dave Gillespie mods

Eico is an esteemed name from hifi’s golden age that so far has not appeared on these pages. I’ve seen a few of course, have read about their performance, but have never pulled the trigger on one. Recently a friend offered to let me live with his Gillespie modified HF-87 for a few months in order to provide a review, and of course I jumped at the opportunity.

Eico, or the Electronic Instrument Company, was famous for kits, and as with Heathkit and Allied-Knight, customers received all of the parts and instruction needed to assemble the product at home. Eico sold quite a variety back in the day, beginning mostly with test equipment like voltmeters, and eventually expanding into home audio equipment. The most renowned Eico amp is probably the 14 watt per channel EL84 based HF-81, a modest looking and utilitarian amp that is rumored to be an exceptionally good sounding amplifier. The 35 watt per channel EL-34 based HF-87 featured here is somewhat less well-known, but is also revered as a great sounding sleeper, and dates to the early to mid-1960’s.

Often called the “Poor Man’s Marantz”, the HF-87 provides a great contrast to the McIntosh sound that I’ve grown so fond of in recent years. The 6L6 sound of the McIntosh 240 and MC30 have dominated my big room in the past 3 years, after the long reign of Conrad Johnson’s EL-34 based CAV45. One thing I noticed right away when first auditioning the 240 was that it sounds quite a bit warmer than the CAV45 did. Firing up the HF87 for the first time, I was immediately reminded of the Conrad Johnson. Like the CAV45, the HF-87 has a big full sound that runs slightly to the leaner side. It images very well and has a drive and speed that are very satisfying, but it is not the “warm” sound that the 240 and MC30 produce.

I have to say that the Eico HF-87 is one of the cleanest sounding vintage amplifiers I’ve auditioned so far. The example I have was refurbished and updated by Dave Boothe following mods from Dave Gillespie, and I believe it has all of the mods that he has developed for this platform. One of these changes is adjustable bias, allowing the user to dial in the output tubes, and to use KT-77 tubes in place of the EL-34. With these mods the amp is quite a performer! It has a great sense of space and a very alive feeling to its presentation. It’s a fast, powerful amp and sounds quite good on basically every type of program material I tried it with. And it is completely silent at idle, a very nice feature.

In direct back-to-back with the MC30 and MC240, the HF-87 is somewhat clearer and airier sounding, while the Macs have a little denser and heavier feeling to their presentation. The Eico feels like a 911, while the 240 is more Corvette, if that makes sense. Although these days I do prefer the warmer tone of the 6L6, the EL-34 is a powerful, rich and very dynamic sounding output tube. And in the Gillespie modified Eico HF-87, the EL-34 really rises to its potential. Like the Conrad Johnson CAV45, the Eico creates a very lively and engaging performance.

One thing that jumped out at me with the HF-87 is the effect of tube rolling in the 6SN7 and 12AX7. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard as big of an immediate difference as I did in swapping out the 6SN7 on this amp. Tube changes always have some effect, but on the HF-87 changing the 6SN7 (and to a lesser extent the 12AX7) made an immediate and very audible difference. Going to my narrow gap RCA brought a little more romance to the room, while a pair of modern Psvane made the amp somewhat more cold sounding. So there is the possibility for a lot of user adjustability here. As far as power tubes, I liked the KT-77 slightly more than the EL-34, but changes here require rebiasing, which I find somewhat tedious, so I did not experiment very much with different brands and type of power tubes.

Vintage audio is one of the most rewarding corners of this hobby for me. I find it very satisfying to use and listen to an antique amplifier, hearing what the past offered and how it fits into the new chapter of modern home audio. Vintage amps have a tone and character that is just a little different than most of the new stuff, a difference I often prefer, and the Eico HF-87 certainly has this character. With 35 watts per channel its equipped to handle basically any speaker with ease and grace, and is ready to be the center of any vintage (or modern) hifi system. One caution would be that as kit amplifiers, the build quality of these units found in the wild will vary considerably. In this case builder Dave Boothe made it a new amp, and its been a real pleasure to experience that. This is vintage audio at its finest. Highly recommended if you can find a well restored example like this one. Happy Listening!

A very clean and classic looking amplifier. No fluff. The Eico HF-87 means business.

Simple terminal strips, like all 1950's and 60's gear. This one has been modified a bit, one addition being the IEC connector which allows the use of a modern, upgraded power cord.

Here is the HF-87 in my living room system on Bozak B-305 speakers. The Eico does very well with these big boxes, and really sounds quite a lot like the Conrad Johnson CAV45 that I owned several years ago. I’ve been using McIntosh amps on these speakers for the past two years or more, so it’s quite interesting to hear the EL34 sound here again. I like it, its very clean and powerful.

Telefunken smooth plates always brighten things up!

Psvane 6SN7 made this amp a bit cold sounding. I definitely prefer the older GE and RCA 6SN7 here.

One of my only nitpicks with this amp are the very tightly spaced input connectors.

Here it is playing in my smaller single ended optimized room. I’m using the amazing Coral 8A-70 drivers here, which really work well with higher power amps like the HF-87.