Hate to admit it, but ...

[Jack Crenshaw]

Lately I've bought a few Eico items on eBay, in addition to my usual,
beloved Heathkits.  It pains me to say this, but the Eicos just seem to
be higher quality and more reliable.

Over the last six months, I've bought no less than ten Heathkit audio
oscillator/generators, most of them the sine-square models of the IG-82
ilk.  Exactly zero of the latter have worked, with problems ranging from
totally dead (shorted power supply) to no output, to motorboating, to
stuck wafer switches, to horrible waveforms.  One generator, an AG-8,
generates the most perfect sine waves I've ever seen, but I've gotten
more used to the IG-82 sort of performance.

Today I unpacked two Eico sine-square generators, with similar specs and
similar operation to the IG-82.  Both work perfectly, as though they
were brand new.  Controls and switches are as silky-smooth as anyone
could wish for, and the switches ... um ... switch.  I dunno, mebbe it's
me and just a matter of chance variations, but from the small data base
I have, I think the Eicos are higher quality.  The IG-82 is, simply,
junque.

I also unpacked an Eico resistor-capacitor substitution box.  This thing
has clearly seen hard use.  Five resistors are clearly fried, or
obviously cobbled-up replacements. Ditto some of the larger caps.
However, except for these, and some unsightly soldering inside, the
thing seems sturdy and bulletproof, and all the switches work perfectly.

I also like the design, which has both resistors and caps in one box.
You can select between short (feed-through), open, resistor, capacitor,
and both series and parallel connections, all in the one box. Very nice.

Regulars might recall my raving over the Eico R-C bridge circuit, which
I though was so simply elegant.  Since then, I've learned that the
circuit is apparently identical to the Heathkit "condensor checker,"
including the now-infamous unbuilt-built-disbuilt-rekitted one for sale
on eBay.  I have two of these in addition to the Eico.  The main
difference, that I can see, is that the Eico works.

Is this merely a statistical anomaly, or are the Eicos really better?

Jack

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