Taken from High Fidelity magazine, June 1955

The 210-C Dynaural amplifier combines a good 23-watt amplifier with what is probably the most elaborate pre-amplifier-control setup ever offered in this form. In many ways, the 210-C's front end is even more versatile than Scott's super equalizer-preamp, the 121-A, and is very little larger.

There is still only one phono channel, to be sure, and three high-level channels rather than five. These will be enough for all but unusual installations. The selector switch has eight positions for the phono channel; in three are furnished curves particularly suitable for 78-rpm records, marked European, RCA-London, and Columbia. Five curves are furnished for microgroove records: Special (has RIAA turnover and very little rolloff), London, Old AES, RIAA-NARTB-Ortho, and Original Columbia. This is certainly a wide and well-considered selection. Incidentally, there is a difference in gain between the 78 and microgroove positions so as to compensate for the difference in pickup output levels — a clever idea, and a practical one. A comprehensive table of record labels and recommended equalization curves is given in the instruction book.

Dynaural noise suppressor and filter circuits are effective on all input channels. These are the same controls and circuits described in the recent (November 1954, page 93) report on the Scott 121-A. Properly operated, they can be used to good advantage in eliminating radio interference and tape noises, as well as record pops and scratch. Bass and treble tone controls can be called normal except that they provide for perfectly flat response in their zero settings; they are then effectively not in the circuit at all. Most standard tone controls balance the boost circuit against the attenuation circuit in the middle position, which often results in a response peak or dip. As in the 121-A, these controls do not cause ringing on transients.

Loudness compensation, which can be switched in or out by a front-panel control, is less drastic than called for by Fletcher-Munson curves; to our ear, it is much more pleasant than full compensation.
The 210-C is out in front in the matter of facilities for operation with a tape recorder. There are two signal takeoffs for feed to a recorder; one, of low impedance, is ahead of noise suppressor, tone and volume controls. A flat signal can be fed to the recorder in this way, while the rest of the amplifier is used to drive a monitor speaker, and the settings of these controls will not disturb the recorder's signal. But if you want to dub some old records to tape you'll want to use the noise suppressor and possibly the tone controls. Very well, there's another output jack that is connected just ahead of the volume control — the signal at that point is affected by the NS and tone controls, and you can use that to feed a recorder. Now, suppose you have a three-head recorder from which you can monitor instantaneously the signal that's going on the tape. Connect a lead from the monitor or output jack on the recorder to the pin-jack receptacle on the 210-C that is marked "Monitor" and you plug into the power amplifier section directly; the connection from the 210-C's preamp-control section to the power amplifier section is broken automatically. Neat! You are then using the front end to handle one signal and the amplifier for another (you needn't plug the monitor signal from the recorder into that connection if you don't want to — you could, of course, dub records while listening to something else, by plugging the audio from a tuner into the Monitor jack). The instruction book shows several possibilities for using these connections to keep a recorder permanently hooked into the system.

With flexibility such as this, and a powerful, clean, and capable amplifier to boot, the 210-C is quite a package. It is designed so that it can be used out in the open; the metal case is perfectly presentable. A panel-mounting escutcheon is available too, if you want to enclose the unit. That $172.50 price tag, which looms large when you get a first glance at it, seems like a bargain after closer examination. Scott has reason to be proud of this amplifier. — R. A.