Should I buy a Cosmic LAB 5000 Amplifier for 4500/-

frend2001

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Hi FMs

I've just come across an old guy who has a PHILIPS 242 TT and a COSMIC LAB 5000 Amp. He's asking 4500/- for amp.

My humble question is...

1. is it really good ?

2. is it worth 4500/- ?

I'll hook it up to my COSMIC CO GRAM TT.

Plz guide
 
Hi FMs

I've just come across an old guy who has a PHILIPS 242 TT and a COSMIC LAB 5000 Amp. He's asking 4500/- for amp.

My humble question is...

1. is it really good ?

2. is it worth 4500/- ?

I'll hook it up to my COSMIC CO GRAM TT.

Plz guide

Lab 5000 is a good amp and sought after. It was the beastlier of the cosmic amps. Its a good vintage amp.

*if* you decide to pass, and if you dont mind, one of my friends would be interested in the amp. Thanks.
 
Lab 5000 is a good amp and sought after. It was the beastlier of the cosmic amps. Its a good vintage amp.

*if* you decide to pass, and if you dont mind, one of my friends would be interested in the amp. Thanks.

If you are talking about the last generation of lab concert 5000 amps, then i owned one

I am sure after doing some proper mods like using better capacitors, power capacitors sound will improve but in stock form I am sorry to say it was nothing great

It also depends what is your use. If its just for casual listening without caring much about quality of sound, it can serve you

But, if your hopes are that it will be in league of vintage sansui, pioneer, kenwood or yamaha you will surely be dissapointed
 
Cosmic amps were perhaps the best Indian engineered amps back in the 1970s and early 1980s. A lot of us have grown up listening to thease and are attracted to these due to nostalgic reasons. However if you want to enjoy music with your amp, suggest you go for a much better amp like NAD which would be marginally above your current budget, but the sound quality significantly better. A vintage NAD can cost between Rs.4 and 10k.
 
1. is it really good ?
No

2. is it worth 4500/- ?
Only if in complete working condition. To really bring it up to spec you may need to do a complete re-capping.

I'll hook it up to my COSMIC CO GRAM TT.
This is the best reason to get this amp. You will get a COSMIC set just as in the old days. I assume you have the COVOX speakers and still better the COSMIC Tape decks.

That combination would make men salivate back then.
 
I have opened a COSMIC amp/spkrs - the quality is bad - I would not pay more than INR 1k - 25kg of rice. (in fact I would pay decidedly less and try to make do with headphones) The speakers are heavy because of the iron used not because they have used hardwood. Mild steel costs 40/kg. The insides are all plywood. The transformer is huge and heavy because of poor quality lamination. The screws are rusted in a dry environment. The PCB is cotton impregnated phenolic resin (the cheapest board material barring perfboard). The speaker wire insulation has cracked in a couple of places. Considering the amount paid new, it looks to be designed to fool and deceive people (rosewood veneer case). COSMIC is a trademark of MANUBHAI B.DESAI

They sound all right because of the weight. (i'm not particularly finicky or able to appreciate finer sound anyhow)

I have been using Cosmic gear since 1971.
The system that my Dad purchased brand new that year was CO30 amp Covox 1500 speakers. The speakers had two full range drivers each, wooden slits with aluminum trim, veneer finish. This was a good sounding system that never gave any trouble during the eleven years it was with us.
In 1982 my father upgraded to CO60 amp and Covox3500 3 way speakers. I used this for 20 years One service was done at the Cosmic factory after ten years of heavy use. I still have this system, in storage, it requires service and repairs now.
Today I have Covox 4500 speakers on rotation in my system. My friends who own brands such as PSB, AudioNirvana, Magnepan have been astonished by these.
I have not found any iron (?) In these speaker cabs. The construction is of thick chipboard with heavy damping and bracing. This was the standard method of speaker cab construction by commercial manufacturers of those days. I have seen this type of construction in JBL and Celestion too. MDF was not around then. Hardwood was used only by some enthusiastic persons who had their cabs custom built locally. My Tannoys fit that description.
Phenolic pcb was a standard during those days all over the world. My Dynaco and Leak amps also sport them. Glass etched pcbs were not available during those times.
Cosmic was a serious manufacturer who produced serious HiFi from their five storey factory at Andheri MIDC, Mumbai,
More than one generation of thousands of families have been able to enjoy and appreciate music with their systems. We should respect Cosmic and the company's founders/owners for that.

Regards,
 
COSMIC was a Big Name in Indian HI in the 1970s..... Big Name because well marketed and distributed.

However the sound quality was Mediocre to Shabby .... depending on the product. The LAB 5000 was their Best & Most Expensive amp ( approx Rs 5,000, I think, Not sure). At that price, it was Shabby from the point of view of what went into it and the sound quality.


It was easily bettered by the NOVA 101 (Indian amp) that was priced at Half as much.....

Cosmic also offered Speakers.... EASILY Outstripped by Other Indian Brands like Arphi.

If you have a lot of vacant table space, and Notaligia for the brand, you could buy it .... I would not touch it... Nothing Memorable
 
Wow nice to see a 6 year old thread revived! It does not happen always!

Cosmic amps in my opinion had muscle to drive for sure....needed an EQ to get some decent playback and yes occupied a lot of space.

Very few are seen over olx available today. Issue is that repairs get difficult as parts not available and skillful repairers are few who do transistor board level repairs.
 
The era when these Cosmic amplifiers were made they were mostly paired with Cosmic speakers. The Lab series was powered with dual symmetrical power supply. The Lab series had the upper edge over their CO series and to the single ended power supply in Philips amplifiers in those days. Only Sonodyne amplifiers had similar split power supply. The use of dual symmetrical split power supply in direct coupled output stage is no doubt had an advantage over the single ended supply which uses a capacitor at the output connection the speaker load.
But dual supply amplifiers need a D.C. detection and protection circuit at the output circuit connecting the speaker load which tripps off the speaker load preventing speaker damage in event of any fault or instability preventing the passing of D.C volt into the speakers. The Cosmic Lab series and Sonodyne doesn't had this employed in their circuitry.
Almost 99% of the foreign brand amplifiers in those days had this protection circuits incorporated in their units.
So connecting your beloved expensive speakers
to these Cosmic & Sonodyne vintage amps will always put your favourite speakers at risk.
 
Thank you for noting this point. Nowadays, speaker protection modules are easily available from various sources. If anyone is using one of these Cosmic or Sonodyne amps, the module can be added without much hassle. We have already done that for some amps like Hiraga Le Monstre.

Was this Nova amp capacitor coupled or had a symmetrical supply? Did it have the protection circuit?

Regards,
 
The Nova Amps all used symetrical Power Supplies.

There was short circuit protection but no DC offset sensing n cut off.

Supply rail fuses adequately protected the speakers.

The Nova 101 was 30 Watts n 201 was 50 Watts (RMS per channel) similar to the Lab 3000 n 5000 respectively.

The Nova amps used the then current gen of Output Darlington transistors that were much faster.

The pre used an op amp for the tone control ensuring adequate Gain bandwidth to provide 20 dB treble boost without increased distortion ( The lab 3000 n 5000 used a sigle transistor gain stage for its Baxandall tone control).

All in all, the Cosmic Lab 3000 n 5000 amps were dated... atleast 5 years behind components available in India.

Their marketing n brand value saw them through.....
 
Cosmic turntables were sold in Kolkata market. Liked the wooden attire. Even three years ago I saw a pre-owned cosmic TT at the shop of Illiusbhai in Kolkata. I targeted to grab that beauty but unfortunate was I . It was already sold to a guy who also owned a cosmic amp.
 
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I dont want to sound negative but whenever someone consults with me about buying Cosmic amplifiers, i only point towards the nostalgia quotient, many would have grown up in homes with parents owning these and want to relive the experience. They were pretty pricey in those times and hence usually the upwardly mobile Indian customer could buy these. Cosmic, Norge, Bevox, Enbee, Sonodyne and later, EMI Sonic came up with some good rigs, especially the Cosmic cassette decks, which were essentially Akai decks. Cosmic turntables and the EMI Sonic turntables were quite good and speakers from Cosmic and Enbee were quite popular. I have only heard of these brands as the audio guys at the time (my father included) used to talk about these. Most of these however, got killed by the inflow of Japanese rigs (especially Sony, Akai and Pioneer) in the late 1970s, especially here in Kerala with the 'gulf' boom. The Japanese cassette decks, turntables, amplifiers and speakers (some even had tuners and equalizers) were definitely far superior sounding and soon became aspirational for many. There were the regular brands like Philips, HMV, Nelco, Murphy, etc also making gear in India in the 1970s but in my opinion, Philips for example had better products coming in from Holland. I recollect sometime around 1973-74, our neighbour, who was in the merchant navy, showed up with this rig from his european travels and it sounded like nothing we had heard until that point :)
 

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Cosmic also offered Speakers.... EASILY Outstripped by Other Indian Brands like Arphi.
So let's look at the attached pics. Cosmic 4500 and Arphi Aquarius (am not sure). Both have lived in Mumbai's humid wether throughout their life.

1) Cosmic cabs are in much better condition, I can see some difference in the board used.
2) Cosmic woofer cones (most important) are in perfect condition. The reverse surround gives very controlled and tight bass. The surrounds, spiders and basket are identical to Coral originals pictured here. I believe the cones with could attached were imported and baskets were Indian manufacture. Arphi used cast baskets with paper edge cones that appear to be Indian made. The paper edge woofer (actually a midbass) is assisted by another 12" cone stuck in the baffle, acting as a passive radiator. Most foreign brands that have PR based designs use radiators that have their own baskets, spiders and surrounds.

3) Cosmic is a complete 3way system with a proper crossover. Arphi is a two-way with just high pass caps for the tweeters.

Am not dissing Arphi. I would call their design and manufacturing approach as frugal. Both Cosmic and Arphi made gear which they expected to give trouble free service for for 10/12 years, it seems Cosmic has survived better for a longer period. I have heard both brands speakers when they were current back in the day and they sounded equally good. But it required Arphi to have a larger cab size ( and probably higher price point) to match Cosmic speskers.

Thank You,
 

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Today on 18th Nov 2021 bought a cosmic lab 5000 for 10k very nicely maintained . I'm n my 30s my dad owned lab 3000 and 4000 all went to scrap shops after his demise. He was a cosmic lover. even I was very young to safe guard those pieces of jems. Was really not sure for how much he bought these cosmic amps. Now owning one my dad would be happy if he was around. Mis him
Can some post the exact watts per channel.
 
Purchase the Audiolab 6000A Integrated Amplifier at a special offer price.
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