good vintage Amp/Receiver with good Phono-Stage

for now i range between the pioneer sx-series (they were just plain beautiful!) and the kenwood kr-series (because of the almost warm/tube like sound?). now looking to find a good deal.

not really into technics, because i already own one.

  On 2/6/2013 at 2:47 AM, joshuatx said:

A 70s receiver, not even a super hi-end one either, is inherently louder, warmer, and more rich in sound. Even the smallest Pioneer SX receiver with say, 30WPC (60 total) will be noticeably louder and fuller to even the laziest ear than any new Pioneer receiver putting out a 150WPC. The reason new ones are higher but sounds pitiful in comparison has to do with A LOT of factors: new receivers have higher distortion not factored in, aren't giving stats for 8ohm versus 4ohm power, have a plethora of additional features that suck power, etc.

that's exactly my thoughts. back in the days watts were watts, if this makes any sense. and i think back then they used better parts and had far better build quality, just look at all the vu-meters, lights and wood cabinets. not that they are making just junk nowadays, but you have to pay a lot more for good quality. and there are so much audiophiles in these days of digital and "high quality" compressed music and flac and wav and so on, that they've forgotten that the 70s were a great time for audiophiles, because back then it was all analog and it was a pleasure to listen to music. i remember my dads 70s soundsystem and even my brothers 80s pioneer amp sound a lot better than most comparable components now.

so thanks for all your exellent replies and keep coming...

and osc, tell me about your teac...

I keep looking for Kenwoods myself, some even came out in a darker gunmetal gray that looks really nice.

drools...

If you like those brands because of the look and consistency keep an eye on Yamaha, Onkyo, and Sansui. I haven't seen anything bad said about those. Technics made stuff that looked like Pioneer/Kenwoods such as their MCS brand, everyone did really - JVC, Technics, Sanyo, Akai, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, all had flagship hi-fi models.

These might be helpful too for ideas of what to look for as well:

http://austinstereo.com/

http://www.thevintageknob.org/

Beyond Japanese silver-faced there's US based brands like Marantz, Luxman, Rotel, and Fisher (tread carefully, these names became cheap Sears/K-mart brands tho in the 80s) and there's distinct, more minimal/modern designs from NAD, Photon, Bang and Olufsen, Harmon & Kardon.

Also - these are all solid state receivers. Tube is basically either really old 60s and early 70s units. The maintenance factor is way higher and they will perform great, sound even warmer especially, but overall the max power output is lower. The exception is tube-based expensive hi-fi stuff now. I know McInosh is king when it comes to such tube-drive amps.

yeah for sure. my more contemporary Cambridge audio amp while sounding very clear and well constructed simply does not have the same juice. i've cranked that volume knob nearly all the way to the right on a few occasions.

edit: that kenwood looks incredible, joshuatx

I picked up a really good musical fidelity a100 for about £100. Fantastic amp

  On 2/6/2013 at 7:52 AM, joshuatx said:

Holy shit! If I ever replace my kenwood, it's going to be with one of these

  On 2/6/2013 at 2:47 AM, joshuatx said:

A 70s receiver, not even a super hi-end one either, is inherently louder, warmer, and more rich in sound. Even the smallest Pioneer SX receiver with say, 30WPC (60 total) will be noticeably louder and fuller to even the laziest ear than any new Pioneer receiver putting out a 150WPC. The reason new ones are higher but sounds pitiful in comparison has to do with A LOT of factors: new receivers have higher distortion not factored in, aren't giving stats for 8ohm versus 4ohm power, have a plethora of additional features that suck power, etc.

 

I'm really not the one to explain it, better google it for better info. These comments might help. This too. It's very noticeable though. My little Technics receiver is early to mid-80s era (has a quartz digital tuner for example) but the amp is solid state. At best probably only does 15-20 WPC in 8ohms (based on what little info I could find) but it is far louder and cleaner than my old 500W A/V receiver ever was - and it's subwoofer alone took up more wattage. Most audiophiles would consider it at best mediocre because of it's era and build but it's easily better than anything else I've owned. I barely crank it past 2-3 out of the 10 on the volume.

Yeah, I just read the specs on my old 1515 & its claimed it's only 15wpc but I use to live an arts community & there was an african dance class below my room once or twice a week. It was so effing annoying - after a while, to keep my sanity I began to decimate them & everyone in that wing of the building with a bubble of SOTL at full volume. Eventually the dance class stopped all together. That thing had more juice than I've ever dealt with in a home stereo system.

i 've bought a Pioneer SX535 yesterday on ebay for 50 euros (not really bargain, but i hope i'll like it). according to the seller it was serviced a while ago, but the lighting is not working (hope it's just a fuse, if not i have to get bulbs and solder them in, not much drama). now i need a pair of speakers, than i will build a second system for the living- or bedroom...

sorry for such a late reply, been putting together a new computer lately and it's been causing some trouble.

anyway, the amp I have is a TEAC AS-M50, as shown below

I believe my father bought it in the mid 70s, and it's still going strong. Not even had to replace the lamps in the VU meters. The volume pot is a bit crackly when adjusting the volume, and in the summertime when you first switch it on after it's been off for a while, it'll pop through the speakers a few times before it adjusts, but other than those few niggles it's not doing too bad for a 40 year old piece of kit.

I can honestly say I've never heard a home amplifier sound as good as this one. But I'll admit that I might have nostalgic feelings attached to this and my sense of quality may be biased here...

This amp is awesome, to me anyway.