[vid]

Quote:

VID I dont mean the off-set I means the current through the output devices. But if it is happening only in one input it wont  be that.

 
Thanks for your input still. Need to open the case one day and see what's going on.

 

[GoldfishX]

Assistance requested...Apologies in advance for the n00bness with vintage equipment.
 
My current set-up for my home stereo is a Marantz SA-8004 hooking into a vintage Kenwood KR-9400 (monster receiver). I have low end Technics speakers hooked into the Kenwood. I also use the headphone jack directly on the Kenwood a lot. Headphones are more important than speakers at this point.
 
Simply put, using this rig as a starting point, what can make this sound better? I have plenty of power with the Kenwood, as I cannot even turn the volume knob up 1/4 of the way without going deaf or shaking the house, but the sound quality is not the best. I am getting plenty of detail from the Marantz, but it lacks warmth/depth and the soundstage is poor especially on headphones. I was able to sample the Marantz player through a couple McIntosh preamps at a store and it produced fantastic, spaciouos sound through headphones.
 
Would I be better off using the Kenwood as a preamp and buying a dedicated power amp with a headphone jack (it has nice EQ controls)? Or vice versa...buying a preamp and using the Kenwood as the power amp? Would the latter help headphone listening? The low end speakers do produce good sound and I am dying to upgrade to something better, but the headphone output from the Marantz is far better than the headphone output on the Kenwood and that doesn't quite seem right.
 
At this point, I am not fully understanding how the Kenwood fits into the preamp/power amp equation. I know I want to use it somewhere, but not sure how to get maximum usage out of it. Would it make sense to get a second receiver and use that as the power amp (pre-amped by the Kenwood?).
 
Lastly, I am mostly looking at used vintage gear. Am looking for good price for performance (around $300 or so, more if something good is available).
 
Thank you!
 
And just as an aside...The KR-9400 is one sexy, beast of a machine! I love it!

 

[SpeakerBox]

Quote:

Assistance requested...Apologies in advance for the n00bness with vintage equipment.
 
My current set-up for my home stereo is a Marantz SA-8004 hooking into a vintage Kenwood KR-9400 (monster receiver). I have low end Technics speakers hooked into the Kenwood. I also use the headphone jack directly on the Kenwood a lot. Headphones are more important than speakers at this point.
 
Simply put, using this rig as a starting point, what can make this sound better? I have plenty of power with the Kenwood, as I cannot even turn the volume knob up 1/4 of the way without going deaf or shaking the house, but the sound quality is not the best. I am getting plenty of detail from the Marantz, but it lacks warmth/depth and the soundstage is poor especially on headphones. I was able to sample the Marantz player through a couple McIntosh preamps at a store and it produced fantastic, spaciouos sound through headphones.
 
Would I be better off using the Kenwood as a preamp and buying a dedicated power amp with a headphone jack (it has nice EQ controls)? Or vice versa...buying a preamp and using the Kenwood as the power amp? Would the latter help headphone listening? The low end speakers do produce good sound and I am dying to upgrade to something better, but the headphone output from the Marantz is far better than the headphone output on the Kenwood and that doesn't quite seem right.
 
At this point, I am not fully understanding how the Kenwood fits into the preamp/power amp equation. I know I want to use it somewhere, but not sure how to get maximum usage out of it. Would it make sense to get a second receiver and use that as the power amp (pre-amped by the Kenwood?).
 
Lastly, I am mostly looking at used vintage gear. Am looking for good price for performance (around $300 or so, more if something good is available).
 
Thank you!
 
And just as an aside...The KR-9400 is one sexy, beast of a machine! I love it!

 
I think the 9400 is a fairly well regarded piece.  My guess would be that it could benefit from a recap and an overall health check.  You could also look over at the AK site and see what other 9400 owners have done with them. If it were me I don't think I would give up on it right away.

 

[GoldfishX]

Haha, I am not giving up on it...I love it too much. I'm just trying to get the most out of it, but it is hard to do without understanding the preamp/power amp relationship. I don't want to start linking components at random...I feel like this thing could potential blow up a lesser amp if I used it as a preamp! The lights already flicker when I just switch it on.
 
It is indeed due for a tune-up though. It had some crackling in the right channel, but it has gone away. I'm assuming it was just just dust.
 

 

[SpeakerBox]

If it were mine - at a minimum I would treat all switches and pots with DeoxIt and replace all the electrolytic capacitors.  Have a Marantz 2230 that I was able to cleanup some high frequency harshness by using Deoxit on the push button switches.  You would also want to give it a good cleaning.

 

[Skylab]

It would help to know what headphones you are using.

Definitely clean all the pots and switches with deoxit. That's always a must with vintage gear.

 

[GoldfishX]

I am currently using a set of Grado SR-80's (I also used these to test the Marantz player hooked to the McIntosh preamp at the high end store). So my concern is based on an apples - to - apples headphone comparison. So I know what the Marantz player is capable of sounding like, even on entry level headphones. The Marantz headphone jack sounds better than the KR-9400's and that shouldn't be, to me.
 
tbh, I didn't notice that great of an improvement on some of the higher end phones at the store (actually preferred the SR-80's over the GS-1000's, though they were beaten pretty soundly by a set of Sennheiser HD700's). That is why I am thinking I might just be a single component away from aural sex, with what I currently have. I know the Marantz is fine, I know the SR-80's are fine for what they are and I know the KR-9400 is a powerhouse and highly regarded...but something seems to be missing.
 
BTW, I also have a pair of Denon AHD2000's, but I don't like their sound signature and will be putting them up for sale soon. They're kinda boring. Originally, they were my upgrade to the SR-80's, but that didn't work out so well.
 

 

[Skylab]

The Grado SR-80 are very low impedance, and the Kenny probably has a dropping resistor in the headphone output and this a high-ish output impedance. That's going to mean some potential problems with the Grados. Might not be the issue...but it might.

 

[dogwan]

X2 on what Skylab said.
 
It may seem like your comparing apples to apples here with the same headphones, but that may not be true.
 
As a testimonial, I have a vintage Hitachi integrated that sounds freakin' awesome through a decent set of speakers, but I always thought the headphone out was "meh". Until one day I plugged in a pair of 600 ohm AKG's, boy then it really sang. I traced the headphone circuit and it really just ran off the speaker taps internally with a dropping resistor. With my Grado's it was horrid. With my 300 ohm Senn's it was getting ok. But 600 ohm seems to be the sweet spot.

 

[dsavitsk]

The Grado SR-80 are very low impedance, and the Kenny probably has a dropping resistor in the headphone output and this a high-ish output impedance. That's going to mean some potential problems with the Grados. Might not be the issue...but it might.

Probably won't. Grados have a nearly linear impedance, so all the dropping resistor does is lower the volume a bit, and possibly reduce noise. Grados do well with a little bit of impedance anyway as they otherwise tend to sound too bright.

 

[GoldfishX]

Hmm, okay, let me ask another question...Is there any danger in hooking up other components to the KR-9400, either as a preamp or to use the Kenwood as a power amp? I have a cheapo amp I can experiment with, but I am concerned about the power of the KR-9400 causing damage to it. Issue or nonissue?

 

[BigCabDaddy]

Hmm, okay, let me ask another question...Is there any danger in hooking up other components to the KR-9400, either as a preamp or to use the Kenwood as a power amp? I have a cheapo amp I can experiment with, but I am concerned about the power of the KR-9400 causing damage to it. Issue or nonissue?

Should be fine if you use the preamp/line/audio/tape out.

 

[Silent One]

Some of these vintage irons are designed to do just that - use the amp with another preamp; use the amp's preamp with another amp, if one so desired... and multiple amps. I tend to do this with my SX-D7000.

 

[BigCabDaddy]

Just picked a long time desired amp off of ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/230965445458?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 Was a little bit of a knee jerk since I missed out on the big brother recently. Not one of those thrift store steals, but a good, honest price I'm hoping.
 
Anyway, I'm actually thinking of doing some of this deoxit stuff you all talk about. Any advice on how to go about it or is there a thread or something? Not even sure where you get it to be honest with you. I'm assuming it's some kind of contact cleaner, right?

 

[PhoenixG]

Quote:

Assistance requested...Apologies in advance for the n00bness with vintage equipment.
 
My current set-up for my home stereo is a Marantz SA-8004 hooking into a vintage Kenwood KR-9400 (monster receiver). I have low end Technics speakers hooked into the Kenwood. I also use the headphone jack directly on the Kenwood a lot. Headphones are more important than speakers at this point.
 
Simply put, using this rig as a starting point, what can make this sound better? I have plenty of power with the Kenwood, as I cannot even turn the volume knob up 1/4 of the way without going deaf or shaking the house, but the sound quality is not the best. I am getting plenty of detail from the Marantz, but it lacks warmth/depth and the soundstage is poor especially on headphones. I was able to sample the Marantz player through a couple McIntosh preamps at a store and it produced fantastic, spaciouos sound through headphones.
 
Would I be better off using the Kenwood as a preamp and buying a dedicated power amp with a headphone jack (it has nice EQ controls)? Or vice versa...buying a preamp and using the Kenwood as the power amp? Would the latter help headphone listening? The low end speakers do produce good sound and I am dying to upgrade to something better, but the headphone output from the Marantz is far better than the headphone output on the Kenwood and that doesn't quite seem right.
 
At this point, I am not fully understanding how the Kenwood fits into the preamp/power amp equation. I know I want to use it somewhere, but not sure how to get maximum usage out of it. Would it make sense to get a second receiver and use that as the power amp (pre-amped by the Kenwood?).
 
Lastly, I am mostly looking at used vintage gear. Am looking for good price for performance (around $300 or so, more if something good is available).
 
Thank you!
 
And just as an aside...The KR-9400 is one sexy, beast of a machine! I love it!

Hey, I had a Kenwood KR-9600 until recently. I was able to use it to run low and high impedance headphones just fine. It did initially have a mediocre sound quality through the headphone jacks, but it was 99% fixed with deoxit. A recap might have gotten the last 1%, but I didn't have it in the budget, haha. If you don't want to open it up, just hitting the headphone jack and your input ports with the right deoxit will get you most of the way there.