[REB]

I was fiddling around with the kenwood kt7002 and put on solitude (duke ellington classic) from the soundtrack of kansas city. That version is recently (well, ten years back or so) recorded and features a bass, piano, clarinet, trombone, cornet, trumpet, bariton, tenor and alt saxophones, guitar and drums. The recording is very clean, but was recorded as a live session under controlled circumstances, so you get the best of both worlds.
It sounded astounding. Separation of the instruments was really good, the bass had impact, the baritone sax actually gave me shivers running down my spine, the guitar sparkled. The details in the spaciousness (people humming and moving around) were impressive. The same album also has a track called 'solitude reprise' which is the same song, but now with drums and piano strictly in the background and with two standing basses (played by legend ron carter  and the then still young christian mcbride). The basses switch place continuously, alternatively playing the melody or playing the original bass part, culminating in the end in an extended bass solo (of two basses; is that still a solo or a double solo or a duo?

). It sounded like heaven, instant eargasm!

 

[RexAeterna]

to be honest,no one here on this site no matter how much they claim do not have ''golden'' ears. no one does. you can have very trained ears yes but that comes through lots of time listening and hearing different tones and harmonics. people don't know but reason why lot of instruments sound different is due to harmonics in the air. every sound is colored untill it hits our ear drum then it flattens out but still it all sounds different due to how the instrument harmonics react in the air. if everything was flat as people claim then all instruments would sound the same. i say if you enjoy your vintage amp more then that's perfectly fine. if you enjoyed your head-amp more then that's fine too but i'm not surprise lot of these vintage amps impress people. in order to get the quality in solid state build(or even tubes) you'll have to spend more than 2k to get the same push-pull quality design in todays economy. everything is sooo much more expensive to design and make nowadays. 
 
Quote:

Can someone help me?  Are my ears not developed or refined enough?
I have had some good amps: Woo Audio 6 upgraded, Corda Symphony, RSA X-7, Nuforce HDP and many other portable amps but I keep coming back to my Setton Vintage Amp.
It has a fuller, thicker, warmer midrange, wide spacious soundstage and more bass than any other amp.  In comparison, it makes dedicated SS headphone amps sound thin, flat and cold.
 
Beside maybe tube amps, does anyone prefer their vintage amps to dedicated SS headphone amps?  Maybe its just me and my lack of golden ears.
Should I try Audio GD C-2 amp?  Or will I regret it and prefer my old vintage amp?
 
 
 
 

 

 

[francisdemarte]

I think I'm the only one who does not like how the headphone out of my Marantz (2265B) sounds.

While it's powerful enough to drive just about anything, I find the sound thick, slow, and congested. Maybe I need a re-cap of the amp board, but the speaker out's measure perfectly in spec and sound great.

 

[scottiebabie]

Quote:

I think I'm the only one who does not like how the headphone out of my Marantz (2265B) sounds.

While it's powerful enough to drive just about anything, I find the sound thick, slow, and congested. Maybe I need a re-cap of the amp board, but the speaker out's measure perfectly in spec and sound great.

nope u & me too bra. i hope the marantz fans take it easy on me for the heresy but i do think that marantz's are overrated esp for the dosh they command nowadays. O they sound good'nuff but i find some others are better (to my ears) period. a great alternative is pioneers of which i currently have 2 & both sound excellent amp-out & headout. & for much less money to boot - im been eyeing (ownership depends on the whims of my households financial director) an SX-1050 for a 1/3less than what it would cost to buy a similar conditioned 2265/75.
 
cant really complain as i've made decent coin flipping the last 2 marantz's i've owned. the only thing i love about them is the gyro radio  tuning knob but then again, i hardly do radio & use it mainly for burn-in.
 
kenwoods another unrated brand that sounds great. some of their amps were designed by the team that branched off to start a small little audio outfit caled...accuphase. i think some of us mite have heard about them somewhere. LOL

 

[scompton]

Quote:

Has anyone tried Panasonic's now-discontinued line of receivers with digital amps [models SA-XR##]?

The only mention of them that I remember was by tfarney.  I seem to remember he compared it to the HK  A-402 and a Glow One but I can't find the posts.  I can only find comparisons to a Bithead, although he was posting about the Panasonic at the same time he was posting about the HK and Glow one.  If his signature is accurate, he kept the Panasonic.
 
Quote:

dude dont know if ya yanking our collective chains or ya serious but im gonna play along & take u for real. granted i havent heard a whole lot of headamps or any of the highend stuff eg.B22, Audio Gd Pheonix, etc etc but of all that i've heard, my vintage amps pawn them all...for peanuts to the dollar. so much so that i've even built myself a little custom voltage divider series of boutique resistors (kiwames FWIW) so i could power my cans directly from the main amp out ie.speaker outs. & yes to my ears, it sounds better thru the adapter box than thru the headout jacks. but ofcos not every vintage amp sounds good nor not every vintage amp sounds good with all cans. much like amp & speakers, some amps will sound much better with some speakers. only way to tell is to try it out which is why i have a crapload of vintage amps! LOL. & bliv it or not, all of them combined wouldnt add up to the price of your Woo6. heh

I heard a balanced B22 driving the LCD2 at a recent meet and it was pretty incredible sounding.  I doubt there's much that can pwn that particular setup on sound.  It's way out of my price range though, both amp and headphone.  Of all the high end rigs I've heard at meets, that's the first I've heard that tempts me to spend a lot.
 

 

[Skylab]

Well, the Skylab-Vintage-Receiver-as-headphone-amp bake-off is ON.  I scored a nice Sansui 9090 on off Craigslist, and a nice clean Pioneer SX-780, for $90.  So I will pit them against the Marantz 2275, and have a throw down.

 

[moodyrn]

I'm looking forward to those results. Maybe my vintage receiver cookie jar will be built back up by then.

 

 

[scottiebabie]

Quote:

I heard a balanced B22 driving the LCD2 at a recent meet and it was pretty incredible sounding.  I doubt there's much that can pwn that particular setup on sound.  It's way out of my price range though, both amp and headphone.  Of all the high end rigs I've heard at meets, that's the first I've heard that tempts me to spend a lot.
 

though i havent had the pleasure of listening to either the LCD2 nor a balanced B22 (& i mean that sincerely), i dont for a moment doubt the combo sounds great. & they should be spectacular being that both are amongst the pinacles of current headphone technology esp the B22 with the moniker of best SS dedicated headamp.
 
that said, if one hasnt heard my rig or something similar, one wouldnt know how high it flies it the exalted headamp heights. cost differential aside, one mite very well be truly surprised by how well a well synergized vintage amp would sound with the LCD2 or alot of other cans too. i personally have been enjoying my HE5-LE on a 32yr old Sansui & the very same amp recently gave a friend with a HE6 major goosebumps. hell short of ridiculous exoticas, i'd pit my 30ish young Technics receiver on a stock HD650 against any comers amp for amp.
 
considering that both the aforemention vintage amps costs 1/20th of a B22, i wouldnt mind being proved wrong. seriously! 

 


Quote:

Well, the Skylab-Vintage-Receiver-as-headphone-amp bake-off is ON.  I scored a nice Sansui 9090 on off Craigslist, and a nice clean Pioneer SX-780, for $90.  So I will pit them against the Marantz 2275, and have a throw down.

rite on S'Labman, been waiting for a faceoff like this for the longest. do include some well respected "dedicated" headamps to make this even more interesting will ya. IIRC your 2275's is full refurb while these 2 other seems to b private pickups. i've yet to buy an amp that worked perfect off the bat. at the very least, they all required a 'liberal" soaking of contact cleaner. even the headphone jacks been known to be filthy once in a while! heheh
 
i do hope u keep in mind the fact the 3 vintages  in dissimilar condition mite skew the results. regardless i await your vintage trial & tribulations with abated breath 

 
 

 

[pp312]

 
Quote:

 I recently posted on this by asking whether forum members think I'd enjoy an upgrade if I used a dedicated headphone amp. 

Assuming of course that a dedicated amp was an upgrade.
 
Definitely not a given.  

 

[Skylab]

Quote:

rite on S'Labman, been waiting for a faceoff like this for the longest. do include some well respected "dedicated" headamps to make this even more interesting will ya. IIRC your 2275's is full refurb while these 2 other seems to b private pickups. i've yet to buy an amp that worked perfect off the bat. at the very least, they all required a 'liberal" soaking of contact cleaner. even the headphone jacks been known to be filthy once in a while! heheh
 
i do hope u keep in mind the fact the 3 vintages  in dissimilar condition mite skew the results. regardless i await your vintage trial & tribulations with abated breath 

 
 

You are 100% correct.  I already took the Sansui partially apart and started the contact cleaner treatment. The Sansui was thoroughly serviced and cleaned a couple years ago, according to the guy who sold it to me.  It's in pretty good shape, but there was a little noise on the balance control.  So I have been using my contact cleaner liberally, indeed

 
The Pioneer I will get to crack open over the weekend, and we'll see what's in store there.
 
The one thing I will not be able to account for is that the Marantz had some caps replaced, and the others I have to assume are 100% original.  But of course the review will mention that.  And of course the receivers will get compared to traditional headphone amps.  Will be fun!!!!
 

 

[REB]

That's good news! Can't wait to see the results.
 
I do envy those of you in the States though. It seems so much easier to get hold of nice equipment for fair prices. I can't recall a sansui 9090 up for sale here!
 
Quote:

Well, the Skylab-Vintage-Receiver-as-headphone-amp bake-off is ON.  I scored a nice Sansui 9090 on off Craigslist, and a nice clean Pioneer SX-780, for $90.  So I will pit them against the Marantz 2275, and have a throw down.

 

 

[francisdemarte]

Take some pictures too!

 

[Skylab]

For sure will do that, love pics

 

[Skylab]

Well...
 
A bit of bad news, the eBay seller who I got the Pioneer from packaged it with a whopping one thin sheet of bubble wrap, and it was loose in a big FedEx box getting slammed around.  Not surprisingly, it arrived DOA.  Ugh.
 
Now the good news - in addition to the Sansui I got off Craigslist, I got a HUGE and HEAVY vintage Sony STR-7800 SD.  Late 70's vintage.  Some pics of both:
 
 
The Sansui 9090:
 
 



 
 
And the Sony:
 


 
 
I'm still going to see if I can score a Pioneer before completing the bake-off...

 

[pp312]

Some people have no idea about packaging. I received a CD player once with no packing at all, just knocking around in this big old box (thankfully it was okay). Some people are the opposite and wrap even cheap items up like a Russian Doll, with so many layers of wrapping that it costs twice as much postage. Eek.