[ardgedee]

Quote:

If we span our search to middle 80's, then I think there are many small players made good stuff. (Adcom, Nakamichi, Technics, JVC and American startup companies)
It's really hard to pick out good stuff from more brands in 80's. And more sleepers are still under radar.
 
And I think I am the only person in this thread to push 70's Rotel stuff.
 

Early Rotel products, like early NAD, seem thin on the ground in the States but better-represented in Europe and Japan. That's a deal-breaker for a lot of participants here, since shipping overseas makes any vintage gear except the most esoteric stuff cost more than the quality is worth. Especially since old equipment is massive, relative to its complexity and power output. (It's not just large transformers, either. The baseplate of my Heathkit receiver is 1/8" steel; when I rescued it from the pallet that was going to haul it off to recycling, the baseplate was dented and the cassette deck that dented it had been crushed.)

 

[BmWr75]

Quote:

This is my first time to see such a nice KR-9050!! Wow!!
 
I have little brother KR-8050, it has nice sweet Kenny sound but a very fast pace. Do you find it a little quick?
 

Not sure what "quick" sounds like.  So, can't comment.  I listen to it mainly through speakers right now.

 

[cifani090]

Quote:

I have always wanted to try a high end vintage Kenwood as well.  Just haven't found one locally yet.

IMO they aren't as good as Pioneer.
 
Quote:

Yeah kenwoods are very under-rated. I kinda hated selling mine, I'm still on the look out for a good condition 9100 though. My only negative about the 9600 was it uses much higher value resistors for the headphone out than the pioneers do. I could drive the he-6 effortlessly through the headphone out. I couldn't go past 10:00, and 8:30 to 9:00 was a very comfortable listening level. The kenwood could get them to a decent volume, but they were under damped and didn't sound anything like from the speaker taps. But on the other hand, that made it possible the drive iems, and it still had plenty of power for anything other than an he-6.
 
But as much as I liked the pioneer, the kenwood just sounded better. But that thing was almost too big to even sit on top of my component rack. I knew it was huge but after getting the 2325, I was floored at how much smaller it was than the kenwood. The kenwood really makes it look tiny. It's even small compared to sx1010 I had. That's really a good thing since I could even put this on my night stand next to my bed. It's small enough to only use as a headphone amp. But it is however just as heavy as the pioneer was, well almost as heavy weighing in at 49.7(out of the case) pounds. So even-though it's small compared to other totl receivers I've had, there's still a lot in there. The transformer is just as big as the one in the kenwood!

The Kenwoods has alot of empty to them, as the Marantz's and Pioneers are company with every inch of space filled up with electrical components. Maybe it was because i had the KR-9000GX and such receivers such at the 9600 were probably better as far as compact weight goes.
 

 
 

 

[Meewoo]

Quote:

Not sure what "quick" sounds like.  So, can't comment.  I listen to it mainly through speakers right now.

Sorry, I don't know how to describe the sound. It has "high speed DC stereo" moniker on the face, so I use "quick". Someone in AK describe the difference between KR-9050 and Sansui 8080, he said 9050 sounds as in the same room with music and 8080 sounds as next room with music. I totally agree what he said. Should I use "forward" or something to describe it? My 8050 really doesn't have the "layback" or "dark" sound like 9400 and my KAs.
 

 

[moodyrn]

Quote:Originally Posted by cifani090 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 

IMO they aren't as good as Pioneer.
 

The Kenwoods has alot of empty to them, as the Marantz's and Pioneers are company with every inch of space filled up with electrical components. Maybe it was because i had the KR-9000GX and such receivers such at the 9600 were probably better as far as compact weight goes.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Disagree on both accounts. I can't speak for the kenwood you had, but the 9600 weighs in excess of 60lbs and every single inch was full. Actually the most impressive internals I've ever seen. It's actually two different cases. The front part is the preamp/tuner, and the back part is the power amp. There a thick steel plate that separates the two. But they really are two different cases which is probably why it's so huge. It wasn't just a big receiver that had wasted space. It's just as full as my 2325.
 
I could see someone prefering the pioneer sound(it really depends on preference). But the pioneer didn't mate as good with some cans as it did with others. The pioneer was a little analytical with my he-6, and a little too bright for my jh13. I thought it sounded superb the the stock d7000 I had and sounded even better when I tried the lcd 2's with it. But neutral to bright headphones wasn't the best pairing. Which is why I like the kenwood more. It's equally as good with neutral to bright sounding cans as it is with warm, lush sounding cans.
 
Technically, the two receivers were on the same playing field with the pioneer having a little wider sound stage( on of the best I've ever heard when it comes to sound stage width), but the kenwood had a deeper sound stage. Both are excellent receivers. But if I had an assortment of cans with different flavors, I would have to have the pioneer to go with one flavor and the marantz to go with another. The kenwood(kr-9600) would go with with just about anything. And with it, you wouldn't have different receivers with different flavors to go with different cans. It's sound signature would go with anything.

 

[5aces]

This brings to mind a question...do those tap adapters work only with SS units?  I recall something about frying output transformers for tube units if not properly impedance matched

Guitar players are known for their love of natural overdriven tones on a tube amp.
Power tubes driven hard by cranking the volume up in lieu of using effect pedals.

They also use attenuators to reduce the amplifiers power to a safe level,below the speakers power rating.
The less common form of passive attenuator incorporates a "step down" transformer to intentionally provide an impedance mismatch.
While this works to reduce the amplifiers output power, possible Output Transformer damage occurs if the technique is taken too far.
Perhaps this is what you are referring to.

Stress on the tubes would come from dialing up a strong amp all the way and running the attenuator at a whisper.
Some vintage amps have output transformers that were not designed for the amp to be fully turned up and played for an extended period of time.
Do you normally play your amplifier flat out into a speaker(or headphones) for an extended period of time without any issues?
Then running your amp flat out through a properly designed attenuator will probably not add any additional stress to your amplifier.

Tube amps and attenuators are a musicians best friend at times.
I'd like to see the different types of patch cords people are using to connect headphones to speaker amplifiers.

 

[cifani090]

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:Originally Posted by cifani090 /img/forum/go_quote.gif

IMO they aren't as good as Pioneer.
 
 
The Kenwoods has alot of empty to them, as the Marantz's and Pioneers are company with every inch of space filled up with electrical components. Maybe it was because i had the KR-9000GX and such receivers such at the 9600 were probably better as far as compact weight goes.
 

 
Disagree on both accounts. I can't speak for the kenwood you had, but the 9600 weighs in excess of 60lbs and every single inch was full. Actually the most impressive internals I've ever seen. It's actually two different cases. The front part is the preamp/tuner, and the back part is the power amp. There a thick steel plate that separates the two. But they really are two different cases which is probably why it's so huge. It wasn't just a big receiver that had wasted space. It's just as full as my 2325.
 
I could see someone prefering the pioneer sound(it really depends on preference). But the pioneer didn't mate as good with some cans as it did with others. The pioneer was a little analytical with my he-6, and a little too bright for my jh13. I thought it sounded superb the the stock d7000 I had and sounded even better when I tried the lcd 2's with it. But neutral to bright headphones wasn't the best pairing. Which is why I like the kenwood more. It's equally as good with neutral to bright sounding cans as it is with warm, lush sounding cans.
 
Technically, the two receivers were on the same playing field with the pioneer having a little wider sound stage( on of the best I've ever heard when it comes to sound stage width), but the kenwood had a deeper sound stage. Both are excellent receivers. But if I had an assortment of cans with different flavors, I would have to have the pioneer to go with one flavor and the marantz to go with another. The kenwood(kr-9600) would go with with just about anything. And with it, you wouldn't have different receivers with different flavors to go with different cans. It's sound signature would go with anything.

I almost bought a 9600, and from the pictures i looked at, yes it did look alot different from the KR-9000GX i had, and the 9600 did look full like say my SX-1250.
 

 

[Meewoo]

Quote:

Technically, the two receivers were on the same playing field with the pioneer having a little wider sound stage( on of the best I've ever heard when it comes to sound stage width), but the kenwood had a deeper sound stage.

x2.
 
To me, Luxman has best spacious sound stage. Headphone may not display the depth as speakers, but the difference is huge in speakers.
 

 

[sling5s]

I saw a Sansui-G3000 at thrift store. How do they compare to marantz and pioneer? How do they sound?
 

 

[davo50]

Quote:

As far as the fisher goes, it's both better than all of the vintage ss gear I've tried or owned and, not as good. Let me explain, the fisher like Skylab says is a very warm, very lush and romantic sounding tube amp. With cans that's already lush, it can be too much of a good thing, But with the right headphone and speaker pairing, the sound is beyond excellent, and down rite addictive. I modded my headphone out to be much more powerful than stock, and it can drive anything short of an he-6(use speaker taps for those). But like Skylab, I really like it with the he-6, and my T70s. Heck even my d7000. But the d7000 don't sound anything like stock. The cups are upgraded with lawton's sheoak cups, and I done partial diymarkl mods. So they now sound very neutral with just a touch of lushness, so not too lush for the fisher.
 

The Fisher is also very good with the HD800.  And I agree - not so good with the Audeze house sound.

 

[johto]

Here's my contribution:
 
I got this Pioneer Amp (SA-610) for free some years ago. 
Some pots were little noisy, because it was not been used in years, but after cleaning and using it, its been working 100%
 
They sure dont make amps today like they did back in the day (excluding high end amps).
This amp outputs "only" about 50 wattages, but these wattages are no "funny" wattages
No need to adjust the volume past 9 clock in normal use.

 

Pictures taken with Iphone 4s 
 
 

 

[wje]

Quote:

I saw a Sansui-G3000 at thrift store. How do they compare to marantz and pioneer? How do they sound?
 

Sansui (IMO) has a great sound.  However, when talking about the G-3000, it might be a bit light of features and possibly sound quality when compared to the others in the "G" series further up the chain.  I
forget where people have mentioned quite a significant bump - possibly, the G-6000 and higher.  About 6 years back, I had 3 Sansui receivers in my collection, but had to sell them for a move that we were going through.
 
I believe the three I had were the G-3000, G-6000 and G-7000.  In the picture, the G-3000 is in the middle of the stack - as you can see it has a smaller footprint.  The bottom one, the G-6000, I believe was one that I ended up applying new veneer to.  Sadly, it was damaged by FedEx and has gone off into the receiver after life.  The others were sold, but when I had them I did register the serial numbers on AudioKarma.  At the moment, I have a G-5700, which is pretty impressive. It's newer than the the G-3000, etc. - previous series.  Also, I have the 881, which was the flagship before the "G" series came about.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[flurry]

Has anyone ever heard of the Fisher CA 229 integrated amplifier? I have one lying around that I may hook my k240s up to tonight.

 

[sling5s]

I purchased it just to see how the sound was.  It's sounds pretty good.  To me it's very clear and airy sounding with the Magnums.  I haven't spent enough time to compare to my Marnatz and Pioneer but it's not a bad sounding receiver. It's definitely not as warm as the Marantz nor punchy in the bass as the Pioneer. Will see. 
 
Quote:

Sansui (IMO) has a great sound.  However, when talking about the G-3000, it might be a bit light of features and possibly sound quality when compared to the others in the "G" series further up the chain.  I
forget where people have mentioned quite a significant bump - possibly, the G-6000 and higher.  About 6 years back, I had 3 Sansui receivers in my collection, but had to sell them for a move that we were going through.
 
I believe the three I had were the G-3000, G-6000 and G-7000.  In the picture, the G-3000 is in the middle of the stack - as you can see it has a smaller footprint.  The bottom one, the G-6000, I believe was one that I ended up applying new veneer to.  Sadly, it was damaged by FedEx and has gone off into the receiver after life.  The others were sold, but when I had them I did register the serial numbers on AudioKarma.  At the moment, I have a G-5700, which is pretty impressive. It's newer than the the G-3000, etc. - previous series.  Also, I have the 881, which was the flagship before the "G" series came about.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

[cifani090]

Quote:

I saw a Sansui-G3000 at thrift store. How do they compare to marantz and pioneer? How do they sound?

Thank gosh you purchased it! I would of ran and grabbed it. Anything Pioneer, Marantz, Sansui,etc; and if its at a thrift ship, grab it!