boead
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2003
- Posts
- 166
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- 10
A friend was astonished at how good his old early 80’s Kyocera Receivers’ headphone section sounded. He has a number of amps and was under the impression that it would take a headphone amp costing several hundred dollars to best it.
I have a 80’s Kyocera Receiver myself but I also have a early 70’s Sansui AU-9900 Integrated Amp which I tried out today – WOW!
I haven’t tried my Kyocera yet, its boxed away. I’ll pull it out in time but for now I can compare the old Sansui to an Audio by Van Alstine Trandesence 7 and I can mentally compare it to a Grado 1 and a ASL EL84 amp that a friend has/had. The soundstage isn’t quite as large as the AVA T7 but the richness and weight is certainly there. Detail is quite good although not so extended on the top end. The Sansui is in NO way bright or glaring, its quite tube’ish in its quality. Midrange vocals are very nice, bottom end is solid, strong and tight.
It absolutely runs circles around the Grado and the ASL tube amp, it also gives the AVA T7 a good strong run, there is certainly some tradeoffs but that says a lot for this old beast.
I have a 80’s Kyocera Receiver myself but I also have a early 70’s Sansui AU-9900 Integrated Amp which I tried out today – WOW!
I haven’t tried my Kyocera yet, its boxed away. I’ll pull it out in time but for now I can compare the old Sansui to an Audio by Van Alstine Trandesence 7 and I can mentally compare it to a Grado 1 and a ASL EL84 amp that a friend has/had. The soundstage isn’t quite as large as the AVA T7 but the richness and weight is certainly there. Detail is quite good although not so extended on the top end. The Sansui is in NO way bright or glaring, its quite tube’ish in its quality. Midrange vocals are very nice, bottom end is solid, strong and tight.
It absolutely runs circles around the Grado and the ASL tube amp, it also gives the AVA T7 a good strong run, there is certainly some tradeoffs but that says a lot for this old beast.
