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Amps from the 1980's -- What gear holds up sonically? Reliably?

Hi Everyone,

For me, the 1980s were a real "golden age" of amplifiers. Dr. Leach’s paper on building a low TIM amplifier had been widely distributed and relied on by budding designers, and lots of boutique brands came. It was also the era of the biggest of the Conrad Johsnon tube amps as well and the invention of the MOSFET.

For me, brands I cared about:

  • Threshold
  • Sumo
  • Perreaux (New Zealand, very pretty)
  • Tandberg
  • Hitachi
  • Kyocera
  • Nikko
  • Krell (of course)
  • CJ
  • ARC
  • Yamaha (professional)
  • Carver
  • Mark Levinson
  • Amber 
  • Tandberg
This was also the speaker era of Snell and Apogee and Martin Logan. I am not sure there would be a Krell today if it wasn't for Apogee's 1 ohm speakers.

I’m curious who is still listening to these vintage pieces, and which brands you think have stood up both in terms of reliability and / or sonics ?
erik_squires

Showing 1 response by moofoo

moofoo
295 posts
 
The first version of the Acurus DIA-100. I bought it along with the Acurus CD player (also the original version) right after they were available. I paired them with a pair of Snell E-IIIs and it was my first decent stereo system. I still have the DIA-100 driving a decent pair of outdoor speakers and the CD player is in a second home system. The CD player was also used as a transport in earlier main systems I had. Even the LED on the CD player still works and the DIA sounds great. I get compliments on how good the outdoor system sounds. The Snells I had re-foamed several years ago and the oak cabinets are still beautiful. Even have the original stands with the Snells. They are in storage and I need to sell them as I have another pair of Spendors I use with the surround system and swap those with the Logans every once in a while.  Recently I tried the Acurus in my current system, diving Martin Logan ESLs and was shocked at how good it sounded. For those that do not know - the DIA -100 was described as an amp with a passive gain stage (?, I think). I see no reason to sell the Acurus stuff. 
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