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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 perazzi28

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perazzi28
244 posts
 
Agree strongly with the Electron Kinetics Amps. All of the Eagle 2 series power amps are stable down to 2 ohms. They became the building platform for all of the mono amps that followed.
I managed to purchase a pair of 11 prime mono blocks recently and will never look back!
I purchased a 7a dual mono amp from John Iverson and later he upgraded it to a 7b (only 22 exist) which I still have.
Used to own Thresholds, Accuphase, and briefly Phase Linear. None compared to EKSC Eagle, especially with dynamic loudspeakers.
The BEL (Brown Electronic Labs) were peerless and remain so when driven as mono blocks for Electrostatic Loudspeakers, especially Dayton Wright's.
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