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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
nordicnorm
313 posts
 
Yamaha MX10000
1,200 W @ 1 Ω (class A)
erik_squires OP
16,056 posts
 
Good find, @nordicnorm

Among the most beautiful power amplifiers ever made.

E
bharralson7740
8 posts
 
I'm not someone who buys really high end, but still using a Carver TFM-35 as my main amp.  It's been passed back and forth between myself and my best friend who was the original owner.  Just sold off the Infiniti Kappa 8's that it drove for many of the 30 years.  It's still running original caps and hasn't been touched, including the lights in the meters that are still working, other than replacing a speaker terminal that was broken in a move.
Post removed 
golden8ears
17 posts
 
I'm also using a Carver TFM-35, and Audio Research SP9....
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