Anybody used Nikko amps before?

I have been playing with some SS and have kept a Nikko Alpha 650 as it has a nice stage, is well balanced and has good dynamics. I do not feel it is a limitation in my system.
Like to see what will knock it out of the sand system.

I had a Nikko Alpha 650 when in college - Wow what an amp - Being a dump kid at the time - I blew blew something inside it while moving cables (yes while running). It then went to my parents house. I asked my dad what happened to it and he said he gave it away years ago... :(

Hopefully someone got it fixed up and is using it ..

I own a Nikko Beta II pre-amp and Alpha II amp for a few years. A friend of mine gave it to me because her family was going to throw them away. I'm so glad she got rid of them by giving them to me!!!

I've been surfing the web in order to get info about these hi-fi pieces. There's not much info on the internet, unfortunately. So I'm glad to hear there are some people who still hold these gadgets.

IMO, both play music very nicely. I still can't believe this stuff wasn't too expensive at the time, regarding the quality of construction and performance they deliver. I play records through a Pro-Ject Debut III, and my speakers are Heybrook Optima C (I can't find any info about these anywhere). My listening room is an average one, with lots of absorbing furniture and a thick carpet.

Alpha II: I love it has Bass and Treble controls, because every listening room is different, so are the quality of records and CDs. There's a Tape knob which is now very useful - I can connect my iPhone or my iPad and listed to music in a very decent quality. There's another small knob for cartridges and a Subsonic Filter which I've been told is good to keep your speakers safe. The Volume knob is pretty huge and has steps, which is a little bit annoying since I can't control accurately the amount of volume I want at a certain time. However, there's a -20dBs button which attenuates the sound, so I can control the volume better, but it seems the sound quality goes south a little bit.

Beta II: I found out its a true double-mono power amp, which is great, since it makes sure each channel goes through its way and doesn't interfere with the other channel. I think this is the key point of this amp. The VU meters are awesome, and there are a knob to select speakers (it can run a A+B, which I don't know whether you can set 2 pairs of speakers or you can bi-amp a pair only - Can anybody help me with this?). There are a couple of buttons for the VU, which reacts to wattage depending on the load and handling capacity of the speakers (I'm not sure about it either). After a while of use, the amp gets very warm, but I don't think it affects performance. I guess this is because of the transistors, which I don't know if they are MOS-FET. I don't know if this is a Class A/B amp.

I find the sound quite appealing and non-fatiguing - I can spend hours and hours of musical enjoyment listening to vinyls. CDs also sound very nice. It can deliver massive power to the speakers and the sound is still warm and sweet. I lack the air surrounding the musicians that you can find when listening to a high-end system, though. I miss some bass, but trebles and mids sound really sweet and hefty. It's not very holographic, but the music sounds somehow true.

I've been experiencing a couple of problems: sometimes there comes an annoying high-pitched noise (hiss?) that disappears after a while.

It would be great if anybody can help me with my doubts. And I hope I've been of help.

My only experience with Nikko was with a receiver my cousin owned. One channel died after about 4 yrs of use. She asked me too look at it and told me unless it was something simple throw it out. Opened it up and from what I recall one IC power amp module on the heat sink had burned up. Great design- spare a fuse and let the amp self destruct.

It's no doubt in a land fill somewhere.

If I were looking for vintage 70's gear I would limit myself to Marantz

Your experience is with one low end receiver. Nikko power amps are quite collectible, and when fully restored can hold their own very well against more modern amps.

I have a Nikko Alpha 2000 Amp. It is extremely rare. I think its sounds better than my Sansui Ba 5000 Amp. A Alpha 2000 just sold for over $2200 on e bay

I used to sell them as well as Sansui, Pioneer etc etc.
IMO only Jap amp that could best Nikko were the Sony V-fets which were
SOOO musical it was hard to believe. Esp. the integrated !

I worked at a Tech Hifi ~1978 where these were sold. Yes, they were one of the better sounding if not best Japanese lines back then. Don't know much about latter models.

Caveats:

- The good stuff is a good 30+ years old so I would question how good original units might work these days. Once refurbed or repaired, all bets are off....results could be good or bad in any case.

- these might do better than similar new gear at same price point or not. There is a chance, but hard to say. Results will vary.

- a bigger financial investment on newer gear researched properly to best fit your needs would likely deliver better results.

I bought a couple of early Nikko receivers, 301 and a 501, because they were cheap and I wanted to learn to work on electronics myself. I recapped both if them and they sound awesome. I think some folks rely on brand names to tell them what sounds good, but if you look at the components used in Nikko gear and maybe even listen to some of it, you will see that it is better than some of the popular brands back in the day. 

The original Alpha 'I' was one of the finest sounding amps ever built. 
I could live with a Nikko system. There separates were excellent, nothing mid-fI about them.

New here... Hi!
Bought an Alpha 220, Beta 20, Gamma 20 stack at Tech HiFi in 1981 along with an SAE Parametric EQ, Thorens TT & Micro Acoustics 3002 MC cart. This gear has powered JBL 4311's (bought with the Nikko gear) Tannoy System 10's, and now a set ADS L1230's. My Nikko gear has NEVER faltered or needed service other than a contact cleaning for the tunnel power switch. To say the gear has been reliable and a tremendous value would be an understatement. Clean warm power, perfect set of features for a solid 2.0 system and a real quality feel. Buddies have newer NAD and Rotel separates and always say that my old gear sounds richer/better. Now that's all subjective and my modest setup is in a room with great acoustics and the Parametric EQ can really make your vintage gear sing, but honestly, I prefer my vintage Nikko electronics as well over any of their newer gear. If you have a chance to own Nikko separates, I strongly recommend the purchase. 35+ years and still working like the day I brought it all home. Just my opinion...

bgross, we’re living mirror lives! I, too, purchased the Nikko stack from Tech Hifi the same year. It was advertised in Tech Hifi’s beautiful color catalog as one of their high-end solutions. It took a while to trade up to the Nikko stack (Alpha 220, Beta 20, Gamma 20), but I got there. I began a couple years prior with a Marantz 2216b (still collectible). I demoed the Nikko stack several times in the high-end sound room -- almost always with Klipsch Cornwalls. I was hooked with one listen. The Cornwalls were too expensive and too huge to fit in my childhood bedroom, so I settled for their soul brothers -- Cerwin Vega’s (HED-3000, 3-way, w/12 " woofers and horn tweeters). Teenage heaven. Led Zeppelin, The Who, AC/DC, Van Halen could all crack plaster with that setup. I still have the Philips turntable. My poor parents.

I picked up a second Alpha 220 to bi-amp a set of Snell D’s for several years. Wow. Tight, deep bass and crystal clear vocals. The imaging was second-to-none.

Eventually I also picked up the Beta 40 and Gamma 40. I must say, the Beta 40 is audibly better than the Beta 20.

About 5 years ago I finally bought a set of 1984 Klipsch Cornwalls via eBay. One owner, oiled walnut finish & mint condition. I’m living the dream. Concert hall sound in my living room.

My system is basically 35 years old and I’ve never heard a better setup. The Nikko amps are amazing -- warm, clear and quick. Apparently, they are also built to last.

If I can find nice Alpha 440, I’d pick that up for a try, too.

They are all good amplifiers, overall. They are also old by any reach of that word (audio amplifier dog years) and require a full on re-capping.

The biggest problem with them is they pop at turn on. Basically no sign there is anything getting close to being bad and ’pop!’ at turn on, and you’ve got a blown channel. The alpha 220 and 230 were famous for this. But then again, they can be forgiven as in most cases they have this happen when they are 20-25 years old.

Thus, a working alpha I is likely a decent sounding budget amplifier, at the right price, but add in the fact that they MUST be recapped and very very soon. No games there, it’s Russian roulette every time you hit the power switch. With the right kind of rebuild and refreshing effort... it can probably perform beyond most of the mid grade crowd.

The problem is that people tell themselves, ’I’ll just listen to music today and think about the required rebuild tomorrow’. then they go through a few months or weeks of slowly relaxing..and thinking everything is fine - they use the amplifier every day. "Nothing wrong here, hah, that dude on the internet, he was wrong, I beat the odds!"

But there are no odds here, there is only the 100% inevitability of what is to come.

So they relax their guard and forget the amplifier is a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode. and one day soon, boom!..thar she blows!

All they had to do is stop using it and get it recapped. And it would have then lasted another 20 years.

Thank you teo_audio.  I have a great technician.  Are there any parts that would require replacement that are no longer available or are they all available and the recap a standard job on these amps?  Thanks in advance.

The output devices on the 220, 230, 440, 450, etc, are built out of long extinct unobtanium.

I’ve no idea what is inside the alpha 1.

Its the turn on surge when you hit the switch... as the feedback loop of the amplifier attempts to stabilize the amp at turn on, and this particular surge in the standard alpha design ...causes such a hard slam to the circuit, that it can pop the output stage and the driver stage, all the way up into the fet input chip (2x fet in a 7 pin sip, the 068 unit, iirc) and part of the feedback circuit. all these parts are old stock and sometimes hard to find. This channel popping problem is due to the small signal 'front end' capacitors being dried out and way off spec.

So an immediate small signal front end re-capping... is a ’immanent alarm bell flashing red light’ requirement, for any nikko amplifier.

Thanks again teo, appreciated.

I was the first post to this thread in 2003. My nephew now has my Nikko Alpha VI arc welder and it's still chugging away. That's about 30 years so far! 

I have a Nikko 450 that a buddy gave me. I never hooked it up to the beta pre-amp because it just looked "cheap"...I took the shorting pin out of the back of my sony 909 strgx and used it as a source and pre amp into the nikko. I had hooked it up with 4 rf klipsch 82's and one m&K 2500 dual 12 inch drivers with on board 500 watt amp. This amp can put out very serious power with very low noise and distorsion ....music and bass was very clean and tight! However I discovered that it had loosend the srcrews in a couple of power receptacles in the basement causing them to "arc" and eventually cause power outage in those receptacles. The nuances from my speakers were nothing short of "AWESOME ".. very low slew rate on the nikko 450 at  150 kept the dual 8 inch references in check at all times. I played alot of music at 3/4 volume with no distortion what so ever. It is definitely not a krell but sonically it performs pretry damn close. If you find one in good shape with new caps definitely buy it .overall it' a very good amp...just make sure it has good ventation on the top of it or it will burn your house down.

Does anyone know where to get these old Nikko products repaired? I have the classic Alpha 450 amp start up clipping.

Hi There,

I recently acquired a Nikko Alpha III without knowing exactly what I was getting, but I figured it was worth exploring - I guess I was right! 

Without meaning to hijack this thread, can anyone tell me, on the back are two sets of inputs, one is "Normal" and the other is "Direct."  What is the difference between these two? Are they line level vs. phono or something like that?

Thanks in advance!

For the gear available in the 1980s, it was far better than most mass produced Japanese equipment.

I believe they were sold under the Radio Shack brand too for a while.

Really liked their integrateds a lot.