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Best vintage amps (late 70s / early 80s) under $3k?

The golden age of audio was arguably the late 70s / early 80s, when corporations were willing to dump a ton of money into R&D / materials to make the best equipment possible. The downside to owning equipment from this period now is possible refurbishment and maintenance costs, but it seems good deals can still be had.

Wondering if you guys had recommendations of great sounding amps from this era? Ideally I'm looking for something that's 100W minimum, doesn't run hot, and under $3000 second hand.

I already have a fully refurbished late 70s Pioneer M-22 that outputs 30W into 8ohms. I love this amp, but being Class A it's like a radiator and not suitable for Southern California's summer months in a smallish room. More power would also be good as my speaker efficiency is 89.5db. I listen to many genres of music, so the amp needs to be a good all-rounder.

My current chain:

Turntable: Technics 1210M5G w/ AudioMods tonearm and Lyra Delos MC cart
Phono stage: Avid Pulsus
DAC: RME ADI-2 Pro
Preamp: Schiit Saga
Amp: Pioneer M-22
Speakers: Prana Fidelity Bhava
Subs: Rythmik L12
pts

Showing 1 response by stevea11757

stevea11757's avatar
stevea11757
130 posts
 
I currently have several target area amps with one in my second system being used on a fairly regular basis, a ML 23.5, main system has a ML333. At work I run a Bedini 100/100 and because it is one of the first amps I ever bought new, a Perreaux 3150 as standby. Any and all would come in below your budget, and most well below. I run all three stsyems with a tube pre (two ARC and one Quicksilver). Since the ML are att AB heat is not much of an issue, Bedini is A as I recall but does not run terribly hot and I have left it on days at a time. 

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