Big vintage amps worth paying for and keeping for a long time

Had Rowland 8T for many years Jeff Rowland has great service and says thats the best amp he has ever made.

When I see the word " Vintage".  I thought you mean Western Electric , Jensen and old Fisher amplifier.

They are worth getting.

Rowland, Lamm, Levinson are not vintage but just middle age old amplifiers.

Okay, whatever we want to call them. But no I didn't mean too old amps.

Any of the Krell CX series of Full Power Balanced amps

Perreaux 1250B! I have one and it's certainly competitive with Levinson for build and SQ!

Any old amp should be checked for snubbers. If there is no snubber circuit for the bridge rectifiers then they should be replaced with soft recovery rectifiers. Beyond that, finding repair parts can be difficult to pretty much if not impossible. Through hole semiconductors are going obsolete at a pretty fast pace. I am horsing a few for many of my old amps.

@ebm "Had Rowland 8T for many years Jeff Rowland has great service and says thats the best amp he has ever made."

I always react whenever I hear someone say this.  While it's often true in other realms, when it comes to a still viable HEA manufacturer on that level, it defies logic. If that was really the best amp he ever made, why did he stop making them?  More importantly, why on earth would anyone spend such incredible prices for his more recent / current offerings when they could own JRDG's best amplifier for so much less?  More likely, it's meant to diffuse the typical audiophilia nervosa, and put the owner at ease.

Spellcheck got me, it didn't like hording and changed it to horsing....

Wow i never thought of that!!!!!

Roberjerman, do you mean a Perreaux 2150B? I too have one, sitting in my garage. Thanks for reminding me🤔  

@tubegroover : my mistake! I have the 2150B. Big and heavy! 200 watts/ohms, 400/4ohms. Clipping at 300+ and 500+ watts respectively! Sound quality as good as Levinson or any of today's expensive amps! List price $1500 in 1983. I bought it to use with my restored DQ-10's. A forgotten "sleeper" amp! I'm holding onto mine! I suggest you take it out of the garage, clean it up and put it to use! Or sell it to someone who will appreciate it!

Sorry, 200 watts/8ohms! And a LOT more at clipping!

I’m still enjoying my updated Threshold S 500 Series II.

Octave Research OR-11986
85W/8 OHMS and never found a load it couldn't drive.

My amp is a Proceed HPA2 that was given to me. It is built like a tank and weighs 100 pounds. I'm very happy with it. It was free and sounds great to my untrained ears.

I have heard that these amps have reliability issues, short lifespans and high repair costs. I sometimes wonder what I'd do if it dies because I've heard my speakers need all of the 250w the Proceed provides. I doubt I'd have enough budget to replace it with something comparable much less a pair of monoblocks.