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Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?
Before the high end started, we had all these receivers and integrated amps from Pioneer, Kenwood, Sansui, Sherwood, etc., all with incredible specs. Then somehow we decided that specs didn't matter and we started moving to the more esoteric stuff from Ampzilla, Krell and whoever, but the specs were not as good. My question is - Did the old Japanese stuff with the great specs sound better? I don't remember. I'm asking because many seem to be moving back to the "specs are everything" mindset and I was thinking about all that old stuff with so many zeros to the right of the decimal point.
Showing 8 responses by thinkinginventor123
I wish there was a shop @jason-mc9. Why I work on my own equipment. New vs vintage really isn't a fair comparison unless capacitors have been charged to match new performance. I have always heard huge improvement over a recap. 40-50-70 year old capacitors just don't work the same as new. @curtdr nr1200 marantz? I would have to take a listen. But I directly compared a marantz 7t with marantz 16b recapped serviced. Upgraded signal caps, filter caps, change out of spec resisters. I compared it to a Marantz PM8006 integrated $1500. There was no comparison with 7t and 16b were so much better. Friend has a marantz 30 class D integrated, he was shocked I really wanted to like the PM8006 but felt sterile, flat cold. Nr1200 being more of an intro amp. I don't see it beating PM8006 or a dual mono block separates from the 70s. 22xx serial 1970s I could see it beating it but I am open minded take listen when i get a chance.
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All great responses! Where to start! Testing specs don’t really show much. Distortion is low in vintage amps and modern gear. Noise floor has improved with preamps. Transistors in well made vintage amps had carefully selected transistors. transistor quality control was not as good as today. They tested matched transistors for each amplifier for high performance. Upside of the times. Today they don’t, good enough mindset. Now there’s class D etc. Kenwood KA-5500 is a great sounding amplifier! ST-70 I was never big fan. Same with the Mark III mono blocks. They made clean tube power, affordable or used to be lol. Pioneer SX828 is great sounding unit. Favorite receiver from Pioneer to be honest. Sansui makes some great gear too! I’m not one to replace resisters for no reason. Capacitors I do change, in theory there supposed to sound like the specs. Tired caps change the sound as new production caps would. All part of the fun. When I recapped 7T, earth shattering change. I kept the resisters, changed the diodes, caps etc. Made such a huge difference. Transistors used in the 7T were selected for performance, no reason to change those ever unless there noisy / failed |
I've owned Modern gear, Tube and Solid State. Vintage gear sound better once restored, not including receivers in the list. Owned a Marantz PM8006, Marantz 7T Marantz 16B blew it away. No comparison in detail, bass, musical enjoyment. I heard things in the recording completely masked by the Marantz PM8006 being $1500. Your looking at 8-10k for new gear to match at least. Now there is a Marantz PM7200 that does class A made in 2000's Cap upgrades and upgraded the power transformer to toroidal transformer. Very special amp! HK430 has amazing amplifier section, Add a tube preamp into HK430 with La Scala's. you would be in for a shock. :)
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hk430 preamp section kinda sucks. They used subpar pots. Amplifier section is where its at! I have to heavy upgraded Citation 12 and Citation 16. Similar design to the hk430. Sound very good! https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/15197-hk-430-receiver/
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