Integated amps with phono?

UNICO SE HYBRID INTEGRATED AMP 130WPC MM/MC on-board. STEREOPHILE CLASS A RECOMMENDED. $3149 RETAIL.

Hey Pawlowski,
have you heard the Avatar or Avatar SE? I've been looking at them.

Vac Avatar.

Hey david,

I did get a vintage accuphase but the guy who sold it to me as mint failed to mention that it needs a lot of work.

Last time I was looking I had all kinds of requirements like a headphone jack, the ability to drive 3 sets of speakers, etc. I've loosened the reins now.

I'm looking to upgrade anyway. I'll check out the recommendations so far.

Did you ever find a nice vintage integrated/receiver?

Mentioned the Rogue Cronus before, I think.

Cronus

Never heard it, but the E-Zine reviews are favorable.

Being able to self bias each power tube is a nice feature as you won't have to worry about closely matched pairs (big savings in the long run).

Cheap/good SS would be a Magnum IA-170SE (one just sold here for $399), but they don't show up very often.

It has a MM phono and a mono switch.

The English Magnum company is out of business, as far as I know, though the SE versions were most likely manufactured this century and should be reliable for some time to come.

Kind of a mystery (never seen an online review) is the inexpensive Norh SE 18, which is $795 delivered per the website.

SE 18

My favorite guilty pleasure is an early/mid 80's Carver MXR-130 receiver.

The phono section didn't sound right @ first, but it came around with a few months use.

Dawned on me that the phono section had never been used when I picked it up 4-5 years ago (it had been installed in a clothing store with two Nakamichi 700ZXE cassete decks).

Picked up one of the decks as well, but ended up selling it after transferring a few tapes to CD.

I don't think it's really so important to restrict yourself to integrated with built-in phono stages. Every integrated has spare inputs, and there are plenty of wonderful external phono stages available. This also provides you the advantage of more flexibility in where you can place the turntable, as you can put the external phono stage near the turntable.

Just my 2 cents.

Michael

I have a Primaluna PL2 with KT88 tubes and it had the phono stage built in and it was great. Sounded fine with my Pro-ject Xpression and Shure V15VxMR cart.

I only got rid of it when i got a separate phono stage with my new TT.

If you remember the DK Design it is a tube hybrid Int amp with a MM phono stage, I know 2 guys who have them and it sounds pretty good, 150w at 8 and 300 w at 4 ohms, I think they hover around $1500.