Greetings all,
I have to agree with the fact that a lot of these vintage pieces will show their age. I'm finally upgrading my system after 20 years of use because as a number of people have said - the preamp sections/especially knobs, selectors, buttons of these pieces deteriorate and get noisy and CAN'T be fixed [like the controls on my HK PM665 inegrated amp]. Having said that, they are of great value for their amplifier stage - if you can use them that way [I'm using mine to drive rear surround channels]. Some great sounding amps for not a lot of money! Just ignore the preamp. My two cents worth. For example, buy yourself a used Integra or Citation 7.0 preamp [both $400 now - $3500 new - amazing sound!] and connect to an older multichannel or a number of excellent old 2 channels! The control you get with these preamps allows for individual channel control so no problem with different sound levels. Of course this takes up more room, but you can have champaign sound on a soda budget.
I have to agree with the fact that a lot of these vintage pieces will show their age. I'm finally upgrading my system after 20 years of use because as a number of people have said - the preamp sections/especially knobs, selectors, buttons of these pieces deteriorate and get noisy and CAN'T be fixed [like the controls on my HK PM665 inegrated amp]. Having said that, they are of great value for their amplifier stage - if you can use them that way [I'm using mine to drive rear surround channels]. Some great sounding amps for not a lot of money! Just ignore the preamp. My two cents worth. For example, buy yourself a used Integra or Citation 7.0 preamp [both $400 now - $3500 new - amazing sound!] and connect to an older multichannel or a number of excellent old 2 channels! The control you get with these preamps allows for individual channel control so no problem with different sound levels. Of course this takes up more room, but you can have champaign sound on a soda budget.