solid state power amps, golden oldies

Brown Electronics Lab BEL 1001                Bedini 150/150                                              Robertson 4010                                              Quatre Gain Cell                                              Quad 303, 405, and 50's modded                GAS Son of Ampzilla                                      Electron Kinectics Eagle 2A                        Perreaux 1250B                                              Spectro Acoustics 500                                  Phase Linear 400                                            Hafler 220                                                        Acoustat TNT                                                  SAE Mk XXXI                                                  Belles Model 1 and 2                                    NYAL Moscode 150                                      I presently (June '17) own all of the above amps! They are in use with vintage speakers: DCM Time Windows, SpeakerLab 7's, JBL 166's, Altec Santana's and Stonehenge's, KLH 6's, AR 2A's, Snell Type A 3's, E's and J's, Rectilinear III's and Mini III's, AR 4's, Walsh Sound Cylinders, Quad 57's              KLH Nines, Rogers LS3/5A's

Citation 16a they last forever if you take care of them I have 2 driving B&W 804 sounds wonderful.

A nice little system I had in the 80's included PSE's Series 5 mono amps. Nice sounding amps for right around $2k. I don't think they're in biz anymore....could be wrong.

I'm not so sure the oldies were "golden".
especially when you hear a high quality tube amp of recent yrs.
Could never go back to ss after i know a good tube.
btw I bought a used Marantz 250 last summer, was going to use it for bass supply on dual amping.
gawd aweful super duper grainy sound. Can't believe I use to love that sound in 1970's. YUCKKK

One amp manufacturer is not here - B&K Components - they made great amps during this time period. The ST-140 was probably their biggest seller and was rated as one of the ten best buys in Audio according to HiFi Heretic magazine. I had one and also the EX-442 but I had the Sonata version which came out in 91 I believe. That was a great sounding amp, but there are many others too. Aragon, Forte, Sonographe, Superphon are all great too

Threshold S/series and the Forte Model #4 would be at your cutoff point

Nikko amps,
AudioResearch D100,
Nakamichi PA100...

A consideration on older amps might be speaker connections. They might have those old, "useless" spring clips that will not accept bananas or heavy speaker wires. You will also find many with 'captive' power cords, eliminating your choice of upgrade cords.

That said, there are many bargains to be had. Look at Harman/Kardon Citation series, Hafler, Carver, SAE, G.A.S. All were nice companies in their day.

I particularly love the older McIntosh gear for both sound and collector joy.

Transistrs and IC chips can be an issue with some older gear.Do you homework before you purchase or you may be buying a boat-anchor.

Jaybo,

You left out nothing for me to add, so I have to say that I agree with your listing.

I want to add one thing in response to the original poster. Amplifiers older than about 15 years would probably need servicing and possibly the capacitors and some transitors may need replacing to really sound at their best. I am at times not sure why a perfectly good looking 15+ year amp does not sound just right but the thought comes to my mind that the capacitors may have dried out.

There are many who indulge in vintage equipment but at times are not aware of the fact that the less than satisfactory sound is not actually the fault of the amp but it is because of aging that it sounds the way it does.

I know a few audio buffs who say such and such amp got rave reviews in its day but when I heard it recently it sounded awful. That is because the do not consider the real issue with the equipment.

The period you mention would actually render the a power amps age between 16-26 years old, hence, I thought I should mention this.

threshold, mac, sonographe(cj), accuphase, nakamichi, perreaux, revox, tandberg, citation, bryston, lots more

Not sure if the 1980-1990 is right but I would first mention the S-series Threshold amps.Still sought after today. Built like a tank and some great. I've always thought the SA-1 monos were one of the best s/state monos made.

I am using a Perreaux 3150B Power amp to drive my Infinity RS 1-B's base columns. They jusy keep powering along! Great amp!