The Golden era of Japanese integrated amps, are we missing out?

@ skywachr
re: "Sansui "Pure Power DC" (Direct Current) design amps and receivers..."

I only own one Sansui...(the only v-fet amp Sansui ever made), so I am not necessarily acquainted with Sansui amplifier design but I am almost certain that "DC" is a reference to a Directly Coupled amplifier design...as in: no coupling capacitor is present in the signal path.

If we are speaking in terms of lo to mid-fi, then some of that gear might or might not be worth restoring..but lets not forget that the "golden era" of Hi-Fi is the 70's and 80's TOTL of equipment from that period is worth restoring and would give a ran for the money to some of the most esoteric TOTL gear of today. If anything, some of that knowledge of fine sound equipment building has been lost. Today's consumer prefers the Sonos, Bose and other mass production systems. Even in the remaining Audiophile community, the aluminum sculptures of today, seem to be sometimes more appreciated than the actual sound they are supposed to produce. The remaining manufacturers that are still focused on producing true hi-fi equipment are far few in between and their products are becoming increasingly expensive because of the continuous decrease of of quality audio grade components and the limited supply of talented engineers. There is simply very little room left for any economies of scale and the associated high cost of production follows. 

Most of my vintage gear is comprised of separates from Sony, Yamaha and few others and mostly V-fet equipment. The type of sound a v-fet amplifier produces is sublime to my ears. I have many pieces of equipment from early and mid 70s that still run strong, but I restore all of my equipment anyways. Where I see areas of improvement of the original design, I am not holding back to from addressing them.

I only have three integrates. A Sony TAN-5650 (v-fet), Lo-D HA-500f (very rare v-fet) and a Pioneer A90 (A200 in Japan)
The two v-fet integrates I would consider mid-fi, but I will still restore at some point because they already sound good even unrestored.

The Pioneer A90 is a different beast. @200w/channel, with a massive PSU, copper plated chassis and a few other tricks underneath the otherwise plain-jane silver face, it is a silent sleeper with a fantastic build quality, even by today standards.... This I might restore just for the fun of working on it.

@uberwaltz,

here is an interesting review of a new vs old, similar integrates from same manufacturer (no affiliation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jjAZz7NOK0

@harrylavo, what Japanese tunes have you had the chance to listen to?

I like Yamaha and my dream tuner is the CT-7000. Sony also has a state of the art tuner, the ST-A7.  If you have a chance, you should look them up. 


Re:  "I have concluded that most folks who are in the Japanese super-tuner camp are there because of the very high sensitivity of some of those old tuners. But I've never seen a reason not to ultimately judge them the same way we do other components ...... how "real" do they sound. "

Tuners do not really have a sound...well not the sound that reaches your ears. A tuner (a radio receiver) is part of an audio system (integrated or not), that passes the "translated" radio waves into music via a series of preamps / amps, hence we would judge the front end of an audio system when talking about sound.

@kosst_amojan,

in that case one of the TAN-4650 or TAN-5650 from Sony might be worth looking at. Sony sold many of those first gen integrates and while they do not have the survival rate of Yamaha, there are some still around. 
The Sony v-fets are probably more linear than Yamaha's and rather easier to match since Sony was not so coy about marking them by rank...well Yamaha and NEC did in a sense too, but that can be debatable. 

@kosst_amojan , true that! The jewels of these amplifiers are the best audio components of all times, as far as I am concerned...hence the associated high cost.

That said, I find it ludicrous even thinking of sacrificing one of my Yamaha B-1s or a Sony TAN-8550 or TA-N7 to attempt to come up with anything even close in terms sound and reliability....I am a super fan of Mr Pass designs, but still would not do something that crazy.

If you are looking to take a shot at some Pass V-fet designs, I suggest to take on something that leverages the Tokin devices. Those are still available if you look around a little.

Good Luck!