Vintage Amps - Pleasantly surprised

Dark Side Of The Moon had just been released and the sound was "completely transportive" through that tube system.

Steve, Thanks for the memories. I too have fond recollections of the systems my buddies and I owned (large Sansui receiver with Jensen triaxials for me) back in those days when expectations were more about the music and the good times, and less about the equipment. I also remember the sound benefiting from some "transportive" aids we had back then.

Cool thread! Here's my addition: A friend gave me his old Kenwood KA-7150 awhile back cuz he knew I liked audio stuff. After cleaning the switches, I now have it playing in my little office room through some reworked Utah-built acoustic suspension 3-ways that use the little Alnico magnets and simple LF blocking caps on the mid and tweet, upgraded to film caps, of course. I had to replace the woofers with modern compatibles, so not original there either. The source is the computer digital stream into my old MSB Link DAC III and I couldn't be more delighted. Of course I'm listening near field at fairly low levels, but, like the others report, I'm blown away. Bass is clean and deep, with acoustic bass having that punch and clarity I like. Imaging is solid and deep. Good frequency balance botton to top as well. Now if I could get my "big" system to do that at higher levels in the big room...

Let me tell you I haven't found ANYTHING from 1970/80 that sound like a Sansui amplifier do. I have been in this world since I was a child and have had McIntosch, Fisher, Pioneer, Luxman, Marantz,etc.
Sansui was unique and the glory of the japanese HI-FI at that time. The best japanese sound ever without dude. I have sold many entry level gear such as Adcom, Rotel, Nad, Parasound because their sound don't match my old Sansui amplifiers. I think Sansui was really hi-end at that time and still kill many new brands that are called entry level and hi-end. My two cents.
Jorge

Dvjorge is spot on. Its incredible how good the stuff from the 70s/early 80s is compared to today. The first time i broke out my old pioneer gear (from 78) after its long (20yr+) storage, i just sat there listening and stunned. Remote control and lack of controls and inputs that characterize modern stuff is simply not worth $5K+. And yes, i do think the 70/80s stuff can smoke much of the $5000)!

One of the most important aspects of tube gear is the transformers used. Simply put, vintage transformers are awesome and some of my favorite tube amps I have are Pilot amps (I have three different Pilots) using EL84 output tubes giving me about 12-15 glorious sounding watts per channel. Pilot has a great circuit that gives speed and dynamics and transformers that give beauty to the sound.

Keep you eyes open for some of these amps, you won't regret it.