artarama

That is funny! I like the rap of the stick on the chaulk board. Triggers some repressed memories for sure! The comments below the video are hillarious people are so easy to jump on a band wagon. Especially when that band wagon is in mono. Then we can all be on exactly the same, single channel. Awesome!! (I couldn't find a pukeing smilley).

Many of the 70's and early 80's Kenwood products are outstanding in my opinion. They definately have models on par with comparable Pioneer, Sansui, Marantz and Yamaha. The TOTL Kenwood was probably always targeted as "High Mid-Fi" but in my experiance overdelivered and under appreciated. I have a KR1000B (KR="Kenwood Receiver") with 120wpc@8ohms both channels driven. This thing is a complicated marvel of electronics. Kind of like a fully loaded Crysler New Yorker", pick your year. This piece at low volume has a fabulous "loudness" circuit that makes my Heresy's sound like they are on tubes. Seriously! The M2 I have experiance with is another "Brick", solid clean power and at 220 wpc/8ohm/both channels, more than enough for any normal worldly situation. Super clean, reliable, fast and articulate. No they are propably not on par with Krell or Pass Labs but the things are $300 and kick a..! Kenwood was a big player that put out a lot of equipment. Later on it became a "brand" that put out a lot of equipment. My opinion is that most anything made pre 80's is decent and in most circumstances worth more that it is sold for.

Good Thread guy's. I was definately under the mis-conseption that MC cartridges were just nastalgia. I honestly never looked into it because of that, but what djk says makes me very interested. Many quality vintage preamps & receivers have inputs for MC. Not "jacking" the thread, hopefully still relevant, what would you guys suggest as a good entry level MC under say $150. By the way djk I am 100 percent down with your avitar!!

Nice! FYI, I always thought NOS stood for New Old Stock, cool back story.

If you want to stay with the Heresy nostalgia since that is what you had, and I totally understand that, excellent performer for small space. I would save some money from the HIII and get some used H1,2 or 3 and a $300-$400 vintage receiver (Marantz 22XX, Sansui, Kenwood, etc.. A match made in Heaven. A good pair of headphones from the relatives would be a good suggestion also. What a nice Dad!

What do you mean by "matching" , why is this done? Is this kind of the electronic equivalent of measuring and matching the valve spring compression values when rebuilding an engine?

This is a great read guy's. Thanks! It is very cool to see the back and forth and generosity of knowledge and experiance. It is a treat to listen to people that know what they are doing!

T he 299 is a work of art in my book. These should be carefully restored, enjoyed and saved for future generations.A perfect example! I like the blue lamps. Is this a 299C? The tubes in the back and orientation of the transformers are different than mine.

These are wonderful integrated amps. High build quality, great ergonomics, efficient design and great sonics. First thing I would do is dust, clean, oil and polish then "de-oxidize" very carefully. If you want to dig any deeper remember to properly discharge the caps as tube equipment can store a serious amount of energy. Don't mess around with that (period).. You can't go wrong with these as an investment, unless you pay too much. (I don't know what that number is) The 299 is a work of art in my book. These should be carefully restored, enjoyed and saved for future generations.

That looks like quite a show Russ thanks for the link. Looks like a who's who list for sure. Interesting no Pass Labs or First watt though? Who is Mcintosh Nordic? Note the show in Denver in October too. www.audiofest.net. Page 10 of the show guide.

I have a "Grado Prestige Red" that I like a lot. Pulls some really good detail out of older albums. Probably a good "bang for the buck" cartridge at $140 (couple years ago). I play it with a Scott 299 a/b and Thornes TD 165, stock arm.

Hank, I love spreadsheets, thanks! How about adding crossovers offered and number of each model sold? A template like this, fact checked by members here and expanded on would be a great resource. It could be a collaborative work in progress. Knowledge is power!

Definately try them in the corners first as is. What do you have to lose? I would say the 21.5' spacing is right at the limit of needing a center. It may or may not be neccesary depending on your gear and room. That doesn't help but tells you where to start. I have used a Cornwall and a LaScala as center for a 19.5' spacing and they both would push the image farther out into the room more than affect the centering of the image. In my case at 19.5' the image quality is far more affected by my electronics than the use of a center speaker.

OK, Jackson I watched that Cat clip for way too long. Thanks!

I should also add that I am using a Marantz MA700 as the center channel amp hooked to a tube Scott integrated. So I don't have all channels amplified with tubes and it still sounds great. I would prefere to have all tubes though and also to have separates. But Santa hasn't come to my house yet with those little gems.

I was just giving you options. It is debatable if the tubes are more important for the preamp or the amp stage of reproduction. And definately keep all the amps all SS or all tubes. I think it would be preferable to have all tubes but that can get very pricey and is also something of a matter of taste. A set up with a C28 and Marantz monoblocks all solid state is affordable and pretty easy to find. A used set of tube monoblocks is harder to find and much more $. If I remember right you can bridge the Marantz MA700 but I don't think you need that much juice for the Khorns or LaScala's.

The C28 is just a preamp and the center output does need to be amplified before it goes to the center speaker. Some two channel amps can be bridged to be used as a mono center or I have even ran just the right channel of an amp for center duty. The Marantz MA 500 & 700 are good inexpensive monoblocks and readily available. I would recommend using the LaScala as the center with the two Khorns. That is an awesome set up if your space allows. I think you have a very good sized budget to get what you want given you already have such good speakers. If it were me I would spend some of the loot on new cross overs for the the Khorns and Lascala, since you have the money buy all new and pull the original ones out and save them. Then I would shop around for 3 mono blocks and a preamp with a center out. (preferable tubes!) That would be a killer system!

I'm stopping at three channels for now. I used to set up four speakers in each corner of the room. If you sat right in the middle it really would make it fell like the music was right in your head, it was pretty cool. But as I started getting better speakers and electronics the sound stage was much better putting everything up front. I only care about the music for now (probably always will) and want to get the best system in two/three channel I can afford. Getting that quality in 5.1/ 7.1/ 8.1 would be out of my price range. I am not even sure the multi channel recordings or processors could keep up with two channel if you put the same amount of cash into each system. I think I would rather have three two channel sytems than one six channel system.

Thanks for the input guy's. I'm going to let these go to another lucky devotee. I am sure they are very nice units but I do love the 299 and it is very nice to know there is more potential there. Thanks again.

So I have an opportunity to get a near mint set of an AR SP3 and AR D75a. Fully functioning and currently running, I have not listen to the system yet. And I am thinking the deal will be somewhere around $2K. My question is not so much about the deal, but about the quality of this gear both sonically and build quality. From what I can gather in my research it is very good sonically and can hold it's own with some pretty high end stuff of that vintage. However it also seems the amp in many cases likes to eat tubes. I don't play really loud too often and am very carefull with my stuff. While I am not overly crazy about the looks of the gear the sound is the most important. I currently listen to my Khorns from a HH Scott 299a/b and 90% vinyl. I only want to pursue this if it will be a significant upgrade. You guy's steered me in the right direction with the Scott and the Khorns any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Really? I think it looks pretty good, after the first cosmetic cleaning... I've said it before, but I'll say it again. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." I think that amp is a perfect example of the "function is form" concept. First order of business here is to sound good and be reliable. Look how tight, clean and consice everything fits together. No wasted space there. That amp says all business to me. No bells or whistles required.[Y]

I would like to see the garage sale postings be able to be sorted by date posted. I've looked at a lot of gear that was sold four years ago [:S]

I'm with you Seti. I think you pass by a lot of music by that you want to hear just cuzz a guy can't read the fine print on the spine. Or worse, you can't find what your looking for, or your pretty sure you have it, but not certain. Some would argue this is a perfect reason for a music server. I have some old record store cabinets that are three tier that stick out about three feet from the wall. Storage below is great to keep all that extra gear a guy needs to hoard!

Pandora is great. Highly recommended. I would probably go for the paid subscription if I had a dac set up. As it is I run my iphone through the tape input of a Scott 299A/B and it sounds great! I love all the recommendations of similar artists. Kind of like watching the "Denny" show in right this minute. [Y] Try CCR radio, Peggy Lee, Duke Ellington!

Nice Segway Dennie. I like the part about Listening and then discussing, that is how we learn.