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Older Solid State Amps


MBM135

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In the late 60's we said the early 60's stuff was better.

In the 70's we said all the 60's stuff was better.

In the 80's we said the 70's stuff was better.

As time goes on we will say that the 80's stuff was better than the 90's, and so, and so on.

In your situation I'd probably opt for the Marantz. I'm not sure why 70's Pioneer & Kenwood receivers get so much positive attention. They sure look pretty. A friend of mine had a nice Fisher integrated tube amp driving 4 JBL L100's. One day he came home with a pair of Pioneer SX series receivers. Sound gone. Of course, at the time we thought it was cool. But that particular event, in retrospect, is what steered me back to tubes.

7.gif

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Welcome to the Forum where answers may be sarcastic at times, I know that I can be opinionated - I own Klipsch!!.

For SS, I would also recommend the Yamaha CR1000, CR1020, CR800, CR600 in Receivers. Silver Faced tanks. Integrateds were designated by the TX pre-fix I belive. The units - Receiver or integrateds ending in 20, (CR1020, TX1020) were also very good mates.

Lastly, the Sony V-FET line was a great sounding unit - kind of close to tube warmth.

Hope this helps.

Win dodger

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When my dad bought the Cornwalls in '79, he also purchased a 1979 Technics SU-8099 Stereo Integrated DC Amplifier ($1000). It was 115WPC, from DC (0Hz) to well over 20kHz, with a very neutural, warm sound. It mated well with the Cornwalls; it was very lush and full, and had more than enough power to drive the horns well into the 120dB range and beyond! Perfect for pipe organ music at near-live levels!1.gif

In '84 I bought a Technics SU-V9 120WPC integrated amp, hoping to have a high quality amp like my dad's to power my JBL L112's. Although it sounded fine, I had quality-control issues with it (cheap knobs and loose buttons that didn't align with its functions, plus you could fry eggs on top of the cabinet...it got that hot!), so I sold it and bought a Carver M-400t amp and C-1 preamp. Alot of the consumer gear of the '80's just got cheap and flimsy, and wasn't worth the powder to blow it from here to Kingdom Come!7.gif

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70s.....yea....70s stuff..... All the components for a good ol' pioneer "rack" are available on e-bay... also sanyo "plus series"....marantz...fisher...sansui...(whatever happened to sansui?)...seperates...nikko audio... are still available. The equipment had style back then too...meters that rock back and forth....big knobs for volume control and selectors..not a pushbutton that you halfta hold for 20 seconds to turn the volume down when the phone rings...... but there was still quality parts inside ..not a chip no bigger than than a fly..80s equipment turned into cheap plastic boxes, with funky displays that didn't tell you nuttin',just to look cool so the manufacturers can get your money so they can pay for their new 42 foot carver cabin cruiser.....

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Yup !! I will have to put a vote in for the Pioneer SX-780, SX-980 the real beast the SX-1280. Rock solid stuff Marantz was pretty good sounding also but in my opinion very unreliable.

I knew some discussion about vintage SS stuff would bring Audioreality out of the wood work 1.gif He could outfit the entire forum with 70's SS stuff just from one room of his storage building oooppps I mean house !

Craig

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Greetings Again:

Correction, the Yamaha amps had the designation of CA then the number.

I echo the statements of Jim, things to the better degree are disposable.

The cost to repair a good number of the '80s, '90s plus equipment exceeds that of a new two channel SS unit.

But my McIntosh 30s were originally started in 1954 then continued for about 6 years (I may be wrong), BUT, it can still be repaired, upgraded, restored.

Please remember these are my opinions in this post. But with models changing so rapidly and people wanting the newest bells and whistles - don't fix, toss it and buy a new one with more features.

That said, note it is not true of all of the newer equipment, some companies have not compromised quality over mass production. I tip my hat to them and also to companies that still have live operators.

Win

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Buried in a landfill somewhere out west.6.gif

They sent out circulars to every known certified repair tech and service shop, informing them of the parts liquidation.

They offered practically give away prices on NOS parts for about 6 months then they dug a hole and buried the rest.

The corporate political reasoning may be forever shrouded in mystery.

LOL.

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Buried in a landfill somewhere out west.6.gif

They sent out circulars to every known certified repair tech and service shop, informing them of the parts liquidation.

They offered practically give away prices on NOS parts for about 6 months then they dug a hole and buried the rest.

The corporate political reasoning may be forever shrouded in mystery.

LOL.

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