BigBusa Posted October 11, 2001 Share Posted October 11, 2001 Nikko Alpha, 220DC, 440 watts, peak at 450 ohms, exc cond, $______ or best offer. ------------------ ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBusa Posted October 11, 2001 Author Share Posted October 11, 2001 No one knows this amp evidently. There is one for sale locally for $300 and I was hoping to find out if that was a "can't pass up deal". ------------------ ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Phillips Posted October 11, 2001 Share Posted October 11, 2001 1988 Stereo Buyers'Guide doesn't have the 220.The Alpha 230,120wpc@8 ohms,$470 list.A friend said he ahd seen them at a dealer back then and felt they were a desent company.That's all I can tell ya. The Nikko Alpha 650 was 300 wpc and $1700. IMHO I'd pass,company is dead and gone,but I might be wrong. This message has been edited by Steve P on 10-11-2001 at 08:46 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShapeShifter Posted October 11, 2001 Share Posted October 11, 2001 BigBusa, The link below will take you to an audioreview.com page that has some reviews on Nikko products. It seems that the Alpha 220 was a 120 Watt Power Amplifier made by Nikko from 1979-1983. Looks like they no longer make audio components. http://www.audioreview.com/reviews/Amplifier/product_3268.shtml The reviews may be of some use. You can also send private email to reviewers for additional info. Wes This message has been edited by ShapeShifter on 10-11-2001 at 08:52 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted October 12, 2001 Share Posted October 12, 2001 I am having a hard time imagining the Nikko 220 would be really needed with your Cornwalls, then again, what do I know as I have never even HEARD nor SEEN Cornwalls in person, which is exactly why I entered into this forum. That being said, one of the main advantages of the Cornwalls, and why I am interested in them, is the fact that they need very little power to run them at proper listening levels. Of course, the immediacy and dynamic, lifelike sound of the horn drivers is obviously a plus (depending on your tastes). In my 30 plus years dealing with all aspects of audio, whether in bands, recording bands, or delving into the quagmire of high-end exploits, I have come to find that low power seems to be the most true to the essence of the music, letting the full emotion and life come from the recording. Having been full tilt into the high power camp for many years, I had to swallow the fact that adding MORE watts to the equation was seemingly getting me further and further from the music. It is very hard to get more watts to sound expressive and not coarse. I can only imagine this aspect to be compounded with an extremely efficient speaker such as your Cornwalls. Perhaps you should be looking for a more refined amplifier instead of going the high power route. I have found the old cliche to be true for the most part: Simple is better....and Power Corrupts. kh f>s> - asorted gear lying about abode s> This message has been edited by mobile homeless on 10-12-2001 at 10:50 AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted October 12, 2001 Share Posted October 12, 2001 More power doesn't seem to be the proper solution for the big old horns, such as the 100 pound Klipsch Cornwalls. Except for the lower bass notes. In the range below 100 Hz the higher wattage of SS powered speakers is a good solution. Pushing the lower notes, the larger drivers and the impedance curves seems to be better handled by SS amps. While type of Total Harmonic Distortion that SS amps have seems to wear out the ears in the crtical range of 500 Hz to 12 kHz, it not appear to be determental to sounds at the lower frequencies. I have cranked my Cornwalls with 750 noisy Carver watts to play digital cannon shots (world's strangest musical instrument), but only for ear splitting moments while I held my breath. The big old horns can certainly handle brief bursts of tremendous power. The combination of the two components however did not make music. The noisy THD of the amp wore out my ears at normal listening levels and eventually, over a period of time listening lost its pleasure and stereos fell to the bottom of my hobby list. I would look at using what you have now as a pre-amp only and get something like the ASL Wave 8s (only $200) for an experiment with tube sound. If you like the sound, then you can step up to more refined and fulfilling tube sound. ------------------ horns & subs; lights out & tubes glowing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBusa Posted October 12, 2001 Author Share Posted October 12, 2001 Thanks guys. The cornwalls seem to be very efficient but imo they need a lot of high current power to produce the powerful low bass. A high number of watts simply won't do it. They need to be quaility, high current watts from what audiophiles here have told me. They are correct in every way. ------------------ ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted October 12, 2001 Share Posted October 12, 2001 I'd stay away from the Nikko. Nikko was the "high end" brand sold by tech HiFi back in the late, colorful 1970's. I used to own one of those monstrously big Nikko receivers (it was rated at something like 270 watts / channel), turned it in for a Nikko preamp and amp. Don't really remember the model number of the amp, though 220 does sound familiar. Like a LOT of the solid state gear available twenty or twenty five years ago, the output section could not dump a lot of current into a difficult load. It would put out 120 watts into an eight ohm resister, but into a speaker, maybe not. I was using it with a pair of Infinity Quantum 3 speakers, which were of very, very low sensitivity. They took a LOT of power to play loud - more than the Ohm F I compared them to. I ultimately wound up going from the Nikko to a 50 watt Mcintosh solid state amp (MC 502? i think...) and that played a LOT louder than the Nikko, and sounded much, much better - not nearly as hard on the high end. Between the horn loaded mid and high end, and the need to dump current into the bass driver, I don't think the Nikko would be a good match for the Cornwall. ------------------ Music is art Audio is engineering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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