Anybody used Nikko amps before?

The output devices on the 220, 230, 440, 450, etc, are built out of long extinct unobtanium.

I’ve no idea what is inside the alpha 1.

Its the turn on surge when you hit the switch... as the feedback loop of the amplifier attempts to stabilize the amp at turn on, and this particular surge in the standard alpha design ...causes such a hard slam to the circuit, that it can pop the output stage and the driver stage, all the way up into the fet input chip (2x fet in a 7 pin sip, the 068 unit, iirc) and part of the feedback circuit. all these parts are old stock and sometimes hard to find. This channel popping problem is due to the small signal 'front end' capacitors being dried out and way off spec.

So an immediate small signal front end re-capping... is a ’immanent alarm bell flashing red light’ requirement, for any nikko amplifier.

They are all good amplifiers, overall. They are also old by any reach of that word (audio amplifier dog years) and require a full on re-capping.

The biggest problem with them is they pop at turn on. Basically no sign there is anything getting close to being bad and ’pop!’ at turn on, and you’ve got a blown channel. The alpha 220 and 230 were famous for this. But then again, they can be forgiven as in most cases they have this happen when they are 20-25 years old.

Thus, a working alpha I is likely a decent sounding budget amplifier, at the right price, but add in the fact that they MUST be recapped and very very soon. No games there, it’s Russian roulette every time you hit the power switch. With the right kind of rebuild and refreshing effort... it can probably perform beyond most of the mid grade crowd.

The problem is that people tell themselves, ’I’ll just listen to music today and think about the required rebuild tomorrow’. then they go through a few months or weeks of slowly relaxing..and thinking everything is fine - they use the amplifier every day. "Nothing wrong here, hah, that dude on the internet, he was wrong, I beat the odds!"

But there are no odds here, there is only the 100% inevitability of what is to come.

So they relax their guard and forget the amplifier is a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode. and one day soon, boom!..thar she blows!

All they had to do is stop using it and get it recapped. And it would have then lasted another 20 years.