Can anything beat Vintage Amps for the $$$?


Restored Fisher, Scott, or Eico integrated amps can all be had for under $500. Do you think any new or used, tube or SS integrated amps can compete in this price range? Any opinions?
128x128jtnicolosi

Showing 2 responses by rar1

JTN ...

By vintage, we are talking at least 25 years old ... right?

I have been using two restored Marantz receivers for the last 4 or so years (2216B and 2240). Their tuners perform great, but the amplifiers will sound like a modern amplifier only with judicious use of the tone controls. A NAD C320BEE will best these two receivers for most tasks.

Tube to tube, I had a Scott 299 for a while, but my Prima Luna Prologue Two is just better. There is a cost difference ... but also a performance difference. I find the old vintage amps have the desired warm sound to them, but are just not as clear and clean sounding.

If you do go the vintage amp route, I am of the mind that you should consider going vintage speaker. If you research these things over at Audio Asylum, there are threads that point to how damping and slew factors, etc are different today and that speakers were voiced back then to take this into account. But as said before, restoration is really the key.

Regards, Rich
Steve:

I think you did vintage right as your main pieces ... amp; preamp; and speakers ... are all vintage. In fact, the preamps in some of these vintage receivers were outstanding. I have had good, but not great results pairing vintage receivers with modern speakers and CD players. One could claim that amplifier design has advanced only so far in the last 30 years (let's leave out digital amps for the moment), but speaker design and certainly the use of CD players add something different to the mix.

I thought that I would have liked vintage more than I have. I keep the Marantz receivers because they are decent performers and modern receivers are just terrible in comparison. I also use AR 302's as my main speakers, these are 11 year old remakes of the Acoustic Research AR5's from the 60's.

To my mind though, vintage works best when it has been restored and then the total price begins to approach modern components' price levels.

Regards, Rich