Vintage flagship japanese amps, late 70's early 80's, some questions...


Greetings to all music lovers out there.

Recently I started have interest in vintage amps, especially from late 70's and early 80's, I noticed that some high end gears from this era, from Luxman, Yamaha, Sansui, have a impressive built quality, the construction of the top of the line gears appears to be made to last a life time, for example: the integrated Sansui AU2000, Yamaha Centennial Series, Denon POA-8000 monoblocks...

I appreciate very much if enthusiasts of this types of gears can clarify some questions that I have:

For what I know, (maybe I'm wrong about this, i don't know) even considering this gears in impressive Near Mint condition, they still will need to be refurbished right? because 40 years old is too much for some internal components keep their optimum quality?

What are the situations that unfortunately, it will be impossible to make this equipments deliver their optimum performance? (remember that just Near Mint equipments are considered)

Anyone had the surprise of equipments from this era surpass the sound quality of modern gears, that you could not imagine that this would happen?

I know this question can falls down to subjective taste, and other objectives like recreate a sound experience from this era, enjoy the nostalgia of vintage equipments and etc...

but what about really be surprised by the quality of a 40 years old equipments don't loose in anything for the modern standards?

Thanks, all additional info that you can add about this subject are very much appreciated, best regards.








128x128cosmicjazz

Showing 4 responses by riaa_award_collectors_on_facebook

Also copying something I wrote on another thread a few days ago below. Do not believe anybody that tells you that you absolutely MUST have a complete restoration job that will cost several hundreds of dollars (at least) to replace every capacitor/resistor etc...First of all that will change the sound that the receiver was born with. You can definitely find receivers from the 70’s that still sound wonderful with no work done to them...it is a crapshoot thou. I have no experience with the Harman Kardon listed above simply because they look inferior to their counterparts...so I stayed away. They could sound great thou. The IC CHIPS for FM reception on several Harman Kardon Receivers from the 70's no longer exist...so if RADIO is important to you do your research first (on AudioKarma)


Your best place for info on Vintage gear is AUDIOKARMA....not Audiogon....not even close. Don’t waste your time here. This post would have 50 replies in a week on AudioKarma.


I have over 50 of these mid-late 70’s in stock and have owned well over 100. The worst sounding brands to me are Yamaha "Natural Sound" and Sony receivers. Tandberg is another dog. Kenwood is better than these BUT middle of the pack for most models...exceptions below.

It really depends on what you want to hear. Pioneer and Marantz sound great but far from the highest resolution.

Luxman will give you the greatest "detail". You will hear things with Luxman that will be masked by most of the other brands.

Here are some of my Favorites to seek out.

Best bargains (which sound Better than the best Pioneer/Marantz): SANYO JCX-2900K, ONKYO TX-8500 either version, Sherwood 9910.

Others are Any TOTL Sansui’s like Eight Deluxe (Not Eight), 9000 Models....not cheap. NIKKO NR1415, Kenwood KR-9600 and 9050, Technics SA-800, Luxman R1070/1120.

Pioneer - SX1250, 1010, Marantz 2285, 2325, 2330

I pair all my receivers with JBL Monitors (4412, 4312A, JBL 166)

Hope this helps you get started.

I will disagree with the above post about NIB Receivers which I have and have had. If your saying that putting NEW parts will make a 40 year old receiver sound more like it did at the time it was built in the 1970's then just using it directly out of the box AS IS is a ridiculous assessment.  Fresh out of the box 40 years later might not sound exactly as it would have at birth but its as close as your gonna get. Let me know when you have over 100 of these things to compare.

 AUDIOKARMA is where you go if you want to find excellent restoration services from people who's reputations are in full display with plenty of feedback from other board members about their work. NOT FLEABAY for Gods sake.

Your not doing your homework. Starting around 1980 COST CUTTING measures became the rule of the day for audio equipment and much of what was made in the 80's/90's has an inferior build quality to the 70's models...which is why stuff from the 70's continues to rise in value. Not saying everything is Junk from the 80's but a large percentage is. Also some of the companies were bought out...like Luxman being taken over by Alpine...so you need to do more digging or you will be throwing money out the window.

I can assure you that my 50+ 1970's Receivers restored or not do not sound anything like my Dagostino M400 Monoblocks, ARC 150M, Pass XA-25, Valvet E2 or Sit-3. Nor do all those 1970's receivers sound the same as each other....not even remotely close EXCEPT for the ones made by the same brand.  Maybe all of your receivers were restored with the same exact parts and thats why YOURS sound the same.