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Amps from the 1980's -- What gear holds up sonically? Reliably?

Hi Everyone,

For me, the 1980s were a real "golden age" of amplifiers. Dr. Leach’s paper on building a low TIM amplifier had been widely distributed and relied on by budding designers, and lots of boutique brands came. It was also the era of the biggest of the Conrad Johsnon tube amps as well and the invention of the MOSFET.

For me, brands I cared about:

  • Threshold
  • Sumo
  • Perreaux (New Zealand, very pretty)
  • Tandberg
  • Hitachi
  • Kyocera
  • Nikko
  • Krell (of course)
  • CJ
  • ARC
  • Yamaha (professional)
  • Carver
  • Mark Levinson
  • Amber 
  • Tandberg
This was also the speaker era of Snell and Apogee and Martin Logan. I am not sure there would be a Krell today if it wasn't for Apogee's 1 ohm speakers.

I’m curious who is still listening to these vintage pieces, and which brands you think have stood up both in terms of reliability and / or sonics ?
erik_squires
68pete
991 posts
 
Mark Levinson 3 series are great even by todays amps.
erik_squires OP
15,682 posts
 
Well, this is interesting, I don’t know which is right, but this article claims the first series of the Nak amps were better?

http://www.tonepublications.com/old-school/nakamichi-pa-7-amplifier/

Per other threads, the original PA-7 was pure class A and 150W/ch instead of 225W/ch


Best,

E
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
ask yourself this -- who designed them?

go thru the list of brands in the OP, and you'll find a lot of xlnt engineers...
Post removed 
213runnin
914 posts
 
Hmm, another "back in the day" thread. I guess its inevitable to recount how good the high end was back in the 80’s, and no doubt the good brands have lasted year after year. But 30+ year old components are going to develop issues and start to operate out of spec.

Yes I know that there will be individual amps that it seem time can’t kill, but those would be in the minority. And to find a tech that really knows old electronics is getting rare. But it’s okay, amp design is not exactly rocket science, and many technological advances have occurred since the 80’s.

A lot of new gear these days is actually pretty good too.
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