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In Reply to: REVIEW: Kenwood L-02A Integrated Amplifier (SS) posted by J-PMatt@Comcast.Net on February 3, 2004 at 18:07:59:
It is fun to read about solid equipment coming from a mass market Japanese company!
But you have to know that these companies have many "flagship" products that never made it to this side of the pond. I've seen in the Matsushita (Technics, Panasonic) company museum demo amps that require a crane to move (but the sound didn't move me a bit... kind of dry...)
Kenwood is an interesting company. At some point in the mid 70's they made a decision to build a statement product. They formed a team that should have never existed in a company like Kenwood, and gave them sort of a free hand to use anything the company produced at the time. This team ended up using a chassis from an integrated amp (series 600) and built the model 700C preamp, or as Kenwood calls it - a control amp, in that big chassis. (This team later formed Accuphase, a company from which you expect such quality products).
There are three shielded compartments inside on the top side of the 700C chassis and numerous power regulator boards on the bottom. The phono stage runs off a +-50V supply and has a few transistors with heat sinks on them!
No wonder it gets a huge dynamic range and unparalleled speed.
This is "semi-exotic" extravaganza that is hard to find in any product, new or old. Lots of other refinements, even a step attenuator (we're talking mid 70's!)
While they used ordinary caps and resistors, extreme care was taken to glue ALL the electrolytic caps for mechanical stability. In short, not your average Kenwood product... :-)
The sound compares or outperforms pretty much all the line stages I've heard, and I've heard quite a few, so one cannot go wrong with this preamp on the merit of its line-stage alone.
I wish the phono stage was up to the same high bar, but it isn't.
Bottom line is that if you like to upgrade the sound of your Kenwood system or just have a truly great preamp in your high-end system, look for that elusive Kenwood model 700C control amp - you will not regret it!
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Follow Ups
- Look for a Kenwood model 700C "Control" Amplifier - serus 19:43:59 02/04/04 (2)
- Re: Look for a Kenwood model 700C "Control" Amplifier - J-PMatt@Comcast.Net 16:53:04 02/05/04 (1)
- Re: 700C phono - serus 18:48:26 02/05/04 (0)
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