In Reply to: RE: Vintage Philips Cassette Deck? posted by Brian McGowan on July 24, 2014 at 07:59:24:
.. I have a 7871* - the black-faced version - and a 430, and as much as I like the 430, the Philips is better, and not just because of the power. It is more refined in sound and build quality, and does indeed have more power. I highly recommend them. I wish I could find some way to get the preamp and power amp from that series, but the last couple of years have seen the prices skyrocket for those two. Make sure that what you get is explicitly labelled "High Fidelity Laboratories" or you may get only a close relative, not the US-made units which are so good.
*actually, I have two - one is stock, except for replacing the PS caps and some other out-of-spec parts; the other is a full-blown upgrade mod with upsized caps in the PS and boutique caps throughout, new close-tolerance & matched resistors in the preamp, and replacement of the op-amps in the tuner and phono sections with nice new equivalents (OPA2604, iirc). I think the latter is superb, but not a completely different piece from the stock unit, which I think speaks well for the model.
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Follow Ups
- The Philips Lab Series receivers are better than the HK 430 - ToddM 16:12:10 07/24/14 (0)