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Hey Everyone,
After help from other parts of the asylum my system is starting to come together. I have a Rega P1 TT, a set of Klipsch Forte II's, and a kenwood vr507 receiver. The receiever is definitely the weak link. I was thinking that I would like to go vintage so I could get something decent and save some money. My question would be, will actually be able to hear much of a difference in sound between the Kenwood and some vintage receiver for under $400? If so, do you guys have any recommendations. Also, will these old models continue to last or do they need a lot of service? I'm sorry to be asking dumb questions but I am just getting into this hobby and am not very informed yet.
Thanks
Follow Ups:
You don't need a lot of power, but you will want something with a really good phono preamp. Look for a later 70's Scott 370R. It's a sleeper, has more power than you need, sounds really good, and has a superb phono preamp. It's also huge! The previous generation Scotts are also good.
Someone suggested the Marantz 2230, that's a good choice, and the Pioneer SX-626 sounds very similar.
Jerry
You should be selective with amplification for those speakers - any trace of glare, etc. will be magnified
Keep in mind that any radio you buy now will need to at least be augmented by next Feb to accept HD, so A) receivers may be going down in price (tuners already are), B) you could look at quality vintage integrated amps, tube or solid-state, which are less tricky and expensive to acquire and maintain, and more plentiful in high quality
I have used my HK-430 with very efficient horns, and it sounds great; with your Fortes, it would probably be a powerhouse even at the rated 25 wpc - it also has a good phono section, and can be had in very good condition (for some reason, people who bought these didn't seem to abuse them often) for less than $100 - it's also a big favorite over on the Klipsch forum
The Advent receiver is also a good bet, has a really good phono section, enough power to drive the Fortes to symphonic levels, and can be had at or maybe a little less than $100 - BUT they can be more fragile than some other makes: I've had 3 "already vintage" units, and two went south - coincidentally, both were of the later, Made-in-Mexico variety, while the older version was made in Mass. and arguably used better parts and QA, and, more importantly, has lasted with daily use far longer than the other two (my cat even sleeps on it)
I see that you got several recs for tube receivers, and while they are very nice (I love my Fisher 400 and Scott 340), they're also prone to cost more - a LOT more - if you ever need to have work done on them, since even the radio section is tube-based, and they're overall [much] more complicated than tube amps or preamps; self-service/DIY can be challenging even for experienced techs
I have an Onkyo TX-4500 Mk. II that produces a real nice clear (but not overly so) and the Yamaha's in the CR- family sound nice and clean as well.
Good luck!
I own a pair of original Fortes, and they don't need much power to sound great - in fact, I would not recommend a high-powered vintage receiver for these - I would keep your receiver to 50 watts per channel or less. Just make sure it's vintage watts(pre-1985). One of the most surprising receivers I ever hooked up to my Fortes was a cheapo Technics SA-300, which can sometimes be found for around $50 or less on ebay.
It made the fortes sound like a million bucks. Save the money and spend it on music - you've already got a great pair of speakers.
I wish I could remeber the Denon PMA-250, whinc was a mere 25 watt integerated amp sounded great with Klipsch Forte' speakes. There were lots of great sounding integrated that should work very well. NAD, Niam, British Fedelity, Sansui, Kenwood and Yamaha come to mind. It seemed like the lower the power the better with Fortes. I wonder how they would sound with a Bendini class A amp?
Dave
Dave
Welcome, audio is a great hobby. But try not to use your email as your moniker as there are bots that surf forums for real addresses for creating spam lists.
peace,
TommyK
Ditto, especially not your university's email!
If you or a freind can upgrade tube receivers, I offer the following. Your high efficient speakers open up a few avenues.
The best sounding receiver I own or had owned is a modified Eico 2510 SE EL84. All my receivers I owned have been upgraded from factory stock design. The tuner section needs a few mods & the amp section 12DW7 changed to E80CC. Very simple mods here & I listed the mods in previous posts. One in SET & other in Radio Road. The Radio Road mods are listed as an Eico Classic 2200. Same tuner section in the Eico 2510 less the audio output tube. The tuner section is not a low sensitivity design, but if far away from FM stations an outdoor antenna is needed. SS tuners have more sensitive receivers.
If modifying is beyond your capacity, a Marantz 2230 sounded good in the past. I have not owned but a few SS receivers.
I would say that many vintage receivers will be great in your situation. Some brands fetch more on name basis (marantz, macintosh) while others are just fine (pioneer, sansui). The key is to spend a little on going through it, up front. You can buy a good receiver for 50 - 100, then spend 100 on recapping, cleaning, etc.
Try a vintage tube amp from Scott. The 222 models are very nice and should drive your Klipsch's nicely. They sound great with vinyl, and you can find these in the +$300 range or so.
Also, I am just trying to go for a real nice clean sound, I dont need any super duper bass and do not want a subwoofer or anything. Just something that will sound great with my vinyl!
The majority of my vintage receivers and integrated amps have succumb to "old age" in the last few years.
When you buy a 35 year-old amp....you're also buying 35 year-old electronics!
It was worth it....TO ME....to spend the time and money to re-cap a beautiful Marantz 2230 receiver.
Steve
The thing with vintage audio is you never know if you are hearing them at their best unless you bring them up to specs .
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