Old Amps that can still Kick Butt

My restored McIntosh MC30’s (especially), and even my rusty old mc240 find. Absolute sonic bliss

BEL 1001, for sure...

@atmasphere said: "Most of the amps listed here will sound fine at low volume. But if you want to blast they’ll get painful. The mark of a good system is one that sounds smooth and detailed (not brightness masquerading as detail) even at high volume."

I do not disagree because I simply don't have the experience to do so (and I do not have golden ears) but I will say that my Proceed HPA2 mentioned above, driving the Aerial Acoustic 8Bs through an AR LS-16 tube preamp sounds good as high as I care to crank it before the neighbors start to complain.  Remarkably, it sounds pretty good at lower volumes as well. There is no point in the volume range where they get too bright or too muddy for that matter. But, as @sameyers1 mentioned these speakers and this amp seem to have been made for each other.


The one exception is overly DR compressed recordings. The louder they get the worse they sound.....on all but my lowest end systems.

I understand people feeling nostalgic. That is all this is. Young hormone filled people get emotionally attached to people, events, music and sounds. If old equipment, in general, sounded better than new high end equipment, then the price on the old stuff would rise above new stuff. The reviewers and serious amateurs would get rid of the new stuff. There would be a blossoming industry with The Absolute Vintage Sound magazine leading the way. You can fool the mid-FI folks with buttons and new looks... you can fool the high end folks for a short time, but not for long. I bought a CD player when they came out... but sure didn’t get rid of my turntable. The idea that there is a lot of old equipment that sounds better than equivalent equipment today is nonsense. That sounds pretty good for it’s age, or better than infirm or equipment today... sure maybe.

Get a Robertson 4010 and tell me that.