Anybody used Nikko amps before?

Your experience is with one low end receiver. Nikko power amps are quite collectible, and when fully restored can hold their own very well against more modern amps.

I have a Nikko Alpha 2000 Amp. It is extremely rare. I think its sounds better than my Sansui Ba 5000 Amp. A Alpha 2000 just sold for over $2200 on e bay

I used to sell them as well as Sansui, Pioneer etc etc.
IMO only Jap amp that could best Nikko were the Sony V-fets which were
SOOO musical it was hard to believe. Esp. the integrated !

I worked at a Tech Hifi ~1978 where these were sold. Yes, they were one of the better sounding if not best Japanese lines back then. Don't know much about latter models.

Caveats:

- The good stuff is a good 30+ years old so I would question how good original units might work these days. Once refurbed or repaired, all bets are off....results could be good or bad in any case.

- these might do better than similar new gear at same price point or not. There is a chance, but hard to say. Results will vary.

- a bigger financial investment on newer gear researched properly to best fit your needs would likely deliver better results.

I bought a couple of early Nikko receivers, 301 and a 501, because they were cheap and I wanted to learn to work on electronics myself. I recapped both if them and they sound awesome. I think some folks rely on brand names to tell them what sounds good, but if you look at the components used in Nikko gear and maybe even listen to some of it, you will see that it is better than some of the popular brands back in the day.