2. amps-preamps
  3. 1080498867

WHOA This isn't what I expected.

I'll try to make this as brief as possible. I am bi-amping my setup because of the new speakers I am getting. I am initially keeping my old integrated amp (Mac MA-6500)to use with the mid/high speakers. I borrrowed/bought a Nakamichi PA-7 from a friend to try out with the bass speakers. The Mac can be used as a preamp for the Nak.

I don't have the new speakers yet, but was dicking around with my old speakers this morning. I wanted to see what the volume level difference was between the Mac and Nak. I connected the Nak to the Mac using fairly good interconnects (Audioquest Pythons)and used my existing speakers and speaker cables (Audioquest Volcanos)and connected them to the Nak. After listening for a while, I reminded myself of why I was getting new speakers. Then I connected the speaker cables to the Mac, and as expected, the volume did decrease slightly. BUT, the sound quality increased in everyway and was immediately noticed. The Nak did not hold a candle to the old amp, and in fact it sounded pretty pathetic.

Can anyone tell me if this should have been the anticipated result? Or do you think something could be wrong with the Nak amp? What else am I missing? Power cords? I don't know, other than there was a VERY big drop off in sound quality that I sure wasn't expecting.

Thanks for any input.
angiemima
bemopti123
303 posts
 
I had the Nak PA-7 about three years ago. I do not know the load that the Betas present, but I would be very, very careful to attempt to drive them to very high levels, for what I remember is that they were not necessarily as powerful or capable of driving difficult loads. I had a pair of 88db monitors hooked up to them, 6" and 1" domed tweeter. They clipped a few times...mind you I did not drive them at very high volumes either. The Nak is a decent amp for what it is, but if the betas demand high current, then, the Nak will not be up to the task.
danielk141
489 posts
 
That Nak was so bad, I believe Threshold sued them to stop selling it. Nak had licensed the "Stasis" design, then low bid the build quality & put a thick faceplate on it...
elgordo
530 posts
 
Sean - Thanks for clearing up the "urban legend" of the Nak amp. I've never even seen, much less heard, one. From what people ask for them they didn't seem like a bargain, even if they were a "baby Threshold". Angiemima - I hope your "borrowed/bought" leans more toward the "borrowed".
kgveteran
377 posts
 
I remember seeing a PA-7 sitting on a used shelf at a store I worked at.It looked like a million bucks sitting there.Built like a tank.I opened it up and thought the layout was a little messy.With krell gear and counter point gear looking like the layout meant something.Then I fired it up one slow night.I ran it with a Marantz 67se and used the Micro Mcormack headphone drive as a preamp.Back then B&W had the "P" series and we had P5's in the store.I hooked it all up and wow did it sound like crap.So I swapped a B&K ST-140,just to see if something was up.I now use three B&K ST-140's in my hometheater system as a six ch. system.Someone bought it because it looked great.No, I didn't sell it.
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
This is yet another "McINTOSH RULES"thread.

there are lots f really well regarded amps out there. there are are a lot more die-hard MCIntosh fans around here
More to discover