Anybody used Nikko amps before?

The output devices on the 220, 230, 440, 450, etc, are built out of long extinct unobtanium.

I’ve no idea what is inside the alpha 1.

Its the turn on surge when you hit the switch... as the feedback loop of the amplifier attempts to stabilize the amp at turn on, and this particular surge in the standard alpha design ...causes such a hard slam to the circuit, that it can pop the output stage and the driver stage, all the way up into the fet input chip (2x fet in a 7 pin sip, the 068 unit, iirc) and part of the feedback circuit. all these parts are old stock and sometimes hard to find. This channel popping problem is due to the small signal 'front end' capacitors being dried out and way off spec.

So an immediate small signal front end re-capping... is a ’immanent alarm bell flashing red light’ requirement, for any nikko amplifier.

Thanks again teo, appreciated.

I was the first post to this thread in 2003. My nephew now has my Nikko Alpha VI arc welder and it's still chugging away. That's about 30 years so far! 

I have a Nikko 450 that a buddy gave me. I never hooked it up to the beta pre-amp because it just looked "cheap"...I took the shorting pin out of the back of my sony 909 strgx and used it as a source and pre amp into the nikko. I had hooked it up with 4 rf klipsch 82's and one m&K 2500 dual 12 inch drivers with on board 500 watt amp. This amp can put out very serious power with very low noise and distorsion ....music and bass was very clean and tight! However I discovered that it had loosend the srcrews in a couple of power receptacles in the basement causing them to "arc" and eventually cause power outage in those receptacles. The nuances from my speakers were nothing short of "AWESOME ".. very low slew rate on the nikko 450 at  150 kept the dual 8 inch references in check at all times. I played alot of music at 3/4 volume with no distortion what so ever. It is definitely not a krell but sonically it performs pretry damn close. If you find one in good shape with new caps definitely buy it .overall it' a very good amp...just make sure it has good ventation on the top of it or it will burn your house down.

Does anyone know where to get these old Nikko products repaired? I have the classic Alpha 450 amp start up clipping.