Amps from the 1980's -- What gear holds up sonically? Reliably?


Hi Everyone,

For me, the 1980s were a real "golden age" of amplifiers. Dr. Leach’s paper on building a low TIM amplifier had been widely distributed and relied on by budding designers, and lots of boutique brands came. It was also the era of the biggest of the Conrad Johsnon tube amps as well and the invention of the MOSFET.

For me, brands I cared about:

  • Threshold
  • Sumo
  • Perreaux (New Zealand, very pretty)
  • Tandberg
  • Hitachi
  • Kyocera
  • Nikko
  • Krell (of course)
  • CJ
  • ARC
  • Yamaha (professional)
  • Carver
  • Mark Levinson
  • Amber 
  • Tandberg
This was also the speaker era of Snell and Apogee and Martin Logan. I am not sure there would be a Krell today if it wasn't for Apogee's 1 ohm speakers.

I’m curious who is still listening to these vintage pieces, and which brands you think have stood up both in terms of reliability and / or sonics ?
erik_squires
I own a pair of Classe DR-9 amplifiers, bullet proof and still kicking hard.They are 30 years old.

 jd157, you may be pleasantly surprised. The Krell SA-250 sounded great on a pair of A1s years ago. The Levinsons should too.

There's really nothing new in the amplifier word only better parts. An upgraded amp from years ago will probably sound as good as most new stuff and sometimes even better.
Currently using factory modded VTL Deluxe 300's that last tested near 500 watts per side.  They won't win any beauty contests and keep my listening room nice and toasty, but make very nice music, especially after running for a couple of hours.

Cheers
McCormack. I have (had) a DNA-1 Deluxe that I bought in the mid-90s, but iirc his designs pre-date that. Awesome amp which I used for 20 years but it just broke. I could do the SMc Audio gold upgrade on it for $1800 and basically get a brand new amp, arguably as good as anything built up to about $5k. I'm going for something else (new Odyssey Khartago SE++) instead to save about $800, but I am going to miss the DNA.