Can anything beat Vintage Amps for the $$$?

I agree, tuners are no contest. Amps though, give me new any day.

Try a vintage receiver like the luxman R117 or R115. If the unit was well taken care of and the electrolytes are OK they will out perform many modern pieces. Vintage amps can always have new capacitors and wiring and some updated and non updated older Threshold units are better than many modern offerings (IMHO).

hi,

I have a rebuilt EICO HF-81. I paid 550 for it. I also have a Cary SLI-80 and paid a lot more for it. The EICO does not give anything up to the Cary except some power. It's a great amp.

Larry

JTN ...

By vintage, we are talking at least 25 years old ... right?

I have been using two restored Marantz receivers for the last 4 or so years (2216B and 2240). Their tuners perform great, but the amplifiers will sound like a modern amplifier only with judicious use of the tone controls. A NAD C320BEE will best these two receivers for most tasks.

Tube to tube, I had a Scott 299 for a while, but my Prima Luna Prologue Two is just better. There is a cost difference ... but also a performance difference. I find the old vintage amps have the desired warm sound to them, but are just not as clear and clean sounding.

If you do go the vintage amp route, I am of the mind that you should consider going vintage speaker. If you research these things over at Audio Asylum, there are threads that point to how damping and slew factors, etc are different today and that speakers were voiced back then to take this into account. But as said before, restoration is really the key.

Regards, Rich

For the money, no. I have an upgraded HK 730 Twin as the center of my analog system. I had modern separates. Much of today's modern electronics use digital chips whereby vintage equipment was intelligently designed by engineers, not computer geeks. I had the already terrific phono section upgraded even more as that's the only imput I use along with the great tuners section (as mentined by other posters). I would happily put my HK up for comparison with most anything up 5K. It may not be as accurate as the more costly pieces, but sound-wise...you might be suprised.