2. amps-preamps
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Dragging out a great old dinosaur

I had to send my beloved Cary V12R in for a tune up. As a substitute, while the big lug is out, I installed a twenty-two year-old Denon PMA 720 integrated amp that I bought new in 1990 or so from Purdue Radio in Montclair NJ, which later became Woodbridge Audio. I believe I paid about $350 for it, which was huge money for a college student at the time. Needless to say, nowadays I have speaker cables that cost considerably more than that. It's been playing in a meager bedroom system for the past ten years or so.

The amazing thing is that the old PMA actually acquits itself quite well. It doesn't have the liquidity, detail or dynamics that the tubes have, but the soundstage is suitably big and there's even a reasonable amount of depth. All in all, it sounds pretty darned good! It definitely put the law of diminishing returns into stark perspective.

Methinks it might be time to get some decent bookshelf speakers, better cables and a real CD player for the bedroom. Now that I recall how good this amp actually is, it'd be a shame not to use it properly.

Any similar experiences?
grimace
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 
Those dinosaur's can give you just about everything except that 3D sound stage. That cost's big bucks.
tmsorosk
1,013 posts
 
I was in the same boat, had to bring out my old Marantz 2600 receiver temporarily, it was ok but overly warm and colored.
mik971
153 posts
 
I have been enjoying a Nakamichi TA2 Stasis receiver and am currently getting my Sansui AU-919 serviced. Love the old stuff!
lacee
811 posts
 

I bought an old Bell tube integrated, made in 1961, with the original RCA and Telefunken tubes.
From what I see,it's never seen a repair or had any parts replaced.

It's put many a more expensive tubed amp to shame, and it's my reality check amp.
Whenever I get the urge to buy a new amp, I always use the old Bell for comparison sake.
It was bested by the DecWare amp that I use in my main system, but the Bell does duty in a casual listening system ,FM radio as main source.

The only drawback to the amp are the screw on speaker terminals and the cheap closely spaced RCA jacks.
I use another pawn shop find, an old solid state Spectro Acoustics pre amp and plug it into the Aux input of the Bell, which enables me to use more robust interconnects.
The speaker terminals are still stock, I use some adaptors to allow me to use some thicker guage wire.

The speakers in this little setup are home brew omni directional, full range crossoverless by design.
I run two 8 inch wideband drivers front and back firing and to spread the sound a pair of side firing Monsoon ribbon tranduscers.The system is very easy to listen to,not harsh or strident, but adding a sub would improve it.

There's lots of stuff out there that will perform reasonably well and for a lot of folks be all that they need.

Just don't expect too much from it and you'll be happy.
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