Vintage/old Amps

[tony340]

As I'm in Vietnam and have not much access to new gear, i was obviously quite thrilled to find some guys selling vintage stuff... So just checked some places out and found a couple of old Luxman L-400/430 amps along with a Marantz PM50 and PM80. As some of u do know, I've a Nad 3020i which I believe is considered a classic. Are the above mentioned in the same league of the Nad, inferior or better than it? Also what about the age of these, is it a big risk buying old gear? Is it easy to get an electronics chap to give it a clean up and probably replace the caps and resolder anything if necessary? I've not really looked inside of these amps but the condition looks pretty ok. Just wondering if it's worthwhile getting any one of them

[Mr Peabody]

I'm not personally familiar with those models but I'd take a chance on the Luxman as they are typically recognized as a high end company. I have owned one of their vintage receivers that was in my opinion better than other vintage receivers I've heard, very clean and detailed although not the last word in bass if you like strong bass. The amps I'm sure would be better in that area.

Marantz has also been known for making some high end gear but PM are integrated amps and I'd have to look them up to see what years they are from. Typically the integrated amps are good value but couldn't say if they'd be much of an improvement over the NAD.

[tony340]

Awesome Mr P. The L-400 is like a $125 bucks, but the L-430 is around $200. I've been told that these are pre alpine models. Also the marantz PM-80 is supposed to be class A. Apparently a 1989 model