Pros & cons of buying a vintage receiver

[spasticteapot]

I'll take those EMIT tweeters off your hands, if you don't want 'em. I've got a 3-way I'm thinking about building...


Regardless, a $1,000 (today's dollars) reciever from 1975-1981 will be completely trounced by a modern $1,000 amplifier - for that kind of money, you could get some UCD modules, or a hand-made class-A amplifier that would put out more watts anyway.

On the other hand, an amplifier that cost $1,000 back in the late 70's is, what....$80? Maybe $40-$50 for a beat-up specimen at a flea market?

And that, folks, is why buying old-school gear is worth it - unless you're willing to DIY.

[Mr Peabody]

[QUOTE=spasticteapot
Regardless, a $1,000 today's dollars) reciever from 1975-1981 will be completely trounced by a modern $1,000 amplifier - for that kind of money, you could get some UCD modules, or a hand-made class-A amplifier that would put out more watts anyway.

That's a broad generalization. I'd almost disagree with you, but it really depend on which vintage and modern gear you are comparing. I have a Sansui AU-9500 that cost $595.00 in the early to mid 70's and you'd be hard pressed to find an amp today to beat it with $1k. I was really impressed and it's the amp that put my faith back in vintage gear. To me it sounded better than a $700.00 vintage Luxman receiver I once had, and it sounds better than my Adcom gfp450/gfa5400. The latter may be subjective, some may prefer the bigger bass sound of the Adcom, but the Sansui has the upper hand on clarity and detail. The Sansui bass line is much tighter. The 9500's sound is refined, leaning toward the sound of an Arcam integrated. I haven't heard much vintage gear take that direction. The Luxman had good detail, much better than receivers today, but the bass didn't have much punch. It had a light and airy quality to the sound. I think if some one got lucky enough to find the right piece,of vintage gear they could have a great system.

I could be wrong, but I haven't seen much improvement in CD playback since early in 2k. Many looking for good sound for cheap seem to overlook the great buys on what once was very expensive DAC's, or CD players, but DAC's are less risk because they usually far out live the transport, now being sold for under $500.00. These high end DAC may be only 20 bit or less but what they done with that will beat up on a modern machine today costing $500.00, or more depending. Those who think there's no improvement over $300.00 are sure to post their disperaging remarks but I have a solid state Conrad Johnson DAC I bought used for $450.00 that cost $1,200.00 new and I bet there isn't many players under $1k to beat it. This DAC is probably from 99. I hooked it up to my Krell's digital out and it naturally was not as good as the Krell's internal DAC but I was amazed though at how well it held it's own in comparison.

The reason for my babble is to have a good system, you have to have a good source. You may not think of digital as vintage but compare the progress of improvement in digital playback to any improvement in amplifiers. What would you say, one year in digital is like 10 or 20 years to amps?