Advice for first-time vintage buyer

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So my dad recently gave me a pair of Celestion Ditton 66 speakers and his old Sansui 661 amplifier. The speakers are lovely - as far as I can tell they were made in 1976 - and the amplifier is also great - from about 1975 I believe. When I pair them up, however, at certian volumes one of the channels on the amp distorts. As a rank amateur I'm going to assume that this is becsuse the speakers are 80w and the amp outputs at 20w, particularly as the speakers sound fine on my more modern Denon amp. I'm guessing I shouldn't be pairing these relics up.

So what I'd really like to do is find a nice amp to suit the Celestions that will give enough power. And I'd quite like an older amp to do the job - something with character. I also don't want to pay more than about £100 if I can help it - maybe a £150 ceiling.

Can anyone suggest the sort of thing I should be looking out for that will treat the speakers right?

 

[dim_span]

lovely speakers but they need a strong amp (if you want integrated, 100 (or higher) watts @ 8 Ohm )

a quick look on ebay at buy it nows ....

Yamaha AX-700 ... £149.99 (110 Watts @ 8 Ohms)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/For-Sale-Yamaha-AX-700-stereo-integrated-amplifier-Japanese-Made-/171710362040?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27fabc31b8

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personally, I'd save for a while and try and get something like a good used musical fidelity A5 or similar for approx £500 (250 Watts @ 8 Ohms)....

I would be careful with the sansui amp ... you could damage the speakers

 

[lindsayt]

20 watts is enough to give you about 100dbs a 1 metre distance from the Celestions. That's really loud.

Chances are, all you need is a spray of contact cleaner on the volume pot, or a new volume pot to get your amp working properly. There's a high chance a tech could sort your amp out for a modest amount of money if you don't fancy trying to fix it yourself.