New Amp - Help!

cjackson

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At presnet I'm running A Technics SU-X120, It seems be very lacking at the moment as I've had it along time I think it might be staring to loose it's umph. I'ts total power conasumption is 210 WATTS (40 WATTS a channel I think) and I have hooked up my Wharfedale S500 125 Watts Speakers.

I've been looking at getting a new second hand amp for a while and was gonna go for the A-400 but on ebay the Pioneer SA-520 has caught my eye at 50 Watts a Channel.

Would this Amplifier be a suitable upgrade or would it be more like a downgrade, Haven't got much of a budget on abot £50 or so.

ANy advice appreciated!
 
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Anonymous

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you would be lucky to get a Pioneer A400 for £50 ... they normally sell for between £100-£130 ....

look at the older pioneer, sansui, yamaha, and kenwood amps ... some bargains around but take your time and research properly before buying ....
 

cjackson

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Thanks for the reply my friend, I had noticed that I Got outbid on occasion of bidding on A-400's :)

I like the older Pioneer stuff could you recommend an amp / model that would go with the rest of my system.

I have Pioneer PD-m426 6 Disc CD Changer, Pioneer PDS-707 CD Player, Technics SLJ110R Record Deck, Technics SU-X502 Tape Deck and Wharfedale S500 Speakers

>?
 
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Anonymous

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here are the specs of the older SA series ....

SA-5800 Amplifier - This was the entry level integrated amplifier, available in 1979 and 1980. It featured 25 watts per channel, low distortion, and the cool blue power meters. The controls are pretty basic, with 3 inputs (Tuner, Phono, Aux), two tape monitors, bass and treble, and a loudness switch. The SA-5800 sold for $200.

SA-6800 Amplifier - The SA-6800 offers 45 watts per channel at 0.03% total harmonic distortion. Basically, this is just an up-rated SA-5800. The only additional control is a tone defeat switch to bypass the bass and treble controls. The SA-6800 was offered from 1979 to 1981, and sold for $300.

SA-7800 Amplifier - The SA-7800 was the first of Pioneer's Non-Switching Amplifiers. Class A-B amplifiers essentially have a mirrored set of transistors to amplify the positive half of the signal separately from the negative half of the signal. This is very efficient, but it causes cross over distortion when the signal transitions from positive to negative or negative to positive. Pioneer came up with a method to eliminate this cross over distortion, resulting in a 65 watt per channel amplifier at an amazingly low 0.009% total harmonic distortion. In addition, the SA-7800 featured a number of additional user controls, such as low and high filters, two sets of speaker outputs, tape dubbing, and a mode selector (for stereo, mono right, mono left, left + right, or left/right reverse). All this came at a cost $450.

SA-8800 Amplifier - The SA-8800 is an up-rated SA-7800 that features 80 watts per channel and the same non-switching technology. The only additional user feature is knobs to set the phono cartridge impedance and capacitance load to match some of the more esoteric phono cartridges that were available at the time. The SA-8800 sold for $550.

SA-9800 Amplifier - This is Pioneer's top of the line x800 series amplifier. It puts out 100 watts per channel at the same ultra-low distortion level due to the non-switching amplifier. Additional user controls include a switch to dim the blue power meters, and turnover controls for the bass and treble. Turnover controls set the frequency where the tone controls take effect. This allows you to do more complex equalization without having to add an external equalizer. This was the ultimate in integrated amplifiers during the silver era, with the ultimate price tag of $800.

hope this helps .... but do more research and make sure that the amp works properly before bidding on ebay .... also look at the other makes such as Yamaha, Technics, Sansui .... some really good bargains around if you are patient
 
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Anonymous

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cjackson:Thanks Man, I'll keep an eye out for those amps, if I bought one though how long do you think it would last ?

some are 30yrs old and it all depends on how much they have been used .... mine worked fine, had some spare cash, so had it recapped and serviced ....

it only costs approx £130 to have one seviced and recapped .... should last another 30 yrs ....
 

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