Old hi fi amps versus modern av receivers for music reproduction?

Pistol Pete1

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How do the older hifi amps hold up to the newer av receivers for 2 channal music?

For example, the Marantz PM6010 KI can be had for under £100 on a certain website......

Other classics like the NAD C370 are going for under £200.....

How would these compare to my Denon AVR2310, for example when using cd's?

Anyone done this comparison?
 

Frank Harvey

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Jun 27, 2008
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I preferred the PM7200 to the 6010, but still a decent amp. You should find they'll outperform a 2310, but by how much depends on the individual. AV receivers are getting better nowadays, and the likes of Onkyo's 808 would probably be good enough to deter anyone from the extra hassle of adding an extra box and wiring to the system.
 
A

Anonymous

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I haven't compared old music amps to modern av receiver but my 35 year old Yamaha (which was a flagship model back in the day) is streets ahead of a marantz PM6003 (to my ears at least). That leads me to think a decent old music amp would compare favourably with a new av amp.
 
T

the record spot

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For sure. They compare very favourably! As a former owner of the PM6010-KI amp, my present amp (a 34 year old Sansui AU-717) leaves it standing.

By coincidence, I checked the value of the money you'd have paid for the 717 in 1977 using the Bank of England's inflation calculator the other day. The £400 it would've cost you came out at £1900-odd. Now, many of you might scoff, but it's not so strange. This amp ran three £1000+ designs hard last year (Exposure 3010s, Harman's HK990 and Leema's Pulse) and is probably the finest bit of kit I've owned.

That said, for every winner there's a pup, so a little background knowledge doesn't hurt.
 
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Anonymous

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I am using a 23 year old Yamaha AX-300 and it wasn't even the flagship at the time, in fact I have had an RX-300 receiver for many years and tried a number of amps and receivers over the years and nothing really excited me, the RX has a few more bells and whistles than the AX, in addition to the obvious tuner it has outputs for two sets of speakers and variable loudness, on the otherhand the AX offers gold plated phonos and excellent binding posts with banana sockets.

Anyway I decided to hunt down an AX-300 and found one and it performs much as I expected, pure and natural, the sound sounds unadulterated if you know what I mean.

I reckon the later 80's was a good time for amps, circuits were optimised for CD though unneccesary adorments were removed leading to shorter purer signal paths etc.
 

Pistol Pete1

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Interesting look to the Sansui.....
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Not sure it'll go with the look we are going for in the house........
 

MikeToll

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I have an old flagship model Pioneer amp from 1982 and a Leema Pulse II which has gone back to Leema for a modification so I have reconnected my Pioneer to the speakers (Rogers Studio 1 again from 1982) and I must say there is very little between the two amps. It is a case of different sound rather than quality so it suggests to me if you pick up an old premium model the sound should be excellent. I did have to have the Pioneer re-capped which cost me £15 at a little local repair shop.
 
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Anonymous

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Always need to be wary of the age/state of capacitors in older equipment as they only have a 15-20 year old life before they start to degrade.

I have an old Quad 405 and had the amp boards replaced by Net Audio (405-3). Would not swap them for anything and am fairly certain it would wipe the floor musically with any AV amp especially as I have a custom made all solid silver cable passive stepped attenuator pre-amp.

Not really a big fan of AV equipment. I have a fast BD/DVD HTPC rigged to the Quad 405 and two other power amps for 5.1 (passive sub).
 

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