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Re: What's now in your hi-fi?

62 by biscuitdough
I picked up a pair of Boston Acoustics A100s and am now thinking that my Optimus SRA3500 (a mediocre Pioneer receiver, rebadged for Radio Shack) might be due for an upgrade. What's a solid integrated amp I can pick up used for $200-300 that can be recapped by an amateur if the need arises? You sometimes see the NAD stuff in that price range. Or should I just save up and get a current Yamaha?

Re: What's now in your hi-fi?

63 by motorbike guy
biscuitdough wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 9:07 pm I picked up a pair of Boston Acoustics A100s and am now thinking that my Optimus SRA3500 (a mediocre Pioneer receiver, rebadged for Radio Shack) might be due for an upgrade. What's a solid integrated amp I can pick up used for $200-300 that can be recapped by an amateur if the need arises? You sometimes see the NAD stuff in that price range. Or should I just save up and get a current Yamaha?
just had a cruise through ebay. there are lots of NAD, Rotel, Musical Fidelity, Cambridge Audio, Rega integrateds available. i saw a Creek which is great, and Arcam, which is pretty good. Of the japanese brands, I favor Marantz, Luxman and Denon. Maybe Onkyo. I never heard a Yamaha amp that i thought sounded good, but I have not heard one for 20 years, so they may be better. They do look the business, tho.

My favorite all time used integrated amp is the Tandberg 3012. I fear the secret is out about them, as there is one on ebay right now but it is $800. Which is too much. There is broken one for $250, but who knows how much that would be to fix.

Any of the above would kill maim murder and destroy the amp you have now. Good luck.

Re: What's now in your hi-fi?

64 by biscuitdough
motorbike guy wrote: Sat Sep 04, 2021 8:57 am
biscuitdough wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 9:07 pm I picked up a pair of Boston Acoustics A100s and am now thinking that my Optimus SRA3500 (a mediocre Pioneer receiver, rebadged for Radio Shack) might be due for an upgrade. What's a solid integrated amp I can pick up used for $200-300 that can be recapped by an amateur if the need arises? You sometimes see the NAD stuff in that price range. Or should I just save up and get a current Yamaha?
just had a cruise through ebay. there are lots of NAD, Rotel, Musical Fidelity, Cambridge Audio, Rega integrateds available. i saw a Creek which is great, and Arcam, which is pretty good. Of the japanese brands, I favor Marantz, Luxman and Denon. Maybe Onkyo. I never heard a Yamaha amp that i thought sounded good, but I have not heard one for 20 years, so they may be better. They do look the business, tho.

My favorite all time used integrated amp is the Tandberg 3012. I fear the secret is out about them, as there is one on ebay right now but it is $800. Which is too much. There is broken one for $250, but who knows how much that would be to fix.

Any of the above would kill maim murder and destroy the amp you have now. Good luck.
How about ease of servicing? Is any brand or model superior in that way?

Re: What's now in your hi-fi?

65 by Mickey242
biscuitdough wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 9:07 pm I picked up a pair of Boston Acoustics A100s and am now thinking that my Optimus SRA3500 (a mediocre Pioneer receiver, rebadged for Radio Shack) might be due for an upgrade. What's a solid integrated amp I can pick up used for $200-300 that can be recapped by an amateur if the need arises? You sometimes see the NAD stuff in that price range. Or should I just save up and get a current Yamaha?
NAD D3020 v2 if you can afford it. We had one at work. I would imagine it's just one big PCP inside.
The older version, the 3020 is built well and cheap but less Watts.
"There's a felling I get when I look to the west"
"When the meaningful words. When they cease to function. When there's nothing to say."

Re: What's now in your hi-fi?

66 by motorbike guy
biscuitdough wrote: Sat Sep 04, 2021 11:35 am

How about ease of servicing? Is any brand or model superior in that way?
I really don't know. all of those companies are still in business, so i imagine some parts are available, if they are not standard off the shelf electronic components. A good tech can fix most anything electronic, unless there are proprietary chips or special control panels and knobs and buttons that are no longer made.

Re: What's now in your hi-fi?

68 by seby
seby wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 7:58 am
Isadore Nabi wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:01 am
seby wrote: Sun May 30, 2021 9:13 pm I would go with the record/tape/line out as this means that you will not need to uncouple (split the pre and power sections) your integrated amp if this is how you are doing things (with an integrated amp).
This is what I do; it also requires turning the master volume on my integrated all the way down so it doesn't audibly drive the speakers while I'm listening to headphones. That doesn't help FM enframed, but if you haven't pulled the trigger on the Schiit yet I can recommend this opinionated headphone amp. I'm not an "objective audio" purist in general, but the designer's anti-snake oil crusade seems justified for such a simple piece of electronics. It sounds great to me, miles better than my NAD C352's headphone jack. Only has RCA inputs, but that's fine if you're splitting a phono stage line out.
The JDS stuff looks great! New to me, many thanks. Shall pick up the smaller DAC and report back
JDS Atom DAC+ arriving next week : )
"lol, listen to op 'music' and you'll understand"....

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