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Vintage amps versus newer products

I own a sansui amp: AU:2200..a yamaha amp: CA-610 II...a technics SU -V660 and a marantz amp :SR-8200
Just guess which one served me real good ? Well, it's the Sansui.. bought it in 1977.. travel with it all around the country " so to speak" used it with an electric guitare cause there is a mike input... never had any trouble with it.. and i have the speakers that match it ( LM-110 ) gorgeous sound.. the second best one is my yamaha .. i prefer the sound that comes out of my yamaha as compared to my Technics with has a not very natural bass.. and the Marantz has not enough tone control.. "my Technics" i had a problem with the volume control not long after i had it..losing sound on either left or right speakers ... well,, i guess i need to get contact cleaner and try to reach that volume control.. Never had that kind of trouble with either my Yamaha or My Sansui... and for the Marantz.. it is so complicated to use  to a point that it is back in its box and i use my Yamaha which has a total harmonic distortion of .05.... bought it in 1978 and the specs are just as good as today's amps.. why can they not built or design amps that will last like the ones we had in the seventies and eighties ??....i made " back in 1978 " speakers with 15 inches Philips " Deforest speakers"AD15240 W8"... Midrange : AD5060SQ4  x 2 and the tweeter was a 15 ohms...3 way speakers"sealed enclosure" with one inch thick birch plywood... they had a beautiful sound...of course after a certain number of years the 15 inches speaker let go.. couldn't find the real match... of course they must be available in the USA but i"ll have to pay such a high price for shipping....
why is the electronic so complicated to set-up today.. talking here about amps.. why having so different ways of connecting devices in the back of those amps.. the first time i looked at the back of my Marantz i said to myself : GEEEEEEE  AND I USE MY YAMAHA for its Natural Sound
rayloaudio
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
I don't mess with Marantz gear newer than 1977. The 78 and later stuff goes down hill sharply and is just an epic pain to work on. 
Amps are nothing to wire up. It's the AV receivers that are walls of connectors. I'd never buy one of those for music, and since I don't watch TV I'll probably never buy one at all. 
I like simplicity. And by simple I mean the amp I'm listening to has 2 gain stages, 8 transistors, 56 resistors, 4 thermistors, 6 pots, 4 LEDs, and 10 capacitors in the power supply board. And it sounds awesome. I have no need for the crazy complex, digitally processed crap out there. 
rayloaudio OP
5 posts
 
You like simplicity.. so do i.. i love a stereo amplifier with good tone controls for bass and treble... systems to listen to movies at home is probably something interesting but i prefer to go to the theater if i want to see a good movie.. I know some friends who paid thousand and thousand of dollars for a good sound system to watch some films and after a while they realised that it was not worth the money spend.. one has to go out once in a while....then there is two of us who love SIMPLICITY....
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
I wouldn't even miss tone controls to be honest. I have them. I twist them around sometimes to keep them clean. I don't use them though. 
About the only thing I'll ever use in my stereo that has integrated circuits is a DAC. Aside from that I'm all about discreet components and simple topologies. That stuff is never cheap to buy for whatever reason, but it's cheap to build! That amp I was talking about is a muscled up Pass F5. 36 watts rms of pure class A power. Cost about $1000 to build. Worth every cent! I'm planning to build a suitable pre-amp at some point. It'll probably be a Pass design volume buffer with a few inputs and a selector. Real simple. 
noromance's avatar
noromance
1,780 posts
 
Vintage tube power amps for me. Rebuilt with new caps and they are simply excellent. I found old transister amps from mainstream manufacturers too grainy and flat for audiophile use.

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