Members philbo Posted November 26, 2013 Members Share Posted November 26, 2013 My fiance is heartbroken that her beloved Kenwood receiver is sick. The power amp won't drive speakers well any more. I'm sort of shopping for a new one for her for Christmas. (I'll probably repair the old one & use in my studio for copying vinyl to MP3 & listening to FM.) It needs to have a magnetic turntable phono input, and an FM receiver, along with analog (white/red phono jacks) for CD and cassette player. I'd like one that can do a couple hundred honest watts (none of this "Walmart 500W instantaneous peak music power" crap!). She has only 2 speakers, but I'd consider a surround receiver if that's all there is out there. Any advice? Opinions? Even better, any experiences? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted November 27, 2013 Members Share Posted November 27, 2013 The trick is probably going to finding one with a phono preamp these days.A few years ago I bought a Yamaha HTR-5790 specifically for that reason. It's a 7.1 surround sound amp listed at 110W per channel. (sub channel has no power. It's designed to be used with a powered sub.) How accurate that is, I have no idea. I didn't set up my system for a couple of years and by the time I finally got around to doing so, everything had gone HDMI which this amp doesn't have. So I got a newer Yamaha amp (always been a Yamaha fan) which has HDMI but no phono pre-amp. That's OK. My turntable is in another room on another system now anyway.Long story short, I still have that amp and it has literally not much more than a few hours use. I'd be happy to sell it to you if you're interested. Weighs 33lbs, so there would be some shipping costs involved, though. All the surround-sound stuff might be overkill for you though?http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/av-receivers-amps/htr/htr-5790_black__u/?mode=model Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted November 27, 2013 Members Share Posted November 27, 2013 But if it's just a simple 2-channel analog amp with a phono input you're looking for, I don't think you can probably go wrong with this Onkyo amp which you can get for about $250 + free shippinghttp://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-8050-Network-Stereo-Receiver/dp/B004UR486GOnly 80W per channel, but Onkyo makes good, solid stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted November 27, 2013 Members Share Posted November 27, 2013 I have (somewhere) an old Kenwood 40 w receiver from approximately '79. It sounds great (last time I checked, but that would be more than a decade ago) although the backlight behind the tuner frequency scale is gone and the selector switch all but shot. (As is the source selector switch on the nice early 90s Yamaha NaturalSound receiver that still powers my NS10s; ditto the Yammie's LCD display. I apparently both switch too hard and look too hard. ) OK... now here's the crucial part -- around 1988 I bought a NEW Kenwood, 65 W receiver because I liked the old one so much. BIG MISTAKE. What an incredible, utterly awful sounding piece of the worst kind of consumer-be-damned consumer crap! But, hey, at least it died really early and I was able to get it out of my life in less than 5 years or so. (The LED display on THAT one went out in less than two years or so. Since it was all digitally controlled, it made it really, really difficult to use. And, of course, it always sounded like crap. Zero-crossing glitch central. Just a cheap, cheap, bad transistor design sound.) OK... that's all I know. But if I was looking today, I might take a look at some of the 'smart audiophile' type brands. I remember Adcomm used to make some nice, reasonably priced, high quality stuff. I don't know if they still do (or if they've managed to keep themselves out of the jaws of the great corrupter of audio companies, Harman, which would put me right off them), but a quarter century ago... uh... never mind. heh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted November 27, 2013 Moderators Share Posted November 27, 2013 Go to yout local Craigslist and search on "NAD Reciever" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted November 27, 2013 Members Share Posted November 27, 2013 NAD. Another brand I remember from the 80s very fondly. (Notice how I try to telegraph that I have no idea if they're still any good.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philbo Posted November 27, 2013 Author Members Share Posted November 27, 2013 guido61 wrote: The trick is probably going to finding one with a phono preamp these days. A few years ago I bought a Yamaha HTR-5790 specifically for that reason. It's a 7.1 surround sound amp listed at 110W per channel. (sub channel has no power. It's designed to be used with a powered sub.) How accurate that is, I have no idea. I didn't set up my system for a couple of years and by the time I finally got around to doing so, everything had gone HDMI which this amp doesn't have. So I got a newer Yamaha amp (always been a Yamaha fan) which has HDMI but no phono pre-amp. That's OK. My turntable is in another room on another system now anyway. Long story short, I still have that amp and it has literally not much more than a few hours use. I'd be happy to sell it to you if you're interested. Weighs 33lbs, so there would be some shipping costs involved, though. All the surround-sound stuff might be overkill for you though?http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/av-receivers-amps/htr/htr-5790_black__u/?mode=model Looks like a decent unit. What would you want for it? Do you still have the measurement mic / remote control / whatever else came with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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