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#1 A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 3:03 pm
by Ant
I got myself some new (to me) cans, a pair of early 70s audio technica at 706 electrets. Ive had a pair of at h7 electrets in the past and really liked them, but sold them as they werent getting used.

Ive got them so that i can bugger off away from everyone and relax with some music when the house is full of noise, so the plan is to put a little system together in the bedroom without speakers and run the electrets. They plug onto an adapter box that in turn plugs into the speaker terminals on an amp

Ive tested them with a nasty little 80s marantz reciever and the spare cd player, and they sound really nice, however i know from the ath7s i had that they are much nicer with a nicer amp.

What id like to do is have a nice 70s amp like the little rotel ra211 10w amp, or the old sony reciever i used to have, and have a little vintage system up there.

In terms of 70s vintage amps, ive only ever had the rotel, the sony reciever and a trio something or other, and that was a good 15 years ago so does anyone have any suggestions on what i should be looking at?

I dont need power, just something sweet

Cheers ant

#2 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 6:50 pm
by shane
A&R A60?

#3 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 7:10 pm
by Ant
Had one of those a long time ago, never liked it tbh, and a creek cas 4040 after it which i thoroughly disliked. They both got sold on quickly.
Wonder what the first arcam alpha was like....

#4 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 7:28 pm
by Ray P
Not a vintage amp in terms of age but perhaps vintage in sound...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DIY-PCB-plus ... SwTM5YxaUY

Pete Millett does some good stuff so a good starting point maybe?

http://www.pmillett.com/nuhybrid.html

A man of your talents should have no trouble packaging it with a suitably retro look.

#5 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 8:42 pm
by jack
I had a Sansui AU717 back in the day and it was an astonishing amp - the only one I regret selling. It was awesome... Used it with my Beyer ET1000/N1000 electrostatics, again which I regret selling...

Sansui amps were justifiably renowned. Find one and you'll be happy...

Edit: I regret selling everything I've sold, but there are higher powers at work and a content home life was a higher priority !

Edit again: Arghhhhh! Just looked and seen what they go for now! Insane! Definitely should have kept it :roll:

#6 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 8:44 pm
by shane
I was going to suggest a Sugden A21, but they’re a bit pricey these days. Just trying to remember which of the amps we used to sell actually sounded any good. Of the various Japanese offerings, the one we used to sell shed loads of, and which I haven’t seen any mention of anywhere for years, was the Nikko TRM400. It was nicely made and I seem to remember it sounded pretty good, but memory’s a fickle thing. Don’t know where you’d find one now though. Alternatively, for a real bit of 70s-tasticness how about this?


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rotel-RX-402 ... 890.l49292

#7 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:05 pm
by Ant
My mother in law has an rx 402! Only issue is that it has din input sockets without any phono sockets but it does sound pretty nice. Or it did last time i heard it, must be about 10 years ago now.
With some 70s wharfdales and a philips cd303

Ive found a couple of candidates, a rotel ra 311, a sony ta 1066 and a sony str 6036 reciever. The str 6036 looks really rather pretty with its green backlit tuner section

Why did companies have to make really good looking kit in the 70s and then move on to making butt ugly black plastic crap in the 80s........

#8 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:19 pm
by Ali Tait
How about this Ant? Needs a little TLC-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUGDEN-A21-S ... SwzQxgLlA5

#9 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:49 pm
by Ant
Bit much that ali for what i want it for
Looks cool though

#10 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:20 am
by Ali Tait
They’re nice amps, used to have one.

#11 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 7:06 am
by shane
Ant wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:05 pm
Why did companies have to make really good looking kit in the 70s and then move on to making butt ugly black plastic crap in the 80s........
Sums up the whole decade, really!

Nothing wrong with DIN plugs except for the extreme manual dexterity required to solder them up. I spent most of the 70s with the impressions of 5-pin DINs burned into the fingers of my left hand.

#12 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:18 am
by vinylnvalves
My first amp was a Tandberg with wood panels... £15 S/H. Served me well through university, until I was conned by the HIFI shop to “ungraded” to Claymore, which was better as it had no tone controls or VDU’s. I had a friend with a Technics class AA amps which had heat pipe cooling.. he could almost heat his bed sit with the amp.

#13 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:41 am
by jack

#14 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 1:33 pm
by Ant
Ta nick ill have a look at those
Found a sony ta 70 that looks interesting, although a 2% quoted thd figure for it is abit odd

#15 Re: A vintage integrated for headphones

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 2:09 pm
by jack
Ant wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 1:33 pm Ta nick ill have a look at those
Found a sony ta 70 that looks interesting, although a 2% quoted thd figure for it is abit odd
I loved my AU717 but it was a monster and eventually, about 20 years ago or more, I sold it for a couple of hundred. It was in immaculate condition.

They're now 800+ on the 'bay. Fna^^(**(&^&&*&*^(O("££%$%O! and so-on...

The AU919s, the last in the series, now fetch between 1 & 2 grand in decent condition. Never owned one of those, but they have a huge following...

Sansui were a great amp design company - the reviews say it all - for the money, an AU217 II in decent nick would be a great small amp, even by today's standards.