Underdog hi-fi components

birchoak

Hi-Fi Nut
This thread is for any hi-fi component that, despite its bland appearance, low purchase price, relative lack of splendor, nevertheless punches above its weight, toes the line, walks the line, is The Little Engine That Could.
Allow me to demonstrate.

1) Sansui 800 receiver. 1968-71. 22 watts. Does not leap out at you in any way until you play something through it. Then, you'd better double-knot your shoelaces because you're about to have your socks blown off. It will eventually run out of steam, but before it does you can wade chest deep in the bogs of gorgeous sound.

2) Paradigm Titan speakers. The cheapo ones. Look like BPC, foam woofer surrounds, absolutely nothing special about them, apparently, until you listen to them. Sound much bigger than they are and hit the audio sweet spot.

3) Alesis RA-100 power amplifier. Looks like a heat sink with a few switches, and could pass for some generic cooling unit (kind of like how the alien hid at the end of the first Alien). Very well made, dead reliable, sells for peanuts.

Ok, your turn!
 
Sansui A-40. When paired with easy-to-drive loudspeakers (like the JBL L20Ts shown below), the lowly 25 wpc A-40 could go very loud and lively without distortion.

47D7imS.jpg
 
Wait, where is the lowly A-40? Is that it behind the monitor? If it's got meters it's got class in my book.
Yes, behind the monitor. :) It was my garage system where I did everything on: critical listening, casual listening, watching movies, and playing computer games. The system never disappointed me.
 
What makes something an underdog hi-fi component? For example, a quick search on this site will find all sorts of posts about the Sansui 800 that exhaust every superlative known to humankind. So, help me out here. Define what underdog means in this context.
 
3) Alesis RA-100 power amplifier. Looks like a heat sink with a few switches, and could pass for some generic cooling unit (kind of like how the alien hid at the end of the first Alien). Very well made, dead reliable, sells for peanuts.
@birchoak — Some advice needed, Birch. I have two of the RA-100's. Both thrift shop finds, a year apart, both without a scratch, for less than peanuts. Never used them, except a brief test to be sure they work.

Apart from build and reliability, can you give me an idea of their sound? I associate pro-amps with a "flat" sound, voiced that way for accuracy in monitoring — while I prefer a more "musical" voicing. I know these adjectives are poor descriptors, but I hope you get what I mean.

I always thought of trying them as mono blocks, paralleled for double output, bridged if possible, but never did it. Too much work to get a result I thought I wouldn't like. My son used one in his system and it drove his Thiels beautifully, and loud — but he mostly plays "electronica" and it's hard to judge with that kind of music.

Please inspire me to try them. Thanks!
 
This "underdog" is well known — the Superphon Revelation preamp. As cheap looking as it gets, but glorious sound and wonderful phono stage. Only $400 back in the day, and often fetches above that now — but can till be found, if not for peanuts, maybe for crushed-almonds. Easily equals or surpasses SS preamps costing $1000. In fact, I got mine after comparing it to a "high end" Audible Illusions tube preamp for two days — I wanted to prefer the AI, but couldn't. The Superphon smoked it.

Another: Klipsch KG1 — an almost unknown Kipsch 2-way. I compared them to KEF Reference 101, and Infinfinity Modulus with Emit-K ribbon, both high-end classic 2-ways. The Klipsch surprisingly equalled them for detail and soundstage, and sounded much "bigger", almost like a good floorstander. With subs filling in below its 50z roll-off, it's a great system.

And one more speaker: Infinity Primus P152. I had low-to-no expectations, but for $10 why not? They astonished me — and I'm not an Infinity fan. There's a review on Amazon that analyzes them perfectly. I know, Amazon reviews usually don't mean much, but this guy was a pro and it reads like a serious review from TAS in the good old days. And they truly cost peanuts.

This is my favorite kind of thread! I hope we get a lot more posts...
 
This "underdog" is well known — the Superphon Revelation preamp. As cheap looking as it gets, but glorious sound and wonderful phono stage. Only $400 back in the day, and often fetches above that now — but can till be found, if not for peanuts, maybe for crushed-almonds. Easily equals or surpasses SS preamps costing $1000. In fact, I got mine after comparing it to a "high end" Audible Illusions tube preamp for two days — I wanted to prefer the AI, but couldn't. The Superphon smoked it.
+1 on this. The owner of a local audio store turned me onto the Revelation about a decade ago when I was looking for a preamp to go with my McIntosh MC2120 power amplifier, but couldn't afford a C27 or just about any other McIntosh (or similar) preamp. He asked me if $225 was beyond my means, I replied no. We drove to his house, and he handed me an early Revelation which had recently been repaired (minor shipping damage). I was a bit underwhelmed at the lack of inputs, but the sound was excellent. Eventually, I got a good deal on a Pioneer SPEC-1 which had more inputs (and came with a SPEC-4), so I set the Revelation aside for awhile.

Some time later, I needed to put together a demo system for a local audio get-together, and grabbed two components I happened to have lying around, my Dynaco ST-70 and the Revelation. I was so impressed by how good they sounded together that I put them to use in my office system, which is where they sat until recently, when the Revelation developed a nasty hum in the right channel. :( I'm hoping that replacing the filter capacitors will alleviate the problem. Here's a picture of the pair in happier times:

officestereo.jpg


Anyway, here's my choice for 'underdog' hifi component, though you might not think so: the Sansui AU-70. I had little to no idea it existed until I came across one at a local hamfest last year. At first, I thought it was early solid-state, until I looked around the back and saw tubes. Once I took the top cover off, I was greeted with the largest output transformers I've ever seen in an EL84-type amp. I still have yet to replace all of the gray oil caps under the hood, but what I've heard thus far has me quite impressed. :music:

au70_front.jpg

au70_top.jpg
 
Just an observation and an educated guess, based on your two recent threads it appears you're looking for something.
The disappointed thread and the overachiever thread.
Maybe if you share we can save you some time
Also while our impressions are useful , what we were looking for, trying to achieve might not be what you're looking for, that is, the observations are useful to a point but you really have to hear stuff for yourself
 
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What makes something an underdog hi-fi component? For example, a quick search on this site will find all sorts of posts about the Sansui 800 that exhaust every superlative known to humankind. So, help me out here. Define what underdog means in this context.
Of course! To me, the Sansui 800 flies under the radar (well, maybe not on AK, but certainly outside of here) because it's not a 9090DB, not a G-Series monster, not the revered Eight. It's only something like 22 watts and does not look "fancy" at all. When one goes for auction, you don't get 40 people watching and 65 bids, pushing the price up to something crazy. The 800, like the Titans, looks very unassuming and can be obtained without digging into savings. You might even see one at a yard sale, and the average person would think, "Oh, another old junky radio that probably sounds all mushy and weak). It's a humble little piece, vs. the comparatively flashy, look-at-me! Pioneer SX-Series, the Yamaha CR-2020, etc.
 
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