A Trio of Trio’s. KA Style.

[kydog]

With the expertise of member Hopjohn & One unamed other, The journey of having my main Kenwood KA Amplifiers completely restored is finally finished looking & sounding great!! From the 600 Surpreme to the KA 9100 down too the KA 7300, This trio of vintage Amplifiers along with the KT 5300 turner, KX-630 Cassette deck will fill out the rack rather nicely. I’m proud to be the owner of such a nice stable of Kenwood gear.

 

[gort69]

You should be proud of those. Excellent stack of Kennys!

The sleeper of that group in my opinion is the KA-7300. Dual transformer/dual power supply, 40,000uf of filter capacitance, pre-outs with a switch, 3 step loudness, connection for 3 sets of speakers, the good (for the era) binding posts (same as the 9100 and 600), stamped lettering on the faceplate, etc. etc. Fairly scarce as well.

Good job!

 

[kydog]

You should be proud of those. Excellent stack of Kennys!

The sleeper of that group in my opinion is the KA-7300. Dual transformer/dual power supply, 40,000uf of filter capacitance, pre-outs with a switch, 3 step loudness, connection for 3 sets of speakers, the good (for the era) binding posts (same as the 9100 and 600), stamped lettering on the faceplate, etc. etc. Fairly scarce as well.

Good job!

I agree with you on the KA 7300 !! A few bells & whistles not seen often Or offered on a lot of gear. Didn’t know it was becoming scarce ? I like how Kenwood went with different volume knob designs on each model shown here, They could have simply made them all similar in appearance but lucky for us each has its own style

 

[93SCMax]

Very nice. Congratulations on the rebuilds. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Grenadeslio]

You should be proud of those. Excellent stack of Kennys!

The sleeper of that group in my opinion is the KA-7300. Dual transformer/dual power supply, 40,000uf of filter capacitance, pre-outs with a switch, 3 step loudness, connection for 3 sets of speakers, the good (for the era) binding posts (same as the 9100 and 600), stamped lettering on the faceplate, etc. etc. Fairly scarce as well.

Good job!

Yep, the 7300 is one fine integrated amp, but as great as the power amp section is the pre is that much better. Currently using mine as a pre with one of my Belles amps doing the heavy lifting and it's really sounding superb.

If the OP wants to take his Kennys to the next level some rack handles really complete the picture. They come up on eBay from time to time but aren't cheap, I've purchased some of my Kenny integrated amps for less lol. I now have sets for my KA7300, KT7300, and KX1010, still need to do a little maintenance on the 1010 before it sees some playtime though.

Just getting things set up in the new digs, need to do a little cabinet building to get the Kenny KD500 somewhere to reside, mount the tv on the wall, etc, but I needed some tunes in the interim.



Must admit I did have tunes thanks to my National/Panasonic RX-7000, everyone needs a great box radio just for times like this.

 

[gort69]

Didn’t know it was becoming scarce ?

Was just basing that on what comes up on ebay. KA-9100s come up often, KA-7100s, KA-3500, KA-5700 are very common. 7300/8300 infrequently.

 

[hopjohn]

Was just basing that on what comes up on ebay.

What would you say Al, maybe a 15 to 1 ratio of 7100s to 7300s? Seems that way from what I've witnessed over the last 8 years or so. Also I'd be shocked if the 7100 wasn't the #1 selling Kenwood KA of the 70's.

 

[Grenadeslio]

What would you say Al, maybe a 15 to 1 ratio of 7100s to 7300s? Seems that way from what I've witnessed over the last 8 years or so. Also I'd be shocked if the 7100 wasn't the #1 selling Kenwood KA of the 70's.

It's a great amp, purchased one new in 78, wanting another all these yrs later led me to the 7300 instead. Having the pre outs was a must with my high end sub, along with the true dual mono and clean architectural design I was won over. The sub is no longer with this system but the pre outs sure are great connecting the power amp of choice.

 

[gort69]

maybe a 15 to 1 ratio of 7100s to 7300s?

Sounds about right John. I don't look at 7100s too often, but if someone wanted one it would just be a matter picking one out. I had to wait for my 7300 just to show up.

What a beauty!

 

[kydog]

What would you say Al, maybe a 15 to 1 ratio of 7100s to 7300s? Seems that way from what I've witnessed over the last 8 years or so. Also I'd be shocked if the 7100 wasn't the #1 selling Kenwood KA of the 70's.

With that ratio I’d say the KA 7300 will soon become scarce. Did Kenwood not produce many of them? Wonder what the price difference was between the KA 7100 vs the 7300?

 

[KingBubba]

Echowars had many threads or repair threads regarding Kenwood Integrated. His electric engineer mind gave descriptions of design characteristics and also recommended suggested ways to improve the Kennys. He has a huge # of threads that are well worth reading. He decided to back off from AK a while back. I miss him and his intelligent, grumpy outlook on things. Anyway, if you come up with Kenwood issues, start by searching his threads, great stuff.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

What would you say Al, maybe a 15 to 1 ratio of 7100s to 7300s? Seems that way from what I've witnessed over the last 8 years or so. Also I'd be shocked if the 7100 wasn't the #1 selling Kenwood KA of the 70's.

I'd estimate the KA 6100 and KA 7100 as the best selling Trio-Kenwood amplifiers of the 1970's. Both were very popular integrateds. I also like their sound quality, and build quality a lot. Kenwood's best bang for the buck.

 

[Blue Shadow]

We unloaded more of the KA-3500 type than the middle of the range models off the delivery trucks. Systems with those smaller amps we had set up sometimes flew out the door.

I think the sales volume was highest at the bottom end and as one moved up the numbers dropped. I would guess there were some 40-60 watters in some lines that would be sales kings. Part of this was parents buying smaller systems for the kid for Christmas. I had 60wpc as a kid and it was way more than enough for the bedroom. Kids would be happy with the starter integrated amps until their grass mowing money would get them an upgrade the next year.

 

[BilboBaggins]

Around here, the most popular Kenwood I’ve seen is the KA-5500. I actually have another right at this moment. This is my third. I’ve had a 500, 600, 501, 601, 701, a couple of 2002s (quite impressive!), a 4002, and others. My tech has the full 700, and I’ve heard a KA-9100. Love Kenwood gear, especially early to mid 70s receivers.

I would love to try out a 7300! Yours looks gorgeous!

 

[Grenadeslio]

We unloaded more of the KA-3500 type than the middle of the range models. Systems with those smaller amps we had set up sometimes flew out the door.

I think the sales volume was highest at the bottom end and as one moved up the numbers dropped. I would guess there were some 40-60 watters in some lines that would be sales kings. Part of this was parents buying smaller systems for the kid for Christmas. I had 60wpc as a kid and it was way more than enough for the bedroom. Kids would be happy with the starter integrated amps until their grass mowing money would get them an upgrade the next year.

When I purchased my 7100 back in 78 my older brother purchased the 3500, a very nice little amp. One of my favorite small integrated amps is the KA-4006, I have three of them lol, one currently driving a pair of Heresys in the master bedroom with a Sony DVP NS999ES for the front end. At 35 watts it's able to drive the Heresys to concert levels, and I find these older amps from Kenwood have a warmer sound signature than the amps just a few yrs later like the 3500. This suits the Heresys just fine.