AVRs in 2 channel mode that sound as good as vintage amps

The sweet spot for sound and build is middle 2000's, IMO.

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Yep.My mid 2000s TOTL Yamahas pushed all my 70s receivers out of the main listening spots.
 
I was looking at a Kenwood KM-X1000 and matching pre/tuner KC-X1000 for beer money. Haven't pulled the trigger but I'm curious how it would compare to my Hafler 280. Similar wattage (130 vs 140).

Anyone have thoughts?
 
I will mention old (OLD) Mitsubishi from just the start of surround. There were one or two receivers where B channels could be used in surround mode.

I have no idea if they are any good for surround. There is no center channel at all so for movies they probably suck as bad as regular stereos. But as stereos they are excellent. Mitsubishi flys completely off the radar. Well those funky power amps we know and love, but the other things are nearly invisible. Even the internet is devoid of info at large.
 
I was looking at a Kenwood KM-X1000 and matching pre/tuner KC-X1000 for beer money. Haven't pulled the trigger but I'm curious how it would compare to my Hafler 280. Similar wattage (130 vs 140).

Anyone have thoughts?

No direct experience but I would expect there to be little difference. I find that good power amps generally just make whatever you feed them “bigger”.

Kenwood did make decent gear and some of the better AV stuff was very nice.
 
I was looking at a Kenwood KM-X1000 and matching pre/tuner KC-X1000 for beer money. Haven't pulled the trigger but I'm curious how it would compare to my Hafler 280. Similar wattage (130 vs 140).

Anyone have thoughts?

Separates...good. Amp has dual transformers...very good. Beer money...stay upright for a day and enjoy something lasting and great.
 

Hello fellow Millennial! What part of society/the world/tradition shall we ruin today? :D

On topic-I've always thought that Onkyo and Yamaha had the best amp sections in AV receivers and that the Denons were nice and feature filled but a bit amp weak until you got up to the really high end ones. I have a Pioneer now (VSX-92TXH) but I can't really comment on it's power other than to say it's enough for my mains and sounds nice and rich. (I've been demoing it while I do work on my separates.) I have no experience with Marantz, they were having some QC issues the last time I was looking into receivers (receivers that would all of a sudden go belly up after 5 months of use).
 
These are mostly what I see.
The pre-HDMI, and early HDMI.

So cheap that flipping them is difficult .

With HDMI and 4K upgrades, I see a lot of these being retired by high end AV installers.
I end up with so many that I now have to scrap working units.

I didn't even bother to test many of the last two pallets full. I just scraped them.

I get mostly Denon and Yamaha.

FWIW, the Yamaha with phono would be excellent for that.
Yamaha natural sound works very well for me for phono.

I've never tried phono much on the AVR stuff but would expect great results.

My issue with the AVR sound performance is that the sound is too clean, clear, clinical.
Too crisp, sharp, edgy. It seems like something is missing. The old cap coupled vintage gear sounds better to me and cap coupling should be less accurate and crisp and clean by nature. So it may be completely a personal preference.

I can tell immediately when I switch from the newer stuff to the 70s vintage.
The warm, soft, fuzzy sound that has some soul to it is instantly obvious.

But, if this thread is about vintage AVR, then, yes, mid 2000, pre HDMI was still mostly analog and discrete component and built well. The remote standby system and digital interface and display and menu systems I don't care for, but the main power supply and amp systems are quite nice.

Where do you find pallets of AVRs? Inquiring minds want to know :)
 
OK, sounds like we may have at least on AVR that belongs on the list. Even blhagstrom with pallet jacks full of AVRs agrees it's pretty good. Let's get some more.

1) Yamaha RX-V995, 1999
 
No direct experience but I would expect there to be little difference. I find that good power amps generally just make whatever you feed them “bigger”.

Kenwood did make decent gear and some of the better AV stuff was very nice.
Clean "bigger" is good.
 
I was looking at a Kenwood KM-X1000 and matching pre/tuner KC-X1000 for beer money. Haven't pulled the trigger but I'm curious how it would compare to my Hafler 280. Similar wattage (130 vs 140).

Anyone have thoughts?
I had a couple of these, i bridged them..... They were good, but a bit on the clinical side for my taste? Paired up with the right speakers who knows.... They have very good specs on paper!
 
OK, sounds like we may have at least on AVR that belongs on the list. Even blhagstrom with pallet jacks full of AVRs agrees it's pretty good. Let's get some more.

1) Yamaha RX-V995, 1999
Pioneer VSXD1S sounded very good! 160 wpc to boot
 
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The MX 135 doesn't have any power amps in it - just a pre/pro. Now they sell for less than $1000. They have a really good analog preamp section with a MM phono input. Decent 24/96 DAC's. No HDMI. A good way to get into McIntosh. Sound wise they are a cut above all the Denon and Yamaha stuff I've owned over the years. But that's just my experience.
Tom
 
Re: Kenwood KM-X1000

They were good, but a bit on the clinical side for my taste? Paired up with the right speakers who knows....

pre: McIntosh
speakers: Magneplaners
source: thorens TT, Raspberry Pi/DAC music server, Pioneer SACD, a few other bits

just normal mid-fi junk I pulled together cheap. The pre isn't the best but I do have many others to mix/match. It does look nice :). Only the RP and Pioneer where purchased new.
 
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