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Almost 30 years old new old stock amplifier??

navaron

navaron

New Member
hi dear all is it a good idea to buy a 30 year old but new in a box never opened solid state integrated amplifier ?? Sorry if this has already been discussed somewhere in this forum. I need your suggestions please. I don't think I won't be able to audition the amp before I buy though. Thank you.
 
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I bought a 36 year old NOS JVC tuner and it works, well, like new!
I would not worry about it. What amp is it you're thinking about?
 
GD70 said:
I bought a 36 year old NOS JVC tuner and it works, well, like new!
I would not worry about it. What amp is it you're thinking about?
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Well that's a magnum integrated. Not so well known as other brands. It's a short lived company of Tony relph of Rega. I have their hi End power-pre and love it so well. Thanks for your feedback dear.
 
Which amp? NOS should work at no problem.

navaron said:
hi dear all is it a good idea to buy a 30 year old but new in a box never opened solid state integrated amplifier ?? Sorry if this has already been discussed somewhere in this forum. I need your suggestions please. I don't think I won't be able to audition the amp before I buy though. Thank you.
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I bought a NOS power amp a couple yesrs ago. I already had one just like it and was recapping it so I recapped the new one as well. I dont trust old electrolytics.
 
This has been discussed recently. Electrolytic caps do degrade even unused, but you don't find a brand new vintage amplifier very often, and if some problem happen to the electronics in the near future it can be fixed.
 
I would guess you're getting mixed signals from the responses.
First part. If you like design (make ,designer, other pieces in the line) and you run across NOS and you think the price is fair , jump!
Unless it lived in a corrosive environment the cosmetics are likely excellent and all controls, jacks , lamps are good. ( That's the kind of thing you pull your hair out over.
The second part is common wisdom good advice. Chances are if you brought up on a variac slowly it probably would work fine. That being said, electrolytic capacitors start deteriorating the moment they come off the production line (whether they're used or not).;
If you want best performance and long term reliability the piece really should be gone through and the electrolytics changed. My 2c
Good luck with your find. Enjoy
 
It's all about how much you like the amp and how much $$$. If you like it and they sell like used price, nothing wrong buying it. You just do the recap.

Hell, I'd just turn it on and see what happen......better yet, tell the seller you want to listen before you buy, if it smoke, it's not your problem. Hell my Acurus is 20 years old and I have no plan to recap it. I compared the sound with my total restored Stasis amp that is double the price, barely hear any difference.

I don't do service, so I don't have a lot of experience on maintenance. But I just feel recap is not particularly that important. When I first bought my Nakamichi Stasis amp, I knew the caps were old, I looked on the scope and it shows the spike is too high on two of the caps already. I did recapped, I could not hear a dent of a difference. I know people disagree with this, but this is how I roll. It it does not smoke, it's all good. You fix it when you need to.
 
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Several years ago, I bought a 30 year old Harman Karman NOS PM665 solid state integrated amp. The box was still sealed and the amp had never been plugged in. It did NOT work out of the box. Two small capacitors in the power protection had dried up. After diagnosing and replacing those, the amp performed perfectly and is now used daily.

That's my personal experience. I would not buy NOS without being prepared to do a little work on it. The chances are better than even that some component will have deteriorated.
 
See many people here have an issue with old caps. If caps have been sitting around inside an amplifier unused for many years then you have a potential issue.

I also sure wouldn't power it up except thru an DBT - in fact I wouldn't power it up at all if it hasn't been used for that long (but that's just me).

I would say a full recap of electro's is definitely in order.
 
i retracted the bid with a pain deep in my heart !! thanks all of you for some great and useful suggestions.
 
You can have a reliable tech check the caps for you. You don't necessarily have to recap it and I would not recommend it unless they are out of spec.
 
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