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Kenwood Basic C2 for Dynaco ST-70

Olaf Rotkohl

Olaf Rotkohl

Olaf
I'm looking for a reasonably priced preamp to drive my Dynaco ST-70. Although a PAS-2 or PAS-3 would be perfect, I would think, I have a limited budget and Kenwood Basic C2s seem quite inexpensive and well thought of. Would such a solid state preamp work with the Dynaco?

Thanks.
 
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I don't know what your budget is,but I recently picked up a Dared SL-2000 tubed line stage for under 300.00.I'm really pleased at the weay it performs.Though if you need a phono pre the C2 may be a decent choice.
 
The Kenwwod is a nice preamp. When I started out with a tube amp, I had a Dynaco PAT4 SS preamp. It sounded wonderful. So I don't think you will be disappointed.
 
Although it is more common to recommend using a tube preamp with a SS power amp, I think that your suggested combination (C2 + ST70) would work just fine. I have a Basic C2 preamp and a Dynaco ST70 amp, but I've never tried them together. But, the other week I listened to my Kenwood Basic C1 preamp with my Dynaco ST35 power amp, and that combination sounded wonderful. The C2 is a fine preamp without any real shortcomings considering the low used price, but of course Dynaco's PAS3 is a great partner for the ST70 as well.
 
I'm going to get flamed for this one, but here goes. My personal experience has been that tube preamps work best with tube power amps. I've tried a few solid state preamps with amps like my own home brew stuff as well as my Dynaco power amps and I was never satisfied with the results. A Dynaco PAS series preamp can be had for under $150.00 on Ebay these days (thanks to the depression) and it can be rebuilt for not much more then that. I don't know what your budget is, but in the world of tubes, that's not half bad. Other tube
preamps made by Scott, Fisher and even Heath and Eico tend to sell for a bit more. The Dynaco PAS 2 and 3 are really nice sounding with an ST70.
 
Wow! You folks are amazing--fast and informative. I should mention that my goal is to find a cheap PAS-2 or PAS-3 to rehab, but that will take some time (I'm no expert, to be sure) and I want to get this ST-70 chugging in the meantime, hence the search for a cheaper alternative in the meantime (which could be long).

Thanks much. :tresbon: I sincerely appreciate the advice.
 
olaf,
are you using a turntable or just line level inputs?

if you just use cd players and tuner and if you don't need really high volume, i highly recommend that you use passive preamp/attenuator. you can easily build one for under $40 or even for $20 if you want to. all you need is a few sets of rca's, attenuator, and a selector if you need more than one input.

or, if your cd player has a volume control, you can just connect directly to the power amp and skip the preamp altogether.

as it was mentioned already by other AK'ers, kenwood should be fine, but for a long run, look for a decent tubed preamp. using ss pre, specially kenwood (which imho has quite opposite sound characteristics of tube) kinda defeats the purpose of using that fine dynakit power amp - considering that you're after that warm detailed tube sound.

can you tell us little more about your set up? and what you've done to your st-70? you're not too far from NW, maybe i can dig up and see if there's a spare passive attenuator lying around here somewhere.....
 
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I'm using a turntable (Thorens TD-160) and two reel-to-reels (Otari MX5050 and an old Tandberg 64). Occasionally (and I know I'll catch hell for this) I hook up a CD player or my iPod (just when I'm lazy). Right now I'm playing this stuff through a Tandberg TR 2045 while the ST-70 sits idle. I have used the preamp out from a Marantz 2245 receiver to the ST-70, but the Marantz needs new caps, so no real joy there. That's the current setup--eclectic, I know.
 
that's a nice setup.
if you listen to records, then it'll be a lot more convenient to use one of those preamps i guess.

td-160 is a solid table. i also had that otari same model. sounds like you got a very nice setup. :thmbsp:
 
Again, thanks to all of you. I did finally pull the trigger on a Basic C2, and I'll continue the search for a suitable-for-overhaul PAS preamp. I can't emphasize enough how great this site is :banana: I love reading it, but being able to get advice is really terrific.
 
Hi Olaf,

Since you have a C2, or soon will, you might like to have the service manual. You can get to it from here: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2873770&postcount=16

I got one earlier this summer and haven't found the time to play with it too much yet. It's full of opamps which I think could be improved and probably other things. Seems that it's fairly well regarded for sound quality, but you know, just about anything can be improved.

Have fun,
John
 
Hi John,
Thanks for the link. Any information is great--even if I only read it and dream. Still, I might try some mods on the C2 if and when I find and fix up a PAS preamp. All the best!
 
I don't know why these pre-amps don't sell for more than they do. I bought one at the local resale shop to use as a sub for my 3650 Marantz while it was being rebuilt. Thats been over a year ago and I haven't been in any big hury to get the 3650 completed because of it. Possibly one of the better bargains out there?

Let us know how you like the sound as I have an ST-70 as well and when the 3650 finally does make its way back into the system I've been thinking about running this combo in my 2nd system as well.

Steve
 
Hi

I use my Leak Stereo 20 (as well as a Quad 405) with my C1. For sheer convenience and good sound, I won't easily change to something else.

tripod
 
This is good news. I'll let you know how it performs. I'll be trying that combo through some old Dynaco A25s that I've had since the '70s and a pair of Klipsch Quartets. There's also a pair of AR Vietas, but I don't expect much from them.
 
I just hooked my C2 up to my Keggerized Maggy 8802 for a test and so far I'm pretty impressed with what I'm hearing so far.

I'm going to have to give this setup an extended trial.
 
I've been using a C2 Basic with tube amplification for a few years and there's not much that can touch it < $1000 with regard to the phono section.

-D
 
I've tried a Kenwood C2 with a Dynaco ST-70.

The Kenwood has a lot of great features, and is pretty decent overall.

However, the phono stage leaves a lot to be desired and a tube pre can sound a lot better. Suffice it to confess that I still own my ST-70 but the C2 is long gone.

Buzz
 
BuzzK said:
I've tried a Kenwood C2 with a Dynaco ST-70.

The Kenwood has a lot of great features, and is pretty decent overall.

However, the phono stage leaves a lot to be desired and a tube pre can sound a lot better. Suffice it to confess that I still own my ST-70 but the C2 is long gone.

Buzz
Click to expand...

That hasn't been my experience with the C2 phono stage - perhaps you had a mismatch of some sort? Then again, so much of this is subjective. :yes:

-D
 
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