Kenwood KA-1000 in the house!

[BilboBaggins]

I posted a thread on Dollars and Sense last week, because someone contacted me with a Kenwood KA-1000 for sale. I was on the fence, and was looking for reasons not to buy it. There were a few.

Couldn’t test it out;
Rare item with innovative technology;
No idea of value. There was one for sale on American Audio Mart from last year that hadn’t sold, probably because it was priced too high.

Well, all I got back was a link to a past AK thread. So after humming and hawing, I decided I would pick it up if the price was right, and give it to my son if I could convince myself the amp would be a good fit with a pair of original Kef Concerto I had give him two years ago.

Well, I picked it up this morning. Over all in very good condition. Nothing broken, some surface scratches, lots of dust and nicotine stains. I think it will clean up nicely.

First impressions? Very clean sounding amplifier. So far, I’ve tried hip hop and classic rock. I have yet to try my home made test cd. I’ll do that after I clean it up. I have a bit of a head ache right now, so my first impression of some harshness may be a result of that.

Here are some pictures after getting it home and hooking it up on my test table(aka the dining room table).



More pictures to come as I open it up and clean it up.

 

[BilboBaggins]

Did an initial cleaning. First, those two marks on the front edges of the cover will not clean up completely. Lists of fine cat hair or... inside, but got it out pretty good using a vacuum, a tooth brush, and an artists brush. Got most of the dust out. Reconnected and I’m testing right now. No output from the Phono inputs. It generates more heat than my other amps.

Unfortunately, no owners manual on HiFiEngine. Volume slider still sticky.



Anything that jumps out as needing attention?

 

[BilboBaggins]

I spent a lot of time listening to the amp through the CVs. I think my first impression was distorted by my headache. They sounded great yesterday and today, and performed well using my test cd. The amp was even able to reproduce the almost subsonics in SK8TR Boi! Not a lot of amps I’ve tried can do that with speakers that I know can perform!

 

[BilboBaggins]

Next test is to bring it to my sons on the pretext that I want to evaluate it based on performance with his Kef Concerto. We are planning that for Monday.

 

[PJP122954]

I had a KA1000 back in the '80s. It was a beast and powered my JBL L100t quite well. I think they are rare, I've only came across another once. Gave it to my son and not sure what he did with it. Wish I still had it!

 

[BilboBaggins]

I traded it to my tech. I was too annoyed with myself for buying it. It sounded good and had the power, but there is no demand for it.