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Kenwood KA-3500 Integrated

chicks

chicks

Lunatic Member
Picked up this little sweetie today @ GW.

Love the simple design, build quality, ease of maintenance (nice break after working on a fully-packed Pio A-80 the last couple days), compact dimensions, fully detented knobs (not just volume control but all rotary knobs), and the toggle switches - great ergonomics.

Not so cool are the cheesy, too small and too closely mounted speaker terminals, and the push-button input selectors.

Overall, though, a really nice little package. 40Wpc, I believe. Was filthy, cleaned up nicely, though the faceplate will need a bit more work.

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i have the same

I have the same little amp, in fact this was the first "real" stereo I bought, way back in the day. Clean clean design
 
how did you get it so clean

Nice job on the clean up, did you just spray the heck out of it with contact cleaner or do you have a magi dirt destroyer wand ? oh by the way , your little speakers, are you happy with them, ? I am looking for some small test speaker and (sorry to be so annoying) do you recommend monitor speakers for test purposes ? thanks
 
sharkboy22 said:
Nice job on the clean up, did you just spray the heck out of it with contact cleaner or do you have a magi dirt destroyer wand ? oh by the way , your little speakers, are you happy with them, ? I am looking for some small test speaker and (sorry to be so annoying) do you recommend monitor speakers for test purposes ? thanks
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I just picked up that can of "contact cleaner" at Fry's the other day, hoping it would work on pots for way less money than DeOxit - it doesn't. The noise goes away for a minute or three, then it's right back. It does do a great job of cleaning out caked-on dust, though, but the fumes linger and are a bit nauseating.

The Optimus / Minimus 77's are the big brothers to the famous Minimus 7's. Great for demo'ing gear in the back of the CR/V when I'm doing CL sales. Unfortunately the 77's use foam surrounds on the woofers, these are beginning to deteriorate. Not to worry, I have plenty of other mini-speakers :sigh:

I generally use Fantastik or some other spray cleaner on the faceplate. Gotta be careful with the lettering on some faceplates, though. This one has nice etched lettering, super quality.
 
thanks so much for the advice, i am presently trying to clean up a kr6600 that is just absolutely filthy, i am tempted to take a fire hose to it (kidding), cheers
 
Unless I miss my guess... That appears to be a Ferrari 250GT Berlinetta Lusso in Sharkboy22's avatar. The absolute most beautiful automobile ever made.

Just sayin'...
 
it's a schwinn

and the italian job is indeed the ferrari, the guy standing next to it is an old motorcycle mechanic named steve mcQueen
 
Fantastic little amp aren't they? I am running the same baby alongside a Kenwood KP-2022A turntable atm, beaut match both aesthetically and aurally.
 
chicks said:
I generally use Fantastik or some other spray cleaner on the faceplate. Gotta be careful with the lettering on some faceplates, though. This one has nice etched lettering, super quality.
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With extended rubbing, that lettering will definitely come off. I borrowed a 3500 from a pal for a couple of months after I got rid of my Pioneer SX-450 and before I got my present Yamaha. Almost all the markings around the volume knob were totally gone.

I dare say that the 3500 sounded better with my KEFs than my Yamaha.

Tom
 
A company i worked for installed some 3500 kenwoods in the sound booths for monitor and headphone feeds, a very nice 40/w !
That was a great kenwood line.
 
That is a very nice little amp. I ran my stacked Advents with it for a short time and it did a great job of powering them.
 
chicks said:
Yep. Welcome to AK! Where ya from?
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Thanks man, sorry haven't been on in a while. Um I'm down in Victoria, Australia. Still running the KA-3500, but turntable is having some issues, so have a little pioneer beast going at the moment...
 
I have bought and given away two of those amps. Sweet little units. My niece and nephew just love them. I think their parents are just a little upset with me though.:D
One of them is running a set of infinity sm152's(IIRC) and she loves it. She has even had comments from the neighbors on how it sounds...........
 
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