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Kenwood KA 7002 or KA 7100, keep which one?

Bigears

Bigears

Manager of my own day
I've had a KA 7002 that I love and had no plans to move out of my collection. Last weekend I picked up a mint KA 7100, KT 7500 and a KX 620. While I have no plans to keep the KX and will probably sell the KT as well, since I don't collect tuna's, The KA 7100 seems very nice.

What are the opinions here of the KA 7002 vs the KA 7100? I have too many other units on my wish list to keep them both.
 

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Do you have a photo of the 7002? I've neither heard nor seen one before.

I've got two 7100s, one in a wood case, and find them to be plenty robust and beautiful.
 
I love my KA-7002

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titanstats said:
Silly question bigears -- you know that you have to keep them both! ;)
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That option would be a lot more likely if I didn't also pickup a Marantz 2226, a mint SA 8100 and matching TX 6100 in original boxes with manuals, packing and the "shower cap" plastic covers that came with these. Had a pretty good weekend I did. I can't keep it all...
 
I've had both and I will say that the build quality of the 7002 is amazing! It has machined knobs with set screws, etched lettering on the faceplate, and is totally overbuilt under the hood! The 7100 is more attractive but the older Kenwoods (6002, 7002, etc.) are absolute sleepers in my book! :yes:
 
I've got an auction for a very good looking KA-6000 on my watch list. It looks very similar to the KA-7002 in the pics.
 
I loved my KA-7100, my first piece of decent audio gear. Spent a lot time perusing audio magazines and brochures before settling on that one way back when. It lasted many great years.

Kenwood sold a pile of KA-7100s, so the KA-7002 is probably more "collectible".
 
They're both nice....the 7100 has a dual power supply and probably better specs, but the older one probably sounds great too - more of that three martini sound if you will.

The 7100 is one of the great bargains on eBay. With the exception of lack of pre outs, it is the equal, or better than the Pioneer SA-8500, but sells for a fraction of the price. It might be the cheapest dual power supply integrated around.

They must have sold tons of them, because there's always a nice supply on eBay.
 
Ka-6000

PatA said:
I've got an auction for a very good looking KA-6000 on my watch list. It looks very similar to the KA-7002 in the pics.
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The KA-6000 was the predecessor to the KA-7002. There are a fair amount of posts regarding the KA-6000 here at AK, including a modification for reducing the noise in the amplifier portion of the unit.
 
The 7100 is the nicer of the two.
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Given the source of this comment, I don't doubt it... but it surprises me. Can you qualify that statement a little, EW?

We have a KA-7100 (dump find). It's perfectly decent (my son uses it), but I'd have expected the earlier amp to be better designed and built. Thus I am really curious about EW's comment.
 
No doubt the later Kenny is more advanced (I sure can't see the dual power supply with the hood off, looks like one xformer to me), but the 7002 is so old school, with the point to point wiring, machined fluted knobs, punched and painted faceplate lettering, tone controls which are stepped rotary ball switches with resistors. I think I'm more concerned with marking an era than overal sound quality - 60 wpc is on the low side for my requirements and either one of these will get limited use. I guess this is as subjective as it gets...

I do hope EC weighs in with more design facts on the 7100.
 

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One transformer with two sets of secondary windings for the two channels.
EDIT: Note the 4 main P/S caps (positive and negative supplies for both channels).

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mhardy6647 said:
Given the source of this comment, I don't doubt it... but it surprises me. Can you qualify that statement a little, EW?

We have a KA-7100 (dump find). It's perfectly decent (my son uses it), but I'd have expected the earlier amp to be better designed and built. Thus I am really curious about EW's comment.
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I don't know about EchoWars' reasons, but I've had a bunch of 7001s and a 7002 and 8004, plus a few other Kenwood integrateds. The 7001 and others of that line, seem cleaner sounding, a bit more dynamic, probably have better specs(I'm fairly sure of it), and thought I've never had to repair either, the 7100 looks much easier to work on. When it comes to Kenwood integrated amps, I've hardly met one that I didn't like, buy both.:yes:
 
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