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Kenwood KA-801

S

Skypants

Member
Hello,

I stumbled upon a good looking KA-801 at a thrift store today and was curious as to its true value? Not a lot of info on the tag other than it works.

Listings are slim and even old reverb posts were listed for double its original asking price.

The price has been reduced from its original list of $450.

Was thinking of scooping it up while my S7100A is in the shop.

Thanks
 
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I don't have any experience with the 801, but if it is anything like the 701, it should be very good if everything is good. It will likely need deoxit on the controls. I just looked it up, and HiFiEngine has the specs and reviews if you are interested. Price it has sold for in the recent past is much more that what you are looking at, so if you haven't, jump. These kind of opportunities don't come around too often unless you are really lucky!
 
Thanks thats kinda what I was thinking after poking around. It does appear to be a sought after model.

I hope to add it to the "finds" list tomorrow if they are open with the incoming weather.

Looking at the photo I took of it, the power switch is broken, very common, and its missing the plastic protective spacers on the back.
 
mea2112 said:
That is a very nice 110wpc integrated.
How much was it marked down?
Click to expand...

Listed at $225, so I braved the weather and picked it up this morning. I

Its definitely a catch and release as this gentleman has a booth at the thrift store. I was inquiring about its condition and she had his number in her phone and called him up. He said he checked it out so I trusted him.

Been using it with some junk speakers and my new LX-3 tape deck for the last couple hours. Working well i believe. LX3 needs some love, no sound out of the right channel :(

I did find another cosmetic issue, the volume knob is bent. Its not terrible but its noticeable and it doesnt affect its operation.
 
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Careful trying to straighten it. They have a tendency to break off when too much pressure is applied. It might be better just leaving it until you find a replacement.
 
You got a great deal on your KA-801, congratulations!

The 801 was second only to the KA-907 in Kenwood's 1979-1980 integrated amplifier lineup. It was at the beginning of their transition away from the extremely beefy chassis designs of the 1970s, so disassembly and repair is a bit more challenging than some other Kenwood amps, but on the plus side it has overload protection whereas those earlier designs do not, so it's less likely that components are super fried in this amp. And even though it has less metal than earlier Kenwoods, you'd be paying at least $3-5k to get a modern amplifier with similar build quality and specs, particularly concerning the dual power transformer design.

If you can't tell I quite like mine. It's been at the center of my listening setup for about 10 years now. There are always better amps to be had, but the Kenwood is transparent enough when combined with my JBL L5s to provide good stereo imaging (I can close my eyes and easily pick out where instruments are on clean recordings) , clean bass, and accurate sounding mids and highs. It's worked well in critical listening and home theater setups. The aesthetic of it is also very pleasing in a retro silver face way, especially if you can find a KT-815 tuner to go with it (which, for the record, is a superb analog tuner).

As long as it's running right, I think you'll be very happy with this amp. Do look into replacing the black flag caps in the preamp section as those have a pretty high failure rate. Otherwise, enjoy!
 
Appreciate the info!

Ill have my TTs setup in a week or two and ill be able to give it a work out.

I sure wish the switches weren't a weak point.

Wonder if the power switch and volume control are the same part number on the 601. There was a 601 and KT815 listed together for under $200 that could be a donor.
 
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