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Kenwood Supreme 500 thoughts and opinions

Nordfors

Nordfors

Member
Hello all. Chance to pick up a fully functional and aeshetically very good Model 500. It's local. It is not cheap, but half the price of what I see on ebay or HiFi Shark. In fact, it will be the most expensive piece I've aquired yet as I've been lucky enough to score super cheap examples of great low/mid watt receivers from the 70's, lots of them, to repair, listen to and sometimes (infrequently) send them back out into the wild. It's been a great journey, but this piece appeals to me. Like a next level.

These are rare, I know, and if anyone writes about them it's effusive with compliments. But when I do see them for sale there is little interest and they tend to take a long time to actually sell, while models like the KA7100/8100 go for close to the same price and sell right away. Why is this? Is there something I'm missing? Can anyone shed some light on this. Am I getting myself into a can of worms with this amp? Is there some Achilles Heel to this amp that keeps folks away? Sure seems like an awesome piece of gear and oddly enough from my Hi-Fi journey I really prefer the sound of good Kenwood and HK gear the best so far.


Thanks!
 
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Here's what I know:

It is a solidly built statement piece, and very close to the Supreme 600 in terms of power and build. In fact, the build may be just as good.

About the only thing I'd change on it is the speaker terminals.

If it were me, I'd go through the service manual and look for any of the known-troublesome semiconductors. I can't access the HifiEngine now to check for you.

These are way rarer than a 7100/8100/9100 integrated for the simple reason that far fewer were sold. They just did not have as wide a North American distro network as some other brands, plus the Supreme series was much more expensive than the others when new.

I'm of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp, despite having a shop of my own to work on gear. With one of these, I'd be happy paying a premium if the cosmetics are fine & it comes out of protection. The rest is easy; just a lot of control cleaning, maybe a new relay if intermittent, and set the idle current.

Let us know if you grab it
 
I haven't ever heard one so I can't say what they sound like. If you want this particular model I'd say, go for it because it may be a long time before you find another one at a good price.
 
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