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Late 1980s/Early 1990s Quality

JMiP

JMiP

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
For shirts and giggles (yes, I love 'The Good Place', sue me), I was perusing eBay the other night just to see what is out there and I came across a few integrated amps from what seems to be a no-man's land between pre-mid 1980s vintage equipment and the home theater equipment of the mid-1990s and later. The one unit that really piqued my interest was a Kenwood KA-791 (scroll down to get to the original listing); 120wpc, phono stage, CD direct (for bypassing tone controls while playing CDs). It seems like it could be a nice unit for something built in the early 1990s and there is even a short discussion of the unit here on AK. But this is not a question on this unit specifically, but just a plea for a more general thought on the quality of the equipment made back then. Are they worth spending money on? This on particular until sold for $80, which is no too bad really. I think the KA-891 even has a test tone button, but I'm not sure if that is anything worth having on an amp.
 
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I'm sure someone will come and roast me if I'm wrong but I personally would refer to that as pretty close to BPC. Especially from Kenwood. It would probably sound fine like some things in that time, but I wouldn't write home about it nor would I pay the bidding price (this may get moved to D&S).
 
I have 2 VSXD602Sii in my other house, one being the main unit. In 93 things were good...you could still pay for quality, you got the ever important remote, sound fields (which were a fad toy) and servo backed high power with no idle currents to sweat...that does not mean there were not 80's/90's units that were less than worth it...any of the monoliths came to mind. since it was so easy to give 100 watts, everything had the amp, in a giant 'do everything' box that looked like separate. and of course at the same time, Fisher was looking to trash their own reputation. It was more just after the millenium that it was a done deal that no one cared
 
This era was known as the IC laden, cheaper built, cost cut era. Hardly what we call conservatively engineered until you got into the higher end separates and moved up in the world. Luxman was better than most other in the class however, their gear is still quality.
 
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