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Sacrifice quality for vintage aesthetic?

Wesley14

New Member
I have a Harman Kardon HK385i and it has pretty good specs from what I can tell, total harmonic distortion %.09 and SNR 80dB. I love the way it sounds, but I have always wanted a receiver that looks like the vintage type (vu meters, silver face, switches, wood grain, etc). Would I have to sacrifice quality for aesthetic if I went that route? What are some receivers like that with specs as good or better than my receiver?
 
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No reason to worry about the specs you are not listening to the documents with them, you are listening to the unit. Unfortunately, Harman Kardon made some great sounding units from early on throughout the 3xx series. The 330a,b,c being a particular favorites. You 385 is 10 wpc more and probably still has the HK sound. A few different units that have what you need, power meters, silver and wood are generally higher end units but there are a some that you might consider. Personally, I would get a Luxman R-1040 or R-1050 and just not look any further. Well unless you would move on to separate components like an integrated amp and tuner or a preamp, power amp and tuner.

Others to consider are the Onkyo TX 2500Mk II, 4500 (& II) and up in that line. Not wood, no power meters but good sound, silver and a wood grain vinyl cabinet. The luxmans are vinyl rosewood on a wood box.

Somebody thinks Marantz is something to look for and they can be found with a wood box. Others are picking Pioneer or Sansui. Those brands have their popularity taxes to be paid and you might not find meters. Calling out specific models is difficult for your requirements as there are so many different brands. But the Luxmans are known to sound great and have power LEDS, not meters and are a nice light bronze color, early Pioneers and Marantz a sort of champagne.

Look up some of the units and report back if you need more info on some of them.
 
I used to have early Marantz amps and tuners (one set that I bought brand new in about 1982) that had that lovely champagne finish. Sounded pretty good too. I think that they were actually a lot better than my speakers at the time.
 
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