Buying an amplifier

[goblinsly]

Hi everyone !

I am buying a second hand stereo amplifier. I plan to use it with my Hitachi 2x30W speakers, connected to my SB audigy 2 value sound card on my computer. I will use it mainly for music and for media on youtube and such. My limit is 100 and i found several options for that money, i would be glad if you could give me some feedback.

The Hitachi speakers i have:



The second hand amps i found online and their prices:

- Pioneer A-109 60
- Technics SU-V300 65
- SANSUI A-5 65
- Yamaha A-500 69
- SONY TA-F400 70
- SONY TA-FE320R 70
- PIONEER A-307R MOS FET 70
- Philips FA 660 70
- DENON PMA 880R 80
- YAMAHA AX 380 90
- PHILIPS FA 950 100
- Kenwood KA-2060R 100
- Rotel RA-550 100
- TECHNICS SU-VX700 110
- SONY TA-F 561R 115
- ROTEL RA-931 120


Some of them are over 100, i would be prepared to pay that if it would really matter ... meaning there should be a lot of difference compared to the one costing for instance 80. There would also be an option to buy from e-bay since offer in my country is quite small. I would be prepared to pay up to 130 dollars for amplifier + sending costs. I dont know anything about amplifiers soo i hope that you can give me some hints as to what should i buy.

 

[sarith]

Hi everyone !

I am buying a second hand stereo amplifier. I plan to use it with my Hitachi 2x30W speakers, connected to my SB audigy 2 value sound card on my computer. I will use it mainly for music and for media on youtube and such. My limit is 100 and i found several options for that money, i would be glad if you could give me some feedback.

The Hitachi speakers i have:



The second hand amps i found online and their prices:

- Pioneer A-109 60
- Technics SU-V300 65
- SANSUI A-5 65
- Yamaha A-500 69
- SONY TA-F400 70
- SONY TA-FE320R 70
- PIONEER A-307R MOS FET 70
- Philips FA 660 70
- DENON PMA 880R 80
- YAMAHA AX 380 90
- PHILIPS FA 950 100
- Kenwood KA-2060R 100
- Rotel RA-550 100
- TECHNICS SU-VX700 110
- SONY TA-F 561R 115
- ROTEL RA-931 120

Some of them are over 100, i would be prepared to pay that if it would really matter ... meaning there should be a lot of difference compared to the one costing for instance 80. There would also be an option to buy from e-bay since offer in my country is quite small. I would be prepared to pay up to 130 dollars for amplifier + sending costs. I dont know anything about amplifiers soo i hope that you can give me some hints as to what should i buy.

My liking goes like this,
Sony TA-F 561R
Technics SU-VX700
Philips FA-950
and for 70 Pioneer A-307R ain't bad. Your Hitachi speakers seems moderately powerful, like 50 watts? If so, Pioneer A-307R will be pretty much enough. Still for 100-115, these amps are a good deal.
Lucky you that you get to buy all these stuff at such a low price.

 

[goblinsly]

Hmm interesting ... on some other forums, they told me i could get better amps at lower price at e-bay ... this are second hand amps btw, not new ...

I tried to find some info online about this amps but pretty much there is nothing ... everywhere i asked, ppl picked their favourites ( each one choose different ones ), numbers dont mean much here i heard ... maybe in the end i will pick the amp from this list on basis of which one looks best. :lol:

Hitachi speakers are 30/50W, prolly meaning 30W RMS and 50W MAX ... didn't know that this is moderately powerfull ... but prolly cause till now i mostly dealth with cheap stereo systems where you get a new system for 100 and it says its 2x500W. Offcourse in reality it is somewhere around 2x10W ... but still.

 

[sarith]

Hmm interesting ... on some other forums, they told me i could get better amps at lower price at e-bay ... this are second hand amps btw, not new ...

I tried to find some info online about this amps but pretty much there is nothing ... everywhere i asked, ppl picked their favourites ( each one choose different ones ), numbers dont mean much here i heard ... maybe in the end i will pick the amp from this list on basis of which one looks best. :lol:

Hitachi speakers are 30/50W, prolly meaning 30W RMS and 50W MAX ... didn't know that this is moderately powerfull ...

I know these are 2nd hand stuff. In my place, getting these kinda amps for such a low price is almost impossible at least for the moment. European, Canadian, American and Australian ebay have a good collection of vintage AV compared to ebay.in (Kinda null)

I haven't heard these exact model nos: except for the pioneer A-307R (an okay amp). I have heard Technics and Sony amps and I must say that sound of Sony sounds more clinical than Technics. I enjoyed Hip-hop in Technics. Philips sound is nothing special but still good in a unique 'Philips' way.

Cheaper amps are equipped with stk or similar chip amps except for pioneer which has a mosfet stage I guess. The rest of the costlier amps I mentioned has transistor, probably push-pull amplifier stage it seems.

Well, if you could physically inspect the cosmetic condition of these amps, you certainly can go for the one that looks better. Good luck

 

[sarith]

but prolly cause till now i mostly dealth with cheap stereo systems where you get a new system for 100 and it says its 2x500W. Offcourse in reality it is somewhere around 2x10W ... but still.

If a system is rated at 500watts pmpo then the rms could be around 45watts I guess.

 

[goblinsly]

I am seriously considering buying that pioneer MOSFET ... its fairly new, i can still find it on some pages for 200-250 ....

 

[sarith]

I am seriously considering buying that pioneer MOSFET ... its fairly new, i can still find it on some pages for 200-250 ....

I can say that Pioneer mosfet amp has a pretty clean sound. I heard that amp connected to a pair of decent tower speakers and source was a cowon iaudio s9. Smooth pop, jazz and blues sounded good while techno/trance genre was not that good.
Power output of the amp suits your speaker too. Go for it then..

 

[koushik]

Older Sansui amps are of different league all together. I would go for a Sansui amp. Buy it, bring it home and the first thing you need to do is to change the power caps with something very good like BHC Aerovox.

 

[sarith]

Older Sansui amps are of different league all together. I would go for a Sansui amp. Buy it, bring it home and the first thing you need to do is to change the power caps with something very good like BHC Aerovox.

True. Sansui are of a different league. A-5 seems good for 65, but doesn't seem much powerful. Still will get that 'Sansui' sound.

 

[koushik]

True. Sansui are of a different league. A-5 seems good for 65, but doesn't seem much powerful. Still will get that 'Sansui' sound.

Yes ... what I found from Net that Sansui A-5 should be close 30 Watt RMS with not more than 0.5 THD @ 8 ohms load.

I guessed these values by getting the rating of A-9 and A-7 from manuals.
A-9 is 60W @ 8 ohm
A-7 is 45W @ 8 ohm
Both are having <0.5 THD

 

[AnanthHiFi]

where we can get these kind of amps in Bangalore?

 

[goblinsly]

I took PIONEER A-307R MOSFET for 55.

 

[goblinsly]

*double post*

 

[sarith]

I took PIONEER A-307R MOSFET for 55.

Cool. I forgot the bargaining part. 15 off is a good deal it seems. Enjoy

 

[goblinsly]

I am quite happy with my new amp.

I am wondering what i should upgrade next ... besides amp, speakers are the most important thing, but i think Hitachi speakers should be ok for now and buying new speakers will cost me a lot of money, that is if i want them to be like day/night compared to my Hitachis which i do. Cheap upgrades would be audio card and cables but then again i am not sure if i will notice the improvement.

 

[goblinsly]

Sarith: This is just one of the examples i was telling you about:

http://download.p4c.philips.com/files/f/fw-m777_22/fw-m777_22_pss_enggb.pdf

2x330W RMS ? I do know that there is no "law" as to how to calculate Wattage and therefor its used for marketing the products but i would really be glad if someone put those Watts side to side with some other "real" Watts ... because if this system really is 2x330W RMS, then i am a bicycle.

 

[koushik]

You should always refer to the power consumption part in the last page of the manual. The highest output would be anything more than 10% lesser than that. Minimum 10%. Max could be as high as 50% lesser.

 

[sarith]

Sarith: This is just one of the examples i was telling you about:

http://download.p4c.philips.com/files/f/fw-m777_22/fw-m777_22_pss_enggb.pdf

2x330W RMS ? I do know that there is no "law" as to how to calculate Wattage and therefor its used for marketing the products but i would really be glad if someone put those Watts side to side with some other "real" Watts ... because if this system really is 2x330W RMS, then i am a bicycle.

I wonder if that size of woofer could handle that much power. I have heard their 'Woox' technology (more like a passive radiator). It could produce a decent bass at low to high volumes. This system is rated at 2x165W RMS.

A Aiwa hi-fi is rated @ 3000W PMPO and 360W RMS. 360x8.5 gives 3060. A national stereo is rated @ 20W PMPO and 6W RMS. I think there isn't an actual measurement method for calculating PMPO (more of a marketing gimmick it seems).

 

[sarith]

You should always refer to the power consumption part in the last page of the manual. The highest output would be anything more than 10% lesser than that. Minimum 10%. Max could be as high as 50% lesser.

After reading your post, I checked the power consumption of Aiwa and it says 210W.

 

[koushik]

After reading your post, I checked the power consumption of Aiwa and it says 210W.

Now just imagine, a machine consuming 210W delivers 360W. Is it following the same laws of Physics that we read in our schools and colleges or some outer space physics' laws? :lol:

Seems like we have a system that actually "creates" energy ... Stockholm people, are you listening?