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Thread: Vintage Kenwood

  1. #1
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    Thumbs up Vintage Kenwood

    OK, so I bought two boxes from a garage that had been in there 20 years according to the owner. Actually, the owner's wife told me that since the owner passed away in 1986. Everything was boxed up when the old house was sold and put in the garage at her new location, never to be set up.

    So I looked into the boxes, and lo and behold, excellent, minty, vintage components.
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  2. #2
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    Smile The Integrated Amp A

    The KA-801 face plate is pristine. The controls are smooth and the detents firm. The power meters and lights work as new.
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  3. #3
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    Smile The Integrated Amp B

    Dual DC power supplies and a direct DC coupling option are a couple of this amp's nice features.
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  4. #4
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    Smile The Integrated Amp C

    The back panel is simple in the traditional stereo sense. It almost makes me want to buy a reel-to-reel deck again. Sorry for the glare.
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  5. #5
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    Smile The Tuner A

    The KT-815 analog tuner is simple, yet elegant.
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  6. #6
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    Smile The Tuner B

    The pulse count detector and high sensitivity make this the best analog tuner I've owned.
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  7. #7
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    Smile The Tuner C

    The rear panel has a number of high end analog features.
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  8. #8
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    The Sound

    I tried the two Kenwood units through the E50s, the L7s and the L250s.

    I played three stations through the tuner: smooth jazz, classical, and rock classics. The tuner was rock solid holding the stations; tuning was a breeze.

    The units handled the E50s with aplomb. There was more than enough power, and the vintage gear mellowed out the E50s quite a bit.

    The L7s played very well at low levels, but seemed a bit starved for power at high levels. At low levels the sound was intimate and warm, but at louder levels the sound thinned out and the highs especially seemed a bit distorted.

    The sound that came from the L250s was wonderful, full, warm, rich. There was plenty of power for moderately loud playing, but high levels were strained.
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  9. #9
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    Thumbs up The Sound 2

    Because the L250 sounded so wonderful, it crossed my mind to try three-way loudspeakers of a similar vintage or older. So, out came the 240Ti and L100.

    The 240Ti was very nice, but the L100 was exceptional. This is probably the kind of speaker that Kenwood had in mind historically when it built this equipment: three- or four-way bookshelf speakers from JBL, Pioneer, etc.

    These Kenwood units and one pair of L100s will be joined for the forseeable future. It's a sweet, sweet combination.

    I'll also keep a pair of the 240Tis hooked up to see if/how my appreciation for this combo grows over time.
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  10. #10
    Senior Member Bernard Wolf's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Titanium Dome
    The back panel is simple in the traditional stereo sense. It almost makes me want to buy a reel-to-reel deck again. Sorry for the glare.
    Nice find... I'm gettin' reel (?) hot for a Pioneer RT-909 myself right about now.. don't know why, just am.. love the look, feel and history of some of that vintage stuff... they will probably never again make gear like that again, except for maybe a laboratory..

    Have fun !

    Bernard

  11. #11
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    FWIW, I still use a set of Kenwood L-07MIIs, CII, and TII. THey are better built than the Yamaha C-2a and M series power amps, and even are more reliable than my McIntosh 2300. Granted they only produce 150W of power, they were the bottom of the high end Japanese audio gear made by Kenwood, right before they introduced Accuphase.

    I picked up mine new at a PX for less than $350 total for all four when nobody knew what they were. Preamp retailed for about $1k, power amps about $650ea and the tuner $350.

    Interestingly, the units you show here have very similar font and type and controls as the early monoral Mitsubishi units DA-C20 series.

  12. #12
    RIP 2013 Rolf's Avatar
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    In the late 70's I had a set of Kenwood 07's, including the pre-amp. I remember the long phono cables and the twisted speaker cables. I used them on my 4333A's, together with a HK record player with a Signet pickup on a Rabco tangential arm. I remember it sounded good, but the sound of pre/power amps have come a looong way after that.

    P.S. Accuphase was on the market before the 07's.

  13. #13
    Steve Gonzales
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    Nice

    Quote Originally Posted by cvengr
    FWIW, I still use a set of Kenwood L-07MIIs, CII, and TII. THey are better built than the Yamaha C-2a and M series power amps, and even are more reliable than my McIntosh 2300. Granted they only produce 150W of power, they were the bottom of the high end Japanese audio gear made by Kenwood, right before they introduced Accuphase.

    I picked up mine new at a PX for less than $350 total for all four when nobody knew what they were. Preamp retailed for about $1k, power amps about $650ea and the tuner $350.

    Interestingly, the units you show here have very similar font and type and controls as the early monoral Mitsubishi units DA-C20 series.
    Nice find TiDome, just beautiful! You gotta love it!! . cvengr, no flame, no slam, but..., I beg to differ in regards to the Yamaha M series amplifiers, at least from the M70 up. Extremely well built. The MX1000u has 1,000 watts available into 1 (one) ohm. 127 s/n ratio, .003% THD, and damn near 3db of clean dynamic headroom. The photo of one of the power transformers shows the tip of my index finger for perspective. Those 4 power supply filter caps are coke can sized and the power suppy is rated at 1300 volt amps. Dual mono design to boot. There are better and more expensive amps to be had, but you could do alot worse. They are at least as good as any Kenwood ever built or sold .
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  14. #14
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    Integrated Kenwood and beyond

    I had that integrated amp in college days.... no tuner sweet.

    I still have a pair of LO-5Ms (similliar to the 7's mentioned by Cvengr). Still sound good, but the 110 rating is not enough for hard listening....

  15. #15
    Senior Member Wayne's Avatar
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    Proton AM455

    Hi all

    What do you guys think about the Proton Amps, I have put aside a AM455 which I plan to use for my nearly complete L26's in the family room, I picked this up from a chain pawn brookers after trading in a trashy Technics amp with an I.C for the output stage & only paid $15 differance Fortunately they only employ kids.
    I believe the output is close to 50watts rms, havent had a lot of luck in tracking the history, age etc. Is it true that NAD bought them out, were they one of the only companies to manufacture inside U.S.A.
    Any comments welcome.

    Cheers Wayne.

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