Marantz Model 7 Preamplifier -

I am not going to spend a great deal of time on this preamp.  Many in the audio world feel that the Model 7, (mistakingly called the 7C,  the “C” meant it was shipped with a cabinet from the factory), is the greatest preamp of all time.  Trust me on this one, it isn’t.  I know, I can already see the hate mail coming my way, but remember this is my opinion.  I can't speak for everyone else, I can only tell you what I have experienced.  I never heard this with a Marantz tube amplifier and maybe that's what I would have needed to seal the deal for me, but I doubt it.  Not a big tube amp fan.   

Before using it in my system, I took it to my audio guru to test and replace anything needed. He called a few days later to tell me that "everything is in spec", and the original tubes all test strong. That's just impressive and remarkable for something that was 60 years old, but typical for the build quality in all of Marantz gear during this time.

While it’s a nice, non-fatiguing listening experience with a wonderful midrange and decent high end, the bass is soft and a little bloated.  I paired my Marantz 7 with a SUMO Andromeda power amp, which was well known for having the deepest bass on the planet.  Still, I found that the Marantz 7T, was its equal and better in almost all areas.  Soundstage, depth, feel, bass, high end all better on the 7T.  Audio snobs dismiss the 7T because it has transistors in it.  That's hilarious! I have news for you audio snobs.  So does nearly 95% of all recording equipment.  

Saul Marantz himself famously used a 7T in his personal system.  Sidney Smith, who created both preamps also used a 7T in his personal system.  Sidney offered a private service upgrading the original model 7 to correct the softness of the bass.   Jazz musician and all round great guy Louis Armstrong also used a 7T.

Frank Sinatra, who was a major McIntosh fan had a 7T.  Tony Bennet was another.  The point here is that these are musicians, Saul, Sidney, Louis, Frank and Tony.  My personal 7T was formally owned by famous recording engineer Stanley Johnston.  These men knew how music should sound, they had the budgets to purchase anything in the world, and they all chose the Marantz 7T over the 7. 

If you must have a Marantz model 7, (I know I had to have one), be sure to also spring for a Marantz 7T and compare them side by side. (Don't worry, you won't lose any money on the one you decide to sell. They both hold their value well.) There are differences, but they are small.  The bass is the most noticeable.

After months of comparing and listening, I sold the Model 7.  I think I had it listed locally for about two hours when I had an old timer was at my door picking it up.  I don’t miss it.  It was pleasant enough, but I wouldn’t purchase another.  I would however buy another 7T, or a Marantz 24.  The 7 just doesn’t do it for me.  Flabby bass, rolled off highs, nice midrange, and overall a pleasant listening experience.  The search continued. 

SUMO Electra Plus Preamplifier -

This is my SUMO Electra Plus preamplifier designed by James Bongiorno of Hadley, S.A.E, Great American Sound, and here SUMO fame.  The Electra Plus is a very revealing preamp.  

This truly is one of those preamps where you will be hearing instruments and subtleties in the mix that you hadn’t noticed before.  I wouldn’t call this a forward sounding preamp, the way the Phase Linear 4000 is.  This is far more neutral sounding, but very dynamic.  Not surprisingly, this amp reminded me of the Great American Sound Thalia preamp.  

This is truly a high end piece, leaving nothing hidden.  The soundstage is wide and deep, the imaging is excellent.  The tone controls are gentle and work on a well balanced curve that doesn’t color the program material.  They simply compensate for the compromised room acoustics.  

I was expecting a first rate phono stage, and here the Electra Plus delivered.  The phone section was smooth, dynamic, dead silent and non fatiguing.  Precisely what you would want.  The build quality is first rate with an excellent well designed layout.  

This is a preamp that most anyone can live.  Out classing any of the vintage McIntosh, Marantz and Citation preamps that I have had.  Phase Linear’s 4000, though revealing and dynamic is a headache waiting to happened.  Here the SUMO has weight and authority, but also finesse.  

I highly recommend this preamp.  It works especially well with any of the superb SUMO amplifiers.  It of course was a perfect match for my SUMO Andromeda but I also used this with my Phase Linear 400, Nikko ALPHA ONE, and Crown XIL 1500 and Citation 16A with great success.  Hard to find, built in small numbers, but worth looking for.  More to come.

Crown XLI-1500 Stereo Amplifier -

I have always liked Crown gear.  Back in the late 60’s and up to the mid 70’s, Crown was an expensive elite brand of audio equipment, with their feet firmly planted in commercial sound reinforcement.  Hand built in Elkhart Indiana, they developed a reputation on the commercial side of things for amplifiers that could drive anything, reel to reel tapes deck built so sturdy, they were flown all over the country recording rock concerts and musical festivals.  Many classical performances were recorded on Crown 700 and 800 reel to reel decks.  Recording studios used the 800 series with a stack of plug in preamps for multitrack recording.  Those same studios used their amplifiers and preamplifiers not stop, 24/7 for playback and monitoring.

I personally knew of a small studio that had a Crown DC300 that was left turned “ON” for more than 10 years, powering the playback monitors in their studio.  They NEVER turn off their electronics.  They believed that switching electronics on and off would limit their lifespan.   Their mix down deck was a Crown 822 1/2track.  

I have always wanted to own a clean Crown DC300, with the optional wood cabinet.  They are hard to find in pristine condition, and those that have them hang on to them.  Stereophiles founder J. Gordon Holt, praised the DC300 for its limitless power and bass response.  

When I was looking for a DC300, I came across and ad for this Crown XLI-1500 new at a price I couldn’t pass up.  I was disturbed by the fact that it was made in China, but comforted by knowing that Crown in Elkart bench tested everyone before shipping them out. So the Xli-1500, doesn’t have the beautiful case work of the DC300, or any other Crown amp built state side.  But it does have some heft.  It’s remarkably compact for an amp of its advertised power output.  Keeping in mind, that this amp is built for commercial use, helped ease the pain.  

I also liked the fact that it is an AB designed amplifier.  I like AB amps, they are among my favorites.  

Oldschoolstereo.com bench tested this amp.  Its advertised power output is at 330wpc into 8ohms at 1% distortion.  During testing the amp put out 417wpc into 8 ohms at 1% distortion and a peak burst of 510wpc. Wow, that easily exceeded its rated specification.  Are you sitting down? In brigade mode at 8 ohms this amp put out 1244wpc, with a Dynamic peak of 1540wpc!!!!

Driving a 4 ohm load its rated at 450wpc,  the beast tested with an output of 634 wpc, and a dynamic burst of 820wpc!, that’s with both channels driven.   

Those specs are typical for Crown equipment.  So how does it sound?  Reading many reviews from people who never actually owned or used the amplifier themselves, you would think it’s dirty sounding mess.  Not true at all.  The amplifier was clean sounding, obviously with power to spare.  Dynamics and subtlies were handled equally well.  Bass was deep and powerful and the music came across in a truly effortless manner. 

Using it in my hifi, it was grossly undertaxed and I was never able to get the built in fans to kick on.  This amp had so much muscle, I was confident that I would set any speaker on fire with sheer power if I wanted too.  An obvious match for the Classic Rock N Roll fan, but I really enjoy listening to Classical and Jazz Trios with this amp as well.  

There are other amps, that I think sound better to me.  Probably because they add a little color to the music which I like.  But I never felt as though I was missing out on anything while listening the Crown XLI-1500.  

I recommend anyone who wants a high powered, well built, good sounding amp.  It’s not pretty, but then it wasn’t meant to me.  

Sansui AU-111 Integrated Amplifier -

Everyone should experience this amplifier.  Yes, this is one that I kick myself regularly for selling.  I also kick myself for selling the AU-777, but that will be a different post and a different beating altogether.   

Rated at 40wpc.  But these are tube watts.  Don’t even try and fool yourself into thinking they are the same.  On paper maybe, but your ears will tell you the truth.  This puppy sounded like a good 75-90 watt transistor amp.  Plenty, and I mean plenty of power.  Amazing amplifier section.  I wish I had a shot of this with the cover off, I know I took some I just can’t find them.  Google the amp and look at the many images with the cover off.  It’s impressive.  Sansui was known, for its high quality transformers.  They are so stable, and absolutely account for much of the Sansui sound, at least up to about 1978.  Story has it, that is about the time they stopped building their own transformers and to me when their gear started to sound like everyone else’s.  

I couldn’t find any fault with this amplifier.  It’s just glorious.  Tone, wow, Texture, in spades, Sparkle, will blind your ears, Soundstage, think Carnegie hall, Depth, miles of it.  Specs say this amp weighs about 40lbs, feels like 70lbs and it’s all in the back.

I drove my now vintage Definitive Technology BP10’s, (thank you Sandy Gross) with ease.  My pair of BP10’s are completely hand built.  Linkwitz-Reily crossovers, Vifa cast woofer, and EPI inverted dome tweeters.  They still take my breath away.  This is the pair used at the 1990 CES show when the speakers were introduced.  The nominal impedance is about 3ohms, so they are not really easy to drive.  The AU-111 drove them with authority.

I also love the combination of this amp with my 1977 EPI 100’s.  This was magic.  I have never heard the EPI’s sound so good.  Love these speakers.  I met an audio buddy who has the AU-111 reissue from 1999, and he is driving a huge set of horn loaded Jensens with his.  His system will surely bring on the goosebumps.

My Sansui had lost its paper serial number, so I don’t know what year it was from.  Production of the series one amps was from about 1965-1969, and they were reintroduced in 1999 and built to the exact same specification as the originals.  You could still purchase a series one amp new in the early 1970’s, at a really large discount.  I mean, they used tubes…. No one in the early 70’s wanted tubes.  

Today, they are expensive, but don’t shy away.  They are completely hand built, easy to service and most of the ones you find still have all of their original caps and resistors.  What’s even more astounding is that those parts are still in spec.  

This is truly hi-fi as it was meant to be.  Simple, wonderful, mind-blowing sonics.  Led Zeppelin fans, will love it, Beethoven fans will love, Bill Evans fans will love it.  Sorry, I don’t listen to country music so I can’t offer an opinion.  =)

Probably the finest sounding integrated amplifier every made.  I can’t believe I sold it.  I could be using it in my amplifier rotation today.  What was I thinking? 

Sansui 551 -

I was discovering very quickly, that low powered receivers and amplifiers have a sonic appeal that their high power counterparts can’t match.  Reading Art Dudley in Stereophile, reading blogs like twogoodears.blogspot.com  and experimenting with everything I ever owned.  This takes time, in my case years.  Which is why I tell everyone I am not an audiophile, I am a music lover.  Audiophiles use music to listen to their gear, music lovers use their gear to listen to music.  Huge difference. 

Sure, if you’re looking to make your ears bleed and want to feel thunder against your chest as you listen, high power certainly has its appeal, and don’t get me wrong sometimes that is exactly what I want.  But, 95% of the time I am really listening.  The sound of well tuned drum set, the depth and ring of the toms, and bass drum.  The crack of snare and the sparkle of a set of vintage Zildjian cymbals.  The ring of a grand piano, the tone of acoustic guitar the depth of double bass.  I want to be there.  I also want to hear Robin Trowers Strat, played through his vintage 100 watt Marshal head at louder than what I would call normal volume.  Surprisingly, my Sansui 551 gives me most all of this.  

I can’t believe how loud and full 16 wpc can sound, I can’t believe the bass I get from this.  Going from system to system I keep coming back to this little guy.  It just sounds right, sweet, punchy, has tone, gobs and gobs of tone, texture and just the right sparkle.  It’s the sweetest sounding Sansui I have ever owned.  By saying it’s sweet sounding, I mean non-fatiguing, robust bass when needed, midrange that isn’t in your face and highs that are crystal clear.  

For the audiophile, no, it doesn’t have any state of the art parts, no specially treated chassis, no need for specialty cables, or snake oils and when you see it with its cover off, well its not very impressive.  No huge power supply or capacitor stack.  Where does all that bass come from?  Clean, tight, well defined bass.  No flabby pants here.  This is an example of a very well designed, built, superb sounding perfectly voiced amplifier.  It’s pretty too, and has a fantastic tuner. Mine was purchased new February 12, 1977.  The serial number tells me it was manufactured in 1974.  The receiver has all of its original components and parts and has never been serviced.  It has no business driving my modified Definitive Technology BP10’s (from the 1990 CES Show) but it does drive them, with finesse and authority.  Everything you play, and I mean everything sounds wonderful.  

If I had a set of horn loaded speakers this receiver would be my end game, as that would give me just a tad more volume for those times that I need it. 

The soundstage, and depth trounces any McIntosh preamp or integrated I have owned.  They don’t even come close.  For subtlety, texture, feel, emotion, the Mac’s are in the backyard compared to this little Sansui.  I have owned several of the XX1’s and can say without question they all carry the same sonic signature.  This was my first real hifi receiver.  I only used it for a couple of years, because I believed that I needed more power, needed to have better.  Phase Linear, Citation, McIntosh, Crown, Marantz, GAS, Pioneer, SUMO, Project/ONE, Carver, Mark Levinson, Yamaha, Nikko, SAE etc., etc., you name it I feel like I have owned it. 

Need a great sounding receiver, and don’t want to break the bank?  Need a great sounding receiver and don’t need to make your ears bleed?  Do you have fairly efficient speakers?  Do you own horn-load speakers?  If so, this could be exactly what your’e look for.

I still use my Sansui 551.  I probably listen to this more than anything else I own and I have quite a collection of gear.  This little guy is just magic!

Hifi Engine is a great source for reading specs and reviews on the XX1 series of receivers from Sansui.  You will find they are all highly regarded.  Be sure to read about the 221, 331 and 441 as well.  Great reviews from music lovers, which just confirm what I have said here.  You just can't go wrong with any of these.

I will cover the 661, 771 and 881 in later posts, but somehow the 551 is my hands down favorite.  The little guy thinks he has 50wpc.... Sansui watts always seem bigger, better somehow.  More to come!

Akai 4000DS Reel to Reel -

I love reel to reel tape.  Who doesn’t?  I have several 10.5” and 7” inch machines, and often switch them out in my system.  For me, when playing 10.5” machines, I prefer the 1/2 track format,  As good as 1/4 track is, you can really hear a difference in the sound quality, and I almost always use 15 ips as I have a large collection of masters and dupes to choose from.

But the 7” reel format appeals to me for many reasons.  When playing production media, it’s almost always in the 7” format.  And many tapes even at 3 3/4 ips are surprising good sounding.  Second, I like that way it looks.  The machines don’t seem to ‘take over the system’.  The smaller the better.  My hifi is in my living room, and I don’t look at it, I listen to it.  Still, my wife and I want it to look nice and when I have the big Reel to Reel in place it just draws your eye to it, and not always in a good way. I have owned dozens of reel to reel decks in both formats, many of them very sophisticated machines.  But I have always seem to like a mechanical deck when it come to 7” machines.  Like the Sony TC 250, 350 and 370 series, The Akai M, and 4000 series, along with the old Ampex 600 decks.  Tandberg 3000 and 6000 also on my list of favorites.

All of these have one thing in common.  A single motor and fully mechanical transport.  This translates into a machine that is nearly indestructible and one that any novice can easily maintain.  

My favorite of these are the Akai 4000 series of machines, and of those the decks, the ones with the “One Micron Gap”, record and play head are the best sounding.  This is a quote from an Akai advertisement for the Akai 4000 reel to reel with the one micron gap heads.  

“Akai’s one-micron gap head is responsible for an amazingly important difference in tape recording.  It’s the difference between ordinary performance and high density quality recording and playback.  Ordinary head gaps are from 2 to 4 microns, but the gap of this outstanding head is only one micron.  This high density recording system provide excellent frequency response and clear, high pitched sound is generated as frequency  tone and recorded smoothly without distortion.”

I completely agree.  Many will say that the one-micron gap means lean bass.  That’s completely false.  The bass response from these decks are outstanding.  

My little Akai 4000DS reel to reel sounds incredible, functions flawlessly and is over 50years old.  Yes, it’s a little bit of a pain when you need to change speeds, but oh my!, what sound!

It’s hands down better sounding that my SONY TC 255, 355 and Tandberg 6000x.  My SONY TC-377, Akai GX4000 sound just as good.  

Truthfully, all of the Akai 4000’s are great sounding machines and very robust.  Before Akai was building reel to reel machines, they manufactured motors.  Turntable broadcast motors.  Smooth, quiet and powerful.  Akai was also responsible for manufacturing almost the entire line of Roberts reel to reel decks, and if you look at an old Roberts or Akai deck, you can certainly see that the Ampex 600 was the inspiration for these machines.  

The Akai 4000 series can be an inexpensive way for a music lover to discover reel to reel.  They were sold throughout the world and parts and supplies are plentiful.  However I have seen machines in pristine condition, command a higher price than a more sophisticated decks from  Akai, TEAC, SONY or Phillips.  I attribute this to their great sound, good looks and fact that they are nearly indestructible.  My 4000DS is a MKI version, which means I need the rubber reel hold down hubs locks if I am going to play this deck in the vertical position, which is what I do.  I prefer laying it down, but that doesn’t lend itself to easy use in my hifi stand.  I have the original Akai rubber hold down hub locks, which were rock hard form drying out over the years.  Just this past week, I began applying Fedron rubber revitalizer to them and to my surprise they are now soft, supple and grippy.  Still, the Radio Shack brand Realistic rubber hub locks were the best you could obtain and my favorite to use.  I have two sets and the rubber is of very high quality.  The are soft and grippy and look good too.  

The later version of the Akai 4000DS ‘MKII’, has built-in spring clips to hold the reels in place, which for many was a game changer.

If you’re buying an old reel to reel, spend a little and have them serviced.  A good CLA, and replacing any out of spec capacitors is always a good thing.  You might want to update the transistors if the deck has been sitting for years.  The silicon in the transistor  drys out and they develop hairline cracks which will pick up electrical interference from within the machine and really mess with the sound of your recording and playback. 

Once serviced, these deck will outlast you.  The humble Akai 4000, it’s a keeper in my book.

I forgot to mention, that if you are a musician wanting the analog sound, this little beast will record sound on sound and sound with sound.  I’ve done it, you will be floored at the demo that you can make with this.  More to come soon!

A few years back the Akai GX4000DB in a Mac/SUMO system.