In this list, what amplifier would you pick?

[torstoi]

Not heard the Trio, noor do I know the A60 well...but I share your Yamaha amp experience..

 

[stevec67]

A400 is poor. I tell for the magazine hype in the 90s, bought one, regretted it.

 

[JimmyB]

A400 is poor. I tell for the magazine hype in the 90s, bought one, regretted it.

Had one in the shop I worked in when they came out, wasn't sure what the hype was all about but then our demo CD was Steely Dan best of or something and not my cup of tea at the time.

The Rotels back then were better and looked nicer IMO

 

[say it as it is]

I had a Rotel RA 820 way back and loved it there were a few gems and they seemed to last very well look how many are still going strong

 

[stevec67]

A friend had one, or maybe it was an 810, sounded good in his system at the time.

 

[Dirkster]

A400 is poor. I tell for the magazine hype in the 90s, bought one, regretted it.

Me too - Deep disappointment which took years of saving as a student to overcome.

An Exposure XX Super Regulated kicked the crap out of it, thankfully.

 

[stevec67]

Similarly I had a friend with a Quad 33/303 that kicked the deal out of mine. That answered my question of "why does Dave have all this old 60s crap?" Oh hang on.
It did me a favour though, I went shopping with £500-750 burning a hole in my pocket and a few I tried had me thinking "Really?" The Linn Intek was hopeless , the Audiolab 8000 bored me, the Exposure 2010 (?) I liked and the Nait was initially impressive but rather harsh and wearing. However at that time you could get a 33/303 for £100-120 and that beat them all.

 

[say it as it is]

This thread has me almost buying an RA-820A lol

 

[say it as it is]

too late i bought one haha

 

[hamjam]

Good call! I still have mine (820-AX) for deputising duties when called for. Bought it new back in 1991 (after some heavy research via the hifi magazines) from Richer Sounds on the Fulham Road. It's still going strong.

 

[say it as it is]

yeah they are well built and punch way above their weight.

 

[say it as it is]

well just powered and played my newly acquired Rotel RA 820A sounds lovely brings back memories just need to get some small speaker to recreate that effect haha in saying that my very first speakers were Tannoy 603's could have done a lot worse.

 

[russel]

Interesting, shows the importance of implementation over circuit topology, the A400 is a more sophisticated design with single due dual transistors on the input stage and top specced output devices, whereas the Rotel is a slightly more advanced naim type circuit with a constant current source rather than bootstrap and a complementary output stage.

 

[James]

A400 is poor. I tell for the magazine hype in the 90s, bought one, regretted it.

I was spared the misfortune when the dealer refused a home dem. Maybe he knew the truth would be outed when I can evaluate at my leisure.

 

[stevec67]

Interesting, shows the importance of implementation over circuit topology, the A400 is a more sophisticated design with single due dual transistors on the input stage and top specced output devices, whereas the Rotel is a slightly more advanced naim type circuit with a constant current source rather than bootstrap and a complementary output stage.

Maybe they spent all the money on the board contents and cheaped out on the power supply, who knows? It was poor though. Is the Rotel based on the RCA circuit with the long tail pair and so on then?

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Maybe they spent all the money on the board contents and cheaped out on the power supply, who knows? It was poor though. Is the Rotel based on the RCA circuit with the long tail pair and so on then?

All of the above are a generic direct coupled amplifier going back even earlier, including the RCA. It's very rare for a SS amp not to have long tail pair! IIRC the Rotel was by Stan Curtis but it doesn't get any more bog standard... only thing of note is that there is no protection circuitry and in the later more "audiophile" versions such as 820BX there are 2 pairs of output transistors.

 

[russel]

All of the above are a generic direct coupled amplifier going back even earlier, including the RCA. It's very rare for a SS amp not to have long tail pair! IIRC the Rotel was by Stan Curtis but it doesn't get any more bog standard... only thing of note is that there is no protection circuitry and in the later more "audiophile" versions such as 820BX there are 2 pairs of output transistors.

Stan Curtis certainly has a lot of experience, something simple like messing up the routing could explain the sound difference.

 

[retrospective]

I posted earlier in this thread that my trio kr-5200 was a marked improvement over my a60 the trio is having a slow overhaul so i grabbed a £25 Sansui au-101 over christmas because i was curious what all the fuss was about and i love it! i've listened to it every waking hour since repairing it and it just sounds involving yet non fatiguing with every song/genre i highly recommend trying one.
It'll be interesting what happens when the trio's sorted it's been out of my system for so long i've forgotten what it sounds like!

Someone mentioned the Nad 3020 earlier on in the thread imho the au-101 is a far better amp in every respect

 

[robbyd]

Which version of Rotel 840 are you all talking of?

original, or 840B,BX? There's been a few revisions...