I’ve been delighted with the sound of the NAD M3 and had no desire to ‘upgrade’. However the blue led display is failing and for some reason the volume control now only works with the remote. Doubt it can be fixed.
https://www.stereophile.com/integratedamps/107nad/index.html
It is a shame that a lot of more modern equipment is not repairable by local engineers, especially if you have invested a lot.
Seconded. Does everything well. I also like the flexibility such as the digital DAT tape loop which I use with a CD recorder.Simple, JVC AX-Z1010TN. Buy and never worry about looking for an upgrade!
https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/jvc-ax-z1010tn-review.168851/
Densen BEAT B100 (wish I'd kept it)
You’re bang on with the Classe Audio 2100. A friend of mine repairs high end stuff and according to him, this was the best sounding integrated he ever touched. The only problem he saw was a rather low quality type of relays but he replaced with higher quality and problems solved.The amp I had was a little earlier than that, it was a CAP-151, fantastic sounding thing, beautifully built too, but pretty deep (as deep as it is wide when you factor in the rear connections), so it hung over the front of the compact rack in my space limited study. Some of their power amps are too physically large for any HIFI rack and need to be stood on a platform on the floor, and that’s what counts them out for me, I don’t have the space to house them practically, otherwise I’d have loved to try some in my main system, it’s lovely sounding stuff.
The later CAP-2100 always caught my eye too… it looks less imposing than the CAP-151 because the front is curved at the sides, but it’s deceptive, it’s still a chunky amp at 16” deep not including the rear connections.
Seconded. Does everything well. I also like the flexibility such as the digital DAT tape loop which I use with a CD recorder.
SS:
LFD zero LE
Lavardin IS
EWA Claymore
Exposure XV
Exposure 2010/3010
Densen DM10
Electrocompaniet ECI-1
Roksan K3
tubes:
audio note OTO
Tube Technology Unisis
Leben CS300
Verdier 210
Jadis Orchestra
Audio Innovations 500
CR Development Kalypso
SS:
LFD zero LE
Lavardin IS
EWA Claymore
Exposure XV
Exposure 2010/3010
Densen DM10
Electrocompaniet ECI-1
Roksan K3
tubes:
audio note OTO
Tube Technology Unisis
Leben CS300
Verdier 210
Jadis Orchestra
Audio Innovations 500
CR Development Kalypso
BGAs are doable with hot air, I’ve done it a few times. It’s a nervous process though, if you take a pad off the board when you’re cleaning the old solder off, it’s anywhere between extremely difficult and totally impossible to fix. Main tools you’ll need are hot air and stencils to reapply the solder paste. A heat pad to preheat the PCB can help a lot too, especially if there’s a large ground plane on the opposite side of the board.Revox A78 is a great sounding SS integrated that never gets mentioned.
FWIW, and we've been here before, I strongly disagree with TonyL on the fixability of high tech gear thats all SMD, multilayer boards, BGA's etc etc. Yes it CAN be done but it's hugely more difficult, time consuming, and often requires investment in some very expensive kit in order to do it properly. Parts availability and the fact that ATM such parts are often obsoleted after only say 5 years plays a big part. "Right to repair" can only help but as things stand "computer controlled/SMD/digital space age/smart phone type tech" gear is likely to be either land fill after say 7 years use or only economically viable to repair if it was say £4K+ when new. All IMHO and YMMV.
Yes I'm a Luddite and probably akin to the steam train engineer watching diesel and electric take over but personally I fail to see even why we need to have display screens that say hello to you and be able to control an amplifier from your smartphone and all that kind of new fangled malarkey. I take my hat of to those who replace BGA IC's the size of my thumb nail which have 300 connections to them and good luck to them... I reckon there will be plenty of trad hi fi around to see me out and there's still plenty of brand new kit coming out all the time that can be so trad as to use point to point hand soldered tag boards etc!
Shame they stopped making that ams35, seems to be very popular but very rare now
It really boogies along.
One out of five ain't bad.