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Wish I'd discovered this forum before wasting £220 on an Audiolab 8000a!

My very first amp was a Cyrus one (still have it). I moved to an Audiolab 8000A (sold because it was unreliable) because I wanted tone controls.

The Cyrus sounded better but ran out of puff at higher volume. Tried it a few months ago and sounds shrill. That's more down to my ears than anything else.

You can buy any of mine Jon. But if you bought the A300R precision on eBay, and didn't like it, I think you'd sell it easily, as they don't come up often, and as said, have a following.
 
I used to be "into" hifi in my late teens/early 20s. That was in the 80s. Most of my kit was "best buy" budget stuff and I travelled from Somerset to what was then, I think, the only Richer Sounds store near Tower Bridge in London. For some reason, I didn't listen to a lot of music in my 30s and 40s, then I got back into it in my 50s. However, I opted for the convenience of Spotify and a fairly decent HK Go Bluetooth speaker.
We've recently had a clear out and I sold a load of stuff on ebay. One thing I posted on eBay was my pair of Celef Domestic 1 Speakers. I was surprised at the amount of interest in them, so not having used them for 30 years, I thought I'd better check they still worked. I plugged them into my old Harmon Kardon 6150 amp and was blown away by the sound! I immediately removed the ebay listing (there had been loads of views but no bids) and I decided to go back to "proper" audio.
In that vein, I thought maybe I should upgrade the HK amp. I remembered rave reviews of the audiolab 8000a in the early 80s which, at the time I couldn't afford. So I treated myself to one from ebay. This brings me to the title of this post - What a disappointment! It sounded so "flat" and uninspiring, even compared to my £160 HK amp. So, after that long introduction (sorry!) here's my question: Can you recommend a £200-£300 amp that would compliment my Celef speakers? Or should I just stick with the HK?
Cheers
Jon
The Harman/Kardon HK6150 is a really decent budget amplifier. Assuming 30wpc is enough to drive your Celef 'speakers to the levels that you tend to listen at, then I'd look to general system optimization (proper stands, 'speaker placement, etc.) before changing anything out.

Also, how do you know what state your LPs are in until you've given them a go? I've many here that were pressed in the 1950s, most of which started out being played on Gerrard, Dual, and even BSR(!) record changers back before many on here were born. Bar none, these are among the best sounding records I've ever heard. H/K integrated amps of this period had quite decent discrete MM phono stages with 47kOhm//125pF input loading, which ends up working very well with a wide range of cartridges. Why not dust off that old Dual, treat it to a new belt, and see what you've got?

Harman-Kardon-HK-6150-Audio-Hi-Fi-Repairs-Out-of-Warranty-Repairs-GET-it-Fixed.jpg
 
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I'm with Craig, get those hidden gem records out from storage.
These could provide very good performance if kept dry, there would have been a reason you bought them originally back then.
Any Beatles perhaps ?

Never heard people use minidisc as main source, no idea how to get decent sound from such source.
Usually its difficult to improve on a mediocre signal.

If your HK amp perform satisfying you might return or sell on the 8000a and use a few bucks against a new stylus for the Dual deck.
 
Thanks for the welcome. At the moment it's a Sony MDS-JB920 minidisc player. I've also got a Harmon Kardon CD player in the loft! (not sure which model). I don't think I'll bother with my Dual cs505 turntable as my vinyl collection is probably in a dreadful state by now.

I really think you ought to dig out the Dual and give the vinyl a spin - you might be pleasantly surprised. Recently I've been really enjoying rediscovering my record collection, much of which dates from the mid-80s. Some of the oldest records sound as good as, or even better than, modern pressings.
 
I really think you ought to dig out the Dual and give the vinyl a spin - you might be pleasantly surprised. Recently I've been really enjoying rediscovering my record collection, much of which dates from the mid-80s. Some of the oldest records sound as good as, or even better than, modern pressings.
I'll take your advice and give them a spin!
 
Get one of the inexpensive manual record cleaners, about £50 and resurrect your records.

Mine had been in the loft for 20+ years, some had mould. Cleaned as above all survived and played well.

Gary
 
Hi Jon Perry, welcome, and a quick question, were in Somerset did you come from, it is my favourite place that I have lived in apart from Scotland's Highland.

I lived in Yeabridge, South Petherton, Shepton Beauchamp's , Martock and Lopen.
 
Hi Jon Perry, welcome, and a quick question, were in Somerset did you come from, it is my favourite place that I have lived in apart from Scotland's Highland.

I lived in Yeabridge, South Petherton, Shepton Beauchamp's , Martock and Lopen.

Scottish Highlands sounds great. I'm in Frome, which is close to the border with Wiltshire.
 
A&R Cambridge A60 in good condition would meet the budget and make your speakers rock.
Many Creek integrated can be bought for peanuts and they also do a great job IMO, the 4040S2 being my favorite.
+2
The Celef Domestic is a great speaker and I used a pair for over 25 years, many of them with a Creek; an A&R A60 would be even better.
 
Depending on availability of cash I’d suggest that although vinyl is my preference it’s fundamentally expensive on both hardware and software.

Enjoy what you already have but unless you’re prepared to spend decent cash it’s probably better to invest in a decent second hand CD player and enjoy the huge cheap availability of second hand cd.

Streaming is cheaper again , but it deserves to be.
 
The mods & service did improve it, but is was still an 8000A.
The OP said it sounded ‘flat and uninspiring’ and I accept what he says.
Amplifiers & speakers have a synergy in many cases.

My BC1s sounded a little ‘flat’ and lacking in drive with a classic Quad amplifier combination.
The Audiolab brought them to life.
Whether it’s relevant or not, I remember the 8000A’s designer said in an article that
BC1s were one of the speakers used during development. I recall they used a B & W model as well.

I know what the OP says about Celef speakers.
I refurbished a pair of Celef Monitors and was very surprised how good they sounded.
 
For what it's worth (not much) I use a 6000A and love it.
That's a completely different design. I'm another who was amazed at the 80s hype about the 8000 when I heard one. The pre/power wasn't much better.
The Rotel A11 Tribute is the one I'd go for.

Why don't you go to Sevenoaks in Yeovil and listen to some.
 
The mods & service did improve it, but is was still an 8000A.
The OP said it sounded ‘flat and uninspiring’ and I accept what he says.
Amplifiers & speakers have a synergy in many cases.

My BC1s sounded a little ‘flat’ and lacking in drive with a classic Quad amplifier combination.
The Audiolab brought them to life.
Whether it’s relevant or not, I remember the 8000A’s designer said in an article that
BC1s were one of the speakers used during development. I recall they used a B & W model as well.

I know what the OP says about Celef speakers.
I refurbished a pair of Celef Monitors and was very surprised how good they sounded.

I am still running a pair of Celef monitors, bought new in 1975. Currently partnered with a Roksan Caspian M2 amp which works very well. Previously they were partnered with an Arcam Delta 60 amp which was also a good combination. Being the forerunners to the Proac brand, Celef speakers are very well made... I would have thought that a decent Audiolab 8000A would suit the Celefs quite well. Perhaps the amp needs a service..
 
The 8000a seems to be one of those marmite amps where opinion is quite split and threads on it often have some heated exchanges. From what I've gathered the earlier versions are less liked than the later ones, but that said some folks just loathe all versions.

Mine is a later one (early 90s) and was serviced by the same guy that did Martyn's, who knows his stuff.
 


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