Amplifier NAD 3020 measurements from Stereo Review: 1979

[mhardy6647]

The KA-3300 was BOTL.

I don't think the KA-3300 was sold in the US, though. The KA-3500 was the entry level integrated ca. 1976 in the US, replaced with the cheesier (at least aesthetically) KA-3700 in 1977.

 

[DanielT]

Yes. Do it.
Unless you'd really prefer me to do it.

I won't let that opening pass. Well, I really prefer you do.

In a vintage context, your voice weighs more heavily than mine. I'm more of a semi-vintage enthusiast who fiddles with a little vintage every now and then. You are more hard core vintage and more knowledgeable with electronics as well.

 

[restorer-john]

I don't think the KA-3300 was sold in the US, though. The KA-3500 was the entry level integrated ca. 1976 in the US, replaced with the cheesier (at least aesthetically) KA-3700 in 1977.

I've got a 3500, down at Dad's and he's got a 3300. Nice little amps, both of them and built way better than a whole lot of other low range gear at the time.

The 3500 has a direct coupled FET input phono stage and a decent power stage along with quite useful controls and a sweet layout. I picked it up for a few dollars, tested it, took it down to Dad's to play with and haven't seen it for 10 years! But that's good, he has way more space and HiFi rooms than me.

 

[DanielT]

Yeah, if push comes to shove, I will probably put some $ into the HK430 rather than the Yammie, hard call though. I have some aging 330Bs I can sell off to help pay for the redo. The HK 430 is a very good sounding unit even unrestored.

Aha a 330B. In the picture you see my HK330C. I fiddle with a bit of miscellaneous, hence the mess in the picture. The NAD receiver on the right is on my DIY tube subwoofer (not tube amp sub but cast tube sub). Dual 12 drivers smacked together in a saucer configuration, down fired to the floor. It gets a hell of a bass with bass support partly from the floor and also placed in a corner. Lucky I don't live in an apartment! The neighbors below me had gone insane.

In any case, a relatively low-power amp like the HK330C if it doesn't have to deal with frequencies below 80-100 Hz together with reasonably sensitive speakers is a really yummy combo.

My 330C is recapped. Have a friend who is EE who likes to tinker with things like that. I don't know if it was actually necessary but with an amp that is around 45 years old it can't hurt to at least change the electrolytic capacitors in the power supply part. I paid my friend by then helping him haul some of his junk to the dump with my trailer. Which ties back to what we talked about earlier in the thread. Tinker with vintage, then you should be able to tinker with it yourself(submit to professional repairman=expensive). Or you can exchange services with a friend who is knowledgeable in electronics.
(I may have mentioned trailer exchange services earlier in the thread, I don't remember)

 

[mhardy6647]

The 330 family (all the way back to the "three-thirty", IIRC, with "Nocturne" styling!) were nice, high-value pieces. I particularly like the aesthetics of the little 330c. They were quite common at my alma mater back in the days, and, despite their low output power (20 wpc) pair(ed) nicely with the also quite common Polk Audio "Monitor 7" loudspeakers. Matt Polk is an alum of my alma mater, so we had a certain loyalty to him and his products. Polk was really just gettin' started in those days (mid-1970s).


(Well... Gordon Miller Music, in Maryland, paired the more expensive, nicer, but barely more powerful hk430 with the Polk 7s... but the cheaper 330c was often found hooked to a pair in the real world!)

I am sure I've said this before* (my treasure trove of stories is pretty limited!) but the hk piece I'd love to have is the little A401 integrated amp. Since it, too, was 20 wpc, I have always presumed it's the preamp and amp of the 330c in a supremely elegant little box. Lovely bit of hardware, then and, I'd opine, still now.

rando internet photo -- and with lousy colour balance, to boot. This is a 'silver-faced' component, not champagne.

_______________
* Probably in this very thread -- I am too lazy to look.

 

[Joe Smith]

I get to play my 430 in the basement system later today, see how she's doing. I feel bad not using my 330Bs much anymore. My later-generation 590i developed bad DC irregularities and is down with my friend who sold me the restored 2216 and did the work on my Kenwood, just to see if it's fixable and can be sold. He also has my Beomaster 4000, same kind of thing. That one is probably so troublesome to work on, I'm imagining I may just sell it off for parts. I love the look of the B&O but the cabling is such a pain... Yeah, I agree with sentiments above, I overbought vintage last decade with my level of electrical knowledge, overall I've been lucky but now some selective reductions are at hand...

 

[mhardy6647]

You tie the sack for me. Why not gather all these threads under a separate dedicated vintage umbrella/section? Perhaps that discussion is best taken in a separate thread on Forum Suggestions?

to quote The Princess Bride

By request: Any appetite for/chance of a "vintage electronics measurement and discussion" section?

So, there's been some back-corridor murmuring about vintage hifi and ASR* and, as sometimes happens, I come to this place, hat in hand, as something of a de facto spokescreature. I.e., don't kill the messenger, OK? ;) There's a moderate, persistent interest in hifi of old, even here at ASR...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Monkme]

I just thought it might be an interesting twist soundwise if you add one vintage item to your chain which consists of modern parts only. And to do so on a budget.

 

[DanielT]

I just thought it might be an interesting twist soundwise if you add one vintage item to your chain which consists of modern parts only. And to do so on a budget.

Plug in some sensible vintage amp together with modern speakers, an modern DAC and maybe an active modern subwoofer and test.
A step further the same mentioned but add miniDSP plus tinker with measuring FR and fix to FR in the digital world. Or why not CamillaDSP
and tinker with room correction via FIR filters?

If you feel comfortable tinkering with such?CamillaDSP seems good but I'm a little doubtful, for myself, if my poor computer skills are enough for that program. :

CamillaDSP macOS tutorial for total beginner?

Hi all, I'd like to use CamillaDSP on macOS to apply room correction FIR filters from Focus Fidelity to audio from both my turntable (via an audio interface) and audio from digital sources, e.g. Tidal, VLC, Safari. Is that possible? If so, is there a really basic, idiot-proof tutorial on how...

audiosciencereview.com

Maybe something:

EQ Software for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS/iPadOS and Android.

Any suggestions are welcome. Post suggestions here. I will gather the details and add them. Thanks. :D This will be organized as results come in. @sweetchaos made a guide for PEQ filter data input and operation. For crossover software go here. Windows: Equalizer APO is a parametric / graphic...

audiosciencereview.com

It doesn't get more modern than that. Such modern HiFi stuff/tools that didn't exist when the vintage amplifier was brand new.

In addition, vintage amps/receivers have phono input in case you want to add a record player.

Edit:
Choose "amp friendly" (no low Ohm dipping, low sensitivity, difficult to drive) speakers paired with a vintage amp. Not sure that it is needed (obviously depends on which amp we are talking about) but just to be on the safe side.

Edit:
A tip, which I think seems nice, Yamaha CR-600.If the power is enough for one's needs:

The CR-600 produces 30 watts per channel although many have bench tested them at around 40 watts per channel so they are most likely under rated.

Yamaha CR-600 | Classic Receivers

The clean and orderly Yamaha CR-600 was a mid range offering from Yamaha from around 1973 until about 1976. It retailed for $460.00 and incorporates Yamaha's signature Natural Sound technology and is known for a detailed and accurate sound. This era of Yamaha's has a subtle futuristic look to...

classicreceivers.com

I attached some screenshots from the link below:
(click on the link, the German brochure)

Yamaha CR-600 AM/FM Stereo Receiver Manual | HiFi Engine

www.hifiengine.com

 

[mhardy6647]

ahem. CA-800. ahem.



Plus... one may perform the (Class) AB/A A/B test, too One just has to resist the temptation of hot switching between amp operating conditions!

 

[DanielT]

ahem. CA-800. ahem.



Plus... one may perform the (Class) AB/A A/B test, too One just has to resist the temptation of hot switching between amp operating conditions!

Plus... one may perform the (Class) AB/A A/B test, too..
Cool feature. Did you hear or notice a difference when you tested that?

I know you know this thread, but a tip for others who haven't seen it. There's a lot of vintage amp goodies in that thread:

Vintage amplifiers that could challenge or approach current state of the art amplifiers

I was asked by @GXAlan to suggest a "top 3" amplifiers, but to narrow down to just 3 seems an impossible task. There have been thousands of wonderful products from many hundreds of manufacturers for well over half a century, but which ones have the performance chops to equal or better some of...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[mhardy6647]

Cool feature. Did you hear or notice a difference when you tested that?

I would never answer that question on this site!

 

[DanielT]

I would never answer that question on this site!

Damn, if you of all the people who know amplifiers and work professionally with transistors (I think you said that at some point) had said that you heard a difference, it would have gone to hell in this thread. Several pages had been written about the need for blind tests and so on.
You could say that maybe it was just imagination. But then you would have received hints, you with your amp knowledge, what a dumbass you are who didn't think about that aspect and so on. Thus: You have a point.

_______
Speaking of class A vs class AB. I had a Technics SU-V45A a few years ago. A nice amp. On the verge of being considered vintage, or if it is considered a vintage amp, I don't know. Technics SU-V45A doesn't (yet) have what you associate with vintage looks, so it's not (yet?) so sought after. A good old amp for peanuts. In any case, it was based on Technics class AA technology, which I THINK was something about that the first amp watts was operated in class A and then switched to class AB.
A bit silly to mention it as class AA but ok it was probably some Technics marketing ploy, I guess.

Edit:
I'm in favor of blind tests, but that doesn't stop me from being able to joke a little about the obsession with ditto here at ASR.

 

[mhardy6647]

Class AA was, I presume, like Technics' New Class A, one of those sliding-bias schemes to minimize crossover distortion and not be too inefficient of power.
@restorer-john probably knows.

 

[DanielT]

Class AA was, I presume, like Technics' New Class A, one of those sliding-bias schemes to minimize crossover distortion and not be too inefficient of power.
@restorer-john probably knows.

I googled and this is what MacPhantom wrote:

Technics Class AA

I know there have been a couple of threads here on the New Class A Technics, those with synchro bias chips sets. I can't comment on those as I've never heard one. But I would like to talk for moment about the Class AA Technics that use the Matsushita Bridge, also referred to as a Wheatstone...

audiokarma.org

I don't know if that's true or not.

What he describes seems to me to be a class AB amp. But I could be wrong.

 

[Monkme]

I now bought a NAD3020i from an italian guy on ebay for less than 150€ in an excellent condition. And I have to say that it is quite nice when used as a phono pre amp for active studio monitors. It's not at all muddy or overly "warm". I think its still a very good budget option if on looks for a used pre-amp.