Kenwood L-05M Vintage Amplifier Review

[pma]

Wonder if not some of the 60Hz would go away if the owner refurbed the power supply ?

Probably not. EI transformer, proximity to circuit, PSR of the circuit, ancient PCB design. However EI is good to reduce HF from mains.

 

[Mnyb]

Probably not. EI transformer, proximity to circuit, PSR of the circuit, ancient PCB design. However EI is good to reduce HF from mains.

Thanks we learned some things in 40 years transformer with less stray field and not so close to circuit.

But at the time this was built it was far far better than any source component vinyl or tape or radio so mission accomplished.

 

[JktHifi]

SINAD below 90, even close to 80.

 

[pma]

SINAD below 90, even close to 80.

And what?? It is inaudible.

 

[JktHifi]

And what?? It is inaudible.

It’s the performance. I can say the SINAD same as Torque in car because torque will win the race. The wattage is same as Horsepower but SINAD is the Torque

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

I wonder if changing those filtering caps would mitigate some of the mains leakage.

 

[Mnyb]

Probably not. EI transformer, proximity to circuit, PSR of the circuit, ancient PCB design. However EI is good to reduce HF from mains.

I wonder if changing those filtering caps would mitigate some of the mains leakage.

PMA already answered

 

[pavuol]

Spoiler: OT / "brand musing" :)

considering Kenwood's current offer, good example of region dependant "brand":
US: no home audio, just "car entertainment stuff"
EU/DE: quite a selection of "modern" microsystems (color displays, DAB, streaming...), this product category was abandoned by most manufacturers already
example M-9000S-B

JP: site still lists some "old schood" quality looking microsystems, eg:
K-515

 

[thewas]

Yeah, that’s it. 40+ years old amplifiers that has no problems with complex load impedance and has very good parameters that may be audible. The designers new what they were doing.
Also nice to see decay of harmonics in the spectrum. Not the now usual crossover distortion dominated.

Good old Japanese hifi from an era where large and serious companies with a lot of R&D were involved in stereo Hifi, unfortunately after the mid 80s things changed a lot to come to the "high end" snake oil mess of today.

 

[voodooless]

Back then the thing would have cost about $1800 in today's money.

 

[Koeitje]

Back then the thing would have cost about $1800 in today's money.

Really shows the leap in performance over the past decades. Nothing really wrong with this amplifier, but modern amplifiers in the price range run circles around it.

 

[Sokel]

It’s the performance. I can say the SINAD same as Torque in car because torque will win the race. The wattage is same as Horsepower but SINAD is the Torque

(which god do I have to pray too to save me from analogies?)

To the subject,I wish 40 years from now I will still have one of my now electronics and perform the same.
Pure respect.

Thanks Amir!

 

[sergeauckland]

Really shows the leap in performance over the past decades. Nothing really wrong with this amplifier, but modern amplifiers in the price range run circles around it.

They may do in terms of specs, but so what? These new amps won't sound any better.
This Kenwood amp illustrates what I've been saying for a while, that amps haven't improved audibly since the late 1970s, and within power and load limitations, since the late 1960s.
Modern amps only have the specs they do because it's now hard not to.

S.

 

[AndreaT]

Modern amps do sound better to me. While it is impossible to scientifically validate my statement, an old ML-11 (with new caps) I cherished does not offer the same emotionally engaging envelope offered by newer Hypex monoblocks, at a similar listening volume. It is a great review of a classic Kenwood, however, no nostalgia for the 1980’s!

Thank you Amir!

 

[AndreaT]

The L-05m/L-07m are a generation before the L-06m/L/08m.

The L-08M measures far better, but to be fair, my L-08M was given to Peter at QuirkAudio and told to go to town with upgrading the power supply and all of the capacitors, etc.

I recently picked up a Topping D90, so I can retest the L-08M.

Kenwood L-08M Monoblock Amplifier (Vintage Review)

Kenwood L-08M Monoblock Amplifier Review (Vintage Gear; QuirkAudio restored) Where were you in 1980? In Tokyo, Japan, a small team of engineers released the most sophisticated amplifier of its time... A bit of history In the 1970's, an elite team of veteran Trio-Kenwood engineers left the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

It will be a great pleasure to read about the improved performance after the visit to town!

 

[PeteL]

Modern amps do sound better to me. While it is impossible to scientifically validate my statement, an old ML-11 (with new caps) I cherished does not offer the same emotionally engaging envelope offered by newer Hypex monoblocks, at a similar listening volume. It is a great review of a classic Kenwood, however, no nostalgia for the 1980’s!

Thank you Amir!

But That's just generalities, the ML-11 is just a 50 wpc amp. This here have significantly more power and likely measure better than your Mark Levinson. That's what this serie of Kenwood monoblocks was about. No nonsense Japanese Engineering with objective performance as a focus. Power is not about listening Volume, it's about headroom and dynamics.

 

[notsodeadlizard]

So, this machine is from the early 80s of the last century (no later than 1981).
There are 42 years old capacitors inside and so on.
And after 42 years, the amplifier shows the parameters declared by the manufacturer.
This is what we are losing in the flood of cheap Chinese nonsense.

 

[fpitas]

So, this machine is from the early 80s of the last century (no later than 1981).
There are 42 years old capacitors inside and so on.
And after 42 years, the amplifier shows the parameters declared by the manufacturer.
This is what we are losing in the flood of cheap Chinese nonsense.

Well, kind of. People expect nice things to be dirt cheap now. And indeed, you can get a lot of bang for the buck. But I bet this amp was not considered inexpensive in its day.

 

[pma]

Quite "classic" topology

with 2 differential gain stages, differential VAS, driver stage and 2 pairs of output devices. Nice to see input JFET pair. More detailed circuit on page 15 of the service manual.

 

[FrantzM]

So, this machine is from the early 80s of the last century (no later than 1981).
There are 42 years old capacitors inside and so on.
And after 42 years, the amplifier shows the parameters declared by the manufacturer.
This is what we are losing in the flood of cheap Chinese nonsense.

You don't know yet... unless you have a Time Machine. (underlining is mine)

Peace.