Poll: Best Looking Stereo Integrated Amp

[StefaanE]

Are you kidding me?

Do you know how much easier it is to buy Revox and Studer decks where you live than where I live?

My A807 had to be shipped on a palette from the Netherlands to Seattle.

Oh, I specifically meant agonising over the colours of VU meters .

 

[watchnerd]

Oh, I specifically meant agonising over the colours of VU meters .

I try my best to take on these societal burdens so that others don't have to.

Just like Spider Man.

 

[Inner Space]

I'm glad the Luxman won. I voted for it, because I have one and am very happy with it. But it was really a semiotic question - the Luxman (with the Yamaha a close second) is the ur-integrated ... it calls to mind what we thought of as an "integrated amplifier", back in the day - an heir to the glorious big-iron era. I hope you follow through, get one, and enjoy it in the best of health and circumstances.

 

[watchnerd]

I'm glad the Luxman won. I voted for it, because I have one and am very happy with it. But it was really a semiotic question - the Luxman (with the Yamaha a close second) is the ur-integrated ... it calls to mind what we thought of as an "integrated amplifier", back in the day - an heir to the glorious big-iron era. I hope you follow through, get one, and enjoy it in the best of health and circumstances.

Which Luxman model do you have?

TBH, looks aside, the functionality of the Devialet is hard to give up.

It's such a Swiss army knife, especially when it comes to streaming and phono configurations.

Even though it may look like a tarted up French hotplate designed to warm up blinis.

 

[Inner Space]

Which Luxman model do you have?

TBH, looks aside, the functionality of the Devialet is hard to give up.

It's such a Swiss army knife, especially when it comes to streaming and phono configurations.

Even though it may look like a tarted up French hotplate designed to warm up blinis.

I have the 509x, with JBL 4367s. Admittedly a bit self-consciously retro, but fabulous sound, and nervosa-free.

 

[BDWoody]

The white meters on the L-509X (the best Luxman integrated) match the white-yellow meters on my Revox (my 2nd best deck), but the yellow meters on the L-590AXII (the 2nd best Luxman integrated) better match the amber meters on my Studer (my best deck).

I think you already know the answer...
You need both.

I try my best to take on these societal burdens so that others don't have to.



Just like Spider Man.

 

[StefaanE]

I think you already know the answer...
You need both.



View attachment 101046

ROTFLMAO. Glorious.

 

[watchnerd]

I think you already know the answer...
You need both.

I *might* be able to get away with it, as I'm not sure my wife really knows what the Devialet actually does, other than it's part of the stereo somehow.

I'm going to hell now for even thinking that...

 

[watchnerd]

I have the 509x, with JBL 4367s. Admittedly a bit self-consciously retro, but fabulous sound, and nervosa-free.

How do you find the headphone output?

The 800 ohm output impedance concerns me and most of the reviews say its, basically, barely passable.

 

[Helicopter]

Oh, I specifically meant agonising over the colours of VU meters .

I guess you can count me in on this. I have never seriously considered any HiFi kit over $10k except speakers, but I have definitely agonized over VU meter colors. I would not pick a silver faced amp over this though. When my Marantz receiver had blue LEDs, I just put fuse bulbs back in it. Voila!

 

[watchnerd]

I guess you can count me in on this. I have never seriously considered any HiFi kit over $10k except speakers, but I have definitely agonized over VU meter colors. I would not pick a silver faced amp over this though. When my Marantz receiver had blue LEDs, I just put fuse bulbs back in it. Voila!

Some people take the Revox R2R decks in the opposite direction:

But, really, those people just need to be tracked down by bounty hunters.

 

[Helicopter]

Some people take the Revox R2R decks in the opposite direction:...
But, really, those people just need to be tracked down by bounty hunters.

Someone had done something similarly atrocious with the Marantz I mentioned. Blue just like the top tape deck you posted. They made it look, not only butchered and misused, but also sort of fake, like the "Accuphase" amps on AliExpress.

 

[Inner Space]

How do you find the headphone output?

The 800 ohm output impedance concerns me and most of the reviews say its, basically, barely passable.

Never tried it. I use headphones in NYC, but not elsewhere.

 

[mhardy6647]

Some people take the Revox R2R decks in the opposite direction:

But, really, those people just need to be tracked down by bounty hunters.

and then again there's...

https://www.unitedhomeproducts.com/

 

[watchnerd]

and then again there's...

View attachment 101077
View attachment 101078
https://www.unitedhomeproducts.com/

How Celtic knots fit in with a Japanese deck is something I'm still trying to figure out.

 

[Frank Dernie]

On reflection, looking at all these amps, one of the things I miss is the push-button input selector.
Just being able to select your next input without going through them all.
The last one I had like that was a Goodmans one-ten decades ago!
They did a modest wood cased one with silver fascia

or the one I had, which I could not find a picture of, which was a white painted sleeve and black fascia decades before that became popular!
Back then buying locally made stuff rather than imported was the norm, probably in every country, so this probably won't be familiar to non-Brits.

 

[watchnerd]

On reflection, looking at all these amps, one of the things I miss is the push-button input selector.
Just being able to select your next input without going through them all.
The last one I had like that was a Goodmans one-ten decades ago!
They did a modest wood cased one with silver fascia
View attachment 101123
or the one I had, which I could not find a picture of, which was a white painted sleeve and black fascia decades before that became popular!
Back then buying locally made stuff rather than imported was the norm, probably in every country, so this probably won't be familiar to non-Brits.

Back then being about what year, in this case?

 

[Frank Dernie]

Back then being about what year, in this case?

Around 1971 at a guess.
I bought it from Audio-T when it was a small outlet on the 4th floor of 119 Oxford St. in London and Martin Colloms was one of the sales team. It came with a distortion chart from measurements he made in the shop
I changed it for a Cambridge Audio P60 a few years later.

 

[Hiten]

On reflection, looking at all these amps, one of the things I miss is the push-button input selector.
<snip>
Back then buying locally made stuff rather than imported was the norm, probably in every country, so this probably won't be familiar to non-Brits.

You are very correct. Here is a local (India) manufacturer.
http://www.norgeaudio.com/amp2060.php
They still use push button selector switch. The fit and finish maynot be of high standards but somehow the 55 year old company has survived cheap manufactured imports and very low demands. The Owner (Mr. bajaj) worked at Tandberg-Norway in '60s. He is no more and some lady manages the works I am told.
Regards.

 

[watchnerd]

You are very correct. Here is a local (India) manufacturer.
http://www.norgeaudio.com/amp2060.php
They still use push button selector switch. The fit and finish maynot be of high standards but somehow the 55 year old company has survived cheap manufactured imports and very low demands. The Owner (Mr. bajaj) worked at Tandberg-Norway in '60s. He is no more and some lady manages the works I am told.
Regards.

That's not a bad looking little amp.

Nice clean design, but not so minimalist it looks like a computer.