Playing digital audio through a 1990s amplifier

Jan 02, 2022 Last reply: 4 years ago 85 Replies

I think I still have all the standalone amps I have bought in my life going right back to an old Kenwood KA3020 driving a set of Heybrook HB100s that I bought in the 90 - 91 ish. That gets occasional use. Have a later version of the same amp (KA3020 "Discrete") hooked up to SWMBO's computer in the kitchen driving a pair of Mission 731 speakers. A second hand Arcam Alpha 7R+ that I bought about 14 years ago drives a pair of TDL RTL3s on my main audio and surround sound setup[1], and a 6 year old Cambridge Audio Topaz AM5 driving some Diamond 220 speakers for the garden listening room or ready to be deployed on the patio for a BBQ etc.

All still going strong with a bit of TLC here and there. Not had to recap any amps yet. Did have to use some pot and switch cleaner on the oldest Kenwood though, as they were getting scratchy, and the surrounds on those old HB100s are getting a bit stiffer - they need about 40 mins playing before they begin to regain their open dynamics. The RTL3s I got free from Mr Watts formerly of this group - somewhat knackered (blown tweeter, missing crossover on one side) - but after I built new crossovers, replaced the tweeters, and some of the main drivers, they sound astoundingly good.

It will probably still run it... failing that, a Pi will do fairly cheaply.

that would be an impressively bad design

not at all

??

the main reason to use above voltage caps is to increase life expectancy. Look at spec sheet life expectancy at full rated V.

no, smaller replacement parts are the norm

it doesn't

+80 -20 :)

??

I have a ONKYO A -5VL which has a Burr Brown DAC on board. I feed this from a RPi with a HiFi Berry Digi hat. The HDD plugs into RPi . The Onkyo is still around on Ebay. Running the Pi from Volumio gives good results and some Internet radio is propogated with FLAC which really helps. However a warning! if you drop the Onkyo on your foot your going need a new one The power transformers are huge.

I also use a bluetooth to analogue out dongle. A fair while back I bought a fancy sound card for my computer and connected it to my stereo system to play music, but at some point some electrical glitch ended up blowing a fuse in the amp. So the bluetooth solution seems a bit less risky to me.

#Paul

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