Patrice28 « Very good except phono preamp »
Published on 03/24/13 at 00:03I have owned this amp since October 1979 until March 1998. Celestion Ditton he fed the 66 (version 1, the most famous).
If the amplifier part was very good, it is not in quite the same with the phono preamp which tended to "project" the sound a bit forward (Platinum Thorens TD-160 and Shure V15 - only "phono" inputs "high level" were no problem).
After a trial before purchase (the price of preamp DB was almost double the A-402), I connected a pre-amp Db-System DB1A the input amplifier and I was using more of the pre- the amp Harman.
However, what seemed like an imperfection in the early 80s is no longer one to the extent that the CD replaced vinyl now, and phono preamps users are increasingly rare.
In any case, this is a very good amp that gave me almost 20 years of musical enjoyment.
Side rendering and sound quality / price ratio, I would say 8/10 overall and 6/10 if we consider the particular case of phono preamp.
If the amplifier part was very good, it is not in quite the same with the phono preamp which tended to "project" the sound a bit forward (Platinum Thorens TD-160 and Shure V15 - only "phono" inputs "high level" were no problem).
After a trial before purchase (the price of preamp DB was almost double the A-402), I connected a pre-amp Db-System DB1A the input amplifier and I was using more of the pre- the amp Harman.
However, what seemed like an imperfection in the early 80s is no longer one to the extent that the CD replaced vinyl now, and phono preamps users are increasingly rare.
In any case, this is a very good amp that gave me almost 20 years of musical enjoyment.
Side rendering and sound quality / price ratio, I would say 8/10 overall and 6/10 if we consider the particular case of phono preamp.