Kenwood L-09M
- Thread starter EchoWars
- Start date
SoCal Sam
Lunatic Member
Congrats on your purchase. I think you will be very impressed by the L-09M. My pair is by far the best SS amps I've heard or owned. BTW, I gave mine a good workout this afternoon. I had the sound meter out and was hitting 97 dB. The meters were barely moving.
Sunnybaker
Active Member
I want a pair of these 07's or 9's so bad I'll trade my first born son
for them.
for them.
The Fuxtor
Addicted Member
Pretty sure he retired from AK a few years back.
Sad but true.
Just in case he's looking, we miss you EW and thanks for all the great post!
I'm pretty sure this has been discussed on the Kenwood manufacturer forum. If you really care, feel free to join us on the Kenwood forum.
McGowdog
Active Member
I have a pair of the L-09 Ms and also a pair of the L-07 Ms.
The 09s weigh 47 lbs each and are insane. I bought them from my brother. Basically, I went to California to rescue him because he was living in his car with his two dogs. His home he was renting was condemned from the Reseda earthquake. While we were leaving town after getting all his possessions into a 1 ton van, he told me to stop by at a pawn shop. I got the pair for $165.00. I also got his Gibson accoustic guitar which may be very old. Maybe 1957? The only thing I did to the amps was replaced the four 18000 uF caps.
I since bought a pair of L-07Ms for about 450.00 which also came with the L-07 preamp.
I use a Marantz 2275 rcvr as a preamp to my L09s and drive Imperial 7s with it.
Upstairs is my pair of 07s hidden away for our living room surround sound TV set up. I use a Marantz NR 1403 rcvr with the preamp out and the 07s to power a pair of speakers my bro made for me, modeled after the Meadowlarks with an MTM config (mid-tweet-mid). Since they are a bit lacking for bass, I use a cheap Polk Audio 300W sub. I use the underpowered Marantz to drive the center speaker and rears, but keep the setting at Multichannel stereo for tv and Direct 2.1 for tunes.
Not bad for SS. My real passion is my Dynaco Mark III tube amps, my Pass 2 preamp, and my cheap but effective Klipsch SP10 towers which line up with my ears very nicely. My profile pic is of the Mark IIIs.
Now, the Kenwoods really rock but as far as useable power, those 60 wpc Dynacos with the Tungsol 6550 Black plates, nothing sounds sweeter. But yeah, the 09s are a nice second.
The 09s weigh 47 lbs each and are insane. I bought them from my brother. Basically, I went to California to rescue him because he was living in his car with his two dogs. His home he was renting was condemned from the Reseda earthquake. While we were leaving town after getting all his possessions into a 1 ton van, he told me to stop by at a pawn shop. I got the pair for $165.00. I also got his Gibson accoustic guitar which may be very old. Maybe 1957? The only thing I did to the amps was replaced the four 18000 uF caps.
I since bought a pair of L-07Ms for about 450.00 which also came with the L-07 preamp.
I use a Marantz 2275 rcvr as a preamp to my L09s and drive Imperial 7s with it.
Upstairs is my pair of 07s hidden away for our living room surround sound TV set up. I use a Marantz NR 1403 rcvr with the preamp out and the 07s to power a pair of speakers my bro made for me, modeled after the Meadowlarks with an MTM config (mid-tweet-mid). Since they are a bit lacking for bass, I use a cheap Polk Audio 300W sub. I use the underpowered Marantz to drive the center speaker and rears, but keep the setting at Multichannel stereo for tv and Direct 2.1 for tunes.
Not bad for SS. My real passion is my Dynaco Mark III tube amps, my Pass 2 preamp, and my cheap but effective Klipsch SP10 towers which line up with my ears very nicely. My profile pic is of the Mark IIIs.
Now, the Kenwoods really rock but as far as useable power, those 60 wpc Dynacos with the Tungsol 6550 Black plates, nothing sounds sweeter. But yeah, the 09s are a nice second.
McGowdog, this thread has only had six posts since 2009. It is good to see a Kenwood L 09 owner posting. AudioKarma is one of the few places anyone can find decent information about many Kenwoods.
That is an enviable assortment of Kenwood L Series you are using. Where is the L 07C preamp? Dynacos are reputed to give a great account of themselves. David Hafler was a genius.
That is an enviable assortment of Kenwood L Series you are using. Where is the L 07C preamp? Dynacos are reputed to give a great account of themselves. David Hafler was a genius.
Have you tried the L-07C with the L-09Ms? I thought my L-09Ms sounded really good with the Kenwood C2, but the L-07Cll took them to a completely different level.
McGowdog
Active Member
McGowdog
Active Member
Hey Theophile. Little slow around here but still a wealth of awesome knowledge.
I am slow to admit how I run the L07C as I actually have it as sort of a 2nd preamp between my Marantz and the 09s. I know i shouldn't do it that way but it doesn't seem to detract from the signal to my ears.
I love my Mark IIIs, so much that I have two sets of them. I bought my second set from my Bro because he probably needed the money at the time and I took them off his hands for about 1000 bucks. That one came with the Poseidon upgrade. Now, I'm also a big fan of the Pat 4 preamps for their simplicity and affordability. I have a Dynaco ST120 that I turned into a Frankenstein putting in the Akita (sp?) upgrades and that thing rocks. I also have the Hafler 220 FET amp which is a beast.
Oh, back to Kenwoods, I have been working on the KR 3130, the 2120, sold a 5150 to a friend and fixed up a 6160 for myself. I have a 3130 that has become a real pita. I recently bought a 4140 to take it's place. I want to give the 3130 to a friend, but not this one. It keeps blowing up on me and the main board is falling apart on me, traces, pads, etc. So I will try to fix up the 4140 for him. I should receive is in the mail hopefully in a week or so. But those rcvrs have such a sweet sound and are still somewhat underpriced imo.
I am slow to admit how I run the L07C as I actually have it as sort of a 2nd preamp between my Marantz and the 09s. I know i shouldn't do it that way but it doesn't seem to detract from the signal to my ears.
I love my Mark IIIs, so much that I have two sets of them. I bought my second set from my Bro because he probably needed the money at the time and I took them off his hands for about 1000 bucks. That one came with the Poseidon upgrade. Now, I'm also a big fan of the Pat 4 preamps for their simplicity and affordability. I have a Dynaco ST120 that I turned into a Frankenstein putting in the Akita (sp?) upgrades and that thing rocks. I also have the Hafler 220 FET amp which is a beast.
Oh, back to Kenwoods, I have been working on the KR 3130, the 2120, sold a 5150 to a friend and fixed up a 6160 for myself. I have a 3130 that has become a real pita. I recently bought a 4140 to take it's place. I want to give the 3130 to a friend, but not this one. It keeps blowing up on me and the main board is falling apart on me, traces, pads, etc. So I will try to fix up the 4140 for him. I should receive is in the mail hopefully in a week or so. But those rcvrs have such a sweet sound and are still somewhat underpriced imo.
That's an interesting reply McGowdog. The obvious question I want to ask is: Have you tried using the L 07C without the Marantz?
I have never laid eyes on any Dynaco component. I came into the hobby a few years before DH launched the Hafler solid state brand with those two extremely popular products. His homage to Dynaco was offering the Hafler pre and power amps in kit form. True to form.
I have never laid eyes on any Dynaco component. I came into the hobby a few years before DH launched the Hafler solid state brand with those two extremely popular products. His homage to Dynaco was offering the Hafler pre and power amps in kit form. True to form.
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McGowdog
Active Member
Ah, no I didn't really see the need to try and run the Kenwood preamp on anything besides the 09s because I wanted to take advantage of its swithing abilities to two different sets of speakers at the time, one for 2.0 rockin out and the other setup for a sort of home theater mode.
Now, one thing I've learned about preamps if you want the sweetest sound and like an extra kick if needed or not, nothing imo beats the Dynacos, the Pas2 for tube preamp and the Pat4 or 5 for solid state affordability.
McGowdog
Active Member
Oh, sorry slow response. I actually have the L 07C or whatever the preamp is called, on my L09s. For my L07 amps, I use the Marantz NR 1403 as the preamp and an amp to the rest of my upstairs surround sound/TV setup that my wife can use. In the basement, the L-09s are there to share my OPPO 95 source for my solid state setup. So I use the L-09Ms to power my Imperial 7s and I use the Sansui 3000A to power my Dynaco A50s. The preamp for my L-09Ms are the L-07 C, and believe it or not, a Marantz 2275 receiver. I know it sounds ridiculous in theory, but it sounds sweet to me.
McGowdog
Active Member
Oh, sorry I missed this response too.
I do believe I used the L-09Ms straight up with the L-07C preamp and it sounded fine. The reason I am using the Marantz 2275 as a preamp is because when I bought it, I wanted a nice vintage receiver, and I guess that was my first one. It sounded great. I used to kick back and rock out with it for a while, but noticed the amp on the Marantz seemed to be getting a bit warm. I noticed it had preamp outs, so I had a need for wanting to hook my 09s up somewhere, so I thought I'd just let them do the heavy lifting for my Marantz until I someday get in there and see if the amp stage doesn't need a going over.
I know this all sounds crazy, but it's where I am at the moment.
Some of my newer equipment that I've recently traded or purchased, fixed, etc., the Pioneer 939, the Sony 7065, the Kenwood 3130, 4140, and my fav, the 6160.
I am trying to fix the 3130 and also a Luxman R1120. The Luxman has been giving me fits. I rebuilt that amp once, had it running, a friend ran it for about a week, it blew up again, he sent it back and sold it to me for about 250, now it's mine. I tried to fix it up again, but that amp was pretty messed up. I have spent months on it now, and thought I had it, but no sound. I think I'm gonna try and make sure I don't have china garbage fake output transistors on it. It fails the dim bulb tester, another story for another day.
I had a friend help me tune up my Heathkit AR 1500 and it is a beast. Love that old thing. Oh,and some past successes I've had, I love my Hafler 220. But even moreso, is the Dynaco ST120 I tried to fix, had pwr board problems, then just decided to UpDateMyDynaco that thing into what I call a Frankenstein. That thing rocks!
Oh, I also have another new purchase, my HK 630. Beauty. Love my 330c too. I took my Sony STR 6120 off the shelf to make room for the newly acquired 7065 so I can get in there and check it out, maybe replace caps if needed, especially power supply caps and signal path little electrolytics, like the 10 ufs and smaller.
