The Best Vintage Amp/Receiver - Review

I think he makes a good contribution to vintage sound. He only knows what he knows, which is far more than I do of course. I read his stuff as just a single source of info on any piece of gear I run up on. Took a while to decipher his style of writing, or rather note taking, which apparently takes to much time for him to edit to text. I hope he keeps it up. His opinion is like sound itself, subjective. Please pass the salt.
 
The “best gear” are the pieces you have tuned up, balanced with all the other components. maximized, and enjoy. (Have seen too many setups to not realize that great sound does not come from any single component.) Best efforts rule over “best” (a lot of the time) and good sound is a smorgasbord.
 
So just by chance I found this HK690i for $60. My plan was to use it in my bedroom to play fm radio stations and maybe hook up a cheap old TT I have. But to test it I unplugged my D3020 and hooked up the HK690i to my Music Hall 2.3 and Paradigm mini monitor 7's. And what I can tell you is that this $60 HK blew the D3020 out of the water. Not even close, no comparison. Mids are better bass is fuller, separation is much better, and most importantly the music just sounds better. It could have something to do with the HK having 60W vs the NAD at only 30W, but I actually don't really care the sound is much better. I bought the D3020 mainly because I have a pretty extensive digital collection and the streaming is very handy to have. If you read some of my other posts I always thought I was missing something in my setup, so I ditched my Wharfedale 220's and replaced with the Paradigm's and I am glad I did, they have more detail and keep up with the music better, not quite as laid back as the 220's, which I guess I like. And now after hooking up the HK 690i I hear what I have been missing in my vinyl sound. I have not tried the built in Phono stage yet, but I will see how it compares to my MoFi StudioPhono this weekend. I will need to figure what I am going to do about getting my digital music to the HK but I can tell you as of right now I won't be going back to the D3020. I am not trashing it I just don't "love" the music I hear coming from it. My shock is actually how can this 1982 amp sound better? If I find the built in Phono stage sounds better I will be even more shocked. I would post a picture but I have problems with that I guess.
HK690i.jpg
 
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