What Is The Most Underrated Piece of Audio You Ever Owned?
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4Play
Super Member
Harman/Kardon is definitely underrated. They produced some of the best gear money could buy. My first system consisted of a H/K receiver. Sometimes I wish I still had it. Oh well, I have a Citation 19 amp and a Citation 17 preamp. Once they come back from service, they will keep me smiling every time I turn some music on.
texlle
Active Member
My Onkyo DV-S555 DVD player. Picked it for $15 at a flea market. Turns out, the audio section is far better rated than the video playback capability. I believe it has a nice 24 bit crystal or burr brown dac. Sounds fantastic and quite underrated. Then again, most of my gear has great bang for the buck.
markshan
Sir Thrift a Lot
Both are CEC made tables and share some parts, but the Marantz uses a more traditional motor type. I've heard both and IMHO the Fisher is a much better sounding table.
rlisin
Quad 4 life
East German turntable RFT SP 3001. They usually sell for $15-20 around here (working, with cart and stylus). I bought 2 for that price, a friend bought another one.
It's a 1983 belt drive automatic, with a decent discrete phono stage onboard (can be bypassed), stable motor, and the cart is a Tesla clone of Nagaoka JT-411 - nothing special, but beats entry level AT carts and the like.
Built quality: mechanism is quite sturdy, so is the cabinet (all-metal on the outside, chipboard and wood frame inside, plastic parts are few).
Straight tone arm, standard mount for carts, but the counterweight position is fixed so the only way to adjust tracking force is to add weight on the headshell. Can be done quite easily and that's the only problem I've had with this TT.
It's a 1983 belt drive automatic, with a decent discrete phono stage onboard (can be bypassed), stable motor, and the cart is a Tesla clone of Nagaoka JT-411 - nothing special, but beats entry level AT carts and the like.
Built quality: mechanism is quite sturdy, so is the cabinet (all-metal on the outside, chipboard and wood frame inside, plastic parts are few).
Straight tone arm, standard mount for carts, but the counterweight position is fixed so the only way to adjust tracking force is to add weight on the headshell. Can be done quite easily and that's the only problem I've had with this TT.
melofelo
Addicted Member
Aiwa AF-3090 3-in-1 cassette receiver..probably the finest of its type ever made. This was not a *compromise unit* .
It offers 50 clean and punchy watts per channel, Aiwa's best cassette transport of the time,a surprisingly good phono stage and a tuner section that always gets the better of my Hitachi-FT5500 Mk II ( both of them! ).
Many would pass this by without a second glance...but try lifting it and you'll quickly realise that this unit was not manufactured *down* to a price.
It offers 50 clean and punchy watts per channel, Aiwa's best cassette transport of the time,a surprisingly good phono stage and a tuner section that always gets the better of my Hitachi-FT5500 Mk II ( both of them! ).
Many would pass this by without a second glance...but try lifting it and you'll quickly realise that this unit was not manufactured *down* to a price.
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nick12345
Well-Known Member
JVC AX-R551 integrated amp from a late 80s rack system. It has all the crazy bells and whistles like a full graphic equalizer and audio level meter on a digital display, not to mention the "acoustic expander" button that seems to mess with the phasing somehow to expand the soundstage. The build quality is very nice for what it is and the audio performance is equally impressive. It's a very clean-sounding amp with exceptionally tight bass. None of that loose, flabby, tubby sound like my old Realistic STA-82 (which is still a cool receiver in its own regard). It's also rated at 120 wpc into 8 ohms, 20 Hz - 20 kHz, at only .03% distortion. Unfortunately, it has developed a high-pitched whine that comes through the speakers whenever the amp is on. It's not noticeable when music is playing, but it's very noticeable and annoying between songs or during quiet parts. I have a hunch that it's the caps, but I don't know whether it's the big power supply caps or others and I haven't gotten around to looking into it.
KevinCorr
Super Member
Nice tuner and phono stage too. I had one for about 5 years.
BillyBatts
ALOHA!
Hard to narrow it down.
I paid less than $100 for a brand new Realistic SA-1001 on a clearance table about 25 years ago. That amp has been amazing. It's built like a tank and really shines for the mid range 35 wpc it is rated at. The Slew Rate is very good, distortion is amazingly low, and the build quality combined with the electronic engineering are surprising. All in a typical Realistic Rosewood cabinet standard in the 70's and early 80's for Radio Shack equipment.
I have it tied to a Pioneer PL-514 table that I bought brand new in College, and a pair of Realistic Optimus 10 Speakers, probably my favorite speakers as long as you use them with better tweeters - they are a little weak on the high end.
So I guess the Realistic SA-1001 would be it. I service it about every 10 years, I've still not had to replace the caps (amazingly), but I am sure that is about 5 years off. It's a beautiful amp and very under-rated for how well it is built and the true RMS it delivers.
I paid less than $100 for a brand new Realistic SA-1001 on a clearance table about 25 years ago. That amp has been amazing. It's built like a tank and really shines for the mid range 35 wpc it is rated at. The Slew Rate is very good, distortion is amazingly low, and the build quality combined with the electronic engineering are surprising. All in a typical Realistic Rosewood cabinet standard in the 70's and early 80's for Radio Shack equipment.
I have it tied to a Pioneer PL-514 table that I bought brand new in College, and a pair of Realistic Optimus 10 Speakers, probably my favorite speakers as long as you use them with better tweeters - they are a little weak on the high end.
So I guess the Realistic SA-1001 would be it. I service it about every 10 years, I've still not had to replace the caps (amazingly), but I am sure that is about 5 years off. It's a beautiful amp and very under-rated for how well it is built and the true RMS it delivers.
jasoneagles
New Member
Canon Speakers YES CANON!!!
Canon V100 speakers, 4ohm very sensitive, not great for music but as my rear backs the sound stage they produce is fantastic.
Not bad for £20
Canon V100 speakers, 4ohm very sensitive, not great for music but as my rear backs the sound stage they produce is fantastic.
Not bad for £20
wicked1340
Active Member
Totally agree, I paired mine to my Cornwalls, with a sony ps-x50, and a denon dvd-1800bd blue ray player. Can hardly believe it's only 15 watts per channel. It did not like my martin logans at all though.
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