Budget integrated amp or receiver?

October 7, 2014 11:16 AM

My old receiver (some late '80s silver Pioneer or JVC box) has become afflicted with loose connection gremlins. Last time I asked about getting it dealt with, the folks at Solutions Audio said it'd probably run about $200 to repair it. I'd like to see what my options are and whether I can get something as good or better for about the same price (or a little more).

I have a pair of Sony APM 615 speakers that sound pretty good, and run a SL-Q2 technics turntable into it. It'll probably be a couple years before I really care about running any sort of home theater stuff through it, some I'm just looking for a decent-sounding integrated amp or receiver (and honestly, I don't care about the radio part that much) that won't break the bank. Any suggestions?

posted by klangklangston to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total)

$200 will get you a pretty decent used integrated amp with a good phono stage. It will also get you a modern amp, which will be good, not great, but will lack a phono input.

My local vintage audio place, Hawthorne, has a nice list. On that list, I'm looking at the cambridge audio 350A for $319 (more than your repair, but awesome) or the NAD or Denon gear. Your local shop will have similar stuff.

If you wanna get a little spendy, I strongly recommend the Rega Brio-R, but it is $900 new.
posted by bensherman at 11:24 AM on October 7, 2014

I'm happy with my Sony STR-DH100, but I'm not very fussy, audiowise. link
posted by H21 at 1:28 PM on October 7, 2014

STR-DH100--No phono input.
posted by H21 at 2:02 PM on October 7, 2014

Onkyo has served me well over the years - like I've got pieces that are over 20 years old & work just fine.

Looks like they've got a current model (with phono preamp), the TX-8020, that has a MSRP of $199.
posted by soundguy99 at 4:38 PM on October 7, 2014

I picked up a '70s model Harmon Kardon receiver from Audio Specialist about 12 years ago for like $70 and it still works great. Probably not worth using them for repairs as their Yelp reviews aren't so hot but they had a good selection of vintage equipment when I went in (years ago, admittedly).
posted by dhammond at 4:55 PM on October 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I bought this Yahama R-S500BL for $350 to replace my old Pioneer that recently died, and it's been great. It has a phono input, and is a true stereo receiver, but with lots of modern inputs.
posted by rfs at 8:19 PM on October 7, 2014

Long story short, look for budget-audiophile known-good-stuff that somebody got rid of because they wanted something better. With diligence, you can find this kind of stuff via Craigslist, eBay, Audiogon, audiophile forums, etc., etc.
posted by box at 8:25 PM on October 7, 2014

Audiogon. You can get good NAD or Rotel or the like for $200 there.
posted by persona au gratin at 11:56 PM on October 7, 2014

For new equipment around $200 your options are limited and probably price-engineered, and almost certainly made in China to an unknown quality level. That said, I bought a Harman-Kardon 3770 after comparing it to the Yamaha mentioned above. It's … fine. Between the Yamaha and the HK I'm still not certain which one I'd buy if I did it over again. They both get marked down pretty regularly, and mine was an open box deal for $100 off. The HK has a slightly more complete set of network/iPod features than the Yamaha, but it barely weighs anything thanks to a switching power supply (as opposed to the old, heavy, continuous copper transformers). It also suffers from the boneheaded decision to put the network control features on the main power circuit instead of a dedicated, always-on circuit. So you can adjust the volume and input over wifi via an app on your iPhone, but if you turn the thing off (which you can do via wifi) you can't turn it back on again. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I used to swear by Denon but their quality has gone off a lot lately (pre-2006 or so? thumbs up!). And my last AV amp was an NAD that had its power circuit fail once, and now has a short in its amp circuit, so I'm a little wary of NAD too (and their stereo line is rather limited these days since they seem to be focusing more on multichannel gear).

The best way to buy audio equipment is to listen to it first, but if you have to shop blind either the Yamaha or an HK should be OK. Onkyo also has products in that price range, but they're is a little hard to shop for (too many similar-but-not-exactly-the-same models for my taste). Also, don't rule out used equipment as mentioned above. Some of the old audiophile gear never really dies and you can get some real deals.
posted by fedward at 10:16 AM on October 8, 2014