Sony TA-5650 Integrated Amplifier

Grabbed this Sony TA-5650 from the front lawn of a neighbor during a yard sale. Watch the video to hear what I paid for it. Great-sounding unit, especially for a 45 year old amp. 

Any experiences with this amplifier? Chime in with your stories in the comments. 

Update - Tube Integrated Amplifier - Yaqin MC-10L EL34

This is a follow-up to my review of the Yaqin MC-10L tube amplifier that I wrote eight months ago. This review continues to draw quite a bit of traffic to HiFiCollector.com, so I know people are reading the initial review, and the emails and posted comments indicate it was helpful. 

I'm pleased to report that this amplifier continues to perform very well. So well, in fact, that I'm removing my McIntosh MC 2105, C32, and MR 78 components from the office and am going to use the Yaqin amplifier exclusively for that music system. Both systems were hooked up through the same pair of KEF Reference Two speakers, but space issues are forcing me to remove one set of components, so the McIntosh gear is going into another room. 

Not that the Yaqin sounds better than the McIntosh, but the Yaqin fits well on my desk and its simplicity makes it ideal for that environment. As to which system sounds better - between the McIntosh and the Yaqin, I'd have to say that the McIntosh wins for long-term listening enjoyment, but it's only after months of switching between the two that I have confidence in that conclusion. The two systems sound slightly different, but both are very good.

I've got Spotify and Pandora subscriptions, and am still using the Theta DAC off of my computer's digital coax output to deliver analog signals to the Yaqin. Between these streaming services and my mp3/FLAC library, I never have to look for for a particular tune. The Yaqin sounds great across all musical genres and file types, and although I don't play music at high volume levels in that space, the few times I have cranked it, the amp retains its clarity and provides a decent punch.

The Yaqin was a good deal when I purchased it, and now, being fully burned-in after many months of 3X/week use, I consider it even a better value and an impressive addition to my collection.

Please chime in if you've purchased a Yaqin as a result of this or my previous post. I'm curious to hear all of your stories - good or bad.

Tube Integrated Amplifier - Yaqin MC-10L EL34 Class A

Most of the photos above are from the Primeamp eBay auction page for this amp. I took the second one down, showing the glowing tubes; the rest are theirs. I mention this because the photos from Primeamp demonstrate attention to detail. This type of detail helped my decision to go with Primeamp as my first choice of Chinese reseller on my inaugural tube amp purchase. I'll touch on this again a little later.

I've avoided purchasing tube gear, mostly out of a stubbornness to experiment with a technology that seemed mired a particular "camp" of highly-biased, fanatical opinions. The typical tube gear evangelist wants little to do with solid state components, and enjoys proselytizing to those who have yet to see the light, literally. I've always rebelled against zealots, and this is no exception. I can also blame my ignorance of tube technology. I've held the ill-founded belief that tube gear is more temperamental and less reliable than solid state. I'm learning the error of my ways. 

This Yaqin amplifier arrived last Tuesday via UPS, and yes, it sounds quite wonderful. Never heard of Yaqin? Neither had I until a couple of weeks ago when I started researching tube gear. Take a look at eBay's list of integrated tube amps and you'll see a preponderance of Chinese-made amps in the $200 - $1,200 range. Sounds pretty low for tube gear, right? No wonder we're afraid to gamble on purchasing these amps. At least in the US, we're conditioned to equate cost with quality, and look upon extreme discounts with suspicion. Then there's the whole "Made in China" stigma; until we remember that the majority of our home electronics are made in China, from the LCD television in our family room, to the keyboard I'm using right now to type this. But Yaqin isn't an established brand name, so our weariness is well-founded; especially when one is dropping $500 or more on something that may cost half that to ship back if it fails to perform or arrives damaged.

So yes, it's a gamble. However, the few audio forum posts I read on Chinese-made amps and Yaqin, in particular, were encouraging. Plus, the eBay seller I chose for my purchase has a feedback rating of 99.4% with 2,846 sales. The customer feedback was also very encouraging, touting excellent packing, quick shipment, and product quality that exceeded expectations.

Primeamp has a wide selection of tube gear from various manufacturers that you probably haven't heard of. I'm not certain if some of these are uniquely-branded but sourced from the same factory, and frankly, that doesn't really matter to me as long as they are quality products. You'll see names like Yaqin, Mini, Music Angel, Mr Liang, Music Curve, and others. I chose the Yaqin because of what I was able to read in the forums on this brand, but would consider experimenting with another brand in the future.

I chose the MC-10L mainly based on price-point. I didn't want to spend more than $500, including shipping, on my first tube amp, and this one came to $480 with air mail shipment. I could have saved $80, half my shipping costs, and waited seven weeks instead of five business days, but I chose to shell-out the cash to get this to my door quicker.

Purchasing high-dollar items on eBay is always an adventure. There's a distinct pang emotional instability when clicking on the "Confirm Purchase" button. This momentary loss of fortitude is usually replaced with relief as I get the confirmation email from eBay or the seller. In this case, the email I received in my gmail account was undecipherable. It was filled with question marks with only a few recognizable words. This caused me to immediately send an email to back to Primeamp. They responded in an hour or so with another email, again filled with question marks. This time, I sent them a message from within my eBay account. The next morning I received an email into my gmail account from Primeamp with a sincere, polite apology, stating that there is a bug in Gmail that causes their auto-responder emails to get garbled. They said that they received my PayPal payment and they would ship my amp the following day; which they did.

The next day I received an email with several, high resolution photos of my package, including the shipping papers, and a UPS tracking code. The photos are a nice touch, again, showing concern for quality and attention to detail. The photos also help protect them as visual evidence that the unit was packaged well and looked intact as it left their shipping dock. I was getting the feeling that this purchase may work out fine, after all.

The amp arrived in five business days in excellent condition. It was packed in heavy-gage cardboard with thick molded foam packing that prevents any movement within the container.

The package arrived virtually identical to how it left the
Chinese shipping dock.

The manual is written in English and well-done.

Very well-packaged

I inserted the tubes, carried the amp to my office, and hooked it up to my new Creative Labs X-Fi HD USB Sound Card. I powered on the amp and all the tubes glowed nicely - good sign. I chose a tune from Paul Anka's newest album, Rock Swings, from iTunes on my computer and crossed my fingers. 

The music that came through my KEF Reference Two speakers wasn't at all what I had hoped for. It sounded anemic and lacked definition, bass. I waited a few minutes for the tubes to warm up, and tried again. The sound was better, but still disappointing. Unfortunately, that night's experimenting had to end as it was getting late. The next few nights went by quickly as I had to work late, so the next test would have to wait until the weekend.

Finally, a few days later I had time to play with the amp some more. I traced the sound quality problem to reversed polarity on both speakers. Plugging the speakers into the amp in the correct manner (4 ohm taps for these KEFs) made all the difference. The music came alive and was vibrant, defined, and wonderful. I have a McIntosh MC 2105 hooked up to these speakers as well and am using a McIntosh C32 preamp and a Theta DSP Pro DAC to convert the digital audio coming from my computer. 


I've wired the Yaqin and the McIntosh amp so that I can switch between the two via a speaker switchbox. Just wired the switchbox in reverse so that the amplifiers feed into the speaker output and the amp input goes to the KEFs. As long as I don't have both amps powered on at the same time, there's no feedback or problems. Also, I'm using a "Y" splitter out of the Theta DAC to allow both the Yaqin and the McIntosh to receive the same, quality digital conversion. The Creative Labs DAC is a fine external sound card, but I wanted to get more of an apples-to-apples comparison of amp quality by using as many common components as necessary. Again, as long as I'm only powering up one system at a time, the splitter coming out of the Theta DAC works fine for both units.

It's true - tube sound is different. Compared to the McIntosh system, the Yaqin presents a much more laid-back sound. Vocals aren't quite as "breathy," and some wind instruments, like the oboe solo in Ennio Morricone's "Gabriel's Oboe" don't "pop" to the front of the sound stage like they do on the McIntosh, but there's a sweetness to the blending of the instruments that the solid state gear doesn't possess. When I chose Paul Anka again for the Yaqin, the brass and drums were lively and well-defined. Paul's voice was warm, neutral, and commanding without being forward.

Ask anyone tube-enthusiast (note, I no longer refer to them as fanatics), and they'll tell you the more you listen to a tube amp, the less you'll listen to your solid state gear. I'm not sure if this will be the case with me. I'm still a rebel; still stubborn, but, at least I'm no longer childish in this regard. Herbert Spencer said something 150 years ago that I wish I'd learn to heed more often: There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is a proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is condemnation before investigation. Amen.

What's Your Favorite Integrated Amplifier?

Photo courtesy of On a Higher Note

What a beautiful integrated!


Found a photo of a Luxman the other day and I thought it was vintage. Turned out it's only a few years old. This site - On a Higher Note, has some great stereos as well as a nice history of Luxman components.

Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a 20 wpc integrated amp for $4,800? It's beautiful, but... really? It's for sale HERE.

What's your favorite integrated amplifier?

Do you like it for looks, sound, or both?

Integrated Amplifier and Tuner - Akai AM-2650 and AT-2450

I love silver-faced stereo components. There...I admitted it. Yes, even Akai made some nice gear at one point. This set wasn't only beautifully-designed, but sounded great. Check out that recessed ring around the volume knob - nice detail! Had it for a few months, then traded for some speakers. Still regret that decision. I want to say it's 80 watts per channel, but feel free to chime in and correct me. 

The tuner sensitivity was just okay - not great, but I didn't hook a scope up to it, so it could have been the weather. 

Have any experiences with Akai AM 2650 or AT 2450 or that brand of gear, in general? Send in your stories by posting a comment, visiting the HiFiCollector Facebook page, or shooting me an email at hificollector88 [at] gmail.com   Thanks!

Integrated Amplifier and Tuner - Denon PMA-900V and TU600

Picked up these two yesterday and am quite pleased with them. At an adequate 120 watts per channel, the amp is a contender for my family room system, replacing my Aragon 8008ST. Why replace a $1,500 amplifier with one costing half as much? Read my two previous posts and you'll understand :) Plus, by selling the Aragon I can invest in something that actually makes a difference in the system, namely SPEAKERS!


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Integrated Amplifier - Pioneer SA-8500

In the realm of vintage Hi-Fi, few pieces of gear are as immediately recognizable as silver-faced Pioneer components. The heyday of these was 1975 to 1980 and there are plenty of Web sites dedicated to them. John Week’s site is packed with great information on these units, as is the Silver Pioneer site HERE.

For the SA-8500, terrific industrial design met great electrical engineering to produce a robust, 60 watt-per-channel integrated amplifier that still sounds great after 33 years. This particular model had a few minor scratches and a little static on the function selector, but sounded terrific, and looked great with the TX-9500 tuner (look for it in tomorrow's post). Love the confident snap of those hefty toggle switches!

I had this sitting on my workbench for about a month, hooked up to my pair of test speakers – Bose 201’s. Why use Bose speakers for testing? Ever fry a pair of speakers by plugging them into an amplifier with a DC offset of 75 volts? Exactly. See, I don’t like Bose, so frying these would just rid the world of one more pair of them. Of course then I’d have to find another pair of junky speakers. . .easy enough – Bose are all over Craig’s List! Anyway, while this amplifier was on my workbench, my cat discovered it and seemed to always know that when the music stopped, it would soon be cool enough to curl up on top of it. It became his "spot" for about a month. Then one day, in typical cat fashion, he abandoned it – never went near it again. I think I’ll bring the Bose down and introduce them as scratching posts.

Point worth noting, cat hair CAN make its way into vent holes, sticking to transformers and goopy circuit boards, and it takes a LOT of compressed air to clean it off.

Have any photos or stories about your Pioneer SA-8500? Please leave a comment or email me, and I’ll share them with the HiFiCollector.com community.

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Integrated Amplifier - Pioneer SA-9500

Top photo: I like the way the Pioneer SA-9500 looks with my Harmon Kardon Citation 14 tuner. It's not too often that different manufacturers use the same color and texture of metals. These two match quite well.

I don't usually "borrow" text directly, but I like this description of the Pioneer SA-9500, so I snipped the following from the Randall Reed Studios page - A great resource for info on and purchasing vintage audio. "The SA 9500 was designed for heavy duty use with emphasis on ease of connections for other equipment and speakers. Conservatively rated at 80 watts RMS per channel into 8 ohms (100 wpc 4 ohms) with no more than 0.1% THD. It has no problem driving any kind of speakers at very loud volumes. These are tanks. Nice clean design and typical over-built Japanese craftsmanship! Made around 1975 - should still be running in 2035."

This particular unit in the photos wasn't working when I purchased it from a thrift store. I took it to my favorite stereo repair shop, who promptly replaced a portion of of the pre-amp. I wish I could get more diagnostic information from them as I'm I love geeking out on the details of what went wrong with these units, but there's a bit of a language barrier.

How does it sound? I brought it home and plugged it all in and it took about five minutes for it to warm up and function properly. Don't think solid state units need to warm up? I've had several units that acted like this. Most of them had probably been left in storage for years and just needed some life breathed back into them. A few flips of those great Pioneer toggles and clicks of those heavy, solid knobs, and it was back and running fine. It sounded as good as any of my Pioneer receivers. Typical Pioneer punch with defined mids and highs. Very smooth, nice.

If you have any photos or stories about your Pioneer SA-9500, please leave a comment or email me.

Want to hook up your iPod to your vintage stereo? Visit my Audio Accessory Store for some great values!

Integrated Amplifiers - Yamaha CA 410II

Pour yourself an ice-cold forty. . . watts a channel. Although not "feature-rich," this was a nice little amplifier. Again, I preface what I'm about to say with my standard "Judging sound on these old units is far from perfect. So many ways these classics can go 'out of spec' with age." speel, but I find vintage Yamaha to be a bit "thin" sounding. Maybe they are uncolored, and I like the opposite - not sure. I traded this and the matching tuner for a Sansui pair which I liked better.

If you have any more info, photos, video links, stories of your own Yamaha CA 410II, please leave a comment or email me.

Want to hook up your iPod to your vintage stereo? Visit my Audio Accessory Store for some great values!

Integrated Amplifiers - Sansui AU-517

Ahhh. . .dual mono designed integrated amps. Something only a true audio-geek could drool over. The AU/TU line is my favorite "separates" group from the mid 1970's. Designed to last decades, beautiful, clean sound - what more could you ask for? 65 watts per channel of clean power. Here's a great Sansui site.

How does it sound? Wonderful - full, rich, unpretentious. Sounds like I'm describing a fine wine. . .Well, it holds true to this amplifier as well as my AU-717. People wanting to know the difference in sound between the Sansui AU-517 and AU-717 can look no further - this isn't any. Not in my book, anyway. I never did a side-by-side/AB test with them, but they are essentially the same internally and sounded the same to me. These amps provide plenty of power to just about any size speaker and sound very sweet.

Have any info, photos, video links, or stories about your Sansui AU-517? Please leave a comment or email me.

Want to hook up your iPod to your vintage stereo? Visit my Audio Accessory Store for some great values!

Integrated Amplifiers - Marantz 1200

One hundred watts per channel into 8 ohms. I just acquired this unit and it isn't working. It's on my "to be repaired" shelf along with a Pioneer SA-9600 and my Marantz 2325. My repair shop is cheap, but they take FOREVER to get the work done. No hurry - these classics have already been around for three decades; a month or two in the repair shop won't hurt them at all.

Have any more info on the Marantz 1200? Please leave a comment or email me, and I'll add them to this post.

Want to hook up your iPod to your vintage stereo? Visit my Audio Accessory Store for some great values!