I have a vintage Pioneer SX-950 that does 85wpc into 8 ohms, 110 into 4 ohms. I have had friends come over with their new digital *sigh receivers and hook them up to my speakers, which included 2 Sony speakers (thats why I sold them) and a subwoofer I made myself, a passive 10" DVC subwoofer. When I played regular music, you could tell a difference between them... a major difference. Their receiver didn't seem to "follow through" with the sound as my old SX-950 does. The SX-950 is now about 29 years old and I cant remember how it sounded a while ago. Do amps change how they sound over the years? Just wondering... and why do their receivers sound like the sound is just.. blah. They didnt have inexpensive receivers either, one had a Pioneer VSX-4300 (about 10 years old but was almost $1000 when bought) and the other had a JVC (I didn't look at the model but it looked like it was worth a lot).
Just in case you didn't want to read all of that:
Do amps change the way they sound as they age? Why does my old Pioneer SX-950 sound better than the newer receivers that cost almost $1000?
J. Vigne
Unregistered guest
Posted on
The components within the circuit of an amplifier will age and change value. A resistor or capacitor will drift from its specified value when it was installed in the circuit. Since many of these components are spec'd at + or - 5% or 10% variance when new, the change over time is often somewhat insignificant. In some cases it can mean a wide variation in performance. It really depends on the circuit as it began life.
One reason your Pioneer sounds different than the current amplifiers on the market is the components used to manufacture your amp. The SX-950 was on the cusp of discrete components moving into integrated circuits. There are more actual resistors , transistors and capacitors inside the circuitry of your amp than most contemporary receivers of comparable wattage. The current fashion of building an amplifier relies heavily on large scale integrated circuits. Your 85 watt Pioneer is likely to weigh much more than many 85 watt receivers today. That weight is almost all in the power supply. The larger the power supply, the better the sound is a good general rule in audio.