Decided to put the pics in this thread instead. Just a couple pics of my new little room stereo It's Kenwoods flagship integrated from the 70's, the Model 500 Supreme, 100wpc @ 8ohm.. 55+lbs! (600 Supreme is the same but 130wpc) Everything in this unit has been completely restored with over 100 parts replaced including all caps and output transistors... this thing is basically brand new. It will run just about anything you hook up. I finally really got a chance to listen to this amp and this thing really blows me away, it has a really open full type of sound.. its pretty amazing to say the least, really makes my little Infinity RS-3000's shine. For a while I had a Kenwood KA-7300, but the relay broke and it won't turn on , and I was stuck with a crappy Panasonic amp that's been laying around. I'll be getting that one restored in the future some day.
Yes, I use a PS1 1001 with the onboard DAC for a CD player... it rules :D
Nice, Steve!!!! Those amps are beastly. So warm and analog sounding compared to the shrill and brittle sound of some of the new stuff. And they have almost unlimited power. I used to have the cassette deck that (I think) went with that line, the KX-500. It had the most bad azz fluorescent meter, ever.
Crescendo Audio FTMFW!!,
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Post Number: 3779 Registered: May-04
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Nice sheet!
BTW I remember reading somewhere a while back about how a lot of the home audio guys like to use the original PS1 for a CD player. I guess they sound really good or somethin? I dunno,never tried it but I do have an OG PS1 sitting in my closet.
Brad, I'm not sure if the KX-500 went with this series. The Model 500/600/650 were paired up with the model 600T or the more rare European edition 650T tuners. But, their real flagship system are the separates; the 700C/700M/700T system. I would love to get my hands on those pieces
Twiz, I needed a CD player because I'm waiting to get a better sound card for my PC. I read stereophile and some other reviews on the PS1s and apparently they stand strong with high-end CD players that cost thousands. Whether that's true or not, I wouldn't know because I don't have much to compare it to, but it does make a pretty nice CD player, sounds good and is dead silent. Grabbed one off eBay for 25 bucks shipped.
Many reviews and tests on the PS1. Here are the main points taken from one in Stereophile:
Listening
The PS1's sound was unique in a number of ways. First, its frequency response was just a bit down at both frequency extremes, yet its slightly diminished bass content and rolled-off treble were apparent only in direct comparison with other players. While I can't imagine that the audio-only performance of such a product would have been tweaked so carefully, the end impression was of a cannily tailored frequency rangeâ€"that, and an exceptionally smooth sound, with no edginess or artificial grain whatsoever.
Second, and despite the relative lack of treble extension, the PS1's midrange was remarkably clean, present, and tactile. On Tony Williamson's "Boatman," from Still Light of the Evening (CD, Mapleshade 08952), the guitar fills and G-runs were notably more audible, more nuanced, and more impactful through the PS1 than through Sony's own SCD-777ES SACD/CD player. Amazing.
Those qualities extended to singing voices, and with virtually every disc of vocal music I tried. Bidu Sayao's delicate soprano on Villa-Lobos's Bachiana Brasileira No.5, recorded in New York in 1945 (CD, Sony Classical MHK 62355), crossed oceans of time: She was there. Levon Helm's equally wonderful voice on "Little Birds," from his recent Dirt Farmer (CD, Vanguard 79844-2), was simply believable, and astoundingly present, appreciably more so than with the SCD-777ES.
The Levon Helm album also allowed the PS1 to show off its fine sense of touch and impact: Not only was the sense of force behind Helm's drumming preserved through the cheap Sony player, but the mandolin and violin players seemed to dig in a little more when heard through the PS1. And throughout You Were There for Me, by Peter Rowan and Tony Rice (CD, Rounder 11661-0441-2), Bryn Bright's upright bass and, especially, Larry Atamanuik's subtle, distantly miked percussion were very impactful again, markedly more so than with the more expensive deck.
Above all, with every CD I tried, the PS1 exhibited a superior level of rhythmic acuity, since it's true that an amplifier or CD player can't make recorded music sound faster or more propulsive than it actually is a superior lack of the distortions that can blunt leading-edge transients and make music sound temporally dull and listless. Even slow, broadly paced music sounded involving through the PS1: the best and truest praise I could give it. I expected one of those hip affordable products that sounds a little edgy or a little tinny, but gets the notes and beats really right. The truth was different. Sony's PlayStation 1 offered some of the least edgy, least tinny digital sound I've heard. And got the notes and beats really right.
