Picked up a KA 7100 Kenwood

[djwhog]

OK time for some clean-up, and a test drive. 1st off I really like the look and I love how each knob is real brushed aluminum and not plastic, also each position on all knobs bass, volume etc are all notched, has a nice feel to it! Classic like chrome bumpers, Harley's etc comes to mind. I really miss the 70s, stuff was done like Tim Allen from Tool Time built it.


So I spent about 3 hours this morning and took the cover off and cleaned out any dust etc. I then used a good cleaner Contax II on all switches, attenuators etc to make sure they all were at least clean. Then reassembled the unit.

I had powered it on before cleaning but did not listening, just made sure it powered on and you could hear the power relay click on and the power light illuminate.

So once back together and it is on the bench on the garage I placed a Pioneer DVL 91 Elite I picked up from Ivan to spin a few CDs and do some evaluation testing and run it through the paces.

So far I have limited the testing to my HD 700 headphones. Pretty impressive. Back in the day they spare no lack of power to the headphone jack. It effortlessly drives the 700s, in fact you have to be very careful as not to not only blow your ear drums but the drivers on the 700s . Plays not only loud it desired but actually very nice sound. comparing to my old MC39 McIntosh Processors headphone jack the Kenwood wins no contest. Has ample power and such a lot nice sound. Yes it is not the Woo amp connected to the C500C.

Has a loudness feature for off, and 1 and 2 selection settings. I kinda really like that for low level listening. sure wish that was on modern gear .

Well all the features for bass, treble, filters, balance, input selection, dubbing etc are very quite for equipment this old. Only noise is a very slight amount of scratchiness in the volume knob while turning. No drop outs etc other than that. After it ran for about 1 hr + it seemed to get even better sounding, well heck it has been boxed up in a garage for 15+ years.

System is a go! I will place it into my analog rack and connect some speakers to it, the old Technics SL-1200MK3 table I have and a Carver TX2 tuner for testing the rest of the inputs, maybe the Sony cassette deck while I am at it to for dubbing test.

By the way, this Pioneer DVL 91 Elite is darn nice multi disc player and seems to match up very well with the Kenwood. it is as new and looks like Ivan put very few hours on it and or at least it was taken care of with the best of care

I would have been very proud to have owned this combo new back in the day. Heck I think it is better than most of the plastic all in one big box store all in one multi ch do everything gear made today. My daughter is going to have a rig that will sound so much better than most of their friends and family. It is a nice 2 ch amp, plenty of power to drive 2 and even 4 (has a A, B or A+B speaker option as well as off) relatively each to drive speakers like some JBL, heck maybe I could find her so Cerwin Vegas, Wharfedale, JBLs or vintage Altec's

Last few comments for now, the anual has no mention of digital, cd transports etc. Machine dates to 77 pre CD days, and also note that when they rated an amp 60 watts RMS back then it was like they were not only under rated, but had so much headroom and could generally drive more difficult loads.

Heck of a deal I snagged this for, feel like I stole it

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by djwhog

Heck of a deal I snagged this for, feel like I stole it.

Dave.......You better keep you eyes peeled. They're probably trying to find you right now.