Denon PRA-1000

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Hi ACD,
Well, I'm not going to say they are the best. But I have had reasonable luck with Denon designs. They tend to build good, clean circuits without too much silly stuff. Yamaha would be another good one, but they tend to build some circuits in an over complicated way.

Does that help?

-Chris
 
I have a PRA-1200 with analog switches, worked very good for 15 years and is still good. I have used it every day since I have TV sound through it. A friend of mine has I think PRA-1000, some model older than mine and it has mechanical switches which are not so good I'm afraid, bad contact nowadays.

The design inside in PRA-1200 is very well done for being a Japan amp. Low noise JFET's, DC-servos etc.

...so if the input selector and the pots are OK it's definitely a good amp if you'll get it cheap.
 
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Hi AC,
I know the old Yamaha
Then you should know they always decide to make one circuit overly complicated. Otherwise good product.
and has always been fond of them
Ahhh Ha! So you've never looked under the hood! ;) They did sound okay.

Hi Per-Anders,
The design inside in PRA-1200 is very well done for being a Japan amp. Low noise JFET's, DC-servos etc.

...so if the input selector and the pots are OK it's definitely a good amp if you'll get it cheap.
That's what I was trying to get across. I wouldn't mind a schematic either. I have a pair of Marantz 3650's. The switches are bad on both! :( Otherwise excellent product.

-Chris
 
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Hi ACD,
It may be an object for mods
Everything is an object for mods! :D

Some mods are more extreme than others though.

The C-02 is a very good preamp. The C-05 is much worse by comparison (I own one, so I can talk). The 3650 and SC-9 are the best preamps I have heard yet, but then again, I haven't heard a Blowtorch. ;)

I believe that the PRA-1000 either sounds good (not too bad) or can be made to sound very good. At the very least you'll get a good case and knob set.

-Chris
 
Hi ACD,

I do have this preamplifier, but not the schematic, sound is clean but there is a lot of scope for Mods. It has a Noble pot, torroidal power transformer. Line stage is built around LM4560 with 2sk389 in input stage and mosfet/BJT output buffer stage. This buffer stage is servo controlled. This all I can trace. You can replace the opAmp with better one and convert the output stage to a discrete diamond buffer one. Only problem with this preamp is it won't fit in standard 19" racks unless you remove the wooden side panels.

-Routhun
 
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