Kenwood integrated amplifier + Polk Audio RTi A1 booksehlves

[csricharan]

This is my music system:
Kenwood KA-55 stereo integrated amplifier (40+40 W)
Polk Audio RTi A1 book shelf speakers (125 +125 W)
Philips CD/DVD player
Technics tape deck
Audio Technica turntable
Kenwood 7+7 equaliser

The amp is a vintage amp that i got from a friend of mine. It sounds brilliant even after all these years. I am sure it's close to 30 years. It shows its age with a few scars and chips. The Polks are pretty new and I bought them after a lot of reading and auditioning. And I am glad I did. They are pretty good. Tight bass, superb highs and great sound imaging; I turned my head this way and that listening to cymbals on Ennio Morricone's The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. The Philips, Technics and the Audio Technica are basic. They just about do the job; while the equaliser makes up somewhat for the Technics' inabilities. What I have is not earth shaking but every once in a while when my wife and kids are away, my system does shake the room a bit and sounds pretty good doing it.

 

[sound1]

wow! congratulations!! I am amazed that in those 30 years you were not bitten by upgrade bug. Quite an achievement

 

[rraghuram]

wow! congratulations!! I am amazed that in those 30 years you were not bitten by upgrade bug. Quite an achievement

@Sound1, the amp is 30 yrs old but Sricharan has owned it for 10 years now, or is it more? I suppose it has been kept well, like vintage gear should be! Another friend of mine has an Adcom pre/power combo. I am waiting for it to come on the market and see people's reactions!

@Charan, welcome to a/v watering hole.

 

[J VISHNU VARDHAN]

Astounding!

In 1978 I bought Norge amp 40x40, Sonodyne deck, Woodstock speakers, Philips HiFi Turntable with preamp. The combi was smashing! Had it for 30 years too. I wanted to upgrade to Bose but am now interested in Denon 1911. But am not sure about the speakers. Any suggestions? My budget for speakers is 30k.

 

[csricharan]

i've had this amp for about 5 years. it has done the last 30 years between different friends of mine. passing from one to another. the last person bought it for 2000. i took it from him to see if i would like it. compared it with some second hand technics and denon amps and decided it was far better. warmer and much more balanced, a quality it doesn't lose even at high volumes. so i kept it.

 

[csricharan]

what hast thou done since our last tete-a-tete?

 

[csricharan]

i should have posted sooner. er . . . actually many months ago. i finally upgraded to a marantz pm5004 and cd5004. not because i was unhappy with my kenwood but more because there was a small windfall from my wife's gran. anyway, the thing is that the marantz is only a marginal improvement over the kenwood. and i am still amazed by the kenwood. even considered selling the marantz amp and hooking the cd player to the kenwood. am still in two minds about it though. i can't bi-amp also because i don't know what technical differences exist between the two amps.