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| dmitchell |
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I was in my garage this weekend and I noticed an ancient Kenwood AVR sitting there collecting dust. I checked it out, and on the back it had jumpers for pre-amp and power-amp. So I got to thinking.... and started doing a bit of research. Apparently (from what I read) the power amp section of these 90's era AVRs are quite good.
So I hauled it downstairs to the music room (it's a bit heavy at almost 40 lbs), and ran some RCAs from the pre-out of my 840A. I'm driving the tweeters of my B&W's with the 840A, and the woofers with this ridiculousy outdated AVR.
It actually sounds good. Surprisingly good. Who would have thought?
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| dmitchell |
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Oh yeah, the model is the KR-X1000, if that means anything to anyone.
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| Nuck |
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How about the other way around?
Swap amp connections?
Cool Frankenstein, man.
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| dmitchell |
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Seems a bit sacrilegious having this hunk of poo 90's receiver on my rack, but whatever... it sounds good.
From what I remember of this piece, in 2 channel mode it was quite warm and laid back, and pretty powerful. Swapping around the connections would be cool experiment.
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| Nuck |
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It;s alive. IT IS ALIVE!!!
mmmmbbwwoooohhaahhaaaaaaaa
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| N1ck |
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Cool!. My uncle had an old Kenwood receiver with Boston Acoustic speakers back in the day and it sounded very nice.
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| dmitchell |
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Obviously this isn't a permanent arrangement for me. Just more of a fun experiment.
You know what would be cool? Is picking up another 840A, running it in fixed input mode, and using that to bi-amp with from the other 840A. Schwing!
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| N1ck |
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haaahaaaa That would be amazing. Run them both at low volumes at around 5 watts output and you could also heat your whole downstairs at the same time. Just for the all low price of 500 dollars a month for hydro. LOL!!!
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| dmitchell |
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Does your 840A get hot when you drive it hard? Mine gets just a little bit warm to the touch, even when I crank it for extended periods.
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| N1ck |
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LOL no not really hot at all. I leave it on all the time and it seems to stay the same warmth to the touch at all levels of listening. I would assume mine stays a bit warmer than yours as my unit sits in a shelf with about 4 inches of space all around it. Enough for it to throw its heat, but probably wouldn't stay as cool to the touch as sitting on my top shelf. Considering whats under the hood it stays fairly cool. I suppose warm to the touch is a good way to describe it.
On a side note, Linden AudioTronics are closing shop down the street from where I work and they are having a 75 percent off all material day today. They have Totem, Sim Audio, Paradigm, and a whack of Home Theater Projo's. Gonna go check it out. Excited.lol
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| dmitchell |
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Kinda a late response here Nick, but did you go check out that sale?
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| N1ck |
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Ya it sucked. In true Linden fashion everything was still overpriced. Their sign that states 75 percent off for EVERYTHING, apparently when I was there was only for cables and such. Once you hit their electronics like Projo's, amps, speakers and tv's it was only 25 percent off of full retail. Garbage. My dealer gives me more than that every time I buy. lol.
Asked how much for Totem Mites and they were 750 lowest they would go. lol No thanks. Listened to the Mites and DreamCatchers and I honestly much preferred the DreamCatchers.
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| dmitchell |
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I'm not surprised Nick. The Mites are my least favourite of the entire Totem line.
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| N1ck |
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Ya I agree David. Their decent, and I am sure there is a system out there they belong in but from what I have heard them on so far which is Bryston and SimAudio gear they have not impressed me at all. And I really like both Bryston and SimAudio. Perhaps not a good match? who knows. The little DreamCatchers were fantastic at their price range and for their physical size and I have decided to use those as rears in the theater.
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| dmitchell |
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Frank always recommended the Rainmakers to me, but I gotta admit, whenever I auditioned the Totem line, I always gave the more expensive members of the line more attention.
Speaking of Totem monitors, I've heard the Model-1's many, many times on everything from Bryston to McIntosh to NAD to Bel Canto, I've every single time found them extremely fast, precise and detailed but almost singularly lacking in any bass whatsoever,
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| N1ck |
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Very interesting Dave. I think so far my two favorite speakers in the regular Totem line are the Arro's and Sttaf's. I would like to hear their new Element series speaker which look awesome.
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| SuperjazzyJa |
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I don't see any mention of an electronic crossover Dave. If you were to put one in and by pass the passive ones, it would probably sound better still IMO.
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| dmitchell |
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Yeah, that definitely would have been an improvement. I what I did was "passive bi-amping", which to be honest has never really been a success for me, except for this time.
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| SuperjazzyJa |
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Sounds like you had fun anyway. Sometimes, it's nice to find something like that and just have a good time with it/ see what it can do, etc.
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