Nakamichi PA7 and Sanyo Plus C55
Scratching an itch to try big tansistor power I made an impetuous purchase of a PA7 having read good bits about it, including its design by Mr Pass.
Yes it has the 'made in Japan under licence Thresold USA' sticker behind
I figured my NS 1000 s would be happy.
Sounded fantastic at the demo.
The seller used an extremely high end dual mono Krell pre amp each with its own power supply !!
Problem was i did not have a pre amp.
So for a few weeks i had to use the Pre Out of a Sansui AU9500. Sounded quite good really - fortunately the preamp section was recently refurbed.
I learnt about the virtues of the Sanyo Plus series C55 preamp, particularly its onboard phonostage.
Trawling the web i found one on eBay
It has arrived from the US and i have had a few days with it.
A few scratches externally.
Beautifully made inside and out. I took the lid off to change the voltage selector to 240V
High quality 'heavy' knobs and nice switches. Gold plated RCAs.
A DC preamp (whatever that means)
Apparently this was part of Sanyo's pitch at the higher HiFi in the late 80s but it was short lived.
The company decided it was going to make car stereos and midis , and packed in the Plus Series.
Well its quiet. All knobs and switches clean.
Seems a decent match for the PA7.
Its a warm sounding combination with lots of oomph in the lower end.
The NS1000s are certainly happy
I note that the soundstage is BIG.
The C55 has MM and MC inputs and they are certainly pretty good
I have tried V15 III and DL103R and they sound nice.
The 103R is louder than the V15.
I am pretty pleased with this switch to sort of vintage big power transistor seperates.
Will post pics soon.
Last edited by drSM; 10-09-2017 at 01:15.
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