Nakamichi Amplifier 1

[Juha]

Nakamichi Amplifier 1 bought some time ago.

http://hoone.com/nak1.jpg

2*130W for 4 ohm speakers. Weight 15 kg. Really solid build.
Lets look at the internal picture. Here is good value for money for this 1990's amp.

http://hoone.com/nak2.jpg

From left to right.
- Large power caps
- Big and heavy tranny
- Huge and expensive heatsink
- 8 transistors per channel on heatsink
- Main amp with no IC's
- Motorized input selector switch. No relays.
- Alps motorized volume pot
- Discrete transistor MM/MC phono preamp with gold plated RCA's
- Remote control
- CD direct function that bypasses everything but volume control
- Engineered in California, Made in Japan with good Japanese components

How much would a new one cost today?

Cambridge Audio Azur 851A looks about the same. Price 1200 GBP.
A used Nakamichi Amplifier 1 is about 150 GBP.

And of course the sound is good. Authority, plenty of power.

Not much info on Internet. Mostly semi-negative rumours and stories.
Maybe they want to keep the prices low.

[Marco]

Good shout on the Nakamichi, Juha! I like your thinking :thumbsup:

Marco.

[DSJR]

We sold loads of the Amp2 and I echo the sentiments in the OP. Great amps these, but UK competition (well, not really, but the mags had 'em well brainwashed) from Audiolab and Naim was where the interest lay, which is a real shame IMO...

By this time, better specification components were affordable for this price level and the whole build quality was retained while keeping excessive wiring etc to a minimum.

[Macca]

Always wanted to give one of those a try. There is a pre power combo from about the same time I think

[istari_knight]

There's loads of bargain amps out there just waiting to be discovered. I would say Harman Kardon models from the 90's are some of the most underrated... Many of them were designed by Matti Otala.