Nakamichi Av10

Has anybody used Nakamichi AV10?
What is the quality of the product? - any problems with the unit or reliability issues.

I am aware that this product do not have DPLII or DTS-ES, but
it is a mean machine.

Many AV amps are good for AV porpose , but Musical quality
is not taht brilliant.

 

I've just gotten one to replace my AV-1 which has been an excellent amp for me over the last 2 years or so. And I only used it, and now the "new" AV-10, as a (100W+) stereo amp - am not remotely (no pun intended) interested in hometheatre.

I got the AV-10, together with an MB-10 CDplayer, to see if this optical interconnect business would be "the answer" for how to get a decent sound out of the dreadful CD format - sampling only an octave above what you can hear (when young at least) - I now use DVDaudio on the computer for "taping" offof the FM radio now - after 10+ years of using exquisite Nak cassette decks for this job.

But, as you say, times change - TDK SAs or SAXs are 7 or 8+$s each for 90 minutes versus about 40c for a DVD for 4 or 5 hours of audioquality 99% as good as that offof a good Nak analogue tape - I "record" at 96K/16bit sampling rate so I get about 2 or 3 "CD equivalents" onto a DVD.

I find the sound of my new AV-10<optical>MB-10 setup to be wonderful - a "quantum leap" in audio reproduction - it's (almost ) worth listening to CDs again! Being a baroque & renaissance recorder maker the harpsichord sound is critical for me and at last I'm getting the ability to hear it properly - eg to hear what temperament is being used. Basically the CDformat has, up till now, "destroyed" the (very sharp rise-time) sound of harpsichords - on the "lower grade" CD player setups I've had until now. One can hear the trucks etc changing gear outside the recording venues - but, as a friend says, What sort of truck was it? - my hifi setup is not quite there yet - better speakers are the next "research area".

Surprisingly, doing some A/B experimenting, the sound out of the MB-10's headphone jack is not as good as the sound of the (same track, same phones) out of the AV-10's headphone jack - maybe a better DAC(s) in the amp rather than the more "basic" DAC(s) in the MB-10?? Any ideas anybody?

PaulWh
Te Henga Recorder Workshop

PS A few days after posting the above and after a read of the excellent "DAC FAQ" posting in this forum I've just discovered that yes, a digital link through an ordinary RCA>RCA interconnect does seem to be noticeably better than the optical link between the amp and CDplayer. So it's the digital link that was "the answer" rather than the optical/digital. But is the quality of that interconn as important as it is on analogue interconns? I wouldn't think so. Dunno - I'll find out I spose.