Denon Integrated Amp- PMA 900V

[braxus]

The 900V has got to be one of the last best integrated amps from Denon from the old original design team. That team used known good technology to build their amps. That team was replaced after with a new team that added gimmicks to their amps to improve the sound (Like their suido class A amp series which was from the 1520 down). Anyway I bought myself a used PMA-900V which was a 1986 model. This old design team effort seem well executed. I had the PMA 300 before for years which was a few models down from the 900. Anyway the buttons and knobs have a nice movement to them with a little resistance to make you feel its solid. Class design effort. One look inside and you will see they didn't stop on the outside. 6 Power caps with toroidial power supply which was large. Large heat sink that seperated the power section from the pre section. Large speaker connectors too. They definately don't make them like this anymore and I'd say the 80s were the last of their great amps before cost cutting took over and corners started to get cut. The sound from the old design team is said to be warm which is prefered by many, compared to the later amps. The 900V was rated 120 watts per channel into 8 ohms. Anyway take a look at some of the pics.

[Scorpion8]

One of the falacies is that all BPC is, well, BPC. Not true. To wit, I own four (4) cassette decks of Denons during the 90's and while they may be made more inexpensively, they are nice decks. Nothing super except for the 3-head decks, but much better than most late-70's-early-80's silver tanks. And much easier to work on also.

[MacGyver]

indeed, my 1986 DCD-1500 CDP has a warm character to it's sonics, must've been designed by that very same team...


http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/shaorin-chan/DSCF0453.jpg

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/shaorin-chan/DSCF0458.jpg

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/shaorin-chan/DSCF0464.jpg

[braxus]

One of the falacies is that all BPC is, well, BPC. Not true. To wit, I own four (4) cassette decks of Denons during the 90's and while they may be made more inexpensively, they are nice decks. Nothing super except for the 3-head decks, but much better than most late-70's-early-80's silver tanks. And much easier to work on also.

I was thinking in terms of the robustness of the units and parts used. Newer models tended to use more plastic parts and more ICs, plus other light weight parts. Im not saying the 90s didn't produce some quality product, but I do agree the robustness of the newer units is lacking.

[Scorpion8]

.... but I do agree the robustness of the newer units is lacking.

Oh heck yea! Pick any of them up. A nice early 80's tape deck has some heft, and a late 90's tape deck needs a paperweight to hold it down. Yup. No argument there. But they can produce some nice sound. I'm not a fan of the automatic tape-type selector, but tape decks had reached almost a zenith of technology and were pretty darn good, even for BPC.

[braxus]

A few times I've had a crackling sound like the speaker on the right was cutting out which it was. Any ideas of a cause for this? I suspect maybe a bad solder joint, but pinpointing such an intermittent problem by a tech I would assume would be very difficult.