Goodwill Find

kevhed72

This was bought for my garage set-up when my other Yamaha finally died.
A Yamaha A-960 amp and T-1000 tuner for 15.00 total. The amp has a built-in TT pre and a bunch of superfluous tone controls (bass/treble/etc).

Good find for my garage, but are these something more that should be used in-doors, in terms of value?

wayne3burk

the A-960 is a pretty rare find - appearently the X-power feature was an infringement on a patent held by bob carver....

http://gigapod.free.fr/Yamaha_A760.html

Yamaha advertised the A-760 and A-960 as featuring a new "X" power supply, which would adjust the power supply's line voltage to the level required by the output stage; Yamaha used the same technology in their R-1000 and R-2000 receivers, and in the TOTL M-60 and B-6 ("pyramid" design) power amplifiers. Apparently Bob Carver held a patent for exactly this sort of technology and threatened Yamaha with a patent infringement lawsuit. In 1982 Yamaha came out with revised A-760II and A-960II models that I assume did not feature an "X" power supply anymore.

I think you have about $150 - $200 worth of ebay hardware there.

I'd definitely clean it up and use it for my home office 2 channel system

JayCee

The 960 was the first amp I owned. I bought it when I was in high school (approx '84) and thought it was great. Can't remember enough on sound quality, but somewhere in the mid 90s had issues w/the slide balance control and a bulb or two that went out. Eventually, there was too much static and low output from one channel, so ended up getting rid of it.

If I'd had internet resources and the repair knowledge I have now, I'd probably still have it (couldn't afford to pay for repairs back then). You'll probably want to use Deoxit on all the controls after so many years. Also, there's a tone bypass button that will eliminate most of the slides from your signal path.

About 2 yrs ago I started down the Polk vintage road and picked up a Yamaha M-80 because of the nostalgia factor for my 960. I still have the M-80 but have moved on to better amps. In my opinion, the older Yamahas are solid and the price you paid for both items is well worth it...it'll definitely work as a garage rig w/105 wpc if my memory is correct.

Also, I believe there was a power supply safety recall on versions of the amp sold in England and/or Europe (try a Google search). I was in Germany when I purchased mine, so you may have one of the military market versions if it's 110/220 switchable on the back. You should be able to find the owners manual here:
http://www.yamaha.co.jp/manual/english/

Let me know what you think after you've listened to it.

John

JayCee

My memory is going...guess it was around '82 when I picked up mine. I had the MKII version. Interesting info on the patent problem.

gidrah

At that price it's good enough for great sounding stuff. Some might need to go to a quality tech in order to make it better than most stuff produced today but I'll leave that up to you.

kevhed72

JayCee wrote: »

The 960 was the first amp I owned. I bought it when I was in high school (approx '84) and thought it was great. Can't remember enough on sound quality, but somewhere in the mid 90s had issues w/the slide balance control and a bulb or two that went out. Eventually, there was too much static and low output from one channel, so ended up getting rid of it.

If I'd had internet resources and the repair knowledge I have now, I'd probably still have it (couldn't afford to pay for repairs back then). You'll probably want to use Deoxit on all the controls after so many years. Also, there's a tone bypass button that will eliminate most of the slides from your signal path.

About 2 yrs ago I started down the Polk vintage road and picked up a Yamaha M-80 because of the nostalgia factor for my 960. I still have the M-80 but have moved on to better amps. In my opinion, the older Yamahas are solid and the price you paid for both items is well worth it...it'll definitely work as a garage rig w/105 wpc if my memory is correct.

Also, I believe there was a power supply safety recall on versions of the amp sold in England and/or Europe (try a Google search). I was in Germany when I purchased mine, so you may have one of the military market versions if it's 110/220 switchable on the back. You should be able to find the owners manual here:
http://www.yamaha.co.jp/manual/english/

Let me know what you think after you've listened to it.

John

Right now its in the garage hooked up to a pair of Polk S-4's, so I think its worth bringing in and hooking up to my A9s and hear the difference vs. my Parasound 2203 for kicks...

George Grand

That's fun for $7.50

camp21178

I love these stories about garage sale or thrift store finds. I also love any old silver amplifier.

stuwee

Great grab! You'll certainly have one of the better looking and sounding garage systems with those.

kevhed72

I have put in a solid 10 hrs. of listening on this integrated amp, and came up with the following observations. Keep in mind I had to use 14AWG Monster speaker wire on this unit due no binding posts. First off, the amp sounded pretty smooth in the highs and mids when presented with pretty basis music compositions. Overall, though, the amp lacked much of the dynamic punch of my Parasound and lacked in the bass dept. Overall...a flatter sound. Also, the amp did struggle with complex music such as Zappa or "sound bands", and the clarity of the multiple instruments / layers playing at the same time was lacking. Lets end with a pro - the vocal clarity was very good.
Overall, it was very enjoyable listening to a different piece of gear. I am not sure if I will keep it or sell to fund something else. Below are some pics for your viewing pleasure:

stuwee

Just give some more time to grow on ya. It should, nice choice of tunes you have layed out!

RuSsMaN

George Grand wrote: »

That's fun for $7.50

Yep, close the thread, question answered.

Next!

TroyD

Got any Zappa? Put some Zappa on.

BDT

ryan4blu

nice score!!