Kenwood KA1400b amplifier (1975)

[George Hincapie]

Also, I forgot to add that I was one year old when this amp was made #oldfuckers

41 isn't young

43 in March. I feel every day of it too. Especially given the last month at work - OMG

[slinger]

41? 43? Bleedin' kids!

[wallace]

Well i was 28 when that amp was made,and i would have bought it ,it i could afford it so there.......

[Fretless]

Getting some very pleasant sounds out of this venerable little amp now;

One of my tricks with these old amps is, if I only need one input, to hook up the interconnect to the 'Tape Rec' output sockets. This bypasses the source selector switch and acts as a 'Direct' input. The KA1400 must, I believe, be one of the first generation of amplifiers with a 'Tone Defeat' switch to disable the bass and treble controls. Back in the 70's (when I got my very first 'Hifi' (Pioneer)) this was a sign of a real quality sound.

Another thing I have done is to attach a pair of early-model MIT Terminator interconnects, these have the big, strange, Dalek-like boxes in the middle. Got hold of these a some point but have usually found them to be overpoweringly bright and harsh-sounding. However, sitting in-between the Kenwood and my Dacmagic100 DAC they sound really sweet. Some sort of odd synergy going on here.

With these improvements the SQ via headphones has lifted to becoming quite impressive.
There's life in the old dog yet !

[George Hincapie]

Are we still talking about the amp?

[Fretless]

Woof!

[George Hincapie]

Good for you

[_D_S_J_R_]

41? 43? Bleedin' kids!

For the first time, I was charged at OAP rates yesterday for something. I didn't argue, but it made me think

[Daniel Quinn]

Think , what about : The fact you were committing fraud

[_D_S_J_R_]

But I AM an OAP of sorts... I'm 'old' in the eyes of local employers (things haven't changed since my stint at the CAB a few years ago) and I draw a couple of tiny pensions that help with the food bill every month. Anyway, I left a tip which more than covered the difference...