Are older "high end" hi fi amps better than modern entry level hi fi?

I have an old s/h Linn Majik amp with Linn Mimik CD and I am considering upgrading the amp.

Now I know that I need to listen to really know what is better but the only way I find works me for me is a “side by side” test. Trying to compare in a shop or even a listening room, is very difficult.

My plan is to buy something s/h for about £200 from ebay, thinking along the lines of a Marantz PM 7004 or similar Rotel and compare at home.

Am I wasting my time or has amp technology moved on to hear a noticeable improvement? Or should I be looking at the CD deck?

Not sure that £200 will get you anything ‘high end’. I’ve bought 2nd Naim amps, maybe you can get an old Nait at that price.

My call would be no. An older better amp will be better than a modern budget number. Nait is much better than my PM6003.

However often it is recommended that an old amp gets recapped to make sure it’s working at it’s best.

Give all the contacts a clean and get better speakers. Better speakers always works.

As suggested, as the amp is about 15 years old the power supply electrolytics may have degraded a bit. A service could be a good idea and I think plenty of 3rd party repairers will do Linn stuff. Do you know if your amp or CD player has a switch mode power supply inside? I think Linn did design a new one called the Brilliant, which might be a retrofittable upgrade. Worth a call to Linn.

Can I ask why you want to upgrade? Are you unhappy with the way it sounds? You don’t mention the speakers, but they could be worth spending money on. What are they?

I dont think that price comparison wise you can do better than s/h quality. I picked up an audiolab 8000 for 100quid and its ace. Whether its better than my arcam 8 is hard to say due to the contrast in characters. Still bloody good for 100quid tho!

Couple of the guys from Naim were at trail addiction with us a couple of years back!

I paid £170 for an Audilab 8000P of Ebay, can’t imagine it would be possible to get the same sound quality for similar money with modern kit.

Most Hi-Fi gear is very well looked after so normally makes a good s/h buy

Couple of the guys from Naim were at trail addiction with us a couple of years back!

And a couple of them frequent this forum too… One only a couple of posts above you! 😉

Anwyay, was gonna suggest a service on your old amp, RichPenny has beaten me to it. If your old amp is running in A1 condition, it will almost certainly sound better than a new budget amp, but if it’s not in perfect health it might not, so a service would be the best way to go I reckon.

Not “high end” I know but I have an original NAD 3020 firing a system in the dining room and it still sounds more involving than modern budget amps. My son won’t part with the Arcam 6+ that I gave him, either.

I am not totally unhappy with sound, I just like tinkering with stuff.

Also, I have a slightly more obscure reason, I have recently moved house and have set up both my AV and stereo in the living room.
I use the same speakers for both, my AV amp is connected to the Linn by it’s pre-outs into a spare input. It all works fine, however, the AV amp is an Arcam which uses the same remote codes as the Linn, which means if I turn the volume up or down it changes both amps and I just want it adjust just the AV amp. I though a different make would also solve that problem.

I might get in touch with Linn regards servicing costs and get both amp and cd serviced.

I’ve got an ‘audiophile’ Sony amp from the 90s which I bought a few months ago but it’s way too powerful for my setup! If you’re anywhere near Northants you are welcome to try it with your system.

the AV amp is an Arcam which uses the same remote codes as the Linn, which means if I turn the volume up or down it changes both amps and I just want it adjust just the AV amp

We’ve had this problem on our AV processor, and got round it by coding a different RC5 instruction set in the S/W of the remote if it’s required. Linn and/or Arcam may have implemented this as well?

Couple of the guys from Naim were at trail addiction with us a couple of years back!

Hello Tim, I was the numpty riding a 5 🙂

Call Linn I am sure there Amps are upgradable
I know the more modern Linn range have module upgradable
plug ins.
But do give Linn a call before anything else.

Give Darren at Class A a bell. I’m sure he will give you some very good advice and he may be able to service the amp.

What Hadge says is good advice and it will come back like new.

That said, depending on how fixed your budget is then you could pick up a more recent good s/h amp for £250 e.g. a more recent cyrus 6 or 8, that is not yet in need of a service.

If the Linn Majik amp (33W) is the one I am thinking of it was not a class leader at the time?

I paid £200 about 12 years ago for a even then old Quad 405 power and Quad 33 pre amp (and tuner, which is in a box up the loft). All from the original owner.

I have now had it serviced, connected up to a lovely marantz cd player (£15 for a boot sale, and £15 to fix one of the channels) and it sounds gorgeous! New stuff wont come near it, unless you spend a fortune.

Old is best for hifi…… I think my amps are over 30 years old.

Also, I think my Quad is bomb proof! Not much to go wrong and def child proof which is a bonus…

Simone