The rating on the back of these JDM amps is “100V, 45W”. Do they sound alright, will they be able to power my Fluance SX6’s to decent volumes? Do they need some sort of power adapter for the 100v vs 120v ? Someone on Reddit said they sound good but others said they are nothing special. For reference, I am on a tight budget and currently I’m using a Yamaha HTR 5840 to power my speakers. Class A/B amps is what I want to use (for my own peculiar reasons).
Thanks
I bought one of these in 2001 from a Yamada Denki when I was stationed in Japan. I had been using it as my main system in medium-sized living rooms up until 2019. The power specs seem under rated in comparison to modern integrated amplifiers. It pushed several pairs of bookshelf speakers and efficient vintage monkey-coffins excellently. Maybe I’m biased because it’s like an old friend I’ve been toating around the world with me for half my life, but I love it.
I tried to replace it when I bought a TV which only had optical outputs, since it didn’t have a DAC, I figured it was time to modernize my Audio system. I got a Class D integrated amp made by Elac, which wasn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination, it had a plethora of digital inputs and claimed to put out 40 Watts into 8 ohms and 80 into 4. With the same speakers in the same position in the same room, The Elac maxed out at about as much volume as the Onkyo put out with the volume knob in about the 10:00 position, even when I swapped in my most efficient speakers and listened at volumes the ELAC could manage, that Little Onkyo just sounded better, somehow warmer, clearer and more detailed at the same time.
I ended up replacing it in my main setup with a Cambridge Audio CXA60 which is actually more powerful, but not that much more. I am still using it in my home office with a Schiit Modi DAC providing the digital inputs. The 905 TX has a combination of features that are hard to find in any modern integrated amps… tone controls, 6 analog inputs, three record outputs, a sub out, a possessor loop (I’ve had a lot of fun playing with a Mini DSP for room correction and Tube buffer to tweak the frequency response and make it sound more like a tube amp to match my vintage speakers). Also, you can power almost anything with that 3.5 mm headphone jack. It’s powered both high impedance dynamic drivers and inefficient planar magnetic cans with ease and better sound that my dedicated headphone amp. The big, smooth Volume knob allows for subtle enough adjustments for sensitive IEMs.
If something happened to mine, and I had an opportunity to buy another one for less than about $300 (the price of a Cambridge AXA25), I would.