Just arrived. Staying for a while. Marantz 1152DC.

The top photo is the new one, taken this morning. The other 2 photos are from 2009.

I've had a run of bad luck with electronics lately. The Technics SA-5350 has a low level hum. The Technics SU-C04 DC integrated blew a channel while I was listening. My fantastic Sansui AU-9900 is in the closet. It needs output transistors, and probably recapping (it's always had lower than average gain for it's size and power). I've been thinking for a while that it makes sense for me to have one powerful 'go to'amp that can drive anything, stop worrying about electronics, and enjoy speakers and music even more.

The Sansui AU-9900 may become that amp for me, but yesterday I had the opportunity to pick up a beautiful Marantz 1152DC integrated amp, rated at a conservative 76 watts/channel into 8 ohms and 95/channel into 4 ohms. It looks like this one I had in 2009, but is in even better shape, with only a small nick on one corner keeping it from perfection. It left quickly last time, but it won't happen this time. It's driving the Yamaha NS-690s beautifully, with more authority than the smaller amps I've been using lately, and is just what I was looking for (for now).