Wednesday, March 4, 2009

ROAD WARRIOR


This is beyond my regular vintage frame of reference, but really cool. It's Yamaha's first professional power amp, built starting in 1976. The P-2200 is rated at a very solid 240 watts/channel into 8 ohms. It needs XLR connections to sound as good as it can (the 1/4 inch phono plug inputs are noisy). I don't have any separate preamps at the moment, so I am using it with my trusty Marantz 1150s preamp section. I am thrilled! The sound is very musical and neutral, with excellent dynamics, and a tight, very deep but beautifully controlled bass. This shouldn't be surprising, but it is fantastic to hear. It sounds effortless.

Aesthetically I think it's a beautiful beast, with excellent industrial design. It's built like the proverbial tank. This one has been around the block, and wears it's scars like a vintage Stratocaster. It's character as an object continues to grow on me, and I have started to dismiss my restoration ideas and just listen. It will be checked out technically, and one sticky power meter addressed, but I'm not going to repaint it. It was rack mounted in it's working life, so I will find some heavy rubber feet for it to sit on in it's retirement from the road.

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