Kenwood KA-8100 (KA-8150)

Kenwood KA-8100 is one of the very best amplifiers of the late '70s technology (dual mono) and after all this years still an amazing piece to own. KA-8100 has a very neutral sound and incredibly good phono stage. Phono 1 is made of a 3-stage FET differential amp with current-mirror load. 2nd phono stage is Darlington circuit with current-mirror load and complementary SEPP output. The inputs are directly connected to their EQ stages of the preamp board.

KA-8100 also have a very nice feature of 2-way loudness switch, high, low and subsonic filters, dual-frequency tone controls and ±10dB input gain switch.

I have KA-8150 version, which is the same as 8100 with exception of color. Here we have a nice bronze face. 

POWER section

Power : 2x 75W (RMS, 8 Ohm, 20Hz...20Khz)

2x 90W (1Khz, 4 Ohm)

General

PC :        600W (full power)

Dimensions :      43 x 14,9 x 38,4cm

Weight :              14,5kg.

I'm using this amp with Braun PS 500 (Dieter Rams design), which is hooked to phono 1. Together with Dali Ikon 6, the system works very well. Two vintage units and modern loudspeakers works very well together in this particular case. Phono stage is really quiet and offers pleasant-warm sound, especially when listening to original records from the time those two units were designed.

You can download original brochure here.