I still own an SAE A205 power Amp and after 25 years of use this champ is still going! Its 200 wpc but sounds like a lot more! It's definitely not in the high end league but its rock steady and sounds good. Thanks for discussing SAE gear.
@@marvyrazo5945 because it's a handmade Japanese work or art I see them occasional selling.. Around 2 to $4000 USD.... You can by a modern berhringer amp for around $350usd that pushes more Power.... But.... You want the original mona Lisa painting or a iphone foto of it?
I remember when they first came out. I believe this system was one that defined the shift from the “receiver wars” to separates and the first appearance of LEDs. Another informative and entertaining video.
@@SkyFiAudio Hi I am from ISRAEL, love your dig in in this wonderful SAE , as ADCOM lover I think you should do the same video for ADCOM's from the 90 to mid 90. good job 👍👍
The B & Ws are a great match! A pair of Dahlquist DQ10 would be perfect! At that time in history the lights, buttons and type of EQs were absolute ‘state of art’. I was selling High End gear at that time of my life. This gear would have been considered Medium High End in the late 70’s.
This seems like the one that they use in movie theaters at least they did at the time as I recall seeing server racks with these things in the actually equipment room really neat looking but very hot because of the high heat output in the winter it's wonderful being in a room with this stuff because you don't have to worry about freezing to death
That's got to be the coolest looking system ever. A Nakamichi MR-1 would blend right in with this system. Love the all red lights against the black and the rack ears.
Back in "80" I had a SAE 1800 Parametric Equalizer. It was pretty awesome, but a little challenging to dial in at first. I sold it when I started to prefer the flat sound and less in the signal path. They also had the 2800 Parametric Equalizer as well. It was pretty pricey, but a great piece of equipment : )
i also had always equalizers but when in use of a good amplifier i never used it when the sound was perfect , no need for tone controls or equalizer but it changed in the early 90´s when amplifiers ,even the considered good ones were missing something and good speakers were very expensive ,so i ended up using equalizer since the 90´s, it depends of the speakers one uses , i had a good equalizer from the 70´s but i never used it. I say this because i have friends who boutght also new equipment in the late 80´s to mid 90´s and it was fashion at the time not using tone controls ,the ones who bought not so good components ,i even felt bad for them because they spent money and had horrible sound and if i wanted to put a bit of treble they used to tell me that i was wrong , so i didn´t felt that bad, they didn´t understand the why of using flat sound wich i still do, but having several systems some are in use of an equalizer to stay with a sound similar to the system i don´t have tone controls
@@sarahconner9433 i didn´t knew that because in the 80´s ,maybe mid 80´s yamaha used still a ponteciometer for the loudness and many frequency´s equalizer and when in need ,Equalizer is the word
Cool videos, love these. That cassette drawer reminds me of my gen1 Meridian 207 Pro CD/pre amp player. That drawer always failed. Still have all that 200’s series kit. Also, Nakamichi used a drawer system for there flagship in-car head unit, the TD-1200. The wheels on my lifted Outback pay homage to your Lancia 1980’s WRC era wheels, cheers.
Onkyo took their cue from these systems with the black facing and 3000 buttons. Every button did something quite useful once you learned the whole scheme.
You know what I like more than all the hifi audio in there? That Lancia Delta Integrale at 4:37. Greetings from a former owner of a mere Lancia Delta HPE 1.6 from 1999. 😎👍
bought all components from the '02' series this year. Loved this brand/looks as a teenager back in the '80's. The '01' is the superior quality system but really needs the C101 cassette deck to even consider that price. Great to see anyways...good luck with sale!
Thanks for sharing! James Bongiorno who left SAE and started GAS obviously sourced some of the controls from the same vendor. I've noticed the earlier SAE products use the same meters, power buttons and brand typeface.
GAS amps were the opposite of brands like Crown where they would blow up if you looked at them crossways. You always wanted to connect them with caution. They didn't travel well.
Button’s before digital technologies. I remember when people hated scrolling through digital software programs and settings when they first came out. They had trouble finding anything quickly. They wanted their buttons back..😀👍🤗🥰
4:36 Is that an Integrale? You have very European tastes! Awesome looking system: I agree, SAE made some systems that had looks to die for! I never understood why this firm vanished (like so many others). I think that many premium or not so premium firms would be making a killing nowadays if only they had braved the 90's and the 00's by sticking to their guns and doing what they knew how to do best while being prudent and frugal at the same time. We are now having a cassette comeback for crying out loud!
1979 for me..2 of the 501,s and the 101 on a pair of AR9's and a year later I bought my ADS 2030's.Once I got ride of the 101 for an SP10 things really changed for me...
You know I Love SAE gear. Every piece of the first two gens was built like a TANK. After that it was ok, but not to the level of the previous two. My preference is the second gen. I presently have the 2400L preamp. I'm looking for the A1001 amp. It's an absolute monster at 500 WPC into 8 ohms! I'm a retired guy on a fixed income, so I cant be in a hurry, lol. I'd also like to find the parametric EQ. I had this setup in the 80s, and I never should have let it go! Oh, well...the folly of youth. Thank you for featuring some of my favorite gear. Your channel is always informative!
I had all of these from around '84 to when the last one failed about 20 years later. Without knobs, they were cumbersome to use. To increase volume, you had to press or hold the buttons too long. The equalizer with just two bands, wasn't really practical. They were beautiful and got a lot of attention though.
I remember these in vommercial settings. I had sn SAE eq gor s ehile but then decided the Mac mq104 room correction was enough for my space. Now i find with the c50 i need nothing. It's all there. BTW MY Tannoy 15 " reds sre currently in york cabinets. Not my favorite. I had 15" golds on these prior along with s pait of altec horns and a much improved crossover. Top end caps, resistors, silver wiring.
i bought recentelly some B&W speakers similar to those but with only a big woofer the 801´s the ones you have there must be a litle more smaller with two woofers i think they are the 802 S3 they asked me 2.450€ ,the 50€ missing was what i could negotiate, this for a PA-5E II(stasis) from NAK with a pre from Denon and they told me i was buying cheap
im my life atm sae 2500 or 2600 it had 4 pop can sized caps in it... over 26 t-03 out put devices.. it was more than one man to carry a half block. and the kicker was it would kick the breaker everytime i hit the power on.
I used to work for Tech HiFi and we sold this stuff, it was not uncommon for the equipment to break down and needing to be sent in for service, we also sold Crown, the latter was a much better product.
Thanks for the kind word about Crown. The early DC300 had reliability issues, but my DC300A gave many years of enjoyable service. Much has been debated about the sound of Crown. If the DC300A was good enough for Crosby Stills Nash & Young to take on tour, it was good enough for me!
SAE was particularly harsh in the highs. Maybe their flagship amps improved on this, but I found these amps sound almost as bad as Crown of the time. GAS Ampzilla was the better sounding alternative later.
Can't agree about the sound of Crown. I was the proud owner of a DC300A / IC150. For my taste in music - Prog. Rock / Classic Rock, they were great. Many bands such as Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Rush and Triumph used Crown Amps. My friends had Phase Linear and Marantz amps and I can tell you Crown took a back seat to no one!
@@johncain5873 Early phase linear was awful until Carver made the more awful cube. They rarely made a amp that could not be bested by another brand. Crown was great until 1977. Commercial use is a completely different animal. Crown was a tank.
Crosby Stills Nash & Young used DC300A amps (per a Crown sales manager.) Yes they went downhill after they were sold and production was moved overseas from Evenston Illinois.
@@johncain7949 In 77 I walked into my local shop and the manager announced that crown had a new product line. It was much more attractive than the amps of the previous line. After telling me all the new features, he said he was probably going to buy a model from the last year, because it sounded better. He suggested I do the same. I never heard a sweet sounding Crown again. When you talk about touring musicians using crown, you have to remember how delicate the tube amps were when touring.
I know the Greatful Dead swore by Mac amps, and of course they powered Woodstock. If you check out Triumph's legendary performance at the US festival, you can clearly see Crown DC300A amps on stage. I am a new subscriber to this channel. I really enjoy talking about vintage audio! Cheers! John Cain Vancouver Island Canada
Look! It's the Keith Moom (more is more) audio component train of thought. If the Japanese liked buttons this takes it to a whole different level, lol! We don't need no stinkin' straight wire with gain, boringggg!
Looks great, but horribly wrong in terms of ergonomics. Rotary controls and sliders suit our anatomy much better. I have a SAE 2800 parametric EQ, great piece of hifi - and, happily, all sliders!
@@SkyFiAudio fair enough 👍,, hard to know why it was quiet to me,, what you have got going on there is very impressive by the way, I also have an m3 evolution and a cosworth also lol,, audio this end is naim and castle Howard s3,,, to keep it simple and short, I am in the UK, wish I could come and see shop but its one hell of a long way lol,, keep up the good work
@@SkyFiAudio fair enough 👍,, hard to know why it was quiet to me,, what you have got going on there is very impressive by the way, I also have an m3 evolution and a cosworth also lol,, audio this end is naim and castle Howard s3,,, to keep it simple and short, I am in the UK, wish I could come and see shop but its one hell of a long way lol,, keep up the good work
