MORE BUYS! I picked up a Marantz 2110 scope tuner this afternoon for about the price of a working scope. It was on for years in a manufacturing shop and shows it. The bottom plate was missing and replaced by plywood and there was no feet. It has the original top but all the original screws were replaced by mix and match. AM antenna broken and has the usual bad lamps. It's missing a button or two, which I will have to fit replacements. Faceplate is OK but there are some residue marks that got into the finish. The good news is the scope works perfectly and the FM tuner can hold a stereo signal. I would say this is an average score for me.

Think how simple things would be if you collected a single brand of gear.

Pick something other than Yamaha.

How about the CA-2010? I used to have a CA-1010 that has the beefiest transformer I have ever seen for an 85 wpc amp. I have a CA-2010 on the way. (Arghh, I'm going to have to clear out the undesirables now...)

I'm not a fan of integrated amps. There's certainly nothing wrong with them, it's a matter of personal preference.

Integrated amps are sometimes compromised for the same reason as receivers. Fitting a preamp inside the same box as the amp has got to force compromises somewhere so that it is no longer the "ulitmate" that true separates can be. That being said, I have a few interesting integrateds like the Kenwood KA-907 and 650 that are dual tranformer designs.

The CA-2010 is a single tranformer design and I suspect it is very close to the CR-2020 but without the tuner and with a Class A setting. It does have a very nice ergonomic design and the cover and grill are really nice. Anyways, the CA-2010 is relatively inexpensive so if I don't like it, I can "throw it back into the sea" that is the 'bay.

Of my recent ebay buys, 2 out of 5 suffered shipping damage due to predictable terrible packaging. The box on one was so battered, the desk clerk asked if I wanted to accept it. On another, the faceplate got a severe dent when it should have been mint. I have a paypal case and shipping claim open on this one.

good luck, I havent seen too many people win satisfaction over a claim. I sure hope you do, and let us know how you did it.

elroy

i won on paypal. the guy knew he was going to lose so he settled. he knew he had packaged it wrong. i filed with UPS they came the next day and got it. I never found out their findings.

Sounds like some nice gear there Sam.