Pioneer M-22 Power Amp - Epic Japanese Gear From the Past

Don't be afraid to drive 4 ohms speakers wit this amp. My 3A reference 2001 are 4 ohms speakers and are easily driven by the M-22

 

I picked up the "older" brother of the M-22 (the M4) because it matched the C3 preamp. Because I'm moving in the coming months, I'm also considering selling mine. I followed skem's BoM for the most part, so if skem's unit is already spoken for, send me a PM.

The M-22 sounds better than the M-4 (and better than any SS amp I've heard to date) since I've not recapped it yet. If only we had unlimited space for this hobby... :')

 

I picked up one of these here from Advantech a while back…I thought it was a couple of years ago but went back to look and it has actually been almost six years ago. Holy crap time goes by fast! So have many speakers and rooms. This is the only amp I ever used with my Zu Omens that Made them sound good at high volumes. I do have a Decware Mini Torii that always worked phenomenally with them up to a certain point depending on the room.

To make a long story short this particular setup has been in the closet for a couple of years. I was about to put it in the for sale forum here to keep it in the family so to speak, but put it back in rotation with my 86db speakers just to say goodbye. My listening room is on the smaller side but it still should not work, but it does. It is now, once again, my primary amp for my current set up. I was looking at the hand grenade sized capacitors and I have to wonder if power supply doesn’t trump wattage to a certain degree.

Just a strange observation. Currently running Mission 700 speakers. Kind of infatuated with them at the moment. Maybe because I am on a big 80s music discovery phase and they seem to work well acoustically and visually with that era. I never gave it a chance growing up because it was lame and all we listened to was nu metal. Nickelback is still cool, right?

 

My M22 crapped the bed recently, keeps blowing fuses, hope it's only an issue with the power supply, no time to look deeper into it. Only other amp I have that reminds me of it is the Mjolnir 3...

 

Funny that you mention that. I have been using the Mjolinir 3 as the preamp into the m22 despite initially thinking the Kara is superior as a preamp and it is glorious. I changed the source and speakers too so must have been a synergy thing and I don’t really have the time or motivation to swap back and fourth. Class A to class A all the way and it is phenomenal.

I hope you can resolve your issue. Mine had an issue years ago and I thought it was done for but a tech fixed it right up for $75. I ended up staying there and just bullshitting with him for a while because it isn’t too often you come across someone with similar interests in real life. He said because class A runs so hot it tends to need service more often, but a lot of the time all it comes down to is a solder point that need to be addressed.

 

I hope your issue is that simple as well.