Choosing a '70s Receiver

Try Foster Electronics, a brand now known as Fostex. And other RS electronics were built by Hitachi, Not exactly poor quality manufacturers here. And not everything Sanyo is necessarily junk, their older turntables were built by CEC/Chuo Denki in Japan. And one of those Sanyo tables is equal in quality and in build to say a Marantz 6100 and there's a Realistic version of this one too, which is a superb performer itself. Radio Shack had a varying level of quality, their best competes with a lot of better known items under better known brands. Just something to think about, not all Realistic is junk, nor all of it is gold either. The LAB 300, LAB 400, and the STA 2000 are just some examples of RS gear I'd be darned proud to own in nice shape, to name some. And there are also superb Radio Shack/ELAC-Miracord Record changers/single play automatics I'd also love to own a nice example of.

 

I have a kenwood 9100 waiting to be worked on ,my favorite is my ken wood model 11 , just a really nice receiver.
I have picked up a lot of receivers, and amps along the way, I seldom get rid of anything, maybe I am just a hifi hoarder!
I never was one to follow the crowd anywhere in life, It just makes since I would end up addicted to beautiful old stereo's that the crowd thinks are useless.
My brother brought back a Sansui hifi back from Viet Nam, I set my daughter up with Sansui in her room.

 

A few pieces from my collection.

 

These are both nice and they are RARE (in the condition that you'rs is in. Of course you want to have it overhauled! As to who t do the job, I would not know. You will have to find the right tech.

 

If you are a vintage collector of anything, the same holds true. But, one thing you have to hand to these companies. They made excellent products. I would rather have and listen to one of them than the IC receivers of today. True, old things will require at least some degree of restoration, but if they were not quality components they would not be around today in the first place.

I don't have any issues in investing in vintage components. I bet my stuff will still be operating when the "new" stuff is in the audio graveyard. These guys have some really nice stuff. I did not realize how much good gear from the early 70's period is still alive and well. The condition of most all of these pieces is totally awesome!

The new stuff tries to do everything for everyone. Today, when you look at the box in the big box stores and you see all of little corporate logo's running across the bottom of the box, know that a good portion of your purchasing is going toward those licensing fees. The public eats this stuff up

Back in the day, the price you paid for your equipment, went 100% into the build. No costs went to pay for any 3rd party license.

One thing to remember, vintage gear will sound its best when paired with other vintage gear, speakers, TT's, cartridges, plain old RCA speaker wire...

BTW... I was wondering why my Corn Flakes were a little soggy this morning.

 

SoundSmith of Peekskill NY is the specialist when it comes to overhauling Tandberg equipments. Fortunately, it is about an hour drive from my house ...

 

Best thing you can do is to plug it in for a day, every six months or so. Your caps will thank you for it.

 

Can we substitute "BUTT UGLY!" for "not very attractive"?

 

Today equipments are made with short shelf-life in mind. Companies want consumers to keep buying new gears every three to five years. They do not want to build anything with quality that will last ten or twenty years. My 30-year old Tandberg 3003 power amp is still being used for a few hours every week and the power stays on 24/7 ...

 

The short shelf life is driven by the consumer. You don't have to upgrade your gear, it's just that someone goes by their friend's house and see's his latest whig bang feature and wants it and "upgrades". I think this is more in the A/V world. Most audio based gear will last just fine. I have several pieces from Audio Research (most bought used) and Rogue and they will work happily for many decades I am sure. My D240 power amp is over 20 years old and also stays on 24/7, but it's fed by a new RP-5 Preamp.

Unfortunately, for every vintage that is bought by a true audio fan, probably three are bought by folks jumping on the trendiness of it.

Don't get me wrong, I love vintage gear, just as I would love to own a 1970 Challenger RT, but I would still prefer to drive my 09 SRT8.

PS. If any of the vintage lovers run across a JVC A-X9 integrated or any of the 1980 era Laboratory Series gear, please PM me immediately!!! My bent towards convenience will melt quickly!

 

I think the short shelf life by and large is driven by corporate greed since many audio companies are now either part of a large conglomerate like Harman International, which owns divisions such as Levinson, Crown, Studer, AKG, JBL, dbx, etc. or McIntosh, AR, Marantz and Denon, which are owned by some private equity firm and the list goes on for other lesser-known brands.

 

Nice gears. Mitsu audio gears always have character. I have never owned Mitsubishi audio equipments but am still using its 27-year old 20-inch tube tv in my living room ...

 

What exactly makes a piece of gear obsolete? There has always been throwaway gear and high quality gear. the stuff sold in the box store is no different than the stuff sold in the box store 40 years ago, it's just packaged prettier. I don't think many folks walk into their local BB and think that the $299 receiver they leave with will be a cult classic in 40 years.

For the record AR and Mcintosh are owned by an ownership group led by the president of Macintosh so it's a bit hard to pin anything on "corporate conglomerates" if they fail. My new AR power amp is made much the same as the decades old ones I own.

A Marantz 2235b in 1977 cost $450. That's over $1800 today. Is it really fair to compare it to the $300 piece at BB? I owned a 2220B and I also don't buy the "old school watts" thing. 20Watts from my 2220 sounded pretty much like 20W from my tube Bogen RP-230 and neither compared favorably with my NAD D3020, though they were certainly prettier by a mile!

I'm not here to crap on Vintage gear (I love it!) just warning folks that are just getting into the hobby, especially those that have been raised with the conveniences of modern electronics to keep in mind the reality of vintage gear. Hell, most millennial have never even touched a button on a television!

 

Especially in this digital age.

 

McIntosh Sold Again in Management Buyout of Fine Sounds »

It looks like LBO France and Yarpa, both financial companies, still ultimately control McIntosh & companies after the LBO, according to this article ...

 

LBO and Yarpa are providing the money but Grange and Randall are managing the new company. Whether they succeed or fail will be up to the management team. Financial partners will always come and go, they actually get involved in the days to day very little - AS LONG AS - the management team keeps the brand profitable. Honestly, I am not real impressed at the direction the new management team is going. ARC just killed off everything except the uber high end product and Mcintosh is trying way to hard to be everything to everybody. When they were part of Quadrivia they were all thriving because they were being left alone for the most part. I deal with companies that get bought by conglomerates all the time, sometimes it's bad, but at least as often the infusion of cash is a good thing.

Of course all of this has been discussed over and over again here so we can get back to the Vintage discussion.

 

The Marantz was (IMO) about the best sounding amp/receiver of its day. Also, I think the most attractive. But wait till you hook up the Marantz to your vintage Advents and TT using the vintage phono stage. And use plain old copper speaker wire and ordinary but not poorly made interconnects.

Next go out and really listen to music of the period. Given your level of enthusiasm, I believe you will have a successful go of it.

Suggest some Spirit, The Birds, Mama's and the Papa's, Alice Cooper, Grand Funk Rail Road.

Listen to Tommy by the Who. When you do, you will be listening to music, just as if you were back in the early 70's.

 

A buddy of mine just got his hands on the Pioneer SX1280 he lusted after his whole adult life along with a vintage TT and he's living the dream! It's so much fun to see someone so enthusiastic, I sent him a care package of about 75 classic LP's I thought he would enjoy and it's like a kid on Christmas morning every day!

 

I have owned many pieces of vintage hi fi gear over the last 47 years or so. In my opinion, the Japanese built gear built from 1970 through 1979 was built to last. Unfortunately, things like capacitors and resistors have a life span in any piece of equipment and will not last forever. I have owned many Marantz receivers and those built in the mid 1970s have a wonderful sound. Same can be said of classic Yamaha gear(of which I now am using) from the same time period.

Quality seemed to cheapen over night in the early 1980's when I had to replace my Marantz 2275 with the newer line that Marantz built following that successful line of models. The 1970's were the golden age of Japanese manufacturing. You can't go wrong with just about any manufacturer from that time period.

 

When the super-strong dollar was pushed down from 250 yens to 125 in the mid 80's, Japanese manufacturing had to adjust by using cheaper parts without outsourcing its work but that worked only for so long ...

 

I think the widespread adoption of the VCR and the double whammy of portable audio taking off, went along with the exchange rate to really put a hurt on quality audio components. The emphasis in the family room certainly moved towards video.

 

I love that amp. It was the first "audiophile" amp I bought back when I was sixteen. I bought it while they building a pair of A7's for it. When the A7's came home, I put the wheels on, primed and paint them.

I played my first album Mountain - Climbing, with my 13-WPC Pioneer Sa-500.



My friend brought it over. On the back,it says that this album is meant to be played loud!

Mississippi Queen is the first cut. We played it loud!

It can put out about 8-WPC, after that, the distortion tends to rise above 1%.

Love your Mods. I wish that I had bought the tuner. Seems that I paid about $79 ot $89 for the SA-500 at the time, About 1970 - 1971.

 

If you are purchasing 70s equipment, especially a receiver, try to find one that has been reconditioned and aligned. Unless you plan on doing the work yourself, it will save wear and tear on you. The extra bucks spent are worth it.

 

Agreed!