What is this?

Realistic SA-10

Link

I have one of these.(This isn't mine. This is the only photo I could find.)

Forgive me, but I have never used an amp before. Would I hook my phono pre-amp to this? Would this make everything sound worse? Is this just a piece of crap?

 

Its just a mini integrated amp. Its probably about 2-5 watts per channel. This particular unit has a phono preamp in it.

 

Realistic is a Radio Shack brand name. Not something I'd have integrated into my system, let's put it that way....and no power to speak of, don't know that it's of any real use.

 

Cool. I can just toss it, or donate it to Goodwill.

So why is it called an amp is it has no power?

 

A good question....just as why anyone would buy anything with a Bose trademark doesn't make sense beyond the fact they advertise and market their crap so much they can snooker the gullible and uninformed.

Indeed, I saw a guy walk out of an audio shop Saturday afternoon with a pair of used Bose speakers....I held my tongue I figure, well, he'll either find out, or he won't care what they sound like, either way, what good would it do to wise him up? Besides, the guy selling them probably needs the money, a small merchant...although I know hardware dealers who not only won't sell Bose, if you ask they'll tell you why.... That's my kind of dealer...out to make a profit, but carries only equipment he could live with in certain price ranges.

 

It's an amp (I'd classify it as an integrated amp)...it just has a very low power output. Perfect for a kid's system or something in the garage to listen to. It has its uses. IIRC, they were cheap to purchase (maybe $24.95 originally...I'd have to look in my old catalogs). Maybe someone on eBay would go for it. Or at least send it to the thrift shop if it works.

 

You know my 18 month-old son would have a blast just turning the knobs!

 

It's useless as an amp, but the phono preamp is a good cheap fix for units like boom boxes without built-in phono preamps.

 

I had a similar unit, that I used as part of a portable system to connect speakers to my laptop. It worked quite well, lo fi of course, But then it died.

 

I wonder if it was built around that popular 2-watt/channel integrated circuit. (Heck if I remember the part # of it.) Definitely limited fidelity, but perfectly normal for something that only cost so little back then.

 

I had something similar as well. As Zappa would say, "A cheesy little amp".

Works for what it's worth, but it ain't Hi-Fi. Not bad if you want to control an old tuner in a cottage for peanuts.

I too feel this is something under 10 watts or so.

 

12 whole watts.

 

I hear you can get this thing modded with Black Gates, silver wire, tubed output stage, and removable IEC power cords.

 

Where do you hook up the monster cables?

 

Use some Gover Cables and Speaker wire, hook it up to your CD or record player and fire up the Cornwalls!!! 12 watts is more than enough!!!

 

Exxxxtreme Audiophile testing!

Bet it has midrange (and nothing much else!)

 

I betcha it's filtered so the lows and highs don't overload the amp. I don't even think it has 10 watts to be honest...it seemed to make an appearance at the same time they were selling a little 2wpc IC amplifier kit (which I built). If I can find my old RS catalogs, I can look it up...but stuff is all packed away in dozens of boxes right now. I honestly don't think they even had a power rating on that one.

 

Says "SA-10" and I agree with Rudy.

I had something like this starting out as a poo-white boy in 1983 with a few records and tweed-covered RS cube-sized bookshelf speeks. It was an integrated with a separate matching tuner. It looked nice, sounded a little terrible, and I LOVED it. Each option was like $50.

I felt it was a notch above everyone else's stereo when Emerson rolled out $90 all-in-one's at K Mart. When they dropped the 8-track option and put in tape decks with no loading door? Plastic 10" turntables that never stayed in speed? Class!

So much nostalgia it makes me wanna vomit.

 

Well, well, well...looky what I found guys:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.a...name=CTLG_007_004_002_000&product_id=31-5000#

and for only $59.99!!! It isn't Realistic anymore, it's RCA, but my guess its still the same general crappy design. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

And it still has facilities for a ceramic cart.

 

Y'know, my first "real" turntable was a Realistic LAB-50...basically a BSR changer with three different spindles and a cheap Shure cart. My first amp was that 2wpc RS amp I built from a kit. First tape deck was also one of RS's top models at the time as well. Didn't have the greatest speakers at first (basically, spare 8" speakers stripped out of the old admiral console in homemade boxes), but there was just something so neat about having something that was all mine. For a kid who was just in junior high school in the mid 70s, it was all I could afford, and still better than what all the other kids had.

A couple of years later, the integrated amp at RS (the one with the champagne-colored front panel, may have been an SA-1000) went into their "where is, as is" sale cheap enough, and I picked one up. Half a year later, I grabbed the matching 5-band EQ, and months later, the matching tuner (TU-1000?) was in "where is, as is" for $60. The tuner's actually quite neat, but in retrospect, the amp and EQ were nothing great. A person has to start somewhere, though. And it was stuff I could afford with my summer lawn-mowing funds.

 

Look at this thing, it has a ceramic cart! http://www.teac.com/ConsumerAudio/MiniSystems/DC_D2831.htm

Sad thing is, I actually have one of these things! I have a variety of crap systems that I use to test my recordings in. It helps improve my mixing and mastering. If I can hear my mixes on a garbage system, that reperesents what the average person has, I can tune my mixes, so they sound good on it. I do this with mostly pop stuff, that I know will be played on somthing similar to this. If they sound good on this thing, they sound fantastic on a real system!

And no, I never play records on this thing, I never would either... ITS MURDER!