high grade home audio: 1972-82...

[cfz2882]

...Pioneer,Sansui,Kenwood,Onkyo,Marantz etc:not quite "High end",but good stuff mostly from Japan during the heyday of this stuff before the BPC(black plastic crap)era began to take hold Noticed equipmentof this era gets huge prices on Ebay and the like these days-some big receivers going for over $2500-and some of this has had a recap toad mucking about inside...Transistors that have gone "noisy"seems to be a special problem with certain Japanese brands around the early part of the era.

 

[kb0nes]

There is a huge resurgance in the "Vintage" audio world. This is due mainly to nostalgia and the fact that all the kids that drooled over those big flagship receivers now are at a point in life where they have enough money to own one, no matter the cost!

But I chuckle that they are just receivers, by definition a receiver is a compromise box that is designed to give reasonable hifi performance to people that don't have the space, money or interest to choose seperate components. A receiver was never any brands top performing path to hifi and receivers are so limiting as far as versitality goes. And if a receiver is going to cost $2500 today, you can easily assemble a system of modern seperates that will best the old receiver in performance and reliability.

But a lot of audio is all about nostalgia and agreeable distortions and imagined perceptions. The LP resurgance is a good example, tube amplifiers are another. In the end the highest fidelity perhaps isn't what makes the listener happy, but all that matters is that one enjoys the music.

 

[mattl]

I have most of the stuff I bought in the 70's and beyond. Some working, some not. The only "good" receiver I have from that vintage is a high end JVC quad unit with CD-4 built in, has a wired joystick remote. Last time I plugged it in no sound but it did light up. Also have a complete library of Audio, Stereo Review and such from the 70's through the early '00s that I am tempted to put on ebay at some point.

 

[tolivac]

Subscribe to two "high end" hi-fi magazines.Turntable---Clearaudio "Statement"TT that will set you back 185 grand-oh yes the tonearm is another 25grand.Cartridge another several grand.Now you can play that Clearaudio TT thru a speaker system that has its own custom matched tubed amps-except the subwoofer,1500W per channel.This would be the Living Voice Platinum system 2.5 mill the builder designer delivors, installs and calibrates the system for you.My Onkyo reciver and Klipsch speakers do just fine for me.The Onkyo receiver works with Bluetooth from my IPhone or IPad.The "Super" high end components don't have Bluetooth.Beneath their dignity,I guess.I just wonder WHO buys all of those super expensive Hi-Fi components??SOMEONE does-they are being built!

 

[mattl]

Even modern stuff goes up in price. I bought a used Marantz 7010 receiver a couple of years ago. paid $500 ish, now see the same model going for $700-900.

 

[vacerator]

I recall my first

reciever. A Techniques 12 watt per channel. Wood cabinet, metal face. Nice! Second, a Pioneer SX 780, I think was 36 watts per channel. Better! I gave it to my sister.
It has since died, she says. Third was a mid 1980's Kenwood remote reciever with video input. I think the kids left it on with the cabinet closed and it burned out.
I've always wanted a Marantz 2218 or 2226B with the blue dial lighting and thumbwheel tuner.
I stumbled on a 90's era Sony seperate surround sound 5.1 component system at a garage sale a few years back. Metal black cabinets. Pre amp with equalizer, amp, tuner, even a 5 platter CD changer. No speakers. I aske the gal how much. She asked me what I thought it was worth. her husband simply told her to getrid of it. I said it's yours, to decide how much. She said how about $5? Sold!
It's fabulous! The remote and motorized volume still work too! It pushes my Bose AM5 acoustimass speakers nicely. I connected my Techniques 50 CD changer to it.
Used it all Christmas eve.
If I get a center channel speaker, I'll have the full surround sound. It has hall, expanded, and Dolby surround settings. I don't have a TV connected currently.

 

[jamiel]

I remember CMC Audio which was up at the nearby mall which was semi-high-end (the real high-end place in St. Louis was Hi-Fi-Fo-Fum where my father and I went to get them set up about 1987). All those receivers up on the wall, and the luxurious Marantz horizontal thumbwheel. Really classic designs. There's a fun vlogger on old and obsolete hi-fi equipment from the UK---Techmoan on Youtube.

 

[philcobendixduo]

Way back when....

....I had an all Pioneer system consisting of an SX-980 receiver, an SG-9800 graphic equalizer, a PL-630 turntable, an RT-707 reel to reel and a CTF-1000 cassette deck. I purchased all of them from BEST Products - a now extinct "catalog showroom" store.

The picture here has the added Yamaha CD-1 and a Dual turntable/automatic changer. Also a Pioneer timer.
The RT-707 is on a shelf below the CD player.

I needed to downsize many years later so they're all gone now except for the RT-707 which I don't use anymore. I'm hanging on to it as an investment!

As I get older and my hearing deteriorates, I find most anything sounds "good enough" to me! I can't tell a "high definition, low loss" audio file from an MP3.

 

[davey7]

I actually found a working (excellent working condition) Harmon-Kardon receiver/tuner on trash day on the way to my mom's house (walking distance) about six months ago or so. Needless to say I took it just in case it worked and sure enough, it does. Was able to relegate my 80's cheapie cheapo Fisher "Studio Standard" to the TV system.

 

[statomatic]

A lot of receivers and other hifi are high priced on epay but the real vintage hifi lovers don't pay that much, they prefer buying defective and fix it themselves.
Most of the fully restored vintage hifi from epay are just recapped with cheap capacitors, switches & pots barely cleaned with some spray (not good especially if that came from a blue & yellow can, the best way to ruin equipment).

Collecting high end cassette decks is my other hobby along with collecting vintage washing machines.
Here's some equipment from my collection, Alpage AL-300 (an excellent sounding deck but very difficult to restore), Kenwood KX-7030 (high end from the 90's, when the bpc era started), Nakamichi RX-505 (the coolest autoreverse deck ever), Pioneer CT-50R (one of the first decks I've restored), Sony TC-K777 (my main recording deck, a real masterpiece), Sony TA-AX4 & 6 (very unusual amplifiers featuring a pulse power supply instead of a common transformer), Teac V-9 (aka the chameleon), Toshiba PC-6030 (a monster cassette deck, built like a reel to reel) and TDK SA-X & That's cassettes.

 

[kd12]

This is the first "high end" radio set I remember. I think the Army paid $15k for each of these in the early '90s. Had decent reception, and you could even go secure so the Reds couldn't listen in.

 

[vacerator]

I guess high

grade audio would have been a signal to noise ratio of at least 90db., a channel separation of 80, distortion lower than 20%, and an output of at least 10 watts per channel@ 8 ohms.

 

[natosha_jacobs]

OSD Audio 240W Commercial Amplifier

 

[cfz2882]

i like cassette decks too...

...3 of my better ones:
-Revox B215,1985:LCD lamps are burnt out,otherwize working good.
-Revox b715,1982.
-Akai GX f60r,1981 I think the sonics are really good on this one-possibly even a little better than the Revox machines
-also worth mention:1978 Tandberg-synchronous motor drive ,direct drive DC reel motors,This one needs repair-probably has broken solder joints.

 

[electroluxxxx]

High end audio

When it comes to high end audio and audiophiles or just high end audio in general, I think it’s mostly about the listening experience, I have several audio systems here from a vintage Sansui 7070, pioneer SX-880(had a 780 45-50w per Chan) Carver separates, to newer Rotel and pioneers elite flagship series which was a little over 3k back in 2003, for me it’s about the life the components used can put to the music being played, the clarity, the feeling of being in front of what is happening at that very moment. The electronics are one thing but the speakers... well thats where the magic happens. From crossover networks to materials used, placement and imaging, I guess it’s really what you hear, I have some polk SDA-1c and SDA CRS speakers which were flagship at one point, and what i really love about them is the richness in sound, they are clean clear and definitely don’t lack any low end, however they are a really really picky speaker regarding placement and require large rooms and must be placed facing straight not towed in with the interconnect cable plugged into them . My All time favorites though are a pair of Ohm Walsh 2XO speakers there is something about them, they seem to have a magic to them that I cannot seem to figure out, and no matter what receiver/amplifier I use with them, they always seem to impress with anything from classical, and jazz to soft rock, hip hop, and EDM, large sound in a small package but clear and extremely detailed. There are other speakers in the house like 3 sets of klipsch, a set of pioneer HPM-100s, and 60s and even a set of DCM time windows but for some reason I keep going back to the ohms. A great song to recommend with good vocals and great acoustics would be Time passages- Al Stewart, sit back close the eyes and see where it takes you, Ventura highway is another and maybe even a little eagles. As for value, the reason so many vintage audio components hold value is because of the quality, there are a lot of things that you can compare an old receiver to today but there is nothing digital that can compare to that sweet, old vintage analog sound without spending some big $$. Not to mention a lot of the analog stuff was conservatively rated, today it’s all about the watts and companies overrate their stuff to appeal to the younger crowd looking for those 21.2 gigawatts.