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70's vintage Japanese amplifiers and receivers.

gerlando

gerlando

Prog Rocker
Marantz, Pioneer, Sony, Sansui, Luxman, Trio-Kenwood, Toshiba, JVC,
many of them are very good-looking with their silver finish and instrument lights,
but how they sound now? are they still reliable or it's just nostalgia?

Many thanks.
Mauro
2225.jpg
 
I've had a few through my hands and they've all been reliable. Currently using a 70s Yamaha amp and it sounds fantastic, they are so usable as well every knob and button you could ever want.
 
I bought an early 70’s Sansui Eight about six months ago. Very reliable so far, and sounds really good. I use daily for FM and Tidal streaming (using an iPhone/Chord Mojo) in my home office.
 
Just had mine serviced (essentially all pots/switches cleaned), and took the opportunity to have modern banana speaker sockets installed.

Sounds lovely. Really lovely. Cheap for 30W of A-class power (100W in class B - but 1-10W of A is all I’ve needed!).

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Picking my Pioneer SA-8100 back up from my friendly local vintage repair specialists this afternoon. Looks and sounds fab, but did just need a couple of caps replacing (not expensive).


Pioneer SA-8100 by dcallaghan50, on Flickr
 
Just got these from my brothers hoard to clean, test and sell. He brought over six tape decks! I only took the two that I couldn't lift with one hand ;) So far the Pioneer CT-F7070 is the stand out, being seemingly fully functional, the Marantz tape deck doesn't play and one of the meter bulbs is gone, and I've only tested the radio fucntion of the Marantz amp/tuner. Dunno if it's worth changing the belts etc on the tape deck?

nlzg1TF.jpg
 
gerlando said:
Marantz, Pioneer, Sony, Sansui, Luxman, Trio-Kenwood, Toshiba, JVC,
many of them are very good-looking with their silver finish and instrument lights,
but how they sound now? are they still reliable or it's just nostalgia?

Many thanks.
Mauro
2225.jpg
Click to expand...

The Marantz units from the 70s are superb, not just the looks and build but the quality of the circuitry.
I have 2225, 2250 and 2275 receivers - all superb.

By the mid 1970s, amplifiers and tuners had progressed to the point where further improvement to specs was pretty much pointless. Power gets cheaper as you move past the 70s but sonics don't really improve. Much easier to maintain than what came later in most cases too thanks to a reliance on discrete design.
 
The main things to worry about in old jap kit is obscure semiconductors and switches. They would use things like dual matched transistors in one package and sometimes IC's which are also made from pure unobtainium. As Robert says, the later ones are more awkward in this respect generally.
Switches and pots of odd design or built specifically for that model can often be found and in difficult cases where such a switch is physically damaged or worn beyond use it can be "game over". UK, European and USA gear tended to use much more "bog standard" parts. I do have a USA Harman Kardon Citation 11 pre amp which has a broken wafer in a complicated switch which means it will probably never work again.... not without an elaborate bodge anyway!
 
The annoyance with this era kit going up in value so much is it is far harder to find a good donor unit for parts. Making one really good one out of two is often a good option, I’ve done it with quite a few things over the years.
 
Yes Indeed. It seems strange to be seeing this kit regarded so highly and going for such prices these days when for decades we were all told it's "Jap crap" and to give it a wide berth and buy a Creek, Arcam or whatever... I well remember being able to buy full working order Japanese 100WPC receivers for £30 no problem! How times change...
 
I love it, to me it is the audio buyer gaining power from the industry, the internet has truly democratised the marketplace and allowed stuff to find its true value, not that which was hyped up by manufacturers and the audio press they subsidised. I only wush I knew what I know now 30 years ago so I could have a loft full of TL12.1s, 301s, LS3/5As, TOTL Japanese receivers etc that could be had for peanuts back then. It annoys me hugely that I dropped so much money on a Xerxes that looked like it had been made by Ikea and then left in the sun to warp when I could have landed a 301,124 or whatever for a tenth of the price!
 
Ah hindsight.... yes.. I bought my first Stereo 20 for £20... and ended up selling it in a financial emergency for a massive £60! Wow they'd gone up in value in only 8 years or so! I could have had loads of 301 and 401 TT's from a mate of mine for like £20 each back in the 80's but I didn't like them then and don't like them now.... I'll probably buy a Xerxes if I find one at the right (very cheap!) price as it's an all time favourite of mine and one of the best sounding TT's ever made IMHO.
 
I bought a complete set of Quad valves (pre/power x 2/stereo tuner) for £100 from a long gone dealer (Stereolectrics in Bolton then Horwich).

They worked well for a long time but one of the power amps has black gunk leaking from a transformer - I’m assuming that’s either an expensive repair or unrepairable.

The Yamaha amps always looked classy, but were just a bit too expensive for me - I had a Rotel back then.
 
Stunsworth said:
The Yamaha amps always looked classy, but were just a bit too expensive for me - I had a Rotel back then.
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My first stereo amp was a small Pioneer but I agree with you about the Yamaha's; they always looked so much more tasteful than almost any other Japanese make. They have a slight 'Scandi' look about them which, in my book, is a good thing.
 
I have a Hitachi HMA-6500 MOSFET power amp that is very highly rated for sound quality. It is in very poor cosmetic condition having been used in a Church Hall for years. But sounds fabulous. I got it at the local car boot for the princely sum of £4 so the Japanese bargains are out there.
 
slavedata said:
I have a Hitachi HMA-6500 MOSFET power amp that is very highly rated for sound quality. It is in very poor cosmetic condition having been used in a Church Hall for years. But sounds fabulous. I got it at the local car boot for the princely sum of £4 so the Japanese bargains are out there.
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Nice power amp... bargain!
 
20170617_091740 by Geoff Old, on Flickr

My Denon, the PMA850. £670 in '77! Consistently sounds excellent, whatever I throw at it. It would be a fortune if made today. Massive caps, twin wound transformer and three input phono stage.
 
Stunsworth said:
I bought a complete set of Quad valves (pre/power x 2/stereo tuner) for £100 from a long gone dealer (Stereolectrics in Bolton then Horwich).

They worked well for a long time but one of the power amps has black gunk leaking from a transformer - I’m assuming that’s either an expensive repair or unrepairable.

The Yamaha amps always looked classy, but were just a bit too expensive for me - I had a Rotel back then.
Click to expand...

I know a really good engineer in Bolton if you're still in the area.
 
oldius said:
I know a really good engineer in Bolton if you're still in the area.
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Thanks, I’m still in the area and I’ve seem someone mentioned here a couple of times. I’ve got other expenditure priorities at the moment, so it’s not something I’ll be having done in the short term.
 
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