When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
As we on CO enjoy vintage Oldsmobiles, I’m guessig many also like vintage audio equipment.
Marantz, Sansui, Pioneer, Kenwood, Yamaha, Teac, Onkyo and many others made great gear that has stood the test of time.
I recently picked up my first McIntosh, a Mac 1900 - really enjoy its warmth and build quality. Here it is next to a sweet sounding Technics SA 404. Many may not realize it’s big brother, the Technics SA 1000 (87 pounds!) was king of the hill during the monster receiver wars of the late 70s at 330 WPC.
Probably my favorite separates would be this Bose monster 1801 amp (82 lbs) and a Bose 4401 preamp from the mid-70s. Don’t knock Bose until you’ve heard some of its 1970s gear!
Let’s see some of your favorite vintage audio gear.
Last edited by vCode442; May 12th, 2020 at 07:53 AM.
Don't have any pictures at the moment, but my system is a Marantz 2385 pushing a pair of Klipsch Cornwall IIIs. For inputs, I have a pair of the 'wheels of steel' Technics SL1200 Mk2s, a Nakamichi Dragon tape deck, a newer Marantz CD player, 6006, and a Pioneer H-R100 8 track. I pick up a few extra inputs through a DBX 200 program route selector, and I have a bluetooth receiver that puts out in RCA outputs. Cable is from Blue Jeans Cable. Eventually I'll add reel to reel. System is apart at the moment due to my building a rack for it.
Cant tell what that is 11971, but Koda your set up rocks. Love to see some pics. I have a Marantz 2238B in a wood case, and its 38 wpc sound like 100 - I’m sure yours must shake the house with those cornwalls
I have a clean '72-vintage Marantz 115b tuner mated to a Denon 1600 NE amp and currently awaiting my Kenwood KT-7500 to be completely upgraded by RadioX Tuners.
Nothing like the look of a vintage tuner and many are definitely worth audiophile upgrades when possible to find the right shop for them.
Someday when I retire, I'm going to invest into some vintage audio gear. For now, all I have are these late 80's Koss cans that my Dad got for me for Christmas from Radio Shack. Sound better than my expensive bluetooth Sony's that were $250+.
A buddy of mine sold a nice old Marantz last summer and was going to give it away for $50, until I told him he could get much more for it. I would've bought it, but I've been in a 10 year declutter process.
I was too young and poor in the heydays of the late '70s and early '80s to have owned any of this great equipment. However, once I got to college, I got my FCC license to be a DJ on the school radio station for 2 years. During that time we upgraded the studios w/ new mics, soundboards and some really nice Technics direct-drive turntables that could spin-up in 1/4 of a turn (nice for cueing up songs). We also had a nice Teac reel-to-reel that we'd use to record our promos and it was almost too tempting to feed-back some of the read head signal to get a nice echo effect (many DJ's used this for their own promos). The broadcast studio also had a nice cassette deck (can't remember brand) that we used to record our "shows". Within my 2-hour "show", I'd get all the required promos out of the way in the first hour, then on the 2nd hour I'd play "the best of...." from the same band for 45 mins (1 side of a 90 minute tape) and record it, with the only break being the station ID at x:30 (I'd pause the recording for that). I have a nice pile of my favorite songs from my favorite bands to show for it.
In my frat house, we spent some money on a nice system for our dance floor after the house speakers were stolen. Started out w/ a big Sansui amp (175 Wpc) and a pair of Boston Acoustic speakers. After our first party, we realized those BA speakers were not built to generate the high SPLs demanded by our clientele, so we took them back and exchanged them for a pair of Klipsch Herseys and those kicked *** (although we did need to replace the tweets once under warranty). I wasn't all that impressed w/ the Sansui amp, it kept blowing its outputs. After it was no longer under warranty (we had it repaired twice under warranty), the next time it blew its outputs I repaired it. Damn thing used 6 TO-3 output transistors per channel on huge heat sinks. I can't remember where I purchased them, but I used the beefiest transistors I could find, and it never failed again before I graduated.
The craziest stereo I ever witnessed was a "friend of a friend" who worked at the local high-end stereo shop (where we later purchased that Sansui amp and Klipsch speakers). He had a pair of Klipsch LaScalas that took up most of his ~15'x18' living room, + a pair of the large Advents. The LaScalas were driven by a Crown 300 Wpc amp and the Advents were driven by a Crown 150 Wpc amp. Talk about concert level SPLs! His house was located next to an embankment that carried train tracks in an older part of the city. It probably only had 60A service, because when the bass hit, all the lights in his house would dim. I've yet to see or hear a more impressive stereo system since.
Weezer, I miss rat shack, many of my electronic firsts were from RadioShack! They sold some great gear in the day and the realistic STA 2100 receiver is still highly regarded. Also had some pretty decent speakers too, I have Optimus T110 and T120s, great sounding floorstanders on a budget in 1979.
Haha Fun - you da bomb. Is that what you use to listen to records when you put the top down🤣
What auto manufacturer in the 60s had a turntable as an option? Crazy.
I have several pieces of vintage equipment that I bought new and still have.
Here's a Marantz SR-4000 receiver I purchased in November 1979 along with some scans from the owner's manual and a scan of the purchase receipt from K's Merchandise Mart, Champaign, Illinois. This receiver, now 41 years after purchase, is sitting on a shelf right next to me and is tuned to a local FM station as I write this.
Purchase receipt. November 13, 1979. Paid for it with a Mastercard. I have the credit card slip, too. $329.97 plus tax made the out-the-door price $346.47. Not cheap in 1979. That's an inflation-adjusted $1200 in 2020.
Some scans from the owner's manual.
In the spring of 1974, when I was a junior in high school, I purchased a stereo system consisting of a Sony STR-6046A receiver, Dual 1216 turntable, and Advent speakers (known officially as The Advent Loudspeaker). The turntable gave up the ghost about five years later (replaced it with a Technics direct-drive unit), and I sold the receiver to my college roommate in the late 1970s (he may still have it). But I still have the speakers, and they're currently (46 years later) sitting on the floor in my living room as part of a home theater/stereo system arrangment and being powered by a modern JVC home theater receiver. The only changes to the speakers I've made is to replace the grille cloth as the originals became faded. But the little "Advent" badges are the originals. I don't have the purchase receipt for these, unfortunately.
Here's a photo of one of them. The other one looks just like it. These things aren't small, measuring about 26 inches high and about 14 inches wide. They're almost big enough to be used as end-tables, and my wife does set some decorative glassware on them.
In the mid-80s, I needed a set of bookshelf speakers for the den, and I bought a relatively inexpensive pair of Realistic-brand speakers from Radio Shack. I still have those speakers, and they still work fine. Too bad we can's say the same for Radio Shack itself. I have the purchase receipt for the speakers as well as the little specs sheet that came with them.
Purchased on March 3, 1984 from the Radio Shack store at Great Northern Mall in North Olmstead, Ohio (suburb of Cleveland). We lived in Rocky River at the time. $29.95 each. I don't recall what the second and third items shown on the receipt were. The third one is some kind of "jack." Old Radio Shack catalogs are available online, and I may go look at the 1984 catalog and see if I can figure out what these were as the stock numbers are shown.
The speakers themselves. Currently in storage awaiting their next assignment. I took them out to take this photo.
Last edited by jaunty75; May 11th, 2020 at 02:04 PM.
I managed to find the three items on that Radio Shack receipt in the 1984 RS catalog.
The top one, 40-1990, is the speakers themselves, but, interestingly, the catalog price is double what I paid for them. They must have been on sale, or being discontinued.
The second item is, not surprisingly, speaker wire. I guess that word under "description" is "wire" in scribbled handwriting. Catalog number 278-1384, bottom one on this list.
The third item is a wall jack so you can put speaker wire behind the wall in the room. I remember doing this now. I put the speaker wire behind the paneling in the room these speaker were first used in.
That’s great stuff DG, thank you for sharing! Wish I had some of my original gear, but it it’s all been wiped out from hurricane hits over the years, so I’ve been collecting to replace.
I have a Marantz SR 4000 too, picked for $100, cleaned the pots and it sounds quite nice.
Forgot I still had my Dad's vintage 30w Criterion bookshelf speakers, hooked up to my old first-gen Panasonic digitally-tuned stereo / phono / cassette combo (I will NOT be posting a pic of that, because it's definitely not vintage... just old). I suppose these speakers aren't exactly vintage because they were cheap, but the wood cabinets and webbing / fabric has held up well. Hell, even the woofers, mids, and tweeters still sound good. They may not be worth much, but the sentimental value to me is very high. I've offered them back to my Dad a couple of times, but he laughs and says I can keep them. If anything were to fail on these, I would definitely hang onto them and fix at some point. For now, they are part of the basement sound system.
I still have the stuff I got in 71, Crown ic150 preamp, Bose 1801 amp and a Thorens 125 turntable with an SME arm. Speakers had a few different ones, but always wanted Klipschhorns in 99 I finally had suitable space for the corner horns and ordered them, have not been disappointed at all with them.
Haha Fun - you da bomb. Is that what you use to listen to records when you put the top down🤣
What auto manufacturer in the 60s had a turntable as an option? Crazy.
I have seen the record players for cars I know chrysler had one and I thought Olds did too they are on ebay but not cheap
My home entertainment system is a bunch of different Fisher tube stuff, X1000, FM200, 800C, 500C, X100B. Klipsch Cornwall II speakers. A couple of Pioneer turntables PL707, PL530. Oh, my CD player also has vacuum tubes.
Love the stories, and the gear and the provenance, so let’s see more photos.
Show us LaScalas and Cornwalls or Klipschorns. Or some JBL L100s.
B&Ws and B&O. Or your tube gear. Or your sounddesign eight track cassette turntable all in one. I had one in seventh grade too🤣
Still have my Kenwood receiver, Dual 505 turntable and Boston Acoustics A60s that I bought in the summer after 8th grade in 1982/83. Also have a Kenwood Model Eleven, Dual 501/ Ortofon 40 and Boston Acoustics A70s. Walls of audiophile and mint original LPs and CDs accumulated over 30 years. I get tempted to thin things out periodically but I love and breathe music so it's tough to do. Are any of you members at the Steve Hoffman audiophile crack den?
Terry
Man, my home office is a mess looking at these... I spy my parents' old KLH model thirty-threes off to the left of the rock shelves. Those were paired with a Kenwood receiver/turntable unit originally.
Last edited by vette442; May 11th, 2020 at 09:06 PM.
I have a Marantz SR 4000 too, picked for $100, cleaned the pots and it sounds quite nice
Cool!
I've got a couple of other vintage pieces I didn't have pictures of. I didn't buy either of these new.
This is a Realistic STA-77A receiver I bought for about $15 at an estate sale about six months ago. It is in pristine condition cosmetically, and it works beautifully. These things were works of art. It's difficult to see in the photo, but the little light that lights up when you tune in a stereo station is actually at the tip of the dial pointer. It's lit up in the photo where the pointer is about the 103.1 mark.
Note the "Q Vox" position on the speaker switch. This receiver has 4-channel sound capability, at least in theory. Remember that fad from the early/mid '70s? "Quadraphonic Sound." I don't think this receiver actually has that technology. I think this was just a gimmick.
Like the other Radio Shack items, this one can be found in the catalog. It turns out to be the 1977 catalog, page 10. Original price was $259.95. The quadraphonic sound capability is mentioned in the last sentence of the product description.
This is an Akai GX-4000D reel-to-reel tape deck I bought on ebay back in late 2013. I occasionally come across reel tape recordings that I want to transfer to electronic format, and this comes in handy. I don't know the manufacturing date on this, but it's from the '70s.
When the deck was listed on ebay, the seller included a video of the deck in action. Because nothing on the internet ever goes away, that video is still available. This video is of my actual Akai deck.
...Don’t knock Bose until you’ve heard some of its 1970s gear!...
All of their stuff is great. My ex's uncle had a small what looked like an oversized clock radio with cd player in it. You wouldn't think that this device would put out sound that loud. After he died, that was the first item one of the relatives snatched away from the others.
Most people don't either know or underestimate the attention to detail those Japs put into these devices. The price was high. But, unlike the junk we're now getting from Japan's former almost colony, nothing left the factory without thoroughly being tested. There was no such thing, back then, as loading a shipping container accepting that 40% of those items will end up getting customer returned.
A friend of mine no longer had use for a HP printer that was Made in Japan. This was one of those early laser types which weighed about as much as a boat anchor. She lost the boot floppy. So, I tried getting online softwate from HP. They wrote back telling me that they didn't have any and that I should consult a repair shop. At that point, my life long boycott of Hewlett-Packard products began. Because of them, I ended up parting out this perfectly good printer and was amazed at how meticulous those people were at putting this together. It made me kind of sad to see the undoing of someone else's dedication to perfection. Doing this with today's imports seems like undoing something fully alien and one wonders how such slipshod-looking devices even function.
If anyone's restoring a cathode-ray tube radio, experts recommend not using cheap from You Know Where parts. I was told that Japanese condensers, resistors, capacitors, tubes etc... are best for this
Last edited by Killian_Mörder; May 11th, 2020 at 10:41 PM.
This is a Realistic STA-77A receiver I bought for about $15 at an estate sale about six months ago. It is in pristine condition cosmetically, and it works beautifully. These things were works of art. It's difficult to see in the photo, but the little light that lights up when you tune in a stereo station is actually at the tip of the dial pointer. It's lit up in the photo where the pointer is about the 103.1 mark.
Note the "Q Vox" position on the speaker switch. This receiver has 4-channel sound capability, at least in theory. Remember that fad from the early/mid '70s? "Quadraphonic Sound." I don't think this receiver actually has that technology. I think this was just a gimmick.
My best friend in HS had that same exact receiver. I repaired it a couple of times for him (he'd have like 3 pairs of speakers hooked up to it and blasted them all the time, blowing the output transistors). That Q-Vox feature was just that, the B speakers would be connected in series with each other, and then they'd be connected to the L & R "+" outputs, so the difference signal (L-R) would get piped through the B speakers. It did add "ambiance" to the sound, but not real quadraphonic (which required 4 discrete amplification channels). It was a cheap trick used by many manufacturers between that early '70s Quad phase and the Dolby Pro-Logic surround sound of the late '80s.
Terry I follow Steve Hoffman and Audiokarma - you have some great gear - that Kenwood reminds me of the “jumbo jet” KR6170 receiver. If you’ve never seen one Google Kenwood jumbo jet.
Jaunty you continue inspire with your receipts stories and your photos, that’s a fabulous akai reel to reel!
Johnny few things in FM land beat a great college radio station, I’m a big fan of WXPN do you mind if I ask where you were at?
I think we all agree, this gear was built to last - and much of what is sold today just doesn’t measure up.
Last edited by vCode442; May 12th, 2020 at 10:12 AM.
Johnny few things in FM land beat a great college radio station, I’m a big fan of WXPN do you mind if I ask where you were at?
WEAX, "The Ax", 88.3, Angola IN (Tri-State Univ., now known as TRINE). At the time I was there, they barely had enough power to reach beyond Stuben county. They've installed a more powerful transmitter since I've left. I remember one time when power was out on 1/2 of the campus we were operating off of a generator while I was doing my show (in the basement of the men's dorm). All of a sudden the power in the studio went out and we were off the air. It was as dark as being in a casket in there, had to feel my way out to where there was a window. Checked the generator outside and it had tripped its breaker. Must have been that Triumph I was playing. The station manager had me dial back the RF power when I bought the transmitter back up to keep from tripping the breaker again. Good memories.
Thought I’d post a few oddball projects, you don’t see many of them. From the mid to late 70s.
On top is Stereotech 1200, designed by McIntosh engineers in Binghamton but made in Japan, weighs a ton and is really a great unit. Needs a few bulbs and pots cleaned. 50WPC
Next from Oslo Norway a Tandberg TR 2040 from 1975. 40WPC. Needs volume ****.
And on the bottom is a huge Craig 5503 receiver, yes the same people that made your first under dash eight track player. 50WPC made in Japan 1977. MSRP: $450.00. Needs bulbs.
Last edited by vCode442; May 12th, 2020 at 08:47 PM.
Here's a photo of the first receiver I purchased when in HS (late 70s), a Miida 3125, 22 Wpc. I still have it, although its in a storage box and hasn't been used in over 20 years, but I know it still works. The only repair required was a new volume POT, and bulbs. Its soldiered with me though college and multiple exes and has sustained its share of abuse (it stood-in for my frat's sound system for one party when our house speakers were stolen.......I volunteered my 12" 3-way home-made speakers for use under the condition that I also used my receiver instead of the more powerful house amp.....because I knew the house amp - before the aforementioned Sansui but still ~80 Wpc - would blow the '60s vintage Magnavox woofers I used from my parent's console COLOR! TV/Stereo/Record Player and this receiver could not.........believe me I tried). Its solidly built, discrete TO-3 outputs (before the days when hard-to-find plastic hybrid power modules were used).
This was replaced in the early '90s with a Sony STRD-something Dolby Pro-Logic surround receiver (100 Wpc) that I still occasionally use when spinning tunes for parties (w/ my same home-built speakers - now w/ some heavy duty 12" woofers and custom cross-over ......same Magnavox 3x9 horn mids and Radio Shack...Realistic super-tweets as I've always had). The only permanently setup "proper" audio system I have in my home now is my 7.1 home theater (another Sony STRD-something receiver - 110 Wpc, 12" / 450W Infinity sub, small Polk fronts and surrounds, Benq W6000 1080p DLP projector, 106" power-retractable tensioned Elite screen, an LG smart blu-ray player is primary A/V source).
Anyone remember the brand PROJECT/one? I still have a pair of PROJECT/one headphones laying around somewhere, and I used to have a PROJECT/one DR-5 direct drive turntable w/ a nice AT MM cartridge. This is the turntable I sold in '81 to a buddy for cash to buy my '68 Cutlass from my dad.
Last edited by JohnnyBs68S; May 12th, 2020 at 09:43 AM.
Cant tell what that is 11971, but Koda your set up rocks. Love to see some pics. I have a Marantz 2238B in a wood case, and its 38 wpc sound like 100 - I’m sure yours must shake the house with those cornwalls
This is from a year ago with only half the stuff there, but that's the Marantz 2385 next to one of the SL1200s and the right side Cornwall III. The rack is going in that spot in between the speaker and the door into the dining room, which had no furniture in it at the time and the speaker boxes.
Below is a Sanyo JCX 2400 KR I’ve recently cleaned and put back into the rotation. From 1978 made in Japan, 55 WPC. It’s a real sleeper, many say it was built by pioneer engineers, looks similar to the famous SX850.
Great build quality - reminds me of Oldsmobiles, somewhat underappreciated by the general public.
Last edited by vCode442; May 29th, 2020 at 04:31 PM.
Back in 2016 we had occasion to travel to Korea, and one day we were wandering around our hotel in Seoul. In one of the shopping strips, we came across a store selling vintage electronics. They weren't open when we walked by, but there was lots of stuff in the windows, so I snapped a few photos.
I've never seen nor heard of a Marantz "computer" stereo tuner. I wonder what that was all about.
Great pics Jaunty, computer controlled was a euphemism for digital - becoming all the rage in the 80s, and sadly the demise of the wonderful analog tuning dial. Note the spectacular Gyro touch tuning rotary dial just underneath the computer controlled tuner. Magnificent.
Personally I think it marks the end of the best vintage audio gear era - plastic builds, and equipment harder to fix/ restore - like the early digital automotive dashboards of the 80s and 90s.
Last edited by vCode442; May 13th, 2020 at 11:28 AM.
Great pics Jaunty, computer controlled was a euphemism for digital - becoming all the rage in the 80s, and sadly the demise of the wonderful analog tuning dial. Note the spectacular Gyro touch tuning rotary dial just underneath the computer controlled tuner. Magnificent.
Personally I think it marks the end of the best vintage audio gear era - plastic builds, and equipment harder to fix/ restore - like the early digital automotive dashboards of the 80s and 90s.
I agree! Digital tuning has it's benefits, but from an aesthetics view, blah. I'd rather have the warmth of analog and tubes, and watch the needle meters jump around as opposed to LED's. Dammit, you guys have me obsessing about vintage gear now, I'll probably pick something up this summer if we ever get out of this pandemic mess.
If you’re looking on eBay, search units being sold “ for parts or repair” unless you want to spend top dollar - and buy the best cosmetics you can. Look for “scratchy” audio output and confirm the unit comes out of protection, if equipped Usually a can of electrical contact cleaner, removing the top/ case and deoxing the switches and pots (potentiometers) is all that is needed. These units were built to last. Shipping can be more costly than the unit itself, and they get banged around - double boxing helps. Make offers.
Deals are out there, especially locally. It’s all about timing at thrift shops and on craigslist.
JVC VR5515 on top. Made in Japan 1975. Approximately 20WPC and beautiful dial illumination. $30 on eBay. Needed a good cleaning and that’s it. Great look and sound.
Kenwood KR4140 on bottom. Made in Japan 1970. 18WPC that sound like 80. Grabbed it locally for under $50 a few years ago. Cleaned and wired to Klipsch Heresy IIs - rattled the garage, and the house, and the neighborhood.
Last edited by vCode442; May 13th, 2020 at 08:06 PM.
...I've never seen nor heard of a Marantz "computer" stereo tuner. I wonder what that was all about...
They likely meant, "Computerized Stereo Tuning", since as you see, there isn't a manual tuning **** attached. Not to forget, this was earlier Japanese English-language proficiency, just like trying to interpret their older user manuals.
A Philippino co-worker I knew in the early 80s once told me that Japan used to ship their junk cars to them, while sending the perfect stuff to first world countries. If this was fact, I then wonder about that equipment sitting in a Korean shop window
Last edited by Killian_Mörder; May 13th, 2020 at 11:24 PM.
For your consideration, 1978 TEAC A601R cassette deck, made in Japan. 30 pounds with wood case - needed belts changed - thought I’d have some fun inside, it’s too hot to be in the garage.
It sux that those bands have their own specific circumferences. What you probably could do would be to canibalize bands of equal width from newer appliances like discarded printers and then construct your own mini tensioners, in order to take up slack.
Another remote possibility would be to browse Japanese sites for any existing replacements: https://www.amazon.co.jp/s?k=teac&__...f=nb_sb_noss_1
May 11th, 2020, 10:20 AM
The station manager had me dial back the RF power when I bought the transmitter back up to keep from tripping the breaker again. Good memories.
