2. amps-preamps
  3. 1026268359

Old Classic Receivers: A Mistake to Buy?

I was contemplating purchasing a 70's receiver, as I used to love the construction and appearance of the Sansui, Kenwood, Pioneer, Marantz. However, when I ran this by an audio friend, he said, "Forget it."

He says: They sound terrible. The caps & resistors used before the early 90s' were dreadful. The electrolytics are drying up and will start crackling and substantially degrade the sonics. The switches and controls used were almost never sealed, so they deteriorate and make noise and can't be fixed even by taking them apart and cleaning them.

Tuners: He says that nearly all non-digital tuners used varactors, which go out of alignment and cause problems, so no old tuners, with the exception of the Mac MR-78 and possibly a few others, are worth dealing with.

I am tempted to believe all that he is saying is true, but I see a market for these items, and also know that people claim they are still using these pieces for 25 years.

What's the truth here? Can some of the techies enlighten me?
kevziek

Showing 1 response by john_l

john_l
782 posts
 
(disclaimer:the 4275 it is for sale).
I have a mac 4275 receiver which is from the late 80's/early 90's. It's almost laughable how good it sounds.

I also have completely stock 30 y/0 mr71 (tube), mr78, and mr80 tuners. They all sound magnificent. I bought the 71 from the original owner who only changed the tubes and had it aligned once. I can play these side by side with my hotrod scd-1 and my arc ph3 sources and they are sonically in the same general keeping (the sony rules). I'd say they sound better than 90% of the cd player's I've heard.

I do note that my 1990 denon receiver finally started to have noise with some of the inputs - probably from too many connects/disconnects. On the clean channels it sounds pretty good. Mass midfi, but good.

I would definitely stay away from the cheaper stuff.
More to discover