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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 4 responses by kevziek

kevziek OP
323 posts
 
Millions of dollars on R&D to design the receivers of the 70's? Try backing that statement up - no way. I don't doubt that you had a number of receivers without problems, but did you own any of them for 20 years? I had receivers/integrated without problems, but I didn't keep any of them longer than about 4 years.

I'd be interested in someone who has changed out electrolytics describe the process of doing so on your own rather than pay a technician's rates to work on these units.
kevziek OP
323 posts
 
It's nice to hear all of you who like old classic stuff. It appears a number of you have had little problem with your older pieces. However, what about the aging, drying capacitor issue? I mean, even Nelson Pass said the electrolytics last for 15 years and that's it. I'm stumped on this one.

I do agree that older solid state pieces are overpriced now. With the probability of component failure, not mentioning that they don't sound as good as newer stuff (sorry guys, I don't think they do for the most part), these pieces should really be bargain priced. I see people getting too much for 25 year old original solid state electronics. These parts are not of the quality or longevity level to last forever. Now, if someone had changed a number of parts inside...that would be a different story.
kevziek OP
323 posts
 
Audiobeer,
Who is the rebuilder of the 70's classics? Let us know.
kevziek OP
323 posts
 
Something nobody's mentioned is the cheap phenolic circuit boards used back then. They were really junk.
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