Opinions on the Tandberg 3012

Wow!  Hadn't heard the name "Tandberg" in a while.

I worked in a Tandberg dealer in DC in the 1979-1981 era, had a TR2080 for quite some time, enjoyed the sound very much.  In 1980 my wife & I took a trip thru Scandanavia, stopped and toured the factory in Oslo, enjoyed lunch with one of their engineers, who I believe jumped ship to NAD.

I believe the Tandberg audio company no longer exists, they do conferencing and data products now.  But if you purchase an old Tandberg product, one of my techie friends says you can always get it repaired, if you have the schematic.

Tandberg gear is excellent and you probably will seldom see it for sale here and other websites. This is what I would call the fun stuff.

Tandberg gear still in good operating condition is a keeper still. I wish I still had mine and am tempted to pick  up another Tandberg amp in particular quite often.   I had a tr2080 receiver for many years.  It was my favorite line we sold back in Tech Hifi days by a fair margin I would say.  No other line had the midrange and overall musicality of the Tandberg gear.  Especially the classic Japanese lines. 

Tandberg is my favorite vintage amplifier brand. I love my 3012a and recently acquired a 3008a/3006a combo... the class A mosfets are very nice. In order to really hear them shine, you want a nice set of speakers (obviously)

The 3008a/3006a paired with my Fulton J Modulars is the best combo I've ever heard, and Im lucky enough to own it.

What kind of speakers would you be using it with?

Can't comment on the 3012. Additional thoughts: My multi-zone system has a 3002 A control amplifier and 3011 tuner. It sounds great through a 12-channel amp. The 3002A is controlling 6 separate stereo zones. It sounds very full and rich on distant cable runs with multi-zone speakers because I can tweek the lost bass and treble signals from minor losses over long cables.

My computer has a Tandberg 3006 2-channel amp pushing Athena's. Together, they sound great.

The tuner was my first higher end component. Tandberg made some great sounding, very musical solid state components. I can't comment on Rotel.