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64.142.68.110
I don't have much of a feeling for the sound of these. People here seem to rate them about the same as each other. Anyone have further thoughts? What about cutoff years; example, is a 1980 Technics or Kenwood too late?Also -- does anybody think a Nikko, Hitachi, or Toshiba is preferable to the above?
Many thanks,
Steve.
Follow Ups:
I recently picked up a Toshiba SA-735 receiver. This was in a buddy's
garage for several years. Before that, his wife found it in a pile of
junk when she bought an old locker/storage unit.After removing the old car parts stacked on top of the receiver and
getting it home, I removed the cover and did a visual inspection of
the unit. One blown power supply fuse was covered in foil. I
replaced this with the correct fuse. I hoped this wasn't a problem
with the PS. All other fuses looked good. I measured them anyway.
Nothing looked burned.I brought power up slowly on a variac. Starting at 30vac, I brought
up the AC slowly over the next 2 hours.Once at full power, I checked the dc voltage on the speaker taps. I
got less than 75mV so I figured the output transistors must be ok.I turned off the power, hooked up some bench speakers and an FM
antenna (a piece of 16g stranded wire - no dipole in the junk box).
Powered back up (using variac again but just turned the dial up the
117vac) and listened to the sound. I went though all switches noting
any problematic ones. Balance switch was loose and cut out sound,
volume scratchy, tape monitor switches good, speaker switches good, no
hum from PS caps. Also look for any burned out lamps. Only one found
by the dial but with three others, not even noticeable.I powered the receiver down. I went out side and carefully blew out
the 30 years of dust. Be careful to blow 'down stream' so you don't
breath in the dust. Also, don't hit the variable caps (or air gap
caps). These can be fragile.Lightly cleaned all switches. I've read one problem with these older
Toshiba receivers is the power switch also controls the speaker
outputs. These are known to break without any replacements available.
I didn't spray any contact cleaner on this switch.The loose balance switch required me to re-solder the pins on the PCB.
Removing the PCB for access was a challenge but re-wetting the pins
fixed the problem. Re-attached the board, switches and heat sinks to
the chassis and fired it back up. Balance switch now working.Now only AM. The am/fm/aux/phono switch wasn't working. Looking at
the selector switch, the center pin was falling out. I was able to
work the pin back in. This fixed the switch. Note to self: be more
careful with the contact cleaner.The receiver now works but looks very dirty. I removed all the knobs
(carefully noting the bass and treble locations) and face plate. A
bit of Windex to remove the grime, some soapy water to remove the
Windex and a good rinse brought out a nice silver shine to everything.
All labeling in very good condition.Applied a bit of wood restore stain to the cabinet. Re-attached all
the knobs. Hooked up the speakers and started enjoying this little
35w/c receiver. About the only thing I didn't do was to dial down the
dc offset or hook up a scope to 'center' the tone controls. Since
this is going into the brewery, it isn't *that* important.While looking for bargains, don't over look your buddy's garage junk
pile. You might find a gem. I feel I did.rick
I've used several Kenwoods quite a bit. They were just fine to me.
These were the KR-8010 and KR-9600 receivers and the KA-7300 amplifier with KT-7500 tuner. The tuner sections, AM and FM were all pretty good, and the amplifiers didn't have any obvious flaws to me. That KA-7300 amplifier is built like the Harmon & Kardons, with dual power supplies, etc.
9090
In response to David's post concerning the Technics SA-350, I also bought one of these units a while ago (I saw it at a yard sale for about 3 bucks, so I thought "what the hell"). I'd agree with David that the thing does produce a lot of heat, even at lower volumes, and I would agree that it's got plenty of power (although I've never really pushed it, the lower and middle volumes are more than enough for my purposes). Unfortunately, I'm really not too impressed with the sound--the bass seems weird, kind of boomy at times. Furthermore, I've noticed some issues with its ability to reproduce some mid range sound (on one particular CD I noticed that an entire guitar solo was virtually lost because the sound was so muddy and ill-defined!) Needless to say, although I don't regret dropping the whopping sum of 3 dollars to try out something that was new to me, I don't use this particular piece of equipment at all anymore and I'll be looking to sell or give it away soon (it's been sitting in my closet, and I've returned to the sweet sounds of my Sansui 5000)
IMHO, the early-mid 80s was something of a high-water mark for the Technics line. These were the very trimmed-down models that a lot of the guys here regularly overlook because they are styled as post-vintage units not vintage units and appear to be light weight, often with digital tuning.I have a 1983 Technics SA-350 with about 40 watts of their so-called new class A power ($147 new as I recall). The unit heats up like a toaster, but this has not affected its longevity now going on 25 years. A few years ago I picked up a very similar maybe 6-month newer SA-351 for my bedroom system on ebay for about $20, and that is equally solid.
THe SA 350 is my usual power for my den HT sound. These are amazingly fine-sounding trouble-free "sleeper" units that can be had for almost nothing, with power enough to drive most speakers to loud volumes.
I was never as fond of the Technics designs from the 70s. They seen like "also ran" units for the period. I think if you want the classic vintage 70s design with the big wooden case I would go with Kenwood or Sherwood instead.
David
My experience is limited with the last three you mention. Some of the guys here are very high on Nikko, but I have no experience. I have worked a little with Hitachi and a little with Toshiba. I thought they were pretty good, but I wouldn't consider them better than Kenwood or Technics.
I rather liked the earlier Technics with the 4 digit model numbers (like SA-5360), but I felt the later ones were cheapened and lacked low impedance power.The Kenwoods were all very good up through about 1980. I still have a KR-6050 that has really good sound. The upper models in that particular series, the 8050 and 9050 didn't do well into 4 ohm loads, but the lower models were very nice.
You might also consider Onkyo and Sherwood. I'm a big fan of Onkyo.
Jerry
Thanks for the information, Jerry. I've got and like some Onkyo (early integrated) and Sherwood (early low-wattage, cap-coupled rcvr) gear. I may also end up with Pioneer (727 or 737 probably) or Sansui, both of which I know.The rest, I don't, outside of my big Kenwood tuner.
Kenwoods KR-6600 and KR-5600 (both 1977) and 6050 (1980) --any idea of the differences?
Thanks again.
Steve.
Here's a bit of heresy. The Kenwood x050 series was an improvement on what came before (and I loved my KR-9600).
I am down to two receivers, the incredible Concept 16.5 and the Nikko NR-1015, a great 85 wpc receiver.
I'm also a huge fan of the Onkyo receivers, and have had the TX-8500MkII, TX-7000 (one of the very best in its class @ 90 wpc), and the TX-5000 that has got to be one of best in the 65 wpc class.
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