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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
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.
nanderson
291 posts
 
Regarding tuners and I have tens and tens of them: The ICs found in many modern tuners can be almost impossible to repair. The MR-67/MR-71 Macs are incredible sounding tuners with gold pin Mullards or better Telefunkens and a professional alignment. I would bypass the volume control on the back of the MR-71 for better sonics. The later Mac tuners in the 70s and 80s where more about reception capability and the 90s tuners more about convenience. Its true you may want to replace some of the caps in the old MR-67/MR-71s but it is well worth it since they can not be beat for sonics from a musicality standpoint (incredible especially when you think, "my god just think how old these are") and I have had several other Stereophile Class A and B tuners. Not until you have gone through over 50 tuners can you have the confidence to make such a statement. If you have difficult reception problems then some newer designs are worth it.
jvr
105 posts
 
i dont know. i have an old nad 3020 and sumo charlie tuner in an office system (bought in college). it sounds very good. (i also have a mac 67; in my main system; and second the above postings).

will the old receivers sound as good as new seperates? no...will they sound better than todays common receivers....my money is yes. if they break; it may be hard to repair them though.

as a last thought...i passed up a marantz receiver at a thrift shop the other day (looking for albums)...only to find it was going for 300$ on ebay for parts!!! it was 12$

someone likes their sound.

most of all....if you like the sound....who cares what anyone else thinks.

Jim
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