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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
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,770 posts
 
Mint:

"The Japanees receiviers of the 1970's will outperform ANY compination of seperate components made today regardless of price"

This statement ranks up there with your "powerslam" of acoustic suspension design speakers in an another post this week. You really can't be serious ... or maybe you just have not have listened to ANY separates or acoustic suspension designs, for that matter.

In all candor, it was the Japanese receivers of the 70's that drove us to buying separates in the 80's and 90's. Even today, the Marantz 2240 receiver that I use in a bedroom system does not perform at the level of my NAD C320BEE integrated amp... and that is at least a fair comparison ... both units were/are lower priced electronics of their respective product lines.

Regards, Rich
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hammy
176 posts
 
Yes, a mistake! Good for garage shop though.
jsujo
348 posts
 
I have an old Sansui 222 and had many other Pioneers, Sansui, etc etc...McIntosh included, and I never ever had a problem with any of them...

dont forget that many of those units were the end result of R&D budgets of millions of dollars that are unheard of nowadays...
To dismiss them as quasi door stoppers is kinda assinine and not very objective.
subaruguru
1,375 posts
 
The tuner section of my old NAD7400 receiver continues to outperform the new one in their T751 receiver, nearly matching that of my Magnum Dynalab.
$100 spent on a couple of power caps and a thorough cleaning restored this dozen-year old battleship to as-new 3rd system service. And oh my that tuner!
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.
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