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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
playitagain
5 posts
 
I have an old Harmon Kardon 730 Receiver. I used to sell audio gear retail in the late 70's to middle 80's. I kept a twin powered HK 730 as it was the last discrete component receiever they made and sounded darn good. I still use it in a bedroom system with some not so great speakers - but when I plug in my vintage Sennheiser HD-414's (with the new large yellow foam pads ;-) that HK730 sings. I saw an HK 730 go for over $100.00 + shipping on Ebay this last week. A lot of newer receivers won't go that high on Ebay. The pots and buttons are a little noisy - but the sound would be hard to match for anywhere near 8 to 10 times the Ebay price with new gear today. I believe there are a lot of vintage bargains out there. Like turntables,vinyl and tubes discrete component amplifiers, solid state and tubes, can be a joy to own. IMHO
csmoser4f01
1 posts
 
Capscitors are what updating is all about. Everything needs maintenance and if rou're not willing to do that then yes you'll get degeneration. To make a blanket statement like the new sounds better than the old is comical and not worth an arguement. Mos
tomryan
797 posts
 
I, too, love the look and feel of the old recievers such as my first Sansui from 1974 but...! I went to a local hi-fi show last winter which had a lot of old gear with about 3-4 systems driven by 25-35 yr old receivers - all of which sounded pretty bad compared to the systems using modern tube amps and speakers. Made me lose any interest whatsoever.
c123666
871 posts
 
The old stuff sounds very good once it has been gone through and rebuilt. These things are 20 to 50 years old. When someobody is advertising a Dynaco SCA35 for 200 with the description of "original, looks good, works fine, sold as is" you should expect it will require new tubes and components (caps, resistors, wiring) as well as a general cleaning. Expect to put at least 250 into any of the older tube stuff.

Good stuff when rebuilt with modern parts. The Pilot receiver for sale right now is a good example of something that would sound good and be useful and it has already been gone through.
cds9000
22 posts
 
There's yet another reason to buy an old receiver that no one's mentioned...or maybe I missed it. Beyond getting near-modern performance on the cheap, and beyond the nostalgia factor, there's the notion of lineage.

Everything we have today in terms of audio gear has decended from the stuff made in the 70's. In a lot of ways, the old(er) stuff represents the "forefathers" of high end audio. All our modern gear is produced by guys who designed, or grew up on, gear from the 70's.

So, why not go out and get one, just as a history lesson? As someone pointed out, we've all probably spent $100 on something far more frivolous. My dad gave me his old Fisher (no idea what model) when I was about 16-17 years old, and I loved it. The volume and balance knobs started cutting out really badly though, and I gave it to Goodwill. Still kicking myself for that one...
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