I was the assistant manager of a Radio Shack in 1977. We sold tons of hifi. The big deal back then was the Mach 1 speaker. 15" woofer and a giant horn loaded tweeter. Looked just like a Klipsch. I remember the hifi magazines used to review the equipment and give it some praise. Radio Shack was by far and away the largest reseller of hifi nationaly.
I've been pleased with some of the better-known Realistic audio kit I've heard lately. With a little EQ, even Minimus-7s are pretty big sounding speakers for their size.
i would love to check out the mach 1. i am a fan of the minimus 7's. i used them for years for mixing audio for television. they are a great small speaker monitor.
My favorite Radioshack hi-fi product: Minimus speakers! LOVED those things! Also like the Optimus line quite a bit. Bought a good bunch of hi-fi from The Shack, and never regretted a single purchase.
That series is a sleeper. IMHO, it sounds about as good as any 70s silver face from Pioneer or Sansui, etc. I have an STA 2270, a sister model. Punches way above its rated watts. Loudness? Hell yeah!
Love the shack but yamaha is the way to go for loudness control. They had a loudness KNOB! Paradoxically, when you turn it up the volume goes down, because it lowers the midrange. Once you get used to it, it's the best for low level listening.
Yes, that was my understanding of the loudness function as well. Didn't know that when I was a kid so I left it on regardless of volume. Louder the better am I right 😁
Just make sure you don't press the "pure direct" button when you're using the loudness control. Not good for your speakers or your nerves. It's hard to get into the habit of leaving the main volume control alone and adjusting listening volume via the loudness knob (per the Yamaha manuals).
Being vintage myself, I love seeing vintage stereo equipment being talked about. If people want affordable gear that sounds good, find one of these. The big brands have become somewhat unattainable, but try Nikko, Sherwood, Technics, Kenwood and of course Realistic. You’ll find gems for $150 or less.
Great video Randy! I live in the vintage world, circa 1975. My favorites are old Jethro Tull, old Yes, Peter Gabriel‘s Genesis, old Fleetwood Mac, and for a guilty pleasure, Cat Stevens. I agree that vintage gear has an irreplaceable sound. With patience and a lot of trips, vintage gear shows up at thrift stores. I have picked up old Pioneer, Sansui, and Yamaha gear recently for less than $50. As an alternative, many audio technicians sell vintage gear. They also may give a 90 day warranty. One word of caution is that all the speakers do not sound as good as new speakers. Perhaps it’s because the crossovers and capacitors have gone bad. As vintage guy and modern manufacturer, Bob Carver would say, “enjoy the music! “
i'm feeling you Dan Stein. Just like walking into the electronics store in Boogie Nights I picked up my 1975 Sansui Au7700 amp, Marantz stereo receiver, BIC TT and BIC Venturi Formula 6 speakers. Still have them, speakers are gone except for the bones. A different time it was. Today I use JBL near field powered monitors, RME Interface/Dac, Mogami XLR balanced cable to MB Pro streaming Amazon Music Unlimited. So easy today's stuff and so good!
There are still around 400 Radio Shack stores open... including one in my town, Buffalo, MO. Still have a corner with a few capacitors, soldering iron, resistors, etc. Car stereos, toys, cell phones... good selection of batteries.
I like the Vintage Vibe, it brings back a lot of great memories. In 1984, $500 was a lot of money and wouldn't be in the Cheap Audio Man budget. My first concert with my wife that year, Ratt and their Round and Round tour with Huey Lewis and the News with their hit "I want a new drug". Looking forward to the next Vintage Vibe.
Sounds like you were on a treasure hunt and found gold!!! Good for you! Makes me want to dig up my old Vector Research receiver and start replacing capacitors. 👍👍👍
As far as I know the loudness button was to make the sound fuller at low volume. This was done by boosting the bass and treble in a v-curve. Perhaps the loudness button was replaced by Klipsch speakers! I believe the loudness modification also decreased as the volume increased. This is what I'm recalling from an old Harman kardon hk730 receiver manual.
As your friend Ron Burgandy over at the “I Got A New Record Today” channel would explain, at low volumes our ears perceive sound differently, ie we perceive midrange sounds to sound more prominent and thusly we can’t hear the frequency extremes as well. The loudness button attempts to flatten the perceived frequency response for us at low listening levels by boosting the low bass and upper treble. As you increase volume this u-shaped curve should go away to sound ‘flat’ to our ears. Thanks for the video!
Yep, the loudness button was there to improve those late night listening sessions by turning a flat response amp to one with a U shaped response. None of the amps I ever heard or read about automatically reduced the U shape as the volume rose. In those days, it was just managed by passive components in the pre-amp. If you were playing loud, you were supposed to turn the loudness off, but plenty of people loved the amp’s sound with loudness on. Loudness was also better than tone controls as the resistors were fixed values which was an improvement over the carbon track potentiometers.
@@markcarrington8565 It should be easy enough to do these days. I’m still waiting for a loudness control that varies with the volume knob position, and that also takes into account the connected speakers’ sensitivity (e.g. 85dB vs. 96dB speakers).
I was in ninth grade and one yes away from hearing the system that got me hooked. Parasound DR 25 Eagle speakers Thorens TD 166 that I have today as my main table and it’s perfect.
Great review! I have only bought vintage audio in the last few years. Mostly McIntosh, Kenwood and Pioneer. A day and age where manufacturers were still trying to emulate the tube sound using SS. Warm and engaging.
If you think that one is good, you should try a Kenwood, Pioneer, Marantz, Sansui, Technics, JVC, or Yamaha from the 70s. IMO, Kenwood is the best, unless you can afford Luxman
You're only getting a tiny taste of great vintage receiver sound. The early 70's Marantz, Harman Kardon, McIntosh and Sansui used the highest grade steel in their transformers and only used carbon comp and carbon film resistors. The same as you would find in the great guitar amps of the 50's, 60's and early 70's. After that cheap and the worst sounding metal oxide resistors starting creeping into gear and degrading the sound, making it thin, harsh, brittle, flat, small, grainy, etc...
@@bmpk4954 I'm talking about what's most musical and satisfying to listen to. You're talking about measurements. Listen with your ears and put away your mulitmeter. 50 years later this stuff still sounds so soulful and musical. Guitar players and music lovers know this. The best part about this gear is that it integrates so well with digital sources and modern speakers. So you combine the best of both worlds and take it to a new level.
I have a Denon PMA-920 that was destined for Goodwill and a Technics SA-GX650 that I got for $60. Yeah they're not from the "Golden Age" of receivers but I'm 33 and they're vintage to me, and I've been having a ton of fun tweaking and experimenting with them. And in the age of Sound bars they are a lot more interesting to own.
As an old timer I bought my first pair of Realistic headphones from Radio shack in 1966. They were ugly but had a feature that if you wore the phones with right cup on left ear and vice versa you got this amazing 3D quality to your music. Have no idea what was going on but my friends were amazed. Listened to all those amazing 60s albums with these headphones up till 1971 when the phones died.
I grabbed a very clean one for $100 shipped in about '05 (or sooner). I don't work it real hard, but the thing sounds really good with TT and Wharfedale Diamond 10.1s in a small room. A full, smooth sound with really good bass. Effective tone controls. Phono stage seems fine. Lights all still work (knock on wood). An off-the-chart investment. Not sure what I'll do when it seems to need restoration. On another wall in that room sits a really nice Marantz 2270. Selling the Marantz and fixing the 737 would probably be the prudent thing, but dang, they're both so beautiful.
Great video, Randy. Started my vintage collection 18 months ago and have been through countless amps, tuners, cd players, speakers and even a couple of turntables. I’ve bought back my first turntable and amp along the way. At the same time I learnt to fix and upgrade the gear and it’s become a self financing hobby. I even make my own cables, which folk pay actual money for and they tell me they love them! All this stuff has been resident in my system in the study and has provided endless hours of fun. Current amp is a Sansui AU-217 MkII, which has been lavished with new upgraded parts and wiring. It has a wonderfully large sound and oodles of grunt on tap!
Vintage gear like this is not that good. Its our nostalgia clouding our judgement. Class A/B amps havent changed much in 30 years, but pre amps have, and this is where this stuff has problems. A/V receivers have improved dramatically with their pre amp stages and its sonically obvious with decent speakers. Good memories though.
As someone who has both vintage gear and a modern AV receiver, I would agree that AV receivers can sound great. I would just add that I've had good luck with getting vintage gear restored, primarily recapped. My restored Harman kardon hk a-401 integrated amp from 1974 is more open and detailed, but not as full sounding as my AV receiver. Nice to have both.
I have a Realistic STA-2600 receiver that I found at a thrift store for less than $20 a few years ago that I have used as my main system. It is a beast and I LOVE it!...BTW it was in perfect condition when I picked it up and have never had any issues with it!
@@cheapaudioman The old stuff can sound very good and some stuff was absolutely gorgeous. I wouldn't hesitate to use some in a 'modern' system for 2 channel amplification. I swear the new, higher end Yamaha's (A-S1200) sound about the same as they did 40 years ago. One of the reasons I don't understand the push to class D. My current Yamaha has about 160,000 hours on it as I almost never turn it off and it doesn't have a standby feature.
One of the few things I regret selling is my restored Sansui 7000. A big cap-coupled beast of a receiver from the early 70's rated at 70 wpc. Running some AR-3a speakers it was a killer vintage setup.
I had a Marantz 2220 since 1972 and laugh when I see the prices that people want to sell these for. Take your hard earned money and buy a new integrated folks. Don't get these re-capped unless you're just nostalgic for those blue lights.
I think the reason 'loudness' was removed was because 'bass boost' replaced it and possibly also because amongst audiophiles it was something they hated. Loudness can't really be replicated because of what it did. It boosted lows to add thump at low volumes but also shifted the phase around at various frequencies completely changing time arrival of frequencies to alter what you hear.
Dear Randy, thank you for acknowledging the awesomeness of the year I turned 14. In the 80s I aspired to own what I couldn't afford then, top of the line NAD separates and a Technics SL-1200, which is exactly what I have now. Still working on getting the Magnepans I wanted, because my cat might like them as much as me.
The good news is that you can likely get it back. They’re out there and affordable. Check out “Offer Up” which is a great app for finding vintage gear locally, depending where ya live.
Recently picked up a Kenwood KR-3090 and absolutely love it! Vintage gear is why I can afford a respectable sound system. I do wish I had more years under my belt so I could experience the nostalgia of old gear, but I love it nonetheless. Happy listening!
The $32,000 Dan D'Agostino Momentum preamplifier has a bass and treble control, which you can use as a loudness control, so maybe it's not such a useless feature after all.
I remember in the late seventies I guess it was going to Sears at age 8 with my parents. Sears had a separate audio room. I went into the room and I can recall a pair of Sony speakers and there was music playing in the room but you would never know that the sound was coming from the speakers although it was. I was hooked ever since!😝😎
I was told by the seller of my Realistic2500 that the receiver was made by Foster/Fostex - but I cannot get that verified -she is 100wpc - a monster -a little ugly though
Pioneer made no Realistic audio. Neither did Marantz. Kenwood made a few receivers pre Tandy Electronics (1974). Between 1975-89 all receivers were made mostly by Tandy Electronics and 2-3 a year by Foster Electric. Not Fostex. Not Foster Electronics.
@@TheShackGuy thanx for the info Ed. I am a small collector and was going by the info the seller of my Realistic sta 2500 was. This unit is 100wpc and is a bit ugly I store it mostly but is my most powerful receiver.
I actually stopped listening to my main receiver because the loudness button stopped working. Love that loudness button, yes I do. Yes, I have enough vintage receivers that do have loudness buttons that I have not been quick to dig into the one that isn't working.
Hey Randy, the addition of the Loudness button was intended to address human hearing loss tied to specific frequencies that occurs at low volumes. This was discovered in the 1930's and plotted by two engineers Harvey Fletcher and Wilden Munson, hence the development of what is known as the Fletcher-Munson curves. The loudness button is designed to electrically compensate these natural hearing losses by boosting the applicable frequencies accordingly. As volume rises, the effect is gradually reduced as it is no longer needed. Hope this helps! P.S. I too used to sell Realistic gear in the late 70's / early 80's as a Radio Shack store manager!
Living room TV runs with Realistic STA-12 "Personal" (i.e. smaller) receiver and JBL 2500's (sens. 88 dB). Plays plenty loud at only 7 watts/ch. Loudness button: check. Basement stereo runs with Sherwood 202-CP amplifier (all aluminum up front, ~1983, 25 watts/ch) and 66 lb Infinity SM-125 (~1995, 12" woofers, sens. 100 dB). Do the math. Sounds awesome, inexplicably better with classical. Power levels meter, loudness button: check. Mono button? Oh, yeah. Bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer can sound great, of course, but there's something about the sound from big speakers in a big space.
I remember all that music from '84. My aunt gave me a Bradford receiver that year. It was awesome! Speaking of awesome,. My wife got me a pair of Sony sscs 5's to go with my Hitachi sr603!
I bought my STA-2500 new in 1986 & will be doing a few quick music demos hooked to the Quad s-2, Kef ls50’s & other speakers using the Chord Mojo DAC👍 I’ve used it on over 20 different sets.. Originally I bought the Mach Two’s with it.. I already had the Mach Ones hooked to a Pioneer sx-1250 .. The STA-2500 has Gobs of Power..
I got tired of messing with vintage receivers because every one I had caused noticeable hum through my Klipsch Hersy speakers. I bought a brand new moderately priced Cambridge Audio integrated amp and will never buy vintage crapola again.
Hey Randy. I found a top of the line NAD monitor series 3100 integrated amp from 1989 in bin. Although it's about 50w per channel it sounds like a 100w and sounds absolutely incredible very neutral so I had it totally restored
The purpose of the loudness button was to enhance low end extension at low volumes, it effectively is a bass boost that slowly step down fades as you increase volume. So it might be a ~10 db boost in bass at 1/100 volume, and only a 5 db boost at 5/100 and 1/100 boost at 10/100 type of thing. The reason for it was due to most speakers at the time having bass drivers that were not sensitive enough to play deeper notes at lower power, so the boost helped make speakers sound more full range at low volumes....or at least that was the idea behind it.
I don't care what anyone says, but I have 2 Nakamichi Stasis receivers, picked for $40 and $65 in recent years, and neither can be beaten by anything 10x more than what I paid for each!
If I remember correctly the Stasis series was designed by Threshold correct? At least their separate amps were I believe. That would make them great for that price
Love it! My Dad had so much Radio Shack Audio equipment. When I was young my first good bedroom speakers were his used Realistic Mach Ones...Great memories. Perhaps a new LOUDNESS revival video for 2024. they seem to lusten to your opinion now (audio manufacturers. Love your channel, thanks.
I'VE GOT THE SAME MCINTOSH MA6100 INTEGRATED AMP I BOUGHT IN 1976. IT CAN STILL OUT PERFORM ANY AMP IN ITS CLASS BUILT TODAY. IT EVEN REPRODUCES MY HIGH RESOLUTION MUSIC FILES WITH EASE. IT'S IN DAILY USE AND HAS NEVER BEEN SERVICED. AS FOR MY SHORTWAVE RECEIVER? I'VE GOT A RADIO SHACK DX 394, AND RADIO SHACK PRO 2030 SCANNER. BOTH ARE STILL OPERATING FLAWLESSLY.
I've tried my hardest to get into new gear You're right nothing beats a loudness button or a dial on Yamaha And Equalizers The only thing I could think of is a new amp with a vintage preamp But I find staying in my comfort zone 80s 70s is were it's at and for speakers I have klipsch And now on my 2nd system I'm running some digital phase Ap4 Very nice Sounds great
My first was a sta 7. 10 wpc never sounded so good. My gateway vintage was some early vector research. I don't care too much for the later stuff. But the first 3 years are excellent. Built like tanks, sound great. Now I have several vintage. Sansui Yamaha pioneer nad several Kenwood's. Best value jvc- the sr 400. Ugly as sin but 75 wpc of glorious lush sound. They bucked the styling of the era so nobody wants these ugly ducklings. The sr 600- even more power and a huge toroidal xformer. I only have one new amp. Cambridge audio, ( Had to have one new receiver I don't have to work on). It's 80wpc doesn't even keep up with my 40 wpc nad from 78. ( And no loudness button).
It was only a few decades ago and change that I read where Radio Shack speakers were the best selling speakers in the U.S.A. What happened? Radio Shack never had hip appeal with upper mid-fi audiophiles. For many of us, they were one of our earliest exposure to hi-fi, especially if the employees had the speakers cranked up when you walked in, like the store near me. Color organs that flashed to the beat of the music too. If you or someone else living at home bought batteries etc. there, chances are that you would get colorful multi page advertisements of their upcoming sale and new products in the mail. There were ads from other sellers in the newspapers, but these were in big bold color, complete with detailed specs and description. Once in my twenties I was on the bus and a guy behind me sounded like he was trying to impress a girl next to him by saying, "I have an ALL Pioneer system." Somehow I couldn't imagine someone trying to impress by saying "I have an all Radio Shack system." Then again, Radio Shack didn't have the Allman Brothers promoting their stuff in magazine advertisements. Some of the stuff they made was good. Better than vintage Pioneer? You tell me; but I bet Pioneers tape decks were better. In the 1990's they came out with a portable CD player called the CD 3400. Word got around that Joe Grado of cartridge fame like it. It was supposed to be the only CD player with bloom. It did have warmth, which I think the designer boosted to sound more anolog. Big disappointment in resolution and instrument size though. You can imagine how little the transformers are in a pocket portable. Dick Sequerra of tuner and speaker fame came out with a beefier power station especially made for the CD 3400. The player had a digital out and allegedly some people with mega buck systems were using the little under $200 Optimus player as their CD transport.
A loudness button typically boosts bass and treble at certain predetermined frequencies, at around +6 to +10 dBs maximum. These frequencies are usually 50 or 100 Hz for the bass boost and around 10 kHz for the treble. Though some loudness buttons did only boost the bass. Usually the frequencies that the loudness button boosts were different from the frequencies that your bass and treble control boosts. The loudness button compensates for the lower sensitivity of our hearing with lower and higher frequencies at low listening levels to make listening at lower levels a much more satisfying experience, and it does work, and it IS a useful feature, despite what some audio snobs may state. The effect of the loudness circuit is typically reduced as your volume level is increased in some designs. There is no industry standard for loudness buttons so manufacturers could design them to boost at whatever frequencies they wanted to, and how much boost. The presence or lack of a loudness button feature has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of an audio component. My Scott tube amps from the late fifties to early sixties even have a loudness button, which is actually tied into its volume potentiometer to reduce its effect at higher listening levels. Smart. Often loudness buttons are used at higher volumes simply to enhance the sound or to simply compensate for recording or source material deficiencies, speaker deficiencies, or room acoustics. Use it as you please. There are no rules. On an amp or receiver that does not have a loudness button, you can simply turn up the bass and the treble to try and duplicate what the loudness button does, but it won't be the same as loudness button frequencies are not always the same as bass and treble frequencies. So you won't get both. Adding an equalizer in your tape loop is an easy way to duplicate what a loudness button does. And now YOU are the the designer Randy! You get to pick the frequencies of your boosted highs and lows. But we all know it's typically the classic V-shaped curve on the EQ. Happy Listening !!
Loudness buttons boosted the 100Hz.lower band and the 2-3kz. higher band to compensate for the ears' deficiency in hearing those frequencies at low volumes. When they started disappearing, I can't say. I'm still using a 2000 series RS receiver with the IMX stereo expander.
Nice video sir. My first "component" hifi setup was in 1975. Pioneer SX-434, BIC-920 and KLH 31 speakers all for under $240. Realistic was (like Lafayette) very underrated. I personally liked the Minimus series speakers and their T-70 speakers were very highly rated. As for the seven segment power meters? Yuck, shoulda had VU or a lot more segments. I agree about watching "flashin' lights". Kinda like your own Joshua Light Show. The loudness switch was to boost bass (and treble??) when listening at low volume levels to compensate our natural hearing loss. The amps spec sheet should list loudness boost, low/high filter cut offs, power into 8 and 4 ohms, BOTH CHANNELS DRIVEN, even one channel driven only at 1kHz. In 1979 I bought a Hitachi SR-804 receiver and still use it today. Same for my Ohm L speakers purchased in 1978, still going strong. My EQ choice was a Sound Shaper Two in 1978 than an upgrade to the IC version in 1982. Also a Pioneer RG-2 expander in 1981, talk about lights. Being a Brooklyn guy I had lotsa stores in NYC to get my hifi stuff in the 1970's/80's.
Marantz 1060 and 2325, Technics 1500 turntable, Advent 201 cassette, Large Advent speakers, Marantz 115 tuner, it was 1984. 2021 the 1500 turntable is gone, still have everything else and it's all still working
According to the STA-2500 Operating Manual, the Loudness Button emphasizes certain low and high frequencies that are less sensitive to the human ear, at lower listening levels.
power meters: they are really volt meters.... 2.83V into 8 ohm = 1W. Double that for 2W, double again for 4W etc.... Loudness function increases the bass and treble with a varying amount depending on volume, unlike the fixed amount from an eq or bass/treble controls. The purpose is to match the frequency response to the human ear sensitivity at various volumes.
+1 for bring back the LOUDNESS switch. They should have NEVER taken it away. +1 for bringing back those incredible receivers from the 70's and 80's. So much better than the crap we have now.
Heck YES! Vintage is great. I have a Kenwood KR-5200 ($30 at an estate sale) and a Pioneer SX-780 ($200 on Craigslist). My Turntable is a Pioneer PL-55X (also Craigslist), semi-automatic with an S shaped tonearm and I love it! One thing to consider if you don't know how to work on them is "do you gotta guy?" I have a guy near me that does great work and guarantees it for six months.
As far as the loudness button is concerned, I recently read that it was Goodmans an English manufacturer of the time invented it. They called it a sound shaper button though and simply said shape on it and the name developed into the loudness button. I only recently too found out that other systems used it. Sony's last analogue receiver 100w per channel did not however? This was probably the era that ended the button? Talking of loudness and vintage stuff I am very curious as to why any review of the Goodmans module 150 receiver is so scarce ? A receiver of immense power 75w per channel or raw RMS power into 8 ohms, which would shake any walls of any house and the quality was amazing. Apparently some BBC engineers owned them and some used them as monitoring gear in their studios but getting hold of one these days is next to impossible. If you ever come across one you certainly could make a very interesting video of an iconic device.
My dad had realistic stuff. Speakers that were beasts. 15"woofers. 3 way with a 3/4 inch thick glass top paired with his jbl and a Kenwood Amp he bought in Japan in 69 I wasa. Dummy to throw it out. In the 80s repair shops were telling me they couldn't fix it
Check out The Outlaw RR 2166 mkii. It's current "retro" receiver with lots of excellent features including a loudness function that cancels itself at the proper power output, -30dB and has digital and analog inputs galore. Also check out vintage Luxman integrateds. They have the BEST tone controls of any vintage gear including some with adjustable crossover points for the tone controls. Many have adjustable input voltages for Phono inputs too. Vintage gear rules!! PS - a proper loudness curve boosts the top AND bottom end...
I love my Adcom GFA 555 mk2 and my 545 mk2. My 555mk2 is very rare one because it was bought by me last year from a seller which never opened it from the original box, it was in his stored for more then 20 years. I am lucky guy 😜
I recently purchased a nice monster Sony STR-V6, from '79. Have some Def Tech towers and a turntable, but I'd love some recommendations on what to pair with it ($500-ish or less) to take care of streaming or other similar needs. Preamp, streamer, dac? Necessary?
I have a small vintage receiver collection. Sansui G7500, McIntosh 4100, Fisher 500C and a Parasound 16.5. I love all of them and they all sound fantastic. As well the vintage gear visually is soo much better than current gear and I enjoy just looking at them. Current gear does not provide that (to me at least). Is there a risk buying vintage? Absolutely. There is also a risk buying current. If you buy a vintage piece the first thing you should do is take it to a reputable service tech and have it completely inspected and serviced. It is well worth doing. Then enjoy!!
My STA-2100D is such a badass and a sleeper in the monster receiver world. Cheap by monster receiver prices. Rated 125 watts .05% distortion. The first time I used it I thought I was gonna blow the speakers. FM and my blue sound node sound friggin awesome. I really can’t get over how much fun it is and it gets even better with a EQ.
just restored my sony cx355 300 cd changer. new belts and a clean-up, sounds as good as new. i just had rotator cuff surgery, so plenty of time to spend with music! this changer has a d/a converter thats top notch, and everything played sounds fantastic! i bought the unit new in 2002.
At the radio shack building My government professor was the RS property lawyer. Just had to walk down the way. At the time, 2013 or so, he said RS had a larger footprint than McDonald's.
I had a set of Mach One speakers I purchased in '84. Bought the STA-2500 amp with my tax check in '85. My god, we had the best, loudest parties. I would crank the volume up and put a fan above it to keep the thermals from kicking out. What a beast.
Hi Mr:Audiosheep =) I’ve got a NAD 3020 from -79 I think. I have it in my kitchen. It makes a bzzzzz when I start it up for a second or 2. Recap the power caps but still a noise(less now I think) I heard that’s it’s a good amp,donno if it’s the phono preamp that folks mean hooked up that’s sound good but I heard it’s a classic. So grab one and review =) Personally I like it but hasn’t done a critical listening to it,because the cheap speakers I have in the kitchen and it’s been standing there since I got it.
My experience with a silver face Pioneer A8600X made in 1979 was not so good. I paired it up with a brand new JBL A130 and it sounds wrong, weak bass, lack of dynamic, weak imaging and sounds like the speakers were behind a curtain. I got the amp at the local vintage audio seller in mint condition (cosmetic), not sure if all the caps are still good though.
Try to get your hands on a STA-2100... even better. The mid to late 70s was probably the peak for RS. Your power meters were essentially just volt meters calibrated in watts with the assumption that it was driving an 8 ohm resistive load (P=V^2/R). Of course your speakers are not an 8 ohm resistive load but it was fun to watch, especially the earlier analog meters.
Vintage Vibe(s) I think is a moniker for a Fender guitar line...... 'Let's do the timewarp' 'trash talk' 'Vintage classics' 'Heston's best'(ref; charlton heston) 'Vintage Audio Man' ' Dumpster Divas' ' vintage vlog' ' oldies but goldies' 'audio classics'
I've got an opportunity to buy one of these for 450AUD which is pretty cheap for a high powered 70s receiver in Australia, worth the upgrade from a SX850 you think ?
Loudness adjusts the frequency curve so that bass, usually, is more prominent at lower volumes. It's not meant to be used at "normal" listening volumes. Loudness didn't go away, per se, but is rather now built into units, adjusting frequency for a given volume input to prevent bass distortion as volume output increases. The factory head unit in my car does that as does my Sony "smart" speaker, and I think, various "soundbars". But to the extent "loudness" on home audio equipment went the way of the dinosaur is simple: multichannel, "surround" sound. We're expected to have a separate subwoofer,
I know this is an old video but... Loudness intended to compensate for the Fletcher Munson curves by boosting lows and highs. Most didn't have calibration capability ao it kind of worked dor average efficiency soeakers. My guess is that you can't quite get the same effect with bass and treble controls is because they are shelving filters.
Yes...the "loudness" button was intended to make a more pleasing sound when the receiver/amp was playing at low volumes. Since the human ear is more sensitive to the midrange and less sensitive to frequency extremes...a "loudness" curve is a "scooped" frequency curve...lower in the midrange...listening with the loudness on at very high volumes can tend to sound harsh in the treble and boomy in the base depending on the speakers you're using. Speakers that accentuate the midrange might sound more balanced with it left on at higher volumes. I had a pair of Signet 280s like that...as opposed to a pair of snell EIIIs I had that already had a loudness curve in their frequency response.
Love your channel. Just an FYI, usually receivers that feature two phono inputs will have each of those inputs have different impedance specs. This is to allow for different era cartridges having evolved in sensitivity. I say this because you mention A/B comparisons of turntables. This difference in impedance will highly affect your tests. Check hi-fi site for your receiver specs to see if this is true of yours. Cheers!
Had that very receiver hooked up to a pair of giant Optimus T-120 speakers from 1985 to 1998. Sold it cause the wife said the speakers were too big and the receiver had no remote. Miss them.
I am 59 years old So about 20 or 21 in the mid-eighties. what I recall the loudness button being about was at lower levels, to enhance certain frequencies without driving the amp. it would enhance the base when the amplifier was at low levels
