Are the vintage Sony receivers any good?

[Woofman]

I am looking for a good vintage receiver, particularly Pioneer or Marantz because I know they sound great. But I am running across some really good deals on vintage Sony receivers. Does anyone have any experience with them as to how good they are or how they compare to the vintage Pioneer or Marantz receivers? I would welcome any of your thoughts. Thank You.

 

[Bradrock]

I have a Sony 7065 & love it. There are several threads here where folks who actually know what they are talking about ( not me) & the vintage Sony's get pretty high marks.

 

[Windwalker]

Welcome woof

Don't mess with the Sonys, you won't like them.
In fact lets us know where you keep running across ALL those really good deals. AKers can go help dispose of them, so that you'll never have to suffer.

 

[ta131js]

I like my STR-7800SD - my main receiver.
In my bedroom is a STR-7065. They compete very well with my other receivers.
Yeah, you should read what Sony experts have to say in this forum before making up your mind.
Good luck. :thmbsp:

 

[Whitehall]

The "search" function can be your best friend.

Scan the following:

7065
6060
6200
6120
STR-V7
6800
7800

 

[reggaenaut]

Great tone.

 

[Isotonic]

Overall I prefer them to Pioneer and Marantz.

 

[willyrover]

I had an STR-7045. Really nice sounding receiver. Had a wood case that could be removed to reveal a black metal cover underneath.

 

[johnda]

The 60 and 70 series Sonys are extremely well built units. I remember when Sony opened up a listening room on 5th avenue to show their beautiful equipment. The women who were demonstrating the equipment weren't bad either! I have a Sony STR-6055 receiver rated at 35 watts/channel. It performs without any scratchiness in the controls and is noise free. The caps might be getting a little tired and it probably could use a tune up, but overall it's an excellent unit. Right now i have it paired up with my Kenwood KA-6100 amp in the basement system. The Sony is using the tape out to the Kenwood so I can use it as the tuner for the Kenwood. Next week I plan to hook the Kenwood amp to my KLH 6 speakers and have the Sony hooked to my AR4x speakers so it can work on its own if i wish. It's fun playing around with this stuff!

 

[1980'slover]

get a sony TA-AV411 they are da bomb! it is a high end 90's surround sound receiver! rated at 250 watts

 

[Jack Lord]

They're excellent. I grew up listening to my uncle's Sony monster receiver and it was top of the line.

 

[Unda Maris]

The biggest advantage of classic Sony receivers is that they are still available at reasonable prices (even the TOTL units), a thing which is not the case with TOTL Marantz, Sansui and Pioneer (compare e.g. the SX-1250 and the STR-V7 ...)

-> You can't do anything wrong with one of the receivers which Whitehall listed before.

 

[djlanden]

Str-6050

I recently recapped the STR-6050 for my nephew...it's easy to work on and sounded fantastic! Better than a lot of stuff they make today! Highly recommended with a really musical sound quality! :thmbsp:

 

[Rex Everything]

I sure do enjoy listening to my big V7 :thmbsp:

 

[MunkeyQ]

I have an STR-6046 - a later Sony receiver from the late 70's. It's doing lounge duty driving a huge pair of EMI's admirably...lacking a bit up high, but it probably needs a good deoxit attack. Not bad at all for 35wpc. And it has a nice veneered plywood case too - Sony really knew how to build things.

As Unda said, Sony units are very, very reasonably priced on ebay and the like you you can pick up a pretty high-end unit for not much money. I got mine for the opening bid, £0.99 on ebay.

 

[Theabs]

My STR-V7 sounds fantastic, I think the styling holds it's own with any of the other major manufacturer's late 70's products, very classy.

 

[KingBubba]

IIRC the output amps on the V series are well thought of but are unobtanium. Hopefully someone will elaborate and have more info about those.

 

[MAXZ28]

I'm with Rex Everything and Theabs.....I'll never part with my STR-V7 and it's been in the master bedroom since day 1. It's still the only receiver I have yet to take out of rotation- I listen to it almost daily.

 

[James Hart]

the Sony STR-6800 SD is my #1 listening choice.

 

[merrylander]

Been a few Sonys through here and one thing I noticed were the FM tuning heads, they seemed to use top notch heads on all of them.