Does Acoustalinear ACR 152 mean anything to anyone??

[Champco]

I have this old AMP I dug out of the garage. Planning on firing her up and giving it a good cleaning. A friend gave it to me for labor a number of years ago and i just wired it up to a couple speakers in the garage.for tunes while working in there. It worked fine. It has 4 speakers select position calling it 4D. What I am not sure of is it a Quadraphonic Amplifier. I will be testing it and opening it up for pictures for anyone interested. It is a MADE IN USA product sold by a company in Minneapolis called Sound of Music. They also sold Speakers. Pretty much this is all I know. I believe the power is around 100W. it has the heft of a big power supply.

 

[Champco]

I have this old AMP I dug out of the garage. Planning on firing her up and giving it a good cleaning. A friend gave it to me for labor a number of years ago and i just wired it up to a couple speakers in the garage.for tunes while working in there. It worked fine. It has 4 speakers select position calling it 4D. What I am not sure of is it a Quadraphonic Amplifier. I will be testing it and opening it up for pictures for anyone interested. It is a MADE IN USA product sold by a company in Minneapolis called Sound of Music. They also sold Speakers. Pretty much this is all I know. I believe the power is around 100W. it has the heft of a big power supply.

Well I found a statement on the back. "Manufactured exclusively for AGS in Japan" So there goes the American made statment. Well i can hope right??
Says it is 200W Power consumption. Audio Reflex By AGS ... another statement on back.

 

[62vauxhall]

I thought Audio Reflex was a brand sold in Canada. When current, I saw it sold in a few local stereo shops around 1980 not exactly known for selling prestige brands. Lately and from time to time an EQ or turntable shows up on CL or in a thrift store. One Audio Reflex turntable I saw recently was quite reminiscent of the Pioneer PL-12D I had, bought when new.

AGS sounds about right as a source of supply. Did not think they were a manufacturer though, thought they were an importer.

 

[Champco]

I thought Audio Reflex was a brand sold in Canada. When current, I saw it sold in a few local stereo shops around 1980 not exactly known for selling prestige brands. Lately and from time to time an EQ or turntable shows up on CL or in a thrift store. One Audio Reflex turntable I saw recently was quite reminiscent of the Pioneer PL-12D I had, bought when new.

AGS sounds about right as a source of supply. Did not think they were a manufacturer though, thought they were an importer.

Since posting I have been reading as much on AGS as I can. You are correct it was imported to Canada and Australia for AGS who is in Europe, maybe Germany in the 1970's. Seems they were called a ARS-150. One remark I read called this a Yamarantz. Another called it a Cheap Marantz clone built by Yamaha. Not the gem I thought I had dug up. As it is I will proceed to verify the workings of said clone and maybe open her up for pictures if there is any interest.
If it works well it will clean up nice and someone may want to add it to their collection. It do have some power. It is a 1970's vintage Yamaha (assuming) built which is hand built using analog components. It does have meters on it and toggle switches, not push buttons putting it squarely in that desired silver faced collectible era. And it is RARE especially in these here united states.
Opinions appreciated. Give it to me straight. I can take it.

 

[62vauxhall]

Go for it. A marketer that targets the low end of the price spectrum does not necessarily mean all their stuff will be crap. Some things I've rehabilitated, no one would look at twice but they were well made, looked nice and sounded good. I've even read posts somewhere about a decent Lloyds receiver. Not that I would consider buying a tuner, but I saw one once in a thrift store branded Lloyds that must have weighed 25 pounds.

A tuner that I did buy several years ago thinking to pair it with an early Heathkit integrated, was branded Noresco - another Canadian importer. Turned out it was made by Rotel. Don't laugh but I accumulated and restored several 8 track recorders. One was labeled Quadraflex which I learned was a "house brand" of Pacific Stereo in the US. There never were any of those stores in Canada so therefore no Quadraflex but it's as good or better internally than a lot of examples of the so called "major brands" I've been inside.

Despite that little known "lesser brands" would not appeal to many if any these days let alone entice someone to pay much if anything for one in good working order, those are what I like tinkering with. Excluding time spent with the refurbishment, often just the cost of replacement parts will exceed a realistic (no pun intended) selling price. I have masochistic tendancies I suppose but within limits, I enjoy having the obscure and overlooked.

 

[1tumbleweed]

You may know Minneapolis' Sound of Music by another name - that's the chain that became Best Buy.

Cheers,
Larry B.

 

[Champco]

You may know Minneapolis' Sound of Music by another name - that's the chain that became Best Buy.

Cheers,
Larry B.

That's funny. This is a relic. I thought Best Buy came out of the electronics company called "Best" Thats where I bought me Phase Linear 200 amp and Preamp back in the 70's in Phoenix. They also sold Jewelry and other stuff. They closed and poof there was Best Buy. It all makes sense though. There are a few of these Acoustalinear amps in the twin cities.

 

[62vauxhall]

You may know Minneapolis' Sound of Music by another name - that's the chain that became Best Buy.

Interesting. Best Buy did come into Canada and bought the Future Shop chain. When they started an insurance claims division, I went to work for them, staying nearly 5 years. At no time was that tidbit of info ever offered. All I can recall was being told BB began with one store somewhere but thought that was that name from the get go.

Cheers,
Larry B.

 

[1tumbleweed]

That's funny. This is a relic. I thought Best Buy came out of the electronics company called "Best" Thats where I bought me Phase Linear 200 amp and Preamp back in the 70's in Phoenix. They also sold Jewelry and other stuff. They closed and poof there was Best Buy. It all makes sense though. There are a few of these Acoustalinear amps in the twin cities.

"Best" was Best Products, based in Virginia, and had no connection with Best Buy. They were a type of chain known as "catalog stores", like Service Merchandise, popular in the '80s but crashed and burned in the '90s with the advent of the big box stores. Best, Service and similar weren't really electronics stores, more like general merchandise stores with limited display space.

Cheers,
Larry B.

 

[Champco]

Resurrecting this old thread. I have the 152 all connected up for testing and I have to say the devil is in the details.
The Phono input works, The Tape input works, The aux works with a CD player, The Tuner works however it needs some love. Speakers A work, Speakers 4D work. 4D? Yea 4D. There is also a remote speaker on the switch. The 4D is bridged with speakers A. it cannot be selected alone. With 4 speakers connected, the 4D is a effect speaker. it highlights the drums,bass,guitar and rather ignores vocal on some songs completely. There is also a reverb knob that seems to do little.
The Tone sliders all work as well as they can. All the controls are dirty and sound is muddy with poor bass. But that said the speakers are also getting old and they may add to the poor sound.They are only 30 watt and cannot take much volume to distort.
So I will give the controls a cleaning and see how she changes. This is proving to be a interesting Receiver.

 

[twiiii]

Looks like a Yamaha knock off.

 

[62vauxhall]

I saw a receiver that could be it's twin just a couple of weeks ago. Same dial scale, same slide controls. The brand name on that one was Citizen.

 

[Ds2000]

No shortage of flip switches, pots, and sliders. I do believe a similar receiver was marketed by Sears in their better lineup.

 

[Champco]

Looks like a Yamaha knock off.

Thanks. I am going to open it up in a day or so to photo the works.

 

[Champco]

How about three cheers for 70's Analog love!!!!!! This looks great inside. First thing I will do is give it a good going over with the hose.
Air hose that is. Test as many caps as I can looking for obvious problems and give it a little Deox on switches. Everything seems to be working.

Anyone KNOW who made this?? It says Designed and engineered by AGS Thanks..

 

[just dave]

I have the same one.Made in Japan by whoever.Sold in Canada

 

[Champco]

I have the same one.Made in Japan by whoever.Sold in Canada View attachment 1382632 View attachment 1382633

Well I suppose if she cooks she's ok. What do you make of the 4D speaker option??? Do you have any paperwork?? After posting I researched a bit more and found the company was named AGS. Do not know where it was based.

 

[Champco]

While on the search there is a post on AK from 2009?? Description was negative as the writer called it junk even tho he has never seen one. I look at this solder work and will compare it to anything out there. very impressive. Must have used a very hot iron very fast to make this pattern.

 

[Champco]

Of the two writings I found both mentioned the tuner as above what they were currently using. Would bring in stations their other tuners did not. That's a plus.Nice trim pots. Love this analogue stuff.

 

[Ds2000]

So here I found these pics. Evidently 35-40 watts per channel. AGS made this and one exactly like it for Telefunken.