The Death of the Stereo Receiver

[pskaudio]

It's only because I am a mad George Benson fan- I couldn't let it pass...

Seriously, I love that album and lots of his later stuff too. Some albums are absolutely audiophile grade...

The George Benson/ Al Jarreau album from a few years back is a great sounding recording and has a couple of super tracks. During the '80s, Benson moved away from Jazz into the R&B realm with While the City Sleeps.
Breezin' has to be one of the top ten best contemporary Jazz albums from the '70s.

 

[david1111]

@musichal and restorer.
Well with all that enthusiasm for Breezin', I'm gonna have to find a copy and have a listen. I'm especially looking forward to hearing George's version of Masquerade.
Thanks for the tip guys!

Dave

 

[david1111]

@pskaudio
It was his R & B move that kept me away from buying his stuff, so I'll definitely check out his 70s music.

Dave

 

[tom67]

If you take a look at Yamaha stereo(exempting their expensive series ie 3000 & 2100) receivers for example, no where do they hint that the have better parts, tuners etc than their AVRs. Their weights and specs are similar within the same price brackets. And, since you can operate their similar priced AVRs on pure direct, I can't see the advantage of buying the stereo models.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_022RN803/Yamaha-R-N803.html

 

[KingBubba]

I have read this entire thread today and can comment on a couple of points. I'll start with George Benson.

I started as the head electrician at a theater in downtown Orlando in 1981. Aside from a 3 show Broadway season that summer, we had a couple of musician shows, George Benson and Chuck Mangione, IIRC. To this day, the George Benson is still listed at the top of the top ten music shows I worked at the theater, and believe me when I tell you over the 39 years I worked there, I saw a lot of shows. Many of the shows left me with little or no opinion. George's show was featuring what was in his newer album but also included a lot from Breezin'. His intro to "Broadway" was met with enormous response form the audience and me too. The lighting at the very beginning was a moment that I never saw again or used myself in all the many years at the theater. The stage was on a lifted platform about 6' high. The show started in complete dark except for the lights from the amps. At the start of the music, George made an ascent up the stairs to the platform lit only with pure white light from the floor behind him. As he arrived to the top of the step five white lights from above and behind him faded in. At the top of the music that started the vocals, he was hit with pure white spotlights from the front. He was wearing a pure white jumpsuit with gold sparkles around the wrists and collar. This opening stuck with me for all these years. It was an example how lighting can affect your emotions and your memories.

Now to address receivers. It is sad to me that 2 channel receivers have gone the way of the passenger pidgin. I have four systems in my house, three of which use two receivers at a time feeding two pairs of stacked speakers. I don't really need receivers because I never listen to radio, but they are what I found and are what I use. They are comprised of a Sansui G-8000, G 6000, Model Eight, Model Eight Deluxe, 4000, and an 8900Zdb, an Onkyo TX 8500MkII, a Pioneer SX-1250, SX-1280, a Toshiba SA-640. a Kenwood 8010 and 8050. All but a couple of these are functioning and some have been rehabbed. These are my top dozen but I also have a handful more to be used as a backup if I run into trouble with my running systems. The Tampa area in Florida or Orlando have no stations worth listening to.

I listen to music from my Thinkpad or from Wifi connections to other Thinkpads in the house. I have made a number of thumb drives to use in my car. I have one in my car right now that has been used for two + months and I still haven't run through the first folder of Crosby, Stills and Nash. Before I retired from work, I had a system with my Sansui G-6000 that played music into the backstage area for load ins and load outs. I had a Winamp playlist with 6000+ songs on it. I could go 6 months without hearing the same song twice. Everybody liked it because they heard music that they had not heard for many years. Lots of people wanted to know what radio station it was and were surprised to hear that I was streaming music backstage from my computer in the light booth via wifi.

I am glad to have my receivers and I plan to keep them working as long as I can, thanks to the techs here at AK.

 

[WaynerN]

I casually listen to FM all of the time. I probably have around 15 AM/FM tuners, a few receivers (Marantz, Outlaw, Knight), several HDFM stand alones (Sony) and perhaps a half dozen Panasonic AM radios. Radio is not dead, at least not here in the Minneapolis area. Our famous classic rock station KQRS just celebrated its 50 birthday on the 25th of September. Radio will not die because it is free and there is a time during the day in which almost everyone listens to it, whether you are shoping, driving your car to work or working out in the garage. KQRS has an award winning morning show, called the Morning Show, starring Tom Barnard, who started his career in music working for Capital Records. One of his first groups to "take care of" was Duran Duran, and helped them have their first Burger King Whooper.

We also have a plethora of NPR stations that I will listen to, but will shut them off when they do their slant on the news, or start playing opera. They also have a station that plays the kids new stuff called the Current, and lots of times, its actually pretty good. It helps to have a quality FM tuner to start with and be lucky enough to live in an area with some quality broadcasters.

The receivers offered today are fine, but do not reach the detail level of my separates, and therefore, their duties are for background FM music out in the garage, in the wife's sewing room, or in my indoor workroom. The Outlaw is a quality piece (100 watts RMS per channel), but its front panel controls are clumsy and not ergonomic by any means. I had to write a small instruction sheet to run some of its functionality. My newer Marantz receiver is somewhat clumsy as well when it comes to programming stations.

I have XM in both the car and the truck (came with them when I bought them new), but have not listened to either for more then 5 minutes.

I grew up with radio and built a couple of kits when I was a kid. I remember hearing Cream on Beaker(spelling?) Street from Little Rock which was pretty much an underground AM station playing the newest rock of the day. I suppose that is why I have such an attachment to the format.

 

[BrMR2270]

I still listen to FM on my Tandberg and Marantz receivers, most of the time at night, when there is more music than talk. During the day I used a mp3 player through Aux port on the receivers.

 

[tonyk]

The receiver world has largely fallen to multi-channel theater type components that simply don't sound as good as a quality stereo model - in my opinion, to my ears .

You should spend some ear time with a really nice AVR musichal.

There's no reason for high end AVR's to not sound really good. All are capable of running in 2 channel stereo mode and the better ones are fully analog and able to run in pure direct mode bypassing all tone controls.

I've been using the Arcam (5.1) at the bottom of the pic for over a year now and it sounds as good as any gear I've ever owned. It's been highly reviewed as well with sound quality comparable to separates. Circuit design has come along way.

I've also been trying out this Sony (7.1) this weekend in 2 channel analog/direct mode and so far it sounds wonderful.

These type of units to me represent the real bargains in audio today.

 

[superdog]

How do mid to high end surround receivers compare to stereo amps?
They have all channel stereo, direct and some have pure audio.
7-10k for a stereo receiver is insane , unless someone’s very well off that’s a boatload of money.
I have no dedicated stereo amps right now sadly.

I have a few totl Yamahas that are 10-15 years old.They were once several thousand dollars new but picked them up for a couple few hundred.They are my stereo amps and I have no complaints.

 

[dontmindme]

I have local classic rock station on all day in my office, and the garage, and in my truck, usually..... My 17 year old son listens to the same station in his vehicle. My 15 year old daughter also keeps her vehicle’s radio on FM too, though not classic rock....... all in all, yess, we still use FM.

 

[Alobar]

"Big market for sound is in tiny cute speakers that women want to look at not big speakerswith big sound . Hence the satellite speaker ."


The music industry is like all the rest, they understand women play a huge role in what's purchased and brought into the household, it starts early and why so much music is aimed at 13yr old girls. Can we say Pop lol? It's no wonder so much music isn't to my taste, it was never meant to be, I'm not the demographic so many music producers try to pigeon hole their clients into. Sadly many due to the allure of the mighty dollar play along and their music turns to schlock.

There is a lot of great music being produced today IMO, but I suspect finding most of it over the airwaves would be difficult.

 

[david1111]

@savatage1973
I agree with your views on radio programming, and I find the most annoying part is that they will only play about 5 basic songs from any of the bands.
No deep cuts, fer sure, and not even any of the standard cuts that aren't on that basic list of 5. All about who pays for the adverts.

Dave

 

[musichal]

You should spend some ear time with a really nice AVR musichal.

There's no reason for high end AVR's to not sound really good. All are capable of running in 2 channel stereo mode and the better ones are fully analog and able to run in pure direct mode bypassing all tone controls.

I've been using the Arcam (5.1) at the bottom of the pic for over a year now and it sounds as good as any gear I've ever owned. It's been highly reviewed as well with sound quality comparable to separates. Circuit design has come along way.

I've also been trying out this Sony (7.1) this weekend in 2 channel analog/direct mode and so far it sounds wonderful.

These type of units to me represent the real bargains in audio today.

View attachment 1293323

BTDT, threw away the tee-shirt. Your mileage obviously varied.

 

[ducati_EL34]

I could not car less about receivers and FM listening. I prefer separate preamp and amp. My music sources are CD, music server, and turntable.

 

[charles 1973]

As of October, 2017.

Nielsen, the data analytics company that tracks US entertainment consumption, reveals in its just-released annual Music 360 report that radio is still the number-one way people are discovering new music. What’s more, the group’s Radio’s All Dimension Audience Research reports also shows the percentage of Americans aged 12 and older listening to broadcast radio on a weekly basis has stayed relatively steady from 1970 to today.

Clearly radio, Probably mostly FM is still a very popular entertainment format.
---------------------------

But there are many more ways today to listen to these stations in our home than through a stereo receiver. Now I'm listening to WCSX from Detroit MI through a website on my laptop feeding a Bluetooth speaker using it's analog jack. In the garage or on the backyard deck I'll use it's Bluetooth option with my Android phone.

Most folks want surround sound for their families to enjoy their HDTV's. So a very popular option for them is the AVR. Although their FM tuners are generally not up to the average vintage stereo receiver's, The FM tuner section of both my Onkyo 575x and new Yamaha RX-A770 are more than up to the task for the average consumer.

For those who don't want the complexity or clutter of a room full of speakers and sub's used with a AVR, And at the same time want better sound for TV watching, Bluetooth sound bars and sound bases a fine choice. They can listen to radio through the FM tuner in some smartphones, or from internet radio stations.

That doesn't leave much room for Stereo receiver's. Yet, Surprisingly there still making and selling plenty of them.

 

[hjames]

I have great gear for my HT system - nice speakers, amps, and the screen.

Has nothing to do with radio in our home -
if we had better local stations I'd probably have a better tuner, but the Carver tuner is great for what it is on the 2 channel system.

 

[KrisM]

The George Benson/ Al Jarreau album from a few years back is a great sounding recording and has a couple of super tracks. During the '80s, Benson moved away from Jazz into the R&B realm with While the City Sleeps.
Breezin' has to be one of the top ten best contemporary Jazz albums from the '70s.

Certainly one of the best selling.
'Best'? Meh, that's a matter of taste.

 

[Grenadeslio]

I have great gear for my HT system - nice speakers, amps, and the screen.

Has nothing to do with radio in our home -
if we had better local stations I'd probably have a better tuner, but the Carver tuner is great for what it is on the 2 channel system.

Nothing wrong with Carver tuners, I happen to like mine lol. Sure it's not the Modafferi modified MR78 I had as my bedroom tuner but it's never had a hiccup in 27yrs so I can't complain.

 

[pskaudio]

Certainly one of the best selling.
'Best'? Meh, that's a matter of taste.

"Contemporary" Jazz, not fusion, be bop, cool, hard bop, modern, or any other style of Jazz.
Think of it as an mix of Jazz, pop, R&B. An extension of the Jazz genre which appeared in the '70s and Breezin was one of the best for this style. Sure, a Jazz purist wouldn't include it anywhere in the realm of Jazz. Spyro Gyro's Morning Dance album is another example along with the work of Bob James, Dave Grusin, etc...

 

[KrisM]

"Contemporary" Jazz, not fusion, be bop, cool, hard bop, modern, or any other style of Jazz.
Think of it as an mix of Jazz, pop, R&B. An extension of the Jazz genre which appeared in the '70s and Breezin was one of the best for this style. Sure, a Jazz purist wouldn't include it anywhere in the realm of Jazz. Spyro Gyro's Morning Dance album is another example along with the work of Bob James, Dave Grusin, etc...

Fair enough.
I'm not a jazz purist, but the term 'contemporary' jazz just seems like a reach. I take the term contemporary as dictionaries define it.