What's your opinion of the Optonica line of audio products?

[dpg3]

Optonica Turntable

1978 I bought a system in Cambridge MA. They set me up with a NAD 3020, Polk Monitor 7b speakers and an Optonica RP3636 TT (picture below). I still own the speakers and the TT (used in my system up to one year ago). I have considered selling it but the molded granite is probably to heavy and/or fragile for UPS or FedEx to handle well, even though I still have the original box and packing for it.

That is a great looking turntable I'd buy it!!

 

[timsclips]

Optonica and the Sharp Plus lines were often overlooked by the crowds of Pioneer, Marantz and Kenwood fanatics.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Big issues with Sharp and Optonica. They were late to the audio game, often didn't get much of a dealer network in audio (Sharp's biggest selling audio products were cassette decks, their budget decks were well regarded, and portable audio like boomboxes). Optonica made some very nice audio components, which had distinctive styling, a lot of high tech features, performed very well for their price point, and were quite well made. Optonica was a lot like Kyocera in that respect, and both were very underrated, uncommon, nice gear to own.

 

[DAnny45acp]

Haha, no, the Optonica was swiftly replaced by the 2285b the day I scored it. Knife to a gunfight indeed, even though it is a nice quality knife.

I know this is an old thread but needed to add my 2 cents. I acquired my SA-5151 6yrs ago and was not coming out of protect - I replaced all transistors in both drivers and she was singing once again.. I like the sound of this receiver so much I decided to do a Re-cap on it. I have literally had so many Marantz, Sansui, Luxman even tube amps that have come and gone , still have the 5151 , that said I too also have a beautiful Marantz 2285B in walnut case and testing the 5151 (85W) along side the the marantz 2285 (85w) They are very very close but I'd say the edge has to go to the 5151. Iam keeping the Marantz just because but it don't out perform the 5151 at a fraction of the cost of the Marantz. In a blind test Iam saying the 5151 beats the 2285B. And unlike the some of other reviews on here I believe the 5151 too be a warm sounding receiver like the marantz with the same bass punch they have but the 5151 has better clarity in the mid-highs , A wonderful sounding receiver - one of my best- Sound wise- cost wise it's the best bargain out there. The only negative is it's size - it's a 41lb monster and a fairly rare bird as they don't come up for sale very often.

 

[Metalownz]

I know this is an old thread but needed to add my 2 cents. I acquired my SA-5151 6yrs ago and was not coming out of protect - I replaced all transistors in both drivers and she was singing once again.. I like the sound of this receiver so much I decided to do a Re-cap on it. I have literally had so many Marantz, Sansui, Luxman even tube amps that have come and gone , still have the 5151 , that said I too also have a beautiful Marantz 2285B in walnut case and testing the 5151 (85W) along side the the marantz 2285 (85w) They are very very close but I'd say the edge has to go to the 5151. Iam keeping the Marantz just because but it don't out perform the 5151 at a fraction of the cost of the Marantz. In a blind test Iam saying the 5151 beats the 2285B. And unlike the some of other reviews on here I believe the 5151 too be a warm sounding receiver like the marantz with the same bass punch they have but the 5151 has better clarity in the mid-highs , A wonderful sounding receiver - one of my best- Sound wise- cost wise it's the best bargain out there. The only negative is it's size - it's a 41lb monster and a fairly rare bird as they don't come up for sale very often.

I have an Optonica SA-5606 85 WPC and id take it over a Marantz 2285 anyday of the week. Optonica's 5606 and 5901 is like bringing a bazooka to a gun fight. The power of these units are impressive and sound beautiful. I used to have Marantz, Pioneer, Sansui, Kenwood, and plenty of other brand names and my Optonica units sounding better with power to spare. Pushing a 4 ohm load is a breeze with most Optonica units where other receivers struggle at the same price point. Here is my SA-5606 and SA-5901.

 

[RedFTO]

I know this is an old thread but needed to add my 2 cents. I acquired my SA-5151 6yrs ago and was not coming out of protect - I replaced all transistors in both drivers and she was singing once again.. I like the sound of this receiver so much I decided to do a Re-cap on it. I have literally had so many Marantz, Sansui, Luxman even tube amps that have come and gone , still have the 5151 , that said I too also have a beautiful Marantz 2285B in walnut case and testing the 5151 (85W) along side the the marantz 2285 (85w) They are very very close but I'd say the edge has to go to the 5151. Iam keeping the Marantz just because but it don't out perform the 5151 at a fraction of the cost of the Marantz. In a blind test Iam saying the 5151 beats the 2285B. And unlike the some of other reviews on here I believe the 5151 too be a warm sounding receiver like the marantz with the same bass punch they have but the 5151 has better clarity in the mid-highs , A wonderful sounding receiver - one of my best- Sound wise- cost wise it's the best bargain out there. The only negative is it's size - it's a 41lb monster and a fairly rare bird as they don't come up for sale very often.

I just joined this forum after reading about other peoples good experiences with the Sharp Optonica receivers. I have the 5101 model and recently fetched it out of the loft. I powered it up and it worked fine for 5 minutes before there was a popping sound and smoke came out of the headphone socket! I guessed it was the power supply so took the cover off. In the attached photo you can see the popped component. I think it is a capacitor of some sort. Do you know the replacement part here? I normally solder standard capacitors but willing to give this one a go in order to save it from the trash!

 

[deng62]

I bought a SA5905 today. I'll just say the price was very right and I'll decide later if I should keep it or not. It sounds like this may be a highly sought after unit and when I'm done with it, it will be very sweet, indeed! Right now it's trashed and needs a thorough cleaning. I am going to rebuild the wood casing this summer. It's been battered and the vinyl wood grain cover is delaminating. I will decide whether to redo it in particle board like it is and recover in vinyl wood grain or use a nice whole grain piece of wood. Doing the latter would indeed make this unit a one of a kind. The first thing will be to clean all the electrical components. Then I can put it on the scope to check circuit paths before connecting any peripherals.

 

[Metalownz]

I bought a SA5905 today. I'll just say the price was very right and I'll decide later if I should keep it or not. It sounds like this may be a highly sought after unit and when I'm done with it, it will be very sweet, indeed! Right now it's trashed and needs a thorough cleaning. I am going to rebuild the wood casing this summer. It's been battered and the vinyl wood grain cover is delaminating. I will decide whether to redo it in particle board like it is and recover in vinyl wood grain or use a nice whole grain piece of wood. Doing the latter would indeed make this unit a one of a kind. The first thing will be to clean all the electrical components. Then I can put it on the scope to check circuit paths before connecting any peripherals.

Good choice. I love my SA-5901 which is the silver faced version of yours. Mine is in NM condition and i had it gone over by a damn good tech who replaced what was nessessary.

 

[deng62]

Good choice. I love my SA-5901 which is the silver faced version of yours. Mine is in NM condition and i had it gone over by a damn good tech who replaced what was nessessary.

Mahalo! That's cool you have the silver face version. Do you know what the "C" designation is for the sister models? What is the purpose of having an on/off switch for the tuner? By any chance do you have the instruction/service manuals for the unit and would share? I'll try to remember to come on here to update progress. Sorry to ask, I can't quite figure out what NM stands for. LOL. Please post a picture of yours.

 

[Metalownz]

Mahalo! That's cool you have the silver face version. Do you know what the "C" designation is for the sister models? What is the purpose of having an on/off switch for the tuner? By any chance do you have the instruction/service manuals for the unit and would share? I'll try to remember to come on here to update progress. Sorry to ask, I can't quite figure out what NM stands for. LOL. Please post a picture of yours.

I dont have a service manual for mine. I bought mine from a guy on ebay. You can usually find the service manual online if you type it in Google. So i know the C for the SM-4646 is the silver version and the H is for the black versions of those amps. NM stands for Near Mint. So the on/off switch for the tuner turns all power off in that section to turn the SA-5905 into a stand alone power amp. Its the neatest feature ive seen on any receiver. Here is a picture of mine. On the bottom is its little sister the SA-5606 which also has that turn off tuner feature.

 

[deng62]

If anyone is interested, I just ran across an Ebay listing for a brand new unopened box SA5905! The story is sad. The gal that owns this is getting help from someone to help her sell stuff from her mom's house. Back in the late 70's, her dad wanted some TOTL stuff, went to the stereo shop and the salesperson sold him the 5905 and Cerwin Vega U321's. The dad brought them home, put them in his man cave basement to set up and he passed away! The boxes, unopened were left in the same spot all this time! The helper sold the speakers and has the 5905 on Ebay for what may be the decent price of $2500. With no market data, it's tough to know if this is high or low. One sold in 2020 on the Canuck Audio Mart for $1250US. I'll share this on a couple of the other AK Optonica SA5905 queries as well.

 

[deng62]

I dont have a service manual for mine. I bought mine from a guy on ebay. You can usually find the service manual online if you type it in Google. So i know the C for the SM-4646 is the silver version and the H is for the black versions of those amps. NM stands for Near Mint. So the on/off switch for the tuner turns all power off in that section to turn the SA-5905 into a stand alone power amp. Its the neatest feature ive seen on any receiver. Here is a picture of mine. On the bottom is its little sister the SA-5606 which also has that turn off tuner feature.

Mahalo for all that info. I did a V8 slap to the forehead once I figured out what NM was and you verified. LOL. I found 2 sites last night to purchase the instruction and service manuals.

That is a neat feature to be able to turn off the tuner section. The switch on the one I have is broken. I hope it can be either fixed or a new switch found. I wasn't expecting this, but this might be a keeper and I forget about getting a Yamaha CA2010 in the future.