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Lafayette LR-3030

Daniel Walte

Daniel Walte

Active Member
Found a nice hardly used one at the salvation army. $4.95 total cost.
Sounds sweet,researched it on the net and it seems to have been made by either setton or luxman or some company called project research. looks like setton guts tho and has setton board numbers. Any one else have any info on these sweet recievers?
 
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I found one in the LR-4xxx series recently and cleaned it up and gave it to my friend who needed a receiver for his workshop. It was well made whoever made it.
 
Actually the Lafayette LR-3030 is not a clone of the Setton Rs-440 . For one thing the Setton was rated at 55 watts a channel and later updated to a more reasonble 68 watts a channel at clipping. And second the Lafayette Lr-3030 has a 4 channel mode which the Setton Rs-440 doesn`t have. I concur that both might have made by Luxman or Alpine for Luxman. But their also is some that state that this Lafayette line of recievers was made by a japanese company called Planet Research of which I haven`t been able to find any information on the internet for. So who really made the Lafayette Lr-3030 is still an unsolved Mystery untill any of us can find the true documentation and facts for! Also the lux had variable turnovers and a middle inset of the volume control balance knob and the lux had a 4 gang tuner and the Lafayette has a 3 gang tuner. The lux also had unique power protection circuit with controls for it on the front. The lafayette Lr-3030 did not have any of these things. Granted the tuning meter and signal strength meter appear the same. As does the laid backward fm am display. But the appearance of these 2 other than that is not the same .I have seen pictures of the guts and they do appear very similar other that the Lafayette uses Sanken darlington output amp section utilizing Sanken S-40 flatpacks. They both employ preamps mounted on the back and use ribbon cables and wire ties instead of soldering connections to minimize cold solder joints and increase reliability. In all actuality the Setton Rs-220 is more of a Clone for the Lafayette LR-3030. The power for both is similar and the front panel control layout much more similar. The guts are pretty much more similar also. The tuning dial on the setton has the am on top instead of the bottom.
 
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I used to study the Lafayette catalog as a kid. Their gear when new had a strange smell - kind of a sweet smelling mixture of funky cheese and toe jam. It was unique to Lafayette and it lingered for a long time - years. Made me wonder about what the factory was like.
 
Well the later Rx's were made for Lafayette by Luxman of Japan. Planet Research made the earlier LR1500s, LR1000s etc. As for the tube Rx's I am not sure-it was not Pioneer but more than likely Trio. Planet Research was owned partially by Lafayette until going for the better made Luxman of Japan. I was the manager of the company owned Lafayette of Manchester Ct. until Oct. 1976.
Thanks.
 
the true qeustion should be

Who made the setton rs 220 and lafayette lr 3030 since all the guts are the same except the power amp inside the recievers. Once we know that, we should know for sure hopefully. I suspect luxman of japan was the maker of both these recievers:banana:
 
I had a Lafayette LR 3030A in the late 70's. It was a fantastic receiver. I'm retired now and just started looking for another to run through my 70's JBL L100 speakers (that was what I ran on my original LR 3030A) but did not realize there is a Lr 3030 and a LR 3030A. Is there any difference between the two? .
 
Mik Hogan said:
I had a Lafayette LR 3030A in the late 70's. It was a fantastic receiver. I'm retired now and just started looking for another to run through my 70's JBL L100 speakers (that was what I ran on my original LR 3030A) but did not realize there is a Lr 3030 and a LR 3030A. Is there any difference between the two? .
Click to expand...
Performance of both receivers is the same. The 3030A has several more indicator lamps on the front panel.
 
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