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Another MCS Series receiver... any good?

deniss

deniss

Active Member
I came upon an MCS receiver on CL for $25, and it looks exactly like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-PANASON...pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item27b475fbef

in that specific bronze/copper color.

It has the 8-track player in it, too. The faceplace says 2500 Series Receiver, Panasonic MCS Series

Another identical item, with better picture quality is here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Panasonic-MCS-2...pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item51934605fe

I am not affiliated with either of these listings! My question is, can anyone give an estimate of the power output for this beast and is it a nice receiver worth getting?
 
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I'm don't have any 8-track tapes, so I don't imagine using the 8-track player in this unit. I'm more interested in what kind of a sound signature the receiver has for CD or PHONO and if it's worth adding to my collection just for that reason.
 
Looking closely at the pics, it's actually an 8-track RECORDER, if that makes any difference. I actually have a separate 8-track recorder, a line-powered component with level meters like a cassette recorder, just in case I ever met someone with a '68 Mustang or other classic car with 8-track player standard who wanted 8-track tapes recorded for it. I've never met such a person.

But this thing, I googled hoping to maybe find a schematic and some specs, but mostly got other pages pointing to those ebay ads. From the pics it has both ceramic and magnetic phono inputs, which also dates it to the earlier 8-track era.

It's got lots of built-in features which made it in some sense desirable at the time, but I have the definite impression it was cheap stuff even at the time, at most 20 watts per channel, and the sound will have a noticeable "transistor" character that won't be good, that even my tin ears could tell. As I recall, the "MCS" stuff was some of the cheaper stuff available.

I dare say many of the "All in one" units from the '80's or '90's, recently trashed literally and figuratively in a recent thread, surely had more power and sounded better.
 
For $150 I'd pass.... I'll bet that receiver is as big as my SX-1250 with all those buttons on there. Probably doesn't weigh much though...
 
benb - thank you, that was very informative.

I read a few threads here on AK, where folks spoke pretty highly of the MCS 3125 receiver, so it seems like some MCS pieces are actually quite nice.
 
slow_jazz said:
For $150 I'd pass.... I'll bet that receiver is as big as my SX-1250 with all those buttons on there. Probably doesn't weigh much though...
Click to expand...

it's for $150 on eBay... the one I have a lead on is actually $25 :yes: frankly, i don't know who in their right mind would buy this for $150!
 
Panasonic came out with a cassette version RA-6500, 8 track version RA-6000 and a radio only version. There similar to the MCS version. There all rated at 16 watts per channel. I remember they usually come bundled with Thruster speakers. If you were into 8 tracks and still record on them, I would get it, but if you don't, then I would pass.

When I was a teen, I lusted over the cassette version.
 
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AnalogDigit said:
Panasonic came out with a cassette version RA-6500, 8 track version RA-6000 and a radio only version. There similar to the MCS version. There all rated at 16 watts per channel. I remember they usually come bundled with Thruster speakers. If you were into 8 tracks and still record on them, I would get it, but if you don't, then I would pass.

When I was a teen, I lusted over the cassette version.
Click to expand...

Oh man, I remember seeing the Thrusters... Haha. Yea, I'll definitely pass on this. But very useful references to the Panasonic models -- thank you for that, live and learn every day. Why in the world someone on ebay would ask $150 or even $85 for this box is not clear...
 
Thread Resurrection for Pertinent Spec Info:

I found one of these for sale locally and like the OP had a REALLY difficult time finding out any information about this receiver. But as I was scanning FleaBay ads hoping someone posted the specs, I stumbled across an ad for the service manual of this exact model and noticed the cover photo shared all the specs, so I thought it might be handy to keep here for future related searches.

AM Sensitivity: 100uVm for 50mV
FM Sensitivity: 2uV (S/N 30dB MOD 30%)
8 Track Erase & Recording System: AC Bias 47kHz
Freq Response: 40-12kHz
Signal to Noise Ratio: 48dB Linear
Wow & Flutter: 0.25% (RMS), 0.2% (WRMS)
Power Output: 18W X 2 Max
Dimensions: 19W x 7H x 12.75D
Weight: 18.5 LBS
 

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deniss said:
I came upon an MCS receiver on CL for $25, and it looks exactly like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-PANASON...pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item27b475fbef

in that specific bronze/copper color.

It has the 8-track player in it, too. The faceplace says 2500 Series Receiver, Panasonic MCS Series

Another identical item, with better picture quality is here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Panasonic-MCS-2...pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item51934605fe

I am not affiliated with either of these listings! My question is, can anyone give an estimate of the power output for this beast and is it a nice receiver worth getting?
Click to expand...
Hey if you’re still around I just today picked up the same receiver with the turntable & speakers that came with it originally. Would love to know more about it as well as the value. The speakers have the same model number as the stereo & the search on them has come up empty. The turntable has shown up with a little more info though.
 
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