Bogen BR-360 - A curious GW find

[davstev]

Picked this unit up last night for $15.75 at the Goodwill. It was a diamond in the rough, covered with 50 years’ worth of fingerprints, grime and dust. I could tell that it was in decent shape, It powered up, with dial lights, and it was heavy and mega solid so I bought it.

First thoughts: what’s a “Standard Sound” receiver seen on the front? What’s up with those slider adjustments, is that crappy stuff? What's that "crescendo" adjustment all about? Pretty sure it was re-badged, since Standard Sound was proabably a retailer, not a manufacturer. Google told me nothing, and then my google-savvy girlfriend came up with an answer: it’s a Bogen SR-360. There’s a bit of info here on AK and elsewhere online about this model, but not a lot. No service manual, nothing on HiFi Engine. I think it's 40 WPC, but not sure. The interior photos of other BR-360's seen online show a very different board configuration. Hmm.

Obviously, from about 1970. Reminded me a lot of other receivers I’ve owned from early 70's: Sansui 7 and 8 (same rectangular push buttons), and H/K 330B, 930. Built to last, and easily as sturdy and weighty as the units just mentioned. Some big caps, hefty transformer, lots of metal, interesting enough to look at from the front. Kinda cool and unique.

After a very thorough cleaning and de-oxit, time to power up and have a listen. Headphones in, I have AM/FM & sounding very good: clear, warm, good power and presence. Next step is to connect my phone via the appropriate RCA cable to the RCA inputs. Aux input jacks are busted (seemed to have a little accident when someone pressed in too hard), so I went with tape input and clicked the tape select on the front. Nothing. No sound. Double checked the cable I was using with another amp, and it was good. Definitely something wrong with input signal.

So I am getting output from the tuner, but nothing after the RCA inputs. Where’s the signal loss? Everything looks ok upon visual inspection. Fuses are good. I’m no tech to say the least, but I have a DMM. Way more of a tinkerer and an audio gear fan, but if anyone has any advice, thanks for offering. Excited to get this baby working!

 

[goodolpg]

Thanks for the nice images, might help someone in the future.
If you are connected to the tape inputs, turn on the tape monitor (not tape select) and see if you get sound.

 

[Dswankey]

Your unit say manufactured in Japan while this photo of an actual Bogen BR-360 says made in USA.

There are differences on the back although the front of both look the same



I wanna say I read here recently about "Standard Sound" manufactured for markets outside of US

 

[cademan]

Those aux jacks are easy to repair or replace or you could swap out the "tape out" jacks for the broken "aux" jacks.

The tape monitor button could just be dirty.

 

[Okke 70s]

Yeh, since it works fine on the tuner, it can't be much of a serieus problem. Must be between the inputs and the output of the inputselector.

You mentioned the aux-in was busted. The tape monitor is connected to it, so you might want to check up on the state of that part. Otherwise the input selector switches themselves are pretty much the only thing left to suspect.

 

[davstev]

Your unit say manufactured in Japan while this photo of an actual Bogen BR-360 says made in USA.

There are differences on the back although the front of both look the same

View attachment 2403725

I wanna say I read here recently about "Standard Sound" manufactured for markets outside of US

Yes, that image in your post reveals a totally different back panel, and I suspect the board layout is totally different inside as well. The output transformers are on the outside of mine, at the back, covered by a cage. And there are other differences. But the front of all BR-360's seems consistent.

 

[davstev]

Yeh, since it works fine on the tuner, it can't be much of a serieus problem. Must be between the inputs and the output of the inputselector.

You mentioned the aux-in was busted. The tape monitor is connected to it, so you might want to check up on the state of that part. Otherwise the input selector switches themselves are pretty much the only thing left to suspect.

Good advice, thanks. I hadn't considered that the input selector might be shot, however it's not a rotary knob, they are selector buttons. I'll give it a think. thanks.

 

[davstev]

Those aux jacks are easy to repair or replace or you could swap out the "tape out" jacks for the broken "aux" jacks.

The tape monitor button could just be dirty.

excellent proposal, I might just do that.

 

[cademan]

The output transformers are on the outside of mine, at the back, covered by a cage.

Those are output transistors not transformers but then you already knew that.

 

[davstev]

Those are output transistors not transformers but then you already knew that.

Yep, I got sloppy there!

 

[gadget73]

I was thinking it looked Japanese by the insides. Those Toko transformers are not what you usually see in US-made gear.


signal from the tuner but not from any of the inputs sounds like some trouble at the selector switch. Should all be line-level going in there.

 

[Nat]

Sure you already know this, but the crescendo knob is an expander/compressor. I remember a Bogen ad for this, or a similar receiver that touted the feature. I suppose that, used judiciously, it might be a fun addition, rather like the spring reverbs that were in some electronics for a while. But pumping is obviously a potential issue. Wonder if it would work with a tape deck, compressing on record and expanding on replay. Your own dbx system!

 

[Doug G.]

Looks like somebody stole some appearance/function ideas from the Heathkit AR-29/AR-19 series.

Doug

 

[Moving Ahead]

A lot of real estate dedicated to the tuner section. It would be nice to see a picture of the main amp section to see what kind of muscle it has. Looks Quazi complimentary design 71/72. Look at the output transistors and get the case numbers will confirm. Nice looking machine. The fascia looks neat and put together well. Could have used the early teac Ag series for inspiration?

 

[Pio1980]

Wonder who OEM'ed it for Bogen?

 

[davodavo]

Something very strange about the pictures you posted: the back panel looks completely different from the one I'm familiar with. That "standard sound" branding I've never seen before. Perhaps this is a receiver made for the Canadian market, done under contract by Standard Radio of Japan??? Don't ask me why, but I've owned two of these puppies, both made in the USA of mixed US/Japanese modules. Not badly made (with two horrible exceptions) and very easy to work on (modularity, most stuff unpluggable, lots of test points).
First horrible exception: all the switches are made of garbage alloy that oxidizes rapidly and needs to be cleaned. Switches can't really be replaced with anything better, so just clean them as best you can.
Second horrible exception: for the units I had, output transistor stage just loves to blow its proprietary transistors, and that takes the driver stage with it. I believe you can replace the outputs with 2N3055 and they'll never blow up. Of course, replace the output electrolytics when you replace the transistors. HOWEVER, on your unit the output circuitry isn't on a PCB, and the transistors look like they're plugged in (rather than soldered). Maybe Bogen or their OEM wised up on this issue.
Other than that...the receiver has a pretty sensitive FM tuner (for its day) and the compander can be kinda useful for taping if you want full-spectrum compression/expansion...plus, for overly compressed LPs (common in the 60's) and broadcasts (everything on the air except WFMT), it's nice to get a little more dynamic range.

 

[Fotboat]

Hello
I just picked up a Bogen BR-360

Picked this unit up last night for $15.75 at the Goodwill. It was a diamond in the rough, covered with 50 years’ worth of fingerprints, grime and dust. I could tell that it was in decent shape, It powered up, with dial lights, and it was heavy and mega solid so I bought it.

First thoughts: what’s a “Standard Sound” receiver seen on the front? What’s up with those slider adjustments, is that crappy stuff? What's that "crescendo" adjustment all about? Pretty sure it was re-badged, since Standard Sound was proabably a retailer, not a manufacturer. Google told me nothing, and then my google-savvy girlfriend came up with an answer: it’s a Bogen SR-360. There’s a bit of info here on AK and elsewhere online about this model, but not a lot. No service manual, nothing on HiFi Engine. I think it's 40 WPC, but not sure. The interior photos of other BR-360's seen online show a very different board configuration. Hmm.

Obviously, from about 1970. Reminded me a lot of other receivers I’ve owned from early 70's: Sansui 7 and 8 (same rectangular push buttons), and H/K 330B, 930. Built to last, and easily as sturdy and weighty as the units just mentioned. Some big caps, hefty transformer, lots of metal, interesting enough to look at from the front. Kinda cool and unique.

After a very thorough cleaning and de-oxit, time to power up and have a listen. Headphones in, I have AM/FM & sounding very good: clear, warm, good power and presence. Next step is to connect my phone via the appropriate RCA cable to the RCA inputs. Aux input jacks are busted (seemed to have a little accident when someone pressed in too hard), so I went with tape input and clicked the tape select on the front. Nothing. No sound. Double checked the cable I was using with another amp, and it was good. Definitely something wrong with input signal.

So I am getting output from the tuner, but nothing after the RCA inputs. Where’s the signal loss? Everything looks ok upon visual inspection. Fuses are good. I’m no tech to say the least, but I have a DMM. Way more of a tinkerer and an audio gear fan, but if anyone has any advice, thanks for offering. Excited to get this baby working!

View attachment 2403427 View attachment 2403428 View attachment 2403429 View attachment 2403431 View attachment 2403430 View attachment 2403433 View attachment 2403434 View attachment 2403432

I just picked up a Bogen BR-360 yesterday.
Main reason is I never heard of it before but noticed that Bogen was a NJ company, and I presently live in NJ, and the company still exited building PAs, which I thought was great.
I’m still cleaning the unit, so have opened it, inspected it, blew it out (lots of dust ) and deox/ lube what I can reach.
One of the issues is I can’t figure out is how to get face plate off to allow access to the slider pots.

So I was wondering if you ever found a service manual for this unit? Schematic?
If not was wondering about the process to remove the faceplate and get to the pots?

Thank you, and below are couple of pics of my unit, not as good as shape as yours but sounds great.

 

[davstev]

That's cool. How did you acquire it and what do you think of it?