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Dug out my Lafayette LR-9090, shocking it still works and looks fantastic

Flaps100

Flaps100

Active Member
Just as the title says, I sold this to my dad sometime in the late 1970's, I was a very young manager of a brand new Lafayette Radio in Montgomeryville PA. Loved my 21 Years with that company, but when my Dad passed away in 2010, I got some of his electronic fun stuff, he loved it all, was always the 1st to have the newest biggest TV, were talking Magnavox, Westinghouse and so on.

Loved music and stereo stuff as well. So, I dig this out today, clean the dust off her, and holy moly to my surprise, every light works, both channels work, I am currently streaming to it and it sounds darn good. Playing it through some vintage Sears by Fisher 8" 2 way speakers which are also kinda surprising me. Don't get me wrong if cant come close to my Cambridge/Wharefdale system, but man it sure is fun to play with and it really does sound darn good overall.
 

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Specifications​

Tuning range: FM, MW

Power output: 90 watts per channel into 8Ω (stereo)

Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz

Total harmonic distortion: 0.1%

Input sensitivity: 6mV (mic), 2.5mV (MM), 150mV (line)

Signal to noise ratio: 60dB (MM), 80dB (line)

Output: 150mV (line)

Speaker load impedance: 4Ω to 16Ω

Semiconductors: 8 x IC, 2 x MosFets, 4 x dual transistors, 43 x transistors, 41 x diodes

Dimensions: 530 x 162 x 394mm

Weight: 17kg

Year: 1977
 
It is a handsome unit, and it does make me think of my Dad, but then again I am 65 now and always thinking of my lost family, My brother (lost him 5 years ago to the big C, also loved Hifi, my mom who put up with it :-) miss her too and my Dad, My brother had some Verit speakers which was an off name kind of company back in the 70's, but man his were well built looked nice a sounded really good.
 
Nice, always wanted to test spin one of those. Once you give it a few and decide its still in reasonable health I would try it with the Wharefdales just to see. Comparing Fisher speakers to Wharedales isnt a fair comparison IMHO.
 
The biggest problem with these receivers is the power/speaker selector switch go bad quite often, a very poor design that had been detrimental to many units. The last time I tried mine it seemed to function properly.
 
Flaps100 said:
Just as the title says, I sold this to my dad sometime in the late 1970's, I was a very young manager of a brand new Lafayette Radio in Montgomeryville PA. Loved my 21 Years with that company, but when my Dad passed away in 2010, I got some of his electronic fun stuff, he loved it all, was always the 1st to have the newest biggest TV, were talking Magnavox, Westinghouse and so on.

Loved music and stereo stuff as well. So, I dig this out today, clean the dust off her, and holy moly to my surprise, every light works, both channels work, I am currently streaming to it and it sounds darn good. Playing it through some vintage Sears by Fisher 8" 2 way speakers which are also kinda surprising me. Don't get me wrong if cant come close to my Cambridge/Wharefdale system, but man it sure is fun to play with and it really does sound darn good overall.
Click to expand...
I worked for Lafayette Radio in the late 60s helping open up new stores with the promise of eventually becoming a store manager. The first store was located at 381 Sunrise Hwy Lynbrook, NY. I loved the store and worked the various depts including the audio room. It only took me about 15 min. to get to work. Eventually they wanted me to go to NYC to open another store on 45 Warren St. The commute and parking were a nightmare, and after the store was open, they wanted me to stay permanently. I quit and went to work for Radio Shack opening a store in the next town over from where I lived! LOL
 
SingleAction said:
I worked for Lafayette Radio in the late 60s helping open up new stores with the promise of eventually becoming a store manager. The first store was located at 381 Sunrise Hwy Lynbrook, NY. I loved the store and worked the various depts including the audio room. It only took me about 15 min. to get to work. Eventually they wanted me to go to NYC to open another store on 45 Warren St. The commute and parking were a nightmare, and after the store was open, they wanted me to stay permanently. I quit and went to work for Radio Shack opening a store in the next town over from where I lived! LOL
Click to expand...
I eventually worked in NY, Carle Place, Flatbush Ave, and a few others, lived in East Islip, good times
 
Wonder if anyone owns this baby, wish I had gotten some of the cool 1978 to 1980 Stereo Equipment from Lafayette Radio, with my discount that stuff was a dealio, the only issue would be life , and would I still have it :) LR-120DB Monster
 

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Flaps100 said:
Just as the title says, I sold this to my dad sometime in the late 1970's, I was a very young manager of a brand new Lafayette Radio in Montgomeryville PA. Loved my 21 Years with that company,

Loved music and stereo stuff as well. So, I dig this out today, clean the dust off her, and holy moly to my surprise, every light works, both channels work, I am currently streaming to it and it sounds darn good. Playing it through some vintage Sears by Fisher 8" 2 way speakers which are also kinda surprising me. Don't get me wrong if cant come close to my Cambridge/Wharefdale system, but man it sure is fun to play with and it really does sound darn good overall.
Click to expand...
I don't recall a Lafayette Radio store in Montgomeryville, PA as part of the official Lafayette chain. Doesn't seem to be listed in our "official" list of Lafayette Radio chain stores in the 1976 and 1977 catalogs. Could it have been an "Associate" store?
 
Flaps100 said:
Wonder if anyone owns this baby, wish I had gotten some of the cool 1978 to 1980 Stereo Equipment from Lafayette Radio, with my discount that stuff was a dealio, the only issue would be life , and would I still have it :) LR-120DB Monster
Click to expand...
Actually, our last catalog was dated 1979 which was just a reprint of the 1978/79 issued catalog. The 1978/79 catalog was actually compiled in mid 1977 and issued in the Fall of 1977. We had no real/new stereo equipment in 1980. We were already in bankruptcy proceedings.

The LR-120DB was designed mostly and manufactured by the Lux Corp. Terrible support from them. Lux Corp. did not or would not supply any service related information for the receiver nor would they supply any unique service related parts for the receiver. I believe at the time they were going through an ownership transition.

As part of doing service work for several of the NJ official Lafayette stores, I sometimes had to get creative when doing a repair on this receiver.
 
peteCWA said:
I don't recall a Lafayette Radio store in Montgomeryville, PA as part of the official Lafayette chain. Doesn't seem to be listed in our "official" list of Lafayette Radio chain stores in the 1976 and 1977 catalogs. Could it have been an "Associate" store?
Click to expand...
It was a company store for sure, I started in King of Prussia, then worked in Lancaster PA, as assistant mgr, then was given the new Montgomeryville store, all if this was near the end, 1976 to 1980 or so. Worked with John Roth, Rich Roth, and many others. Ended up transferring to what was left in New York and then they shut that down I transfered to Virginia Beach, at that point Circuit City 21 Years Total.
 
Weighing in, a little late to the game....I own an immaculate LR-9090 I purchased I recall 1970, when these first came to the Paramus, NJ store on Route 17, I could show you where it was to this day. And the original manual. I loved Lafayette equipment-as a poorer kid/musician starting out-this was great stuff, less money than all the other name brands back then. I had it connected to a pair of Criterion 50's then upgraded to the Criterion 100's which sounded fantastic to my ears. Now-I have it connected to 2 pair of 12" 3-way custom speakers I made myself over 30 years ago-had to re-cone one pair of woofers, but I can blow the doors off my family room with this setup! And it is connected to my TEAC 3340 and digital mixing console and a very nice turntable-TEAC was also one of the first out the door-actually before the door opened-bought it from a private music studio owner who had several of the first ones to try out. Just had it renovated, works perfectly with the Lafayette. Only one problem, I think the caps are finally deteriorating in the LR-9090 a bit as I am getting some hiss in the high frequency ranges now, will be sending it out as soon as I find a good tech that I can trust with it. any recommendations are welcome. I am an experienced DIY'er, repair tech but with this, I'd rather have a more experienced tech work on this. before this, it was an amazingly quiet receiver even at low signal levels, there was no backgropund noise at all. Great specs for such a n older "budget" receiver. It does weight a good 30 pounds though!

PS-I looked up specs on line. It says this came out in 1976-78? That can't be right. I had mine way sooner than this. Could the Paramus store gotten some of these much earlier?
 
The Lafayette LR-9090 first appeared in the 1977 Lafayette main catalog. The catalog was issued in the Fall of 1976. See attached picture below (click picture to enlarge) which indicates availability of the LR-9090 in fine print as Nov. 1, 1976. In 1970, our main stereo receiver was the LR-1500T followed by the LR-1000TA and several others of the same style. In 1970 we hadn't even started diddling in Quad (4-channel) stuff yet. The LR-9090 was not sold in 1970. Probably the overall design wasn't even conceived yet. After roughly 50 years, some installed parts may have started to deteriorate, fail, or become leaky and/or noisy. Not unusual.
 

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Flaps100 said:
Just as the title says, I sold this to my dad sometime in the late 1970's, I was a very young manager of a brand new Lafayette Radio in Montgomeryville PA. Loved my 21 Years with that company, but when my Dad passed away in 2010, I got some of his electronic fun stuff, he loved it all, was always the 1st to have the newest biggest TV, were talking Magnavox, Westinghouse and so on.

Loved music and stereo stuff as well. So, I dig this out today, clean the dust off her, and holy moly to my surprise, every light works, both channels work, I am currently streaming to it and it sounds darn good. Playing it through some vintage Sears by Fisher 8" 2 way speakers which are also kinda surprising me. Don't get me wrong if cant come close to my Cambridge/Wharefdale system, but man it sure is fun to play with and it really does sound darn good overall.
Click to expand...

Swap the speakers to your Wharfedales and see how that sounds
 
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