Realistic Collectors?

[hjames]

Some newbie can find their own amp for their vinyls, doncha think?
Besides - I resurrounded a pair of Optimus T-120 speakers I found curbside and passed THEM on to a newbie with no money back in 2020 -
So I'll keep the small amp for personal use ... Its got some dirty volume pots and other things that keep it from serious use anyway

That little amp cleaned up a bit would be awesome with a pair of minimus 7s and a lab turntable. You should consider liberating it from speaker duty and get it in the hands of a noob to vinyl.

 

[SmileyFaceEQ]

Some newbie can find their own amp for their vinyls, doncha think?
Besides - I resurrounded a pair of Optimus T-120 speakers I found curbside and passed THEM on to a newbie with no money back in 2020 -
So I'll keep the small amp for personal use ... Its got some dirty volume pots and other things that keep it from serious use anyway

View attachment 2772853 View attachment 2772855

I was not trying offend you in any way.

 

[hjames]

I was not trying offend you in any way.

Gosh no!
No offense meant or taken either way!

 

[Lavane]

Those little amps can be handy for test purposes. I had the newer version of that little RS amp for awhile. It was handy for testing speakers and such found at thrift stores, or from sellers with nothing to test them. I just used an adaptor cable to plug an old smart phone into it for a source and stream pandora.

 

[hjames]

Those little amps can be handy for test purposes. I had the newer version of that little RS amp for awhile. It was handy for testing speakers and such found at thrift stores, or from sellers with nothing to test them. I just used an adaptor cable to plug an old smart phone into it for a source and stream pandora.

I set up my backporch test space with a LePai amp initially, and when I went to test, could not hear the 30Hz test tone from the sig gen on my phone.
I took a CD of test tones, loaded them in iTunes and made a playlits of them I copied to my iPhone. Still could not hear the 30Hz tone!
I swapped in the realistic amp and all was fine - nice tones! So, I found the LePai did not reproduce the low bass I needed for surround testing!

 

[MegaHurts]

Reviving an old thread here I guess, but I picked up a DX-150A shortwave a while back and put it on a shelf for display. I finally got around to it and just finished clean service and recap on it. Listening to a broadcast about Julian Assange right now. Sweet SW radio.

 

[Lavane]

Reviving an old thread here I guess, but I picked up a DX-150A shortwave a while back and put it on a shelf for display. I finally got around to it and just finished clean service and recap on it. Listening to a broadcast about Julian Assange right now. Sweet SWView attachment 3242139 radio.

Once you get comfortable with how the controls work, you might be surprised at the weaker stations you'll be able to bring forward more clearly. I used to have several SW receivers. I had a big tube Lafayette receiver that had some nice features that allowed you to pull weak stations forward from in between stronger stations on either side of the frequency.
I really liked that receiver. Get a long wire kit or two to hook up to it.
One running north-south, and one running east-west on a switch.

 

[MegaHurts]

Once you get comfortable with how the controls work, you might be surprised at the weaker stations you'll be able to bring forward more clearly. I used to have several SW receivers. I had a big tube Lafayette receiver that had some nice features that allowed you to pull weak stations forward from in between stronger stations on either side of the frequency.
I really liked that receiver. Get a long wire kit or two to hook up to it.
One running north-south, and one running east-west on a switch.

Currently have about a 50' clothesline wire hooked up running outside. It's amazing how many stations it picks up. Some fade in/out a bit but I think I'll look at maybe running a loop of a few hundred feet and your suggestion and play around with how good it can do. The manual suggests a rod in the ground with wire to radio, but haven't tried yet.

 

[Lavane]

Currently have about a 50' clothesline wire hooked up running outside. It's amazing how many stations it picks up. Some fade in/out a bit but I think I'll look at maybe running a loop of a few hundred feet and your suggestion and play around with how good it can do. The manual suggests a rod in the ground with wire to radio, but haven't tried yet.

Bare copper wire worked great. You want to use insulators of some sort to mount the wire ends, then run a lead from one end to the radio.
As long as the wire your using isn't grounded to earth it should work pretty well.

 

[PabloTincho]

Someone is selling a set of a

Realistic SA-1000A​

Realistic TM-1000​

any comments on the 1001A ?
what is the A version ?

 

[Lavane]

Someone is selling a set of a

Realistic SA-1001A​

Realistic TM-1000​

any comments on the 1001A ?
what is the A version ?

Do you mean the SA-1000A?, there is a SA-1001, and I have a SA-2001.
I had a SA-1000A for many years. I wound up recapping it and giving it to my youngest son. I still have the matching TM-1000 tuner. It's a decent sounding little tuner. The SA-1000A amp is only 20wpc and sounds ok, and I like the midrange control. The only problem I ever had with it, and I've had two of them over the years, I the volume controls don't track evenly. One channel will come up before the other when turning up the volume. It isn't and issue except for very low volumes.

 

[Ed240]

any comments on the 1001A ?
what is the A version ?
[/QUOTE]

There is no 1001A, so assuming you're asking about the difference between the 1000 and 1000A. Even though they are the same catalog #, they are different.

 

[Lavane]

any comments on the 1001A ?
what is the A version ?

There is no 1001A, so assuming you're asking about the difference between the 1000 and 1000A. Even though they are the same catalog #, they are different.

[/QUOTE]
Several years ago I was able to find the schematics for both. There wasn't much difference as I recall. One difference I remember was they used different Op amps in the preamp stage.
Even though I had other amps, I had a SA-1000A for many years. I never had a problem with it other than the volume control not tracking evenly between channels at low volumes. I wound up with a second one and it did the same thing. The original amp I.had got recapped and the volume control replaced. My youngest son has it now.
I bought the SA-1000A and TM-1000 tuner along with a pair of Optimus 2B and 1B speakers new when I worked part time at Radio Shack in high school. I still have the tuner and Optimus 2B speakers.

 

[AdamAnt316]

Bought another set of Realistic mini-components recently, this time at a 'hamfest', and all were in their original boxes. From one seller, I picked up a SA-102 integrated amplifier, the matching TM-102 tuner, and a pair of Minimus 8 (not 7!) bookshelf speakers. From another seller, a Realistic LAB-400 turntable, which isn't very 'mini', but is in its original box. Here are some photos of the set in their boxes:


And here they are outside of their boxes:


Here are some shots of the LAB-400 by itself:


As you can see, it's in pretty good shape; unfortunately, the 'cueing bar' which lifts the tonearm is broken where it attaches to the lift piston. Here is a photo of the top of the broken part:

An annotated version of the above photo showing a crude approximation of what it should look like can be seen here. Here are more photos of the broken part:


And here's a crude image showing where it's supposed to be attached, with an arrow pointing to the top part of the silver piston which shouldn't be visible with the part in place: