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Receiver shopping

When I moved to Athens in 1990, my receiver was a Pioneer SX 626, my speakers were Boston Acoustics A 40 II. Both sang well together in a bedroom system then, the SX 636 is next years version in 1974. Both good choices.
 
IMO, the best sub-$100 receiver is the Concept 6.5 (65 wpc) or if unavailable, the Concept 4.5 (45 wpc). Both are very well built with large transformers and both will give the equivalent Marantz (2245/2252B and 2265/2265B) receivers a hard time. The Concepts are Richard Schramm designs. He has a preference for fast amp designs which really can be heard in his later efforts at Parasound. The only downside is Concept was a Pacific Stereo house brand so suffers from lack of name recognition. That's fine, you won't be paying Marantz money.

I've owned all the models mentioned above at one time or another.
 
Thanks for all the nice advice. Can you Aker's help me on what should I look for while garage surfing for a nice old receiver. One question I have is, if I score a nice receiver but it's broken/needs parts, is it worth it to learn the schematic and replace/fix the receiver. I kinda see a gamble to this old equipment, don't want to get stuck with a mount of receiver's that don't even work. What you guys think?
 
Point of sale testing is usually limited to power up to hear the relay and if you are lucky to have speakers available, hearing the tuner. Most of them will need control cleaning and Bias/DC adjustments which with some care can be done at home. I would avoid broken units unless you are a DIY'er. The cost of tech repair will quickly bust your budget making you think you should have bought on ebay to begin with. That's the gamble AND the fun of this hobby.
 
When you buy off eBay, pay attention to the seller description and feedback. Does he sound like he knows what he is talking about? Provide good pics, describes all indicators, meters, channels are working, that he will pack well, etc.

Some Realistics can be very reasonably priced. I like the STA-90 at 45 watts and the STA-77 at 16 watts. Make sure the pointer turns red when capturing stereo. If not mentioned, it's a good question to ask the seller. Not just to get an answer but to see how fast he responds and how well he communicates.
 
Why not buy your receiver from a trusted AKer as a subscribing member through Bartertown ( $25 annual subscription fee )? :yes: There's likely someone in your neck of the woods who has a well regarded model of receiver that is not being used and if you're really nice, you might just land something for little to nothing....okay, you might have to bring over a six-pack of beer but I'm speaking for myself here. :beerchug: I once got a Marantz receiver locally for just buying a pack of cigarettes for the feller. :smoke:

Where are you located? That will help us all out knowing where you are. Chances are there's a lot of us near you.
 
Yeah, I bet that pretty much everybody on here has something to sell. If you tell us an area, we could put up some ads in the classifieds.

And if you do buy off ebay, make him explain to you how he is going to pack it. Peanuts don't work well. If you pack an item, and roll the box over and if you can feel it move, unpack and do it over again.
 
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I live in the murrieta/temecula area in riverside county, In Southern California...

I'm ok with a low powered receiver, I'm only going to listen to jazz with moderate volumes.
 
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