Semiconductors in Vintage Hifi - What's the Deal?

[mozcho]

I'm not an electronics guy. I have heard and read about semiconductors used in vintage hifi, that your precious vintage gears will become doorstops if a crucial piece of IC or semiconductor is spoiled which you cannot find a replacement for. My hifi friend and also a good repair tech for vintage gears told me one stunning Denon DD and a good Technics DD turntable have to be scrapped because both have erratic speeds but the ICs are not available anymore, unless you can salvage them from a zombie unit.

So I'd like to ask members here:
1. Should I just focus on solid state gears that have no semiconductors?
2. Are these semiconductors really unobtainium?
3. After almost half a decade, many are still using these vintage gears with semiconductors in them. How do they cope with this problem?

 

[llwhtt]

Solid state IS semiconductors. You will find many of the Japanese and other companies that are large enough to manufacture their own semis to be the biggest problem of disappearing parts. I work on a lot of 1970s American equipment from companies that were not big enough to do that so they used good commercial parts of which many, if not most, are still available not only new but from many of the surplus stores.

Craig

 

[tom3]

If you see a lot of plastic, mostly black, keep looking. Key word in the early vintage equipment is "discrete" components. Would have very few packed integrated components.

 

[Ray66]

In cases where it warrants some enterprising people out there have come up with replacement devices using modern parts. The STK Darlington modules found in many receivers is one example. Another that comes to mind is a replacement for the proprietary Pioneer PA3004 protection IC created by some AKers and well documented here, saved my SX-980. Unfortunately, sounds like that's not the case for your TTs.

 

[jefferylhenr]

You mean IC’s not semiconductors. Otherwise, you are limiting yourself to vacuum tubes

 

[mozcho]

"Solid state IS semiconductors" - Thanks, I learned something. Maybe I should say, discrete components vs ICs. Actually, what should be more of a concern? Transistors? Diodes? ICs? OpAmps?

 

[aldena007]

"Solid state IS semiconductors" - Thanks, I learned something. Maybe I should say, discrete components vs ICs. Actually, what should be more of a concern? Transistors? Diodes? ICs? OpAmps?

Proprietary Integrated Circuits are often the Achilles Heel of many excellent units [unobtainium] and could be avoided on that basis. Many IC's were custom builds for specific units. Pioneer labeled IC's for instance. Early Dolby cassette decks had discreet component versions [CT-F1000 for example] of Dolby Record/Play. Later. Dolby IC's appeared and were much better [simple implementation]. All legacy audio units have various degrees of discrete components in their build. As mentioned above "Solid state IS semiconductors"

 

[gadget73]

Vintage gear without semiconductors exists, but thats vacuum tube gear.

but yes proprietary IC are the problem area. Transistors and diodes and such are generally able to be substituted with a functional equivalent. If you're getting into very specific devices like a VFET, those have no modern subs. Plenty of op-amps are either still made or can be subbed.

with a lot of 70s gear you'd have a much harder time finding switches or controls than any of the electronic bits inside.

 

[mozcho]

I have some amps made before or around 1970, like Sansui AU-777, Sony TA-1130, Marantz 1060, they are solid state but should not have ICs in them as ICs came out a bit later. They all sound good in my system.

 

[ConradH]

Discrete semiconductors can usually be substituted with something. Custom ICs like the ones used in complex AV receivers can be impossible to source, assuming you can even unsolder and solder the big ball grid packages. Even the fancy units have to be considered disposable. I'd also never pay much for a receiver using STK modules because most of the replacements are of poor quality. There are some ICs used in tuners (including receiver tuners) that are near unobtainium. There's also an IC in the Crown DC300 that's near impossible to find. Near, not entirely.

 

[N2552]

Some early 70's solid state (preferably) silicon based, is still completely without IC's. Tuners, amps, decks, R2R's, 8-tracks, TT's etc. And yes, a lot of that is from US(A) origin or design. Although even my JVC / Nivico gear from 1972 till 1976 is still 'IC-less'. Except for the JT-V6 tuner, CD-1950 cassettedeck and VT-900 tune that is!
Edit and note: I haven't checked or can't remember, if the phono stages in my JVC amplifiers got IC's or are 100% discrete.