Show us your Realistic (Radio Shack) stuff
- Thread starter HTHMAN
- Start date
PabloTincho
Super Member
Well my Realistic STA-2200 came back from the tech, full recap and more than a few modifications
here are the measurements
THD is 0.002% at 1W, 0.008% at 60W and it clips at 80W
The clipping point is about 80W into 8ohms, visible on scope at 0.35%THD.
The tuner section was removed from the receiver, I have better tuners
the same with the dolby board and the Phono was disable
The display was converted to AUX only, because I was not able to find a new display ( the display will fade with time and no way to fix it )
also the selector was converted to 5 aux
The FM Signal Meter is now wired to display which of the 5 AUX inputs is selected.
The power meters are calibrated. The AUX indicator on the VFD display is always on when the Power switch is ON.
The VFD display is only on when the Power switch is ON (standby power mode is disabled)
The red memory LED was connected to the thermal protection
The green LED is now a Power On LED. The red LED is controlled by the protection circuit so that any time the protection circuit is activated the speaker relay is opened and the red LED illuminates.
The rear panel connectors are labelled AUX1, AUX2, etc
The connectors on the back are re-assigned and labelled as follows:
Tape 2 Out -> AUX 1
Tape 2 In -> AUX 2
Tape 1 Out -> AUX 3
Tape 1 In -> AUX 4
AUX -> AUX 5
Phono -> not used
So what I got is a pure integrated amp with 5 inputs
there is a lot of power on this Realistic, I think I need more powerful speakers
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NH-MAN
Addicted Member
I see a table leg to the right and thinking squares on rug are probably 3/4-1 inch I think around 5-6 ft max
My first ever Goodwill score was an STA-90 in near mint condition, for $20, which was actually a high price for old stereo gear at GW at the time. I almost walked away! Glad I didn't, I still use it every day.
HartOfSound
New Member
Just scored an STA-52 over the weekend. A couple lights had gone but I've replaced them all except the Stereo lamp which is working perfectly. Gotta say, for only 12ish watts this thing is phenomenal. Sounds really sweet and has plenty of power for a pair of Yamaha NS-570 speakers that I nabbed over the weekend too (I know the speakers are a bit overkill but I had to try them haha). I'm super impressed with it. Tuner works amazingly well too and I'm going to try out the Quatravox speaker outputs with my Optimus 5b and Optimus 1b speakers when I have a chance. Do you think this is too underpowered to have much success with that though?
Nice piece. Released after my time at RS in the '70's. The Optimus 1's and 5's had a minimum requirement of 10-12 watts, don't know about the "B" revisions, but you are probably pushing the envelope with that little girl...remember the "Quatravox" is just simulated Dynaco-style 4 channel, your receiver does not have 4 separate amps in it. I personally don't think it would hurt to try it at low volume, but I wouldn't crank it...
Lavane
Lunatic Member
I should have snagged a sign or two when our RS closed up shop. They were even selling the parts bins.
HartOfSound
New Member
Thanks for the input! I believe the 5b is recommended for no less than 15 watts so this may turn out to be a bit underpowered but I'll try it with modest levels and see how it does. Here's a short couple videos of it in action at the moment, I'm coming from Yamaha CR-420 and 1020s and I think this STA-52 sounds amazing. It's my first Realistic receiver after playing with their 5b and 1b speakers for awhile and I think I'm already getting hooked.
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old 2080
Well-Known Member
I came across an STA 47 over the weekend, like I need another receiver...lol....Although I've never owned a 47 before. I bought it with the option of being able to return it if I find issues as it was listed as "works" on the tag that was on it. Hooked it up yesterday morning and all sounded really good, but after a few minutes the left channel started acting up, "staticky" is the best way to describe it. Going to clean and lube the controls and switches this morning and try again. I got it at a very reasonable price, and hope that just doing what I intend to brings it back, if not I may just take it back, would most likely cost more to repair than it would be worth I feel. Too bad because it really did sound great when I first tried it. So hoping a good cleaning and lubing of the controls does the trick.....
I got an sta64 my friend was throwing out ! I had it gone thru I know I spent as much as it was worth but didn’t have the heart to see it in the trash heap ! Nice wood case , good sound at even having 16 wpc drove my Cerwyn Vegas with ease ! Now it’s in my collection , money well spent ? Most likely not but still glad I saved it !I came across an STA 47 over the weekend, like I need another receiver...lol....Although I've never owned a 47 before. I bought it with the option of being able to return it if I find issues as it was listed as "works" on the tag that was on it. Hooked it up yesterday morning and all sounded really good, but after a few minutes the left channel started acting up, "staticky" is the best way to describe it. Going to clean and lube the controls and switches this morning and try again. I got it at a very reasonable price, and hope that just doing what I intend to brings it back, if not I may just take it back, would most likely cost more to repair than it would be worth I feel. Too bad because it really did sound great when I first tried it. So hoping a good cleaning and lubing of the controls does the trick.....
old 2080
Well-Known Member
I have enough already that I'll never re-coupe what I have in them....lol....But if cleaning the controls brings it back I'll hold on to it.....
Lavane
Lunatic Member
Nice. I have the SA-2001 amplifier. The SA-1001, SA-2001, are probably the best integrated amps RS sold. The TM-2001 tuner gets pretty high marks also. Changing the meter bulbs on the SA-2001 was a real pain, it took a darn near complete disassembly of the amp to get to them. Hopefully its not as bad for tuner.
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Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
No picture.
The impulse buy for time constraints, and desire to quickly have a stereo with remote control and a hefty power output to feed the recently in the early nineties purchased from my local Mc dealer used floor model Mc. XRT-18 speakers placed in my bed room, I was in the local associate RS store, purchased a new STA-2700 100wpc receiver for that application.
Took it home hooked it up to the speakers, cranked it up while tuned into the local FM rock station and listened to it struggle with the SPL that I might on occasion demand from it when waking up, so disconnected it and dragged it out to my bench to look into disconnecting the phono jacks inside from the receiver`s phono stage and unsoldering the front end coax feeds from the amplifier section`s L/R inputs and connected them to the phono input jacks to allow the receiver`s preamp L/R connections to external higher powered amplifiers for more headroom (like 2 mono configured Crown DC 300A power amps that I had laying around that I already had already completely bench checked for full compliance with the service manual`s specifications.
Well that was much, much better sounding with 600 RMS watts total now feeding the XRT-18s.
That setup remained in bedroom duty for 3 or 4 yrs. until the same Mc. dealer called me up around 1995 to see if I was interested in buying extremely discounted and all brand new in the box current models at that time, a Mc. preamp, a tuner, a power amp, and multi disc CD turntable CD player, due to one of the Mc. dealer`s customer`s defaulting after paying on these items for a period of time on a layaway for these brand new in the boxes Mc. audio equipment !
So I went to the dealer, and we made a deal and I paid him, went home called my long time LEO friend to see if he was interested in purchasing on time payments from me the Mc. pieces that I wasn`t interested in to up the quality of his stereo system, and he was, and did.
Anyway back to the bedroom`s RS STA-2700 receiver.
After installing the new Mc. preamp,& tuner in my living room`s A/V rack, I could now bring the older 1987 purchased Mc. preamp & tuner that I had been using there into the bedroom for a proper separates audio upgrade.
I returned the RS STA-2700 receiver altered internal front end wiring to amplifier section and phono jack back to factory wiring, ran full bench check against the factory specs. which it passed.
That STA-2700 receiver was then installed circa 1995 in my spare bedroom, and has remained powered up 24/7/365 playing my, at first CDs, then sat. provided digital DMX, until now WAV. ripped music all day set to elevated background conversational SPLs that I listen to in this adjacent room here while cruising new posts on A/K all day driving a 12" dual VC floor firing passive Optimus subwoofer using its upgraded by me internal crossover then on to feeding a pair of RS Minimus 7s .
It sounds quite good and has never even needed it`s 4 analog front panel controls to be cleaned or lubed, I guess the design by RS engineering and Fostec Korea made a good conservatively designed receiver. I`m certainly impressed with its trouble free multi decade performance !
It, like all other electrical/electronics that are powered up and operational 24/7/365, if the grid goes down for any reason they only get to be powered off for about a minute, until my whole house auto switchover genset repowers the house again, so no rest for any of my operating electronic beast of burdens.
The impulse buy for time constraints, and desire to quickly have a stereo with remote control and a hefty power output to feed the recently in the early nineties purchased from my local Mc dealer used floor model Mc. XRT-18 speakers placed in my bed room, I was in the local associate RS store, purchased a new STA-2700 100wpc receiver for that application.
Took it home hooked it up to the speakers, cranked it up while tuned into the local FM rock station and listened to it struggle with the SPL that I might on occasion demand from it when waking up, so disconnected it and dragged it out to my bench to look into disconnecting the phono jacks inside from the receiver`s phono stage and unsoldering the front end coax feeds from the amplifier section`s L/R inputs and connected them to the phono input jacks to allow the receiver`s preamp L/R connections to external higher powered amplifiers for more headroom (like 2 mono configured Crown DC 300A power amps that I had laying around that I already had already completely bench checked for full compliance with the service manual`s specifications.
Well that was much, much better sounding with 600 RMS watts total now feeding the XRT-18s.
That setup remained in bedroom duty for 3 or 4 yrs. until the same Mc. dealer called me up around 1995 to see if I was interested in buying extremely discounted and all brand new in the box current models at that time, a Mc. preamp, a tuner, a power amp, and multi disc CD turntable CD player, due to one of the Mc. dealer`s customer`s defaulting after paying on these items for a period of time on a layaway for these brand new in the boxes Mc. audio equipment !
So I went to the dealer, and we made a deal and I paid him, went home called my long time LEO friend to see if he was interested in purchasing on time payments from me the Mc. pieces that I wasn`t interested in to up the quality of his stereo system, and he was, and did.
Anyway back to the bedroom`s RS STA-2700 receiver.
After installing the new Mc. preamp,& tuner in my living room`s A/V rack, I could now bring the older 1987 purchased Mc. preamp & tuner that I had been using there into the bedroom for a proper separates audio upgrade.
I returned the RS STA-2700 receiver altered internal front end wiring to amplifier section and phono jack back to factory wiring, ran full bench check against the factory specs. which it passed.
That STA-2700 receiver was then installed circa 1995 in my spare bedroom, and has remained powered up 24/7/365 playing my, at first CDs, then sat. provided digital DMX, until now WAV. ripped music all day set to elevated background conversational SPLs that I listen to in this adjacent room here while cruising new posts on A/K all day driving a 12" dual VC floor firing passive Optimus subwoofer using its upgraded by me internal crossover then on to feeding a pair of RS Minimus 7s .
It sounds quite good and has never even needed it`s 4 analog front panel controls to be cleaned or lubed, I guess the design by RS engineering and Fostec Korea made a good conservatively designed receiver. I`m certainly impressed with its trouble free multi decade performance !
It, like all other electrical/electronics that are powered up and operational 24/7/365, if the grid goes down for any reason they only get to be powered off for about a minute, until my whole house auto switchover genset repowers the house again, so no rest for any of my operating electronic beast of burdens.
Chris __R
Well-Known Member
Love it!
Just freakin' AWESOME !