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Show us your Realistic (Radio Shack) stuff

plazmaplanna said:
Just got one of those little amps..wish it had the tuner with it...now I need to find something comparably as small...how's the output? I figured it would go good with some 4w speakers i have :scratch2:
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Well you ain't gonna rock Wembley Stadium with them. But with reasonable expectations you probably won't be disappointed.

When I get back to town in a few days I will have another mini Radio Shack system to show. :)
 
When is a "Realistic" unrealistic?

... when it is a Viscount! ;-)

By the mid-1960s, as vacuum tube hifi was in decline in favor of the hot new "transistor" technology, Radio Shack was using one or more (unknown to me) Japanese OEM shops to build receivers and amplifiers and tuners upon which the "Realistic" brand name was applied.

One such model was the Realistic STA-30; here's an ad from the 1966 R/S Christmas catalog. The prices on vacuum tube hifi by the mid-1960s was very favorable; the buying public wanted solid state!


Realistic STA-30 1966 by mhardy6647, on Flickr

Fast forward to a year or two ago - I couldn't resist picking up this off-brand but oh-so-familiar looking receiver for an attractive price. I've never actually plugged it in - guess I ought to re-hab it someday and see how (if!) it works!


viscount and hk by mhardy6647, on Flickr

(For the purposes of this thread, just ignore the hk FA-3000X FM receiver atop the Viscount; although it's interesting to mention that 1) R/S sold that hk and 2) that was hk's last vacuum tube receiver)
 
Finally got this baby all cleaned up with some new lamp fuses. Only one real operational issue and that is some popping on the loudness toggle. Cosmetically it was very good when I got it, just needed some elbow grease and alcohol wipes. The silver trim piece around the glass is showing some age. I might try touching that up with some silver model paint one day when I get brave. Had to put new woofers in the Advents after accidentally poking a hole in the foam surround of one, but that was deteriorating anyway. If anybody needs a lead on some 5" woofers I got these from Parts Express. They were dirt cheap, have rubber surrounds and sound pretty good considering I've only been playing them for about 20 minutes.

Looks great, IMO and sounds pretty good too. Going to be my office setup when we move into our new house in a couple of weeks.



 
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Many RS products have been through. Few will stay. Nova6's, model 31-9081 EQ, and my favorite of all SAF-12 are keepers.

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Sent from my Android device using my fingers.
 
STA-180. Had it for a while but just finished fixing it. TOL 1972, $400 new. No burned out lights, only the band in use is on, variable mute, flywheel tuning, 60 wpc rms. I really like this thing, can you tell? Dial lighting washed out with the flash. Ignore the filthy CD player on top. Just got it out of storage.
 

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ggregg said:
STA-180. Had it for a while but just finished fixing it. TOL 1972, $400 new. No burned out lights, only the band in use is on, variable mute, flywheel tuning, 60 wpc rms. I really like this thing, can you tell? Dial lighting washed out with the flash. Ignore the filthy CD player on top. Just got it out of storage.
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That's one you don't see every day!
 
Found these for $5 at a new local Savers thrift store. Haven't gotten around to trying them out, but they sure do look cool. Minimus 0.6 powered speakers with the carrying case.
 

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ggregg said:
STA-180. Had it for a while but just finished fixing it. TOL 1972, $400 new. No burned out lights, only the band in use is on, variable mute, flywheel tuning, 60 wpc rms. I really like this thing, can you tell? Dial lighting washed out with the flash. Ignore the filthy CD player on top. Just got it out of storage.
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IIRC, that thing was heavy! It had a nice warm Marantz-like sound too. You have a keeper there. Enjoy!
 
Thanks, pretty much ran it through the test phase so I think we are good to go. It does sound really nice and very, very well made. Had an almost dead channel, bad output, which was burning up the predriver board. Looks like the other channel did the same thing years ago as the outputs were replaced and that predriver board was burnt also. Recapped both predriver boards along with some trace repair, and new outputs on the bad channel. Works great now.
 
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Nice, how are those slider volume controls. The ones on my STA-80 (circa 1975) don't seem to be working very well.
ggregg said:
STA-180. Had it for a while but just finished fixing it. TOL 1972, $400 new. No burned out lights, only the band in use is on, variable mute, flywheel tuning, 60 wpc rms. I really like this thing, can you tell? Dial lighting washed out with the flash. Ignore the filthy CD player on top. Just got it out of storage.
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I was afraid of that also, but these are very well made and work perfectly. This thing is really built like a brick s-house.
 
I posted this in another thread, but I figured you RS fans might get a kick out of the "White-Cone Wall Of Sound". I refoamed all 6 woofers a couple years ago.

That's 4x Optimus 900 on the bottom and 2x Optimus 600 on the top. I sold the 900s, but I still have the 600s.

optimus-stack4.JPG
 
Well you might give 'em a quick squirt of FaderLube now. The lube part of that stuff might be all you need to make them work nicely again,

By the way, damn, I do love that album cover avatar of yours! :D
 
Sta-2100

I have had this unit for a few years in my fix it pile, I was going to use it for parts since it would not put out any sound. But after getting my feet wet at doing complete deox jobs recently, I started pulling some of these units out of the pile and really taking them apart so I can access everything, including all jacks. This 2100 is my latest success story, it is up and running on both channels. It isn't in the best physical shape but not too bad. I have another 2100 that has parts missing so that one will be parted instead. The tuner on this one needs to be aligned, it doesn't pull stations in good enough to get the meter past 2, and the stereo light does not come on. It could be the bulb but the tuner needs adjusting I can tell.

I'm happy to save this beast, I'm sure it could use a tune up or rebuild but these are worth it. :thmbsp:
 

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