Superscope R-340B goodness

Crotalus

Crotalus

Well-Known Member
Picked up a little Superscope R-340B off of ebay w/ local pickup. Got it home and hooked her up and was very impressed. I had seen a post by VinylHanger saying he liked his and I concur. Very mellow/warm sound, what I call "fat".....very comparable to my Marantz 2215B. For a 20-25 wpc reciever it seems to be able to keep up with some 50 watters. I also got it because I figured with the pink dial it would be perfect for my daughters room. This thing is almost "just out of the box" clean and built like a tank. For $40 bucks, I'm very happy.

Not many specs available around the web. Only the service manual seems to be readily available. If anyone has any info it would be appreciated. Now for the pics.....
 

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Are the pink dial lights original? I have 2 of these, but one has a blue dial. Originally I thought that someone had replaced the dial lights in the pink unit with whatever they had one hand. Now it looks like the one with the blue dial has the replacemnets.
 
They made a few with blue dials, I have an R-1270 and it has a blue dial. The sound may be comparable to the Marantz's of the time due to the sharing of many internal components.
 

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Celt said:
It's nice when you across something that has been cared for. :yes:
Click to expand...

You absolutely correct! You can just tell that this one has been cared for and probably serviced in the past.

It seems, from ebay auctions at least, that the higher up models had the blue lights and the pinks were the lower end units. Here is a completed auction with blue lights:
Superscope 360

I had read about these being built basically to Marantz standards and in the same factory, but I was not prepared to like this receiver as much as I do. It seems I'm gravitating towards the lesser known, but well built receivers like Project One, Superscope, Wintec, etc. Something different than the mainstream stuff I suppose.
 
The pink lights were original in the units and at some point in later production series converted to blue and then even later converted back to pink in their units. It was a bit of a hassle for sellers who had to open up units and test them so the customer know what color he/she got. Somewhat surprisingly, more than a few singles wanted the pink thinking it lent a more romantic mode. Being married with 2 kids at the time, I'd have ripped those bulbs out. Last thing I wanted was more "romance" with the "consequences" in my life.
 
That is one excellent looking unit. When I first saw it before reading the rest of the posts I said to myself it looked like a Marantz balance slider.
Now after reading the other posts I know why. I think the pink looks pretty cool. Perfect for a girls room. :thmbsp:
 
Crotalus said:
Picked up a little Superscope R-340B off of ebay w/ local pickup. Got it home and hooked her up and was very impressed. I had seen a post by VinylHanger saying he liked his and I concur. Very mellow/warm sound, what I call "fat".....very comparable to my Marantz 2215B. For a 20-25 wpc reciever it seems to be able to keep up with some 50 watters. I also got it because I figured with the pink dial it would be perfect for my daughters room. This thing is almost "just out of the box" clean and built like a tank. For $40 bucks, I'm very happy.

Not many specs available around the web. Only the service manual seems to be readily available. If anyone has any info it would be appreciated. Now for the pics.....
Click to expand...

Very nicely preserved unit. Like it was from a Time Capsule......
 
vintagestereo said:
Very nicely preserved unit. Like it was from a Time Capsule......
Click to expand...
I had a mechanic say the same thing about my '95 Chevy S-10 truck. (It has 50k miles on it.) He asked me if it was kept in a glass box someplace. :lmao:
 
I had read about these being built basically to Marantz standards and in the same factory, but I was not prepared to like this receiver as much as I do. It seems I'm gravitating towards the lesser known, but well built receivers like Project One, Superscope, Wintec, etc. Something different than the mainstream stuff I suppose.
Click to expand...

The Superscope units I have are all marked "Designed by Marantz" or "Designed in the USA by Marantz" somewhere. Some have it on the back, some have it on front, some both. While the Marantz influence is clearly present (one has Marantz power transistors), I don't think they were made in the same factory. The Superscope units are all made in Taiwan. Marantz units of the same age are made in Japan. Not that I hold that against them. The Superscope units that I have seen are certainly better built than some of the later Marantz units I have seen.
 
Yeah, I realized that a little after I posted it. I guess I had read that somewhere here on AK and just repeated it without thinking it through. Thanks.
 
I've got a "Superscope by Marantz" unit somewhere, it has the blue dial, and the fuse lamps are indeed coloured, not the dial itself.
 
I have an R-1270, probably 1978 production and i love it! it's the only reciever i own, or have ever owned(hey, i'm 19 and in university) and it sounds awesome. it handily beats out pretty much every piece of garbage modern consumer-level audio equipment item anyone i know owns(kind of sucks being the one of the only audiophiles you know, eh?). it also sounds punchier and warmer than my friend's dad's NAD setup. it's done more to sell analog vibe and expose the harshness and weak sound of typical DVD player/HT receiver or disposable plastic pile of crap than any talking ever could. it just shuts people up when they run their mouth about vintage gear.

for a long time i had it connected to a pair of '83 B&W DM220s i borrowed from a friend(same friend whose dad has the NAD setup...he wrote the speakers off because of a broken tweeter connection. incidentally he once owned a Superscope). it was a match made in old school audio heaven...the amp's smooth midbass plus the punch and slam of a sealed 2.5-way speaker like the DM220 was so good that it got me in all sorts of trouble here in my dorm. it sounded great and provided loud music for many drunken nights of partying. so good that every one of the dons(you might say RA) knew me by name before they even met me and always "strolled by" right after quiet hours to make sure i wasn't causing a ruckus.

one night my buddies and i were caught smoking pot in my room while listening to a few records on my setup(Dark Side of The Moon sounded great when we were normal. it blew us away after we, uh, "freed our minds" ;)) and afterwards i had to meet with the college don, who is pretty much the "head RA" so that i could presumably own up to my supposed morally reprehensible transgression. i explained to him that it was cold out, hence we engineered a high-efficiency waterfall bong to use indoors, and that it was just kind of natural to put on some music while we sparked up, especially with a setup that good. he's a funny guy, so he told me i would have to prove that my stereo sounded no-contest better than anything anyone in my entire building had. if it could be shown that it really did kick everyone's ass, he'd let me off the hook. so i brought him over to where my room is and played him a variety of tracks to prove my point. i never had to bring the volume past halfway to get it seriously loud...35 watts per channel and major iron for the poweramp won him over in not even a few minutes. he was sold when he noted how clear and punchy the electric bass on Bob Marley recordings sounded. i got off the hook :)

other compliments i've gotten include some from non-audiophiles. my friend jay once told me "i love listening to stuff through your system. it just sounds so defined compared to other stuff". this was after i gave the B&Ws back and reinstated my Wharfedales. not quite as good as the B&Ws but not too bad for what they are and what i paid. they roll off around 50ish Hz but respond pretty strongly till you get there. my friend Steve, owner of the DM220s came by to tell me one day..."i think my speakers miss your reciever. they just don't sound the same man". he has them connected to an early 90's kenwood surround reciever. it's alright, delivers decent power but sounds really choked and lifeless.

This summer i will recap and upgrade the power supply, increase the capacitance in order to tighten up bass response, and maybe even replace the bridge with snubberised schottky diodes or something. as far as i'm concerned, it's a Marantz and considering i consistently blow all kinds of things out of the water for a total of $30 or less, i can't complain.
 
I've seen two Superscope integrated amps that were --on the outside-- absolute "dead ringers" for classic Marantz integrated amps, except that they were black-faced and said "Superscope" on the fronts. Labels in back mentioned both Superscope and Marantz, as dr.ido said. I have no idea if the insides were identical (I didn't buy the Superscopes, so could only compare outsides), but it wouldn't surprise me if they were just Marantz rebadges.
 
I just picked up an R-340B from Goodwill of Orange County for 17 bucks.
I must say I'm impressed with the build quality, and sound.
Mine has a different transformer than the one pictured.

I noticed the station pointer lamp is out on the one pictured (mine still works).
It sounds much like my Marantz 2220B, with clear crisp highs, and deep bass very good for a 20WPC receiver.

I ordered the missing balance switch cap from a R-310 parts unit online and other than that will leave it as is.

Nice and unusual low end receiver, I will probably keep this one as the Pink dial is very unusual.
 
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