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Vintage Solid State Receivers On a Tight Budget

Two brands that tend to slip WAAAAAY under the radar are:

Nikko and Optonica

The Nikko receivers are solidly built and nice sounding units.
While the Optonica are among THE most beautiful receivers ever made, IMO.

Two years ago I purchased a HUGE 60wpc Optonica receiver on flea-bay.
This was a Xmas present for my son.
It was drop-dead-gorgeous, in absolute like-new condition, and so far under the radar.....that I won the auction for $16!?
It's still working 100% perfect and is a real attention getter for sure.

Steve
 
Good quality Receivers that I would be looking for are, Concept 5.5 on up, Sony 5800sd, 6800sd, Sansui 7070,8080, Pioneer 850, 950, just to name a few
 
also a mention for the akai AA-10XX and AA 11xx receiver series...these often fly under the radar and can be found at very reasonable prices and sound very good indeed.
build quality tends to be very high also..inside and out...

with a small budget in mind, the AA-1020 in particular makes a fine centre-piece to a decent system if you only need reasonable amount of watts and have fairly efficient speakers :yes:

the aux phono input sockets can later be doubled tripled or quadrupled with the use of an input expander if you find yourself needing to add more line-in components later
 
gearhound said:
Two brands that tend to slip WAAAAAY under the radar are:

Nikko and Optonica
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Don't forget Realistic -- the Radio Shack house brand also flies way under the radar. Radio Shack bought from a number of different Japanese majors including Foster (parent company of Fostex), Pioneer, Panasonic, Toshiba and Sharp. The best Realistic gear is very good indeed and often turns up at bargain prices.
 
herbd2 said:
My standard answer for this question is HK330C.

Not expensive, sounds fantastic, is a piece of cake to recap if necessary.
Win, win, win.
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+1 :thmbsp:

I repaired/restored one and was surprised at the clean sound. IIRC, it made it's power spec by a little bit extra. Plenty though for average listening levels. The fella that bought it was also happy with the sound.

Best wishes on your hunt!
 
Vintage receivers with great sound, great tuner, on the cheap:
Any Tandberg receiver
Sansui Eight and Eight Deluxe
Luxman R-1040, R-1050, R-1070

Newer receivers with digital tuner that are good:
Onkyo Integra TX-870
Onkyo TX-860
Sony STR-AV1000
 
i fell in love with music spinning records through my old man's sherwood, so i have to give it up for them. Not a super famous name, so you can usually grab one off the 'bay for relatively cheap.
 
Great Information

Thanks to all for your awesome replies! I'm now a huge fan of audiokarma! It sounds like thrift stores are the way to go. Hopefully I can get out and do some shopping later. My current location is in Walla Walla Washington. I know there are a few thrift stores around I can visit. Craigslist doesn't have anything right now.

From what it sounds like, many people love sansui. Hopefully I come across one. If not maybe I'll find another brand mentioned that requires little repair.

Feel free to continue contributing the this thread. It has been really interesting reading each of your posts!
 
adamwyoung12 said:
I'm a recently converted audiophile and am looking to get a good system. I'm on a really tight budget and plan to couple some Dayton B652 speakers with either an integrated amp or receiver.
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I had my B652 speakers paired with a Technics SA-5170 and was pretty happy with their performance together.

As it is, Parts Express is selling the B652 speakers in a bundle (that I reviewed) with a DTA-1 T-amp. It's not a bad little bundle.

One thing to be aware of: the B652 speakers say "8 ohms" on the back. In reality, I found two eight ohm drivers inside, wired in parallel (with a capacitor for crossover purposes). This will (and does, per my multimeter) cut the impedance in half, to around four ohms. Be sure that whatever you pick can safely operate with only a four ohm load. Most sets can do so when only one pair of speakers is involved. If speakers are placed in series when more than one set is switched on, using more than two four ohm speakers will be safe, as the impedance will go up. Some sets place their speakers in parallel (lowers resistance) and others place them in series.

Simple test: Play the set with one set of speakers attached. Attempt to turn on the other set of speakers (with nothing attached to the terminals for a second set of speakers). If the receiver continues to play with both sets of speakers turned on, it parallels them. If the music stops, the receiver or amplifier places them in series.

If oodles of purple smoke appear, I don't know you and you never saw me. :D

The suggestion about hitting thrift stores is a good one. I'm sure you can find something.

I would recommend buying a tested receiver from a source with good feedback, especially for packaging. If they don't know how to pack what they're selling or you don't think they do, look up some threads here. There are ways to assure that your new old receiver makes it there in one piece. Buying a broken receiver is a crapshoot--it may need simple cleaning or someone may have damaged it badly.
 
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The T amp is good for what it is, but will not satisfy anywhere near as the amp section of a conventional low wattage vintage receiver.
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I had a guy who has repaired equipment for years come by and pick up a Pioneer SX-680 that I sold which needed major work. I had my system playing and he couldn't believe he was listening to a little T-amp. The above statement may be true in some cases but certainly not all....as is generally the case with blanket statements. With a good source feeding it and efficient speakers, a good T-amp can be VERY satisfying. As far as sound quality goes, I prefer this T-amp to the beautiful Realistic STA-2100 receiver that I sold for $200. The bass is cleaner and not as boomy. I can't open the windows and entertain the neighbors with it but that's not why I purchased it.

That said, I still want a Sony 60xx or 70xx with the wood case one day when I get back on my feet and have some funds to play with.

mark
 
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Akai fan here. Very robust construction and the models from the late 70's sound excellent.
 
I'm a vintage Marantz guy all the way, but I'm no expert, just from the little bit I've heard. Marantz has it's own "sound" and either you love it or you dont
 
lukiedog said:
The T amp is good for what it is, but will not satisfy anywhere near as the amp section of a conventional low wattage vintage receiver.
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Shh! Don't tell the DTA-1 that's driving a pair of Realistic NOVA-6 speakers right now. With the right speakers (the B652s aren't a bad starting point), these things are nothing short of extremely impressive. I'm sure there are people out there who wouldn't believe the nice punch the T-amp has while running from 8xAA batteries if they didn't see it first hand.
 
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