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Your favorite "little" receiver ever?

I'll keep this in the context of things that I still have . . . my trusty old Pioneer SX-434.
Blackout dial, blue panel lighting. 15WRMS is enough for casual listening with efficient speakers. Sweet little unit.
(Needs a tiny squirt of Deoxit from time to time.)
 

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I'd have to say my Sansui G4700 is my favourite "small" receiver. Puts out a fairly accurate 50 watts per channel @ 8 ohms. It's very nice sounding - sweet on the highs, fairly open in sound, and good low-end. Looks nice too! It runs my IMF TLS 50 II's, which are 83db efficient, just fine if that tells you anything.

Not mine, but here's a picture of it:

sansuig4700.preview.jpg
 
I love my little sansui 350a got it for $38 face is nearly perfect case is also nice.... Need to find a silver tip for the speaker switch

The sound is awesome however only 22wpc but it sounds very good indeed

 
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Realistic STA-7 which along with Minimus 7s was the System 7. I've got the set in the bedroom.
 
I have various very small receivers in my collection I like a lot.
One of my favorites is the Sansui 221 -an excellent sounding receiver with a very good tuner.





Next one is a Standard Radio SR603SW. Very small cube and heavy like a brick.
There is no free space inside. Best quality in such a small unit. I do not know any other receiver of such small size being that "grown up".
Unfortunately there are no actual pics. One is disassembled, the other is not even restored.

Pioneer SX330. No pics - because of not being cleaned and checked.

Hitachi SR6100



Not one of my best pics - some years old, but the SR6100 is still there.

Kenwood KR 2010



Onkyo Y100




Yamaha CR200E

 
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I have been trying to find the model of a small Sony receiver I once had maybe someone can help as it was definitely my favorite from what I remember. I purchased it new in 1992-1993. It was small about 9" wide, maybe 10" deep and about 6" tall. Weighed a good 10 lbs. and was all metal construction. Had built in CD and digital tuner. Speakers were small and matched very well, carried quite a punch for the small size. If I remember it was $300-$400 new. Any guesses to get me going would be great as I am all Googled out!
 
Most of what I own are little receivers. I rate them as much on looks as sound. A Marantz 2216B is probably the best sounding and looking of my receivers with a Technics SA-110 as probably the cutest. Others of note are a Pioneer SX-535 and SX-626 although the latter is a little too far up the foodchain IMO to qualify as little.
 

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I'm another fan of the small Pioneers. I have an SX-424 in my office that's a pleasure to listen to daily.

Also, over twenty years ago I had a little NAD 3130 integrated which was a beauty. Wish I still had that around.

So many small- to medium-sized receivers and integrateds are worthy pieces of equipment. I agree with merrylander (post #48) who says that Yamaha kept their sound pretty consistent from the small to big receivers within a line. So while I don't have a CR-2040 or CR-3020, my CR-840 is a joy to use and listen to.
 
My favorite is still a Sansui 2000x. Sounds every bit as good or better than any of my larger Sansui's including a 9090db.


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I really like those Sansui Recievers, I'll bet they sound really good.

I have a Realistic STA-7 With a whopping 10 wpc with a a beautiful Backlit Green Tuner Dial. It's 33 years old and still works great. I recently tried out it's phono stage and was very surprised at the sound quality. Even it's Tuner has a high quality feel, and performance to match. It has an EQ switch that when activated makes the matching Minimus 7 speakers sound so much larger than their size.
 
I really like my MARTEL receiver from the late 60's

With it's matching speakers it really looks cool

15 watts

Well made in Japan
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Sadly I'm not sure of the model number, but it was a little Kenwood receiver, 15-20 watts per channel in the '77 era. I blew up my first ever receiver, a Technics SA-5170 which was a sweetie in it's own right; I took it to the hi-fi shop where I had purchased it as it was still under warranty, and they gave me the little kenwood as a loaner. That was the first time I ever heard what I feel is a warm sound. Whenever I see a small vintage receiver of any brand I'll buy it if it's cheap enough at the local Goodwill stores. While I still love Technics I'm always open to the old Kenwoods!
 
Montycat said:
Realistic STA-7 which along with Minimus 7s was the System 7. I've got the set in the bedroom.
Click to expand...


Now we're talking. How can you guys call anything much over 10 lbs a "little" receiver? And 20 or more watts a side, low powered? Really!

STA 700 (newer version of the System 7) 10 watts x 2. Equalization for Minimus 7s and awesome with the 7s! Definitely my favorite "little" (truly little) receiver. So much so that I'm picking up the bigger cousin STA 11 in a couple of days. The System 11 is 30 watts x 2 so I can't really call that "little" even though it's not very big in size or that heavy.

These little Realistics are cute and surprisingly good with "little" speakers! But they're really for a very specialized niche. I use mine as my computer sound go to.

cnh2
 
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