Hi-Fi Blog... Page 10 - 2026

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January 2026 Blog

PC Desktop Computer Issues In 2026: You Must Buy New To Upgrade.
Older Users may feel a little 'unaware' of what is Required, so we research it for ourselves. We use a Desktop PC & have since Overpaying for our First One at 'PC World', where the media's idea back in 2000 was to get Service Waranties, a Waste Of Cash if ever. We'd Buit our Custom one within 2 years & be sure the 2000 one was worth 10% to sell on. Back then it was Windows 98 & for where we put the Case Unit, the Wire for the Mouse was only long enough to be used Left Handed, whiich is Odd ifyou're Right Handed in Pen Use & Typing. But better to be Ambidextrous really & skills Mouse-wise never realky suited Right Hand use so it stays into 2027. The Big Problem is Windows has gone far toomuch into AI & The Windows11 "We Must Have" requires a certain New Motherboard & RAM. To geta n Idea ofthe Current Scene, to look at "Dell" Computers. A friend got one a few years vback& it was better than you'd expect it to be, if rather Modest in Spec. Tosee what The Current Minimum Spec Is on their latest PC gives the idea. Be awarethere are Older Models with Less Spec, but the "Dell Slim Desktop" is the Newest One at £679, if you can Spend over £3000 to fill it up with exras & Warranties, which are perhaps noot what you'd ever need. Loking at Windows10 to Upgrade, it says certain values plus the "UEFL Secure Boiot" feature in the Main Processor on the Motherboard & TPM Ver 2, which older Motherboards won't have, Minimum Specs the Microsoft page states are very Modest, but see the AI Copilot section giving 'Real world' values, like Intel Core Ultra (5, 7 etc) 200v series, to require 16GB RAM at a time when RAM as DDR5 unitsare very expensive, just by chance of course. a 256GB SSD storage (Solid State Device}. SSD seems to have been the Boot Drive format a while now, it seems older SATA 3.5" HDD drives may not be supported even. Then the Microsoft Account it forces you to have to save Settings & make you think Cloud Storage is a good iidea, oh boy. The MS Account we had to get to get W10Extended Support & it's no big deal. The Dell Slim Desktop at £679 initially seems a Great Buy, based on what a Motherboard, Processor & Fan, plus Power Supply, Case, basic Mouse & Keynoard. The RAM & SSD could cost you £400 alone, Motherboard, Processor & Fan maybe £200 soas a Package it's not bad. But Look Deeper. The PCI-e slots are limited, making any expension hard. Where is a Sound Card? There is nothing beyond a Front Headphone Jack, not even the 3.5mm Line Level Jacks. Where is the CD/DVD drive which may not get much use but it's still very useful? None Supplied. You can buy a Soundcard & DVD-CD Drive but will the Power Supply or Motherboard be able to fit them? No SATA connections mean you can buy a PCI-e board to take them, but will the Power Supply have enough power or cables? 180w to 280w. The Dell Slim Desktopis good with 16GB RAM as one 16GB unit & 1TB SSD Storage, Intel Core Ultra 5 225. Older models with 8GB cost £140 to upgrade to 16GB & a 1TB SSD Storage drive' is about £120 extra to upgrade from a 256GB. The Amount of Extras they offer is Bewildering, a real Cash Cow. The Dell site shows the Rear of the £679 one, not easy to make it very big & see te Moulded On Screws supposedly for the Power Supply! This Unit. A Picture of The Insides is on the£479 'Build Your Own' page has someone Complaining "No SATA sockets", not that they are mentioned. Insides, but there is One.. Sockets are One Long PCI-e x16 socket & 2 of the short PCI-e x1 sockets. All 3 Sockets in Limited Space, so Odds Are the Bigger Soundcards, Display Cards & whatever woon't fit. It's a Decent Starter Set Up, but not a Power User or Gamer unit, those will likely cost you over £1000 via Dell. Our Verdict. We'd find it very liimiting, £679 may seem a Good Buy but Limitations of things We'd Miss. For The Money we'd be better off getting a new Motherboard, Power Supply, Processor & RAM ourselves. To Find the Right Motherboard is the Challenge. We already have Recent Display, Keyboard & Mouse. Looking Further Inside, to see what a 2025-26 Computer has, to help Moterboard searching. Has one SATA with an unused space for another. Still has the old CMOS 3v CR 2032 Battery. Cabling is more Minimal, the long socket & short socket Power Supply can't see too clearly what it is. Three PCIe sockets spaced as the general spacing some Boards can overspill with big Heatsinks, maybe a thing of ago now. Two RAM DDR-5 sockets. A Beeper to Beep at you constantly. Two Blocks probably Wireless & Bluetooth. A smaller Heatsink the Display driver. One Fan in a Airflow unit that will likely be too Fast & Noisy as Resonant. It's a Minimal& Efficient looking Motherboard, really not so Different from ones in 2012. The Power Supply's Outputs are Unknown, might still be the same as Ours if Computers & Phones love Changiung things for No Reason. It's just to be Aware of what there is to go looking for Something More Custom.

The Frustration Of Reading Hi-Fi Forums & Facebook Hi-Fi Groups.
Others may find them of some use, but to us, they are just Frustrating & Annoying. To see one where the poster finds a high grade 1968 Sansui 3000A. This 1968 version we've had Three of & they generally are in nicer grade. To see them ask if it's had the Pointless 1971 Upgrades. One says bring it up on a Variac which is a thing we Never Use as often Transistor amps have Regulators that won't work until full voltage applied. Frustrating reading the comments which clearly Don't Know this Complex amp. We've had One of the '3000' too, one we have here & it has had a lot of issues but is now Extra Good if it took ages to even get it playing right. As you'll find in these Forum type pages, one says "I've Had Two" yet that's all they say, so with No Proof you're Not Believed. Will they bother to Google Search to find Our Site? They paid $200 for it suggesting the seller had looked on ebay to see prices on these. Status Unknown, it may not work, may be damaged from years ago or might be playable, but not without a Pro Tech looking at it first. 1968 capacitors used to still work 12+ years ago but they are getting too old now. What will the Buyer do with this Complex amp that is difficult to Bias? Hopefully they'll just sell it on to someone more aware, rather than making a mess of it. No Shame in realising an amp is Too Much, we got that 1962 Lux(man) Valve Receiver that's 100v only. Currently it sits with no work done beyond cleaning & a service to a degree. Maybe to just sell it on as it is would be a better idea, it's a First Model Released & in good original complete grade, but 100v only. Online you find People asking those who have No Idea for their Opinions. Generally those who Do Know haven't got the time or the energy to deal with Questions. The Frustrating Thing with Forums is they only know Standard Questions in a Booksmarts way. Try asking them anything complex or outside of the box type thinking & you'll get silence. It's why this Hifi Site exists, some of these Blogs are us working out things for ourselves.

Thermistors In Older Amplifiers.
In Power Amplifiers before the Introduction of the Double and Triple Diode, a Termistor was used. Our 1st Run Germanium 1965 Trio-Kenwood TK-80U has a "TH" in the original design, if ours was updated before sale witk the later design the Silicon version used, a Double Diode & Adjust Pot. This works fine still. The Trio-Kenwood TK-60BU that is into 1966 has the Double Diode & Pot but has the Thermistor still too. It shows as a small unit on the underside of the Heatsink, a disc with two wires in a plastic cover. The Bias on this Amp isn't good as it gets too Hot & won't adjust to the correct value to run Cool as it requires the very last bit of the Adjust Pot which will never remain constant or reliable. The 1966 Akai AA-7000 uses Four Thermistors on the Top Heatsink by the Output Transistors. It shows here the Thermistor acts as a Heat Sensing device & will go from Low to High Resistance & make the Bias wrong to show as some sort of Protection Circuit. The thing is they could have worked 50+ years ago, but the AA-7000 when it used to get Hot on the Top Lid never cut out, so the Thermistors are Useless. You can buy new ones if what are the spec? If a Thermistor is Faulty it'll read an incorrect value always. Not much on Google about Thermistors if they group the similar Thyristor with the SCR device, a Silicon Controlled Rectifier as we first saw in the Teac AS-100. These are considered Hard Cut-Off devices by opinions we've seen & to see the SCR operate, to wonder 'What's The Point Of That?' The Early Thermstors we've read show about 20 ohm which is a value still buyable. They seem to be used more in Industrial Uses. Looking at Trio-Kenwood the 1968 KA-4000 & 1969 KA-6000 still use them, if not the disc versions. The 1970 KR-6170 does too, these have always Biased well on ones we've had. The 1972 KR-6200 we had recently uses a Diode STV-3 block much used on later amps. It's a 3 diode unit. The KR-6200 moves onto a Differential & Relay design. How Do They Age? Beyond 'working' or 'faulty' ones we've read that the Amplifier wasn't 'correct' the Resistance can vary but not be open circuit. On the TK-60BU they read the correct values so other ideas are required to get the Bias stage to be better. The TK-66 we had years ago was like this & way beyond our ideas to solve. Having to do some Redesign is part of Rebuilding & Recapping Vintage Amps, more so on the 1960s ones. Why manufacturers make Adjustable items that have a Potentiometer across a Thermistor carrying a Voltage that isn't reliable to adjust makes you wonder why. The Thermistor & Adjust Pot give Voltage to the Driver Transistor Collector. To age & run too Hot so it gets thrown out. As with other amps, this design is the issue & with knowing Design & Consequences of items, to do it differently as it's just not good enough. Tried our best but it still sounds Rough & Spitty, meaning a deeper rebuild requred. Thermistors not the Fault at least.

What People Mostly Use In Hi-Fi Useage.
Generally from Facebook Groups, the Late 1970s-1990s Gear is mostly what you see. You know what we're going to say, loads of ICs, MOSFETs, OP-Amps, Logic Gates & other gear that really is Unnecessary. The Main Reason is it is still possibly Useable without even Servicing which leaves a Tired Amp. The Amount of Servicing the 1977 Marantz 2385 185 watter needed & it improved it hugely from the Dull Slow Muddy Sound. All before Recapping it & redoing Repairs properly. Certain Amps will have had regular use since New, meaning 30-40 years without Repair or Service. Their Choice. The general idea is they Get One At A Good Price. You'll find Groups & Forums liking most gear as they really don't know How Much More Musical pre 1974 gear is even. These are now 50-60 years ols & our Blogs tell of the Amount of Work the 1960s ones need to give Sound way ahead of the Thin IC sound. Crisp Open Treble, Smooth Midrange & a Meaty Bass does 'hide' in Amps of this era. The Seventies-Nineties gear increasingly gets made of Plastic & Low Grade Controls that Wear or Break as Plastic goes weak & brittle as Car Restorers know well. As time goes on the Nineties gear will soon be as old as Sixties Gear. It'll just end up being Abandoned as beyond Recapping etc it can Often Be Unrepairable. The Facebook Posts show The Music they are playing, the Commercial Rock-Pop of the Seventies-Nineties, they play it on Vinyl, you don't see CDs. This gives away the Age of Hifi Buyers too. For Today's 'Music' it's played on Headphones or Earbuds, are they aware of Hifi even, does Daddy allow The Teens to play their Tunes on hisa 'Mega Bucks' system? Probably not so as with much Vintage Gear, if they don't know it they don't want or care for it. As "American Pickers" shows, they find Hifi in USA quite often. Quality Gear but left abandoned & covered in Dust. "They All Need Going Through" says Mike. Already to see some Quality Hifi on Ebay, it's ended up as Rubbish at a Recycling Yard & for Seconds it got treated as Rubbish with Damage from just a few seconds with one who doesn't understand. To wonder sometimes "Who Wants This Stuff" on seeing Robbie with all those 1950s Push Car body shells. The UK Shows you see the Shops lined with Grandfather Clocks that loudly Tick Your Life Away. Things once worth £1000-£2000+ are often unsellable or do Auction at sad prices. As with Most Old Stuff, the Items will fade away to be Unusable & few get the Rebuilds they Need & Deserve. You often hear "The Grand Kids Aren't Interested" but they're still Young. Collectors & Buyers only take interest in later years past 30 & they'll regret they didn't keep Grandad's Medals or similar.

Biasing On Older 1960s Power Amplifiers.
Two Types of Biasing: Fixed or by Adjust Pot. The Bias is set correctly on Fixed Bias, against a Thermistor or other designs. These are far more reliable. The Early Adjust Pot type is far from accurate & you're Gambling your Speakers on it possibly, with Direct Coupled ones. The Old Original ones are Working right to the End of the pot's Rotation & this is always inaccurate as the Pot is often worn as previous owners have used it back & forth, wearing it out in a similar way modern tiny front panel Volume-type controls do. You can fit the Modern trimmer pots that are aften far too small & older amps can use the 'Two Pin' versions making three pin ones need altering. Later Amps use the Bias Pot in the Middle of it's rotation, if we've still had to alter designs to Fit Bias better than right at the end & risk huge variations, such as 5mV one time & big jump to 500mV which is no good & is considered 'Unreliable'. We're finding it's best to Redesign without these Clumsy Devices & More which keeps the amp running Cool & considered Safe. Bias Circuits can cause bother, so for one deeper into design only. One amp we have, to see the later additions by someone trying to overcome bad Pots from a clumsy old repair & probably why it was abandoned.

Who Actually Bought The 1960s-1970s-1980s Hifi We Now Crave.
As Time Goes On, you forget the People around at the time. The Retro TV List Shows & Lifestyle shows give you an idea, but seeing BBC4 in June 2024 showing several 'Antiques Roadshow' from years past, to record them to watch. The First 1979 Edition we've seen clips of, but not the full show. It has British People of the Era, mostly ones 70-80 in age, You'll have forgotten what the Public was like after 45 years & to see Edwardian & First World War era people looks so different to Today's people that we see started arriving into Jobs like Doctors, such as the Indian people who replaced the Tired Horn Rimmed Glasses types that were usually Too Old to be Up To Date on things. The Public as English People were rather Narrow of thought & easily conned by stories told of Dealers offering very low prices, much of which still continues in 'Bargain Hunt' & 'Antiques Road Trip' where Half Price or less is normal. Be sure this can't be real else they'd be Banned from the shops as they basically Rob the Sellers, they pay a higher price & just Lowball prices for the camera as Seller reactions aren't what you'd get if you tried similar. The 1979 people we remember from 'Back In The Day'. ARShow has some awfully Posh sounding ones, quite a few familiar faces that stayed for years, a youthful David Battie, the Clocks guy & Guns guy who were Down To Earth & likeable & the old stalwart Arthur Negus is like Eric Knowles of today. Some of the 1979 owners could have been gone 40 years but live on when it gets Repeated. These were the Consumers of what is now Vintage Hifi. We've had Amplifiers & Receivers that were One Owner, such as a 1977 Yamaha CR-1020 bought likely for a 40 year old, it sat playing Radio 2 for a while, never getting turned over '2' on the Volume & got Sold only for House Clearing in later years. British Buyers were generally rather Reserved in their Buying Choices, the Hifi News Magazine mostly offers British Brands & to this Generation they'd not have been so keen on Japanese items. The Better Hifi sold in small amounts as it was Higher Priced & to never see ones we've had at the time, the usual items were Radiograms & Music Centres. In other Countries what is Rare in UK is not so hard to find, especially in USA as their Living Standard was higher. The British people often scrimped & saved to buy a 5w Record Player, a thing many would have long considered 'Rubbish' but now as TV shows it's Retro & sells better than Wind Up 1920s-1930s 78 Record Players. WE had a 1967 Sansui 400 receiver & it had the Owner's name on, as Blogged before. To find out who they were & when born shows the '400' was clearly his pride & joy to be sold on by Family unaware of what it was for just £20. We Rebuilt & Redesigned it to give a nice sound, it got sold to one who liked it to find a non worker in USA, but with the Wood Cabinet & getting him the control knob with the metal cap to complete the look. As with 'Bangers & Cash' to see Happy People buying all types of Cars & to see How Much Joy they give. A 1962 'Singer Vogue' we seem to remember, maybe the Family had one, a Stately looking car, well made & this one in nice grade. One of the Mathewsons called it 'Boring' which isn't fair, it's a Smart & Appealing Car, if not a Sporty car, buy certainly not boring. One bought it & sold it on soon after as they didn't like it, but the next buyer paying almost the same price were delighted with it. That's Exactly who these Cars are for & be sure the Original Owners are often the same who cherish Cars like they are Family, TV shows this often. There are Soulful People out there still, it gets less each Decade sadly & these items get forgotten just as did those around Buying them new. You can say the Brish People of the 1950s-1970s buying Electrical Items were generally only buying the Cheaper Goods, but Back In The Day it's all they could afford. They were as driven by Hifi Mags & Shop Salesman to buy Big Selling Items as few would py £136 in 1966 for the Pioneer ER-420 when the Rogers Cadet III amplifier & tuner was Half that. What will 'Us Modern People' be remembered as buying by Future Generations? Most Electrical Items are Disposable & E-Waste within 10 years with some items making 2-5 years. Will there be anuthing left for Future People to appreciate? The 1987 Episode billed as 2003, but it didn't seem right, to look at the date at the end. 1987 recorded 1986 was Pre the Yuppie & Brief Boom Years. Looking back at years we knew, still very 1960s, rather Tame, Guys with Comb Overs & Moustaches. Items shown rarely shown now as they're not much wanted however nice Furniture can be, most has nose-dived in price. 1987 people into Collecting Antiques probably no longer around if the Items will be. Some of the Chatter was very boring but shows Passion for Collecting. The Days of a Big Cabinet to store your Trinkets, it's long gone today. For 1987, you only see English People which is still mainly the ARShow of today. To see similar on early 'Dickinson's Real Deal' especially the first 2009 episode had types who Bought Items for an Investment. Big Solid Silver Serving Trays considered a 'Wise Investment' at the time, but now only worth Scrap as no use for the item. Still waiting for more Hi-Fi on ARShow, some like the early Akai AA-5000 & AA-7000 are clearly Designer items but as Rare, they've not hit the Mid Century Modern interest. 1987 being 37 years ago is as far back as 1950 was then & at the time 1950 was Ancient Times. Today people are realising 'The Best Years Have Happened' with 1970s-1990s generally considered the Peak Years if older folks will Disagree. But what will people see as Nostalgia past 2000? There's really not much, it's why 'rubbish' like Pokemon cards & Trainers are collected now.

Hi-Fi Needs To Be Kept Aired & Cool.
Put this on one of our Pages long ago, but seeing the Facebook Groups, some clearly are Not Looking After their Hifi. The usual stack of Units that mostly don't get used, but still the Amp at the base of the pile as it's the Heaviest. Ones looking for a more Home Decor look with Amps put into She;ves with what looks like very little top clearance. Understand How Heat Works. Yamana CR-2020 top regulators on the front right of the grille. See Darkened Marks on the Grille which is Overheating, not just Dust Marks. The Plastic Grille Ages. Inside these Regulators run at 80°C in open air with the lids off. This is very poor design & anything over 40°C needs better Heatsinking. With the Lid on it can read 100°C or slightly more & if it was put in a tightly spaced Shelf Unit be suire it'd rise to 120°C or more. For there being other Hot Resistors on this & other amps, be sure these will Age fast & stop working. Hifi has been poorly designed for Excess Heat since the Cost Cutting appeared by 1974. As with many Design things, they know it's Bad, but it's 'Built In Obsolescense' meaning it'll Fail & you'll go Buy A New One. Hifi is often designed to be 'Good Enough' but not last. To even see Amplifiers with a Turntable sat on top, the Heat with an item sat right on top with little clearance could mean the Amp could Warp Your Records. Amps with Class A such as the 1973 Yamaha CA-1000 if used with Poor Ventilation can hugely overheat in Class A & cause even the Large Main Capacitors to Fail & Leak, as happened with the one we had recently. To see Valve Amps going back to the 1950s stored on shelves or tucked away in Cupboards, similarly stored under the Turntable, the Heat building upwill have Warped many Records.

Why Don't They Line Up?
Not about Wantng Customers Lining Up for Rebuilds. This is about Control Knobs on Amplifiers. If set Flat you want the Line to exactly central. not 2mm off true & the Spline only allows a range of 'more off' or 'less off'. Other Amps with Screw Fixing ones can be lined up if often the 'dents' on the Plain Control Rod make it not so easy to get it Spot On as they've been off before. The 1971 Sony Receivers STR-6055 & STR-6065 were like this leaving it not lined up. Is it So Hard? It's like a Microwave, you put a Drink in 10-30 seconds & the Handle is Always at the Back. Can't anyone design it so 10 seconds is one full Revolution. Lack of thinking is often a problem, it's often based on Costs & Their Cutting, rather than thinking "They'd Like That". One solution is metal knobs with plastic inserts. You'll generally not be able to get these out, but Luck meant on us trying a replacement set for one Receiver, the middle bit came unglued as dried out so we could Reset it lined up correctly & drip some glue in to hold. If you do manage to swap them around on an amp, to mark them inside as 'B' for Bass, 'T' for Treble to not mix them up again. Little Things do matter as it gets seen 'off-true' & it gets you each time. It is possible, if trickier, to take the front panel off & loosen to alter the splined control to be rotated just a tiny bit to be True, if often the pointy bit that locks into the Hole needs altering.

February 2026 Blog

Getting Newer Computers: Why Suffer The Older Slow & Noisy Ones?
We Really Don't Like the Windows 11 AI & Mega Spying ideas that Windows are Forcing. It is Too Far from what our First Computer on Windows 98 was in Year 2000. Our Older Current Computer had an odd issue where it wouldn't even Start anything on the Screen but you could hear the Hard Drives start up. Seems the Power Supply was the Issue on it's Final Turn-Off. But What Do You Get? There is a Huge Market in Ex-Office Computers so you can get a Windows 10 Pro PC with 512GB SSD drive (Solid State Device). To go for one from 2018 just too have any Computer that was Reliable, a HP 290 G1 MT Business PC. There are-were loads of these as Cheap as £89 for a Refurbihed PC, meaning Used but Cleaned Out, if we saw Dust on the CD-DVD RW drive. To find "Refurbished" doesn't mean "Serviced" in the way we do our Computers. The Idea of getting a Windows 11 PC with all the Unwanted Junk & paying £850+ based on what Dell have to offer didn't appeal. False Economy as we at least have the Windows Updates until later in the Year, if then What? Be sure there will be Help beyond Microsoft. Our January Blog looked at what there is out there in Specs & it's really not so Different to the 2018 PC. Our Old PC was made of Custom Parts, Big Power Supply, Solid-Caps Motherboard, old Intel i3 Processor. It was a Better Spec in it's day which was 2012. Some of that Spec is not unlike the 2018 one, 8GB of Memory, in 2012 it was 4 x 2GB Memory Cards full of ICs, now the 2018 is 4 small ICs on one board as 8GB. The Biggest Difference is using the 512GB SSD 'Hard Drive'. What To Do Using It. We are 'Power Users; in PC & as in Hifi, we don't waste money on things, beyond much Gambling in Hifi. For those Who Know, getting your New PC to be your Old PC requires "AppData" files for all your Settings. We had 3x HDDs on the Computer for extra stuff like DVD-Cartoons plus a Backup HDD. The New PC is old enough to have the "L-Shaped" SATA cables plus a spare Power Plug to just Plug in the Main HDD. This HDD has been used for many years for Music, Downlloads & more to not have it on the Operating System HDD, for the Ease of Updating as just shown. To Copy the Whole "AppData" 8GB folder & move that HDD old to New Computer. Have Firefox back as it was just Hours earlier on the Old PC by putting the Profile data in the usual places. This requires Hidden & Protected Files to be Visible, beware messing with these. To set up loads of things on the New PC & have Firefox usable as well as the Quick Launch bar the same day the New PC arrived at 3pm & useable by 11pm shows the Time It Takes to Rebuild your PC, another reason why we never tried a SSD Drive before not wanting to reinstall Windows again, if had to keep reinstalling older Windows versions. Older Computing seemed all very Crude compared to 2012-2018 PCs. Looking at Dell Computers, not much has changed since 2018. The New PC is Compatible with the Dreaded Windows 11 except the Processor is a 7th Gen one not the 11th Gen it requires. You can see why many are turning to Linux & Microsoft is faling currently. The 2018 Computer In Use. First thing was to Navigate a stupid Tiny Screen a quarter of the Full Screen to be forced into a Microsoft account & PIN. Already had a MS account to get the Updates, if don't use your Real Name or Location is wise. Set it to ':Local Account & be free of foolish signing in to MS account each restart. The Fans in the Computer are Much Quieter, like they've Wised Up to the scene of Low Noise fans of years back & are much Quieter than the Old PC. With a SSD Drive Windows starts fast instead of taking 10-15 mins to get off 100% Disk Use on turn on, now it's Yours to Use in 30 seconds which is such an improvement. Browsing is Much Faster. All those with 'Slow PCs' need a SSD. But with the Windows 10 Updates ending in October 2026, to at least Get A Taste of Better Computing. The SSD makes no Noise, the HDD can be Noisy in the case frame as it Amplifies Disk Noise that our old Stack of 3 HDDs on a Meccano frame no less. The 2018-2026 PC inside is much the same, no big long Plug for Power, still the SATA on our Motherboard if 'they' keep changing things in that Dumb way. Still more to do to get it fully set up with Programs-Apps we used for Records. The Sound outputs on a 2018 are still 3.5mm jacks In & Out if the 2026 one diidn't have any, you'd need a Soundcard. Sound is really treated Poorly & the HPAudio Settibgs are very basic if at least Useable without any 'Enhancement' nonsense. Things that were Advanced 15-20 years ago are now The Normal & to turn the Compurter on & It's Ready in 30 sec is a long awaited feature. Beware the Unwanted Uploiads of Your Info to 'One Drive', a revolting infringement of Privacy under the Guise of 'Protecting You' & not so easy to Disable, even doing that has it upload more, so Uninstall it. If We'd Known These Things Years Ago, to Buy more Modern PCs but the Reviews don't mention the Speed & Quietness. Don;t Suffer Old PCs. Buying a Windows 10 PC that isn't Fully W11 Compatible may seem a waste of time, but £89 is all it cost us & will do for the while. UPDATE: The HP Soundcard level doesn't work on Recording, it Clashes with the Windows one. Just Uninstall it & the Windows Record Level works again. We've already put a Buffer on the Rec Out from the Amp. Eithout the Recording Level, small parts og Music can Clip. "Who Designs These Things" is our typical response.

1977 Pioneer SX-1980 Receiver. "The Holy Grail?"
This is one of the Huge Pioneers much coveted by Pioneer fans. A Monster Receiver indeed & having seen one, they are huge lumps for sure. One on ebay for a sizeable £5000 but it's got the Original Box. To see the Rear has 'Repair Stickers' from USA, one dated 2019 shows it's been in Use rather than Stored Away. Surprisingly it has Spring Connectors for Thin Speaker Cable, be sure 270w needs much Thicker Cables, what do you do? In 1978 HFYB as 270w if no price shown. They were sold at Comet meaning any RRP meant little & they did get Heavily Discounted by 1979 as they weren't selling, big Pioneer were given away very cheaply as Comet ads showed. "The Holy Grail" says the Ad. To Collectors it probably is, biggest model & highest power one. To Those who'd play it for Music, what use is 270w when 45w on our 95dB Tannoys is more than enough power. "Boy Racer" type amp that appeals to some as do Vinyl Sporty Stripes on a Family Car as 'Wheeler Dealers' does sometimes, it appeals to a certain buyer. The Amp is Huge & build is quite like the Rotel RX1603 receiver with Oversize Round Transformer & Four Large Capacitors plus the Power Amp boards on the Back half & the Preamp & Tuner on the Front. We've seen the Rather Poor Power Suplly Boards on these, Overheating & Really Not the Spec you'd hope for. The 1977 Marantz 2385 we had was similar if it had ICs in the Preamp. Our "Other Amps" page here has a deeper look & we didn't like the Circuitry. They are making High Power amps in the age of Heavy Cost Cutting & it certainly shows, but are still better than the Generic style of 1979. The big problem is these Attractive Huge Monolith Amps are nearly 50 years old. To see it's been In For Repair at least Twice tells, they just patch it up. They need a Full Rebuild to be Safe & reliable to Use Daily. We took on the Rotel RX1603 & found it a frustrating amp for the Build Quality which was far too cost cut. Huge Amp yet they cramp the Power Supply into a small space. The Casework was still Budget Quality rather surprisingly. The Marantz 2385 was a hard one to work on with tight boards, Doubled Capacitors that we just left alone as It'd not be Tidy putting in Seperate New Capacitors. Other Big Amps have Custom Double Capacitors in a (---) shaped can that would need Custom work. As for Pioneer, the bigger SX-850 & SX-950 we considered 'Big Stupid Tin Cans' on earlier opinions. Oversized yet not having the Weight or Quality you'd expect. The Pioneer circuits considered decent designs if as always Very Cost Cut. Today buyers want LEDs & the Pioneer bulbs were often Wedge Shaped Push In types, larger versions of Bang & Olufsen type ones that were hard to find even tears ago. But for the Pioneer Scene, there are Repro Spares being made including Tuner Glass Windows as there is a demand for them. So You Think It's Worth £5000. No it's not if sellers will always try. HifiShark shows several have 'Ended' with these Hefty Prices, one forever relisted with Price Drops. Who would actually be buying these? Those who have them generally have had them when bought Very Cheaply or even since New. It's not a Realistic Market & ebay often throws up Ridiculous Prices for items that Never Sell. In Hifi Selling we paid a certain price for the Marantz 2385, serviced it, rebuilt & upgraded it yet the final Sale Price was way short of the Work Involved. If ones were offered at £500 the buyer would think it's a £5000 amp & snap it up. They'd find it was Tired Sounding & Not As Great as they'd been led to believe. The Collector Scene for a Boxed but Used one may hope for a Sealed NOS Box one so would bypass it. The Market In Hifi over the £1000 level gives a lot of choice, most Buy Modern Amps that are far from Our Interest. We'd like one of the Big SX-1250, SX-1950 & SX-1980 to try & examine. We recently had a Forerunner, the SX-1010 from 1974 & found is Sounded Nice enough if already very Cost Cut with some design that is far from Earlier Pioneer. The design of some would need much Redesign was an opinion, some of it was rather poorly made. Preamp not great, Power Supply poor & badly positioned wit the power Amp tight to get to. Saves us buying one to Work on one. To Rebuild & Upgrade one like we did on the Marantz 2385 is a big job & these Monster 150w+ Amps need Redesign for the Cost Cutting. The SX-1980 is seriously Outpriced & they're Not Selling. As we put it on Watch, the Seller kindly offers it for £4800 less than a day after listing it, they apparently have 2 of them. The Realty with an amp this Old & so Overpriced is if you want to really sell it, to Auction or be realistic to take something between £1000 & £2000 for it. We see they Ended it the next day, either they're keeping it or someone made an offer to buy direct in person. This is our Opinion, we'd not want to buy it as we just see a Huge Rebuild Spend on it. Been There & Done that with the Marantz 2385 after all.

THX Certification Standards.
In the 1990s to see Home Cinema Set Ups in theDays when these were Popular with one shop we knew doing a lot of Installations of Huge Plasma TVs, Projection TVs that fixed to the Ceiling & the Multi Channel mplfier Set Ups, all hidden away in Cabinets. THX we read on their Website, THX.com which says..."For over 40 years, THX has set the standard for the audio and visual fidelity of entertainment experiences. THX Certification is a globally recognized assurance of uncompromising quality, consistency and performance. We blend art, technology, and the dynamics of real-world listening and viewing environments to ensure products deliver the artist’s true vision." For Audio Uses, a THX Amplifier was seen as something special, the TV Monitors would have been added like '4K Ultra HD TVs' assuming your Eyesight is Clear Enough to see more Detail than a usual HD TV. The THX site tells of Standards Items must reach, if not exactly what they are. On getting the Tube Technology Genesis Valve Monoblocs & Preamps, these were said to be THX ready as they were 100w. On hearing THX amps the Mega Sub Bass is the Joy of the Film Soundtrack, those Heavy Bass Rumblings. The THX site does recommend certain items, though How In-Ear Headphones can be THX gives the idea we're looking for Criteria we'll not be told of. What We Expected To Find. Power Amplifier Ratings of Power, Slew Rate & a level of Precision that they only call 'THD'. Levels of Bass under 50Hz to give the Full THX sounds. THX today seems to be like Dolby which started out as Tape Recorder-Player Hiss Reduction by boosting certain frequencies & then overall cutting them to reduce the Tape Hiss. Dolby in Tape Machines & certain record labels like Decca & DGG mentioned this in the late 1960s & by the early 1970s you see "Dolby B" on Tape Machines. Today Dolby means a Sound such as "Dolby Surround" & "Dolby Digital" compression as the Encoding Programs use for MP4 video or whatever they use today, some modern formats such as .jpg now often a photo as 'WebP' which isn't much use as only a Browser can open it, so you have to Screenshot it & save it as you want. One Amplifier rated THX "Acurus A2002" just the first we saw. 200w x2 Smart Amplifier it says. 0.03% THD & a High Dampling Factor of 500 isn't going to give that Deep Rumbly Bass unless you use False Features like Loudness. 'THX Reference Level Output' ones made to play at the same Volume as the Soundtrack was Mixed at, if Room Sizes will never match. You'll Need To Hear It. Recordings will vary so much, the idea that 1kHz can be 0dB & 30Hz can genuinely be 0dB or even +30dB to really Shake The House via the THX system isn't specified. Calibrated Products. They state..."Tuned by THX products are carefully tuned by THX engineers to optimize the performance of the existing device. Displays mirror the professional settings used by filmmakers and broadcast professionals, while audio products have high-accuracy filters applied. It is the best way to get the optimal performance out of your device." This tells that Artificial Altering of the Sound, not making designs Upgraded like we try to do. Sound Shaping started long ago, the 1965 Sony TA-1120 has it as does the "Guru" Tim De P items in 1975 created to give very low THD which mostly ruined Hifi together with the Cost Cutting era. They're using High Powered Amps & Basically 'Graphic Equalisers'. Looking Further, they say..."When tuning a device’s hardware architecture and making improvements we conduct tests for: Frequency Response, Crosstalk​, Signal-to-Noise Ratio​​, Distortion​, Output levels​​ & Directivity." These are rather mild tests that Hifi usually gets even if it's Cheaply Priced. A graph shows that THX Bass actually drops away after 100Hz which is far from what we'd considered THX Sound to be. It's on the 'Tuned by THX Audio' page. At 20Hz it's 15dB down & even 50Hz is 8dB down. No doubt their Criteria is involved, but the basic fact Deep Bass isn't that important sort of makes this Blog not quite what we hoped. But imagine if Amps of Higher Power used Domestically could put out Full Deep Sub Bass at High Levels then it could cause chaos with the Deep Bass from a Guitar Amp even being strong enough to shake Ornaments onto the Floor. As with most things in Life, You're Not Getting The Best as it'd cause huge problems. Those Cars around years ago, 1990s, with Huge Amps & they Rattled with the Heavy Bass. Where's The Midrange? On hearing these Home Cinema set ups in the dys we bought DVD-R for TV & Audio moving on from the VHS years. To comment on 'Where's The Midrange' as all we were hearing as a Short Listen was Big Bass & Extended Treble. The Voices seemed rather Recessed as in the Midrange was clearly reduced to Boost Up the Extremes on whatever Cinema Mode they used. Hifi needs comparing to Real Life, Outside Sounds & People's Voices. Sitting in the Cinema Sound Room playing a Film on DVD-BluRay you'd be Impressed by the Huge Bass but not realise the Sound wasn't exactly Realistic. One Younger Guy played us a Sub Woofer that sounded Hideous as Bass was too Thick & Exaggerated. A Sub is supposed to play 20Hz-50Hz to underplay the Main Speakers to fill the Sound Out. But they set it wrongly & were surprised to hear our comments. When your younger, any Bass is 'Cool' but it takes years to understand Correct Bass & find a Sound that is more Real. Lack of Reality is a Big Problem, all the Fake Looks on people especially Women & now depressing 'AI' Artificial Intelligence comes along. Most can't see a Picture is AI Fake, things like Animals are rather creepy looking as done wrongly, such as Koalas with 6 Toes instead of their correct amount.

How Long Have You Been Asleep? Part 2.
Continuing the Theme from a recent Blog. We have a 1966 Trio-Kenwood TK-60BU that got the Tuner Knob post vroken off & arrived Minus the Fuse Holder on the Back that looked like it had been gone a long time. The Tuner Cord was still White which is unusual as these get Darkened in use. A 1966 amp that looked a bit New in places suggests it got Damaged in it's first Year or even Months. The Way Life was back then, they might have asked about getting it fixed if Trio-Kenwood being a Japanese Company were with UK Distributors but it'd need returning to Japan to fix it. Because they had Bought a Quality Item & it wasn't cheap, a 20w Transistor receiver will have been around £100 at least. So it sat in an Attic-Loft for the rest of it's 'Sleep' until House Clearing got it Sold or Thorown away. A lot of Gear is 'recycle Yard' finds if they now realise there's Value rather than just chucking them in the Skip or Dragging along the ground by the Wire. That's a Sad One to see, damaged in a few seconds. This TK-60BU initially sounded reasonable, if further use by Running It In got it running Hot & sounding Rough with Distortion. It's been Recapped, but it has a long way to go to be Useable & Sellable. It might well be Outpriced by the Work & Time needed. A receiver we had last Summer, the 1974 Pioneer SX-1010 arrived as a Non Worker. This can be Anything & it turned out the Power Supply Board underneath was cracked from a Heavy Drop that Bent the Chassis internally & led to the Tuner Glass breaking once it was taken apart more. Board properly Reaired & Tuner Glass repro bought from the USA, it certainly was a High Stakes Amp, but we sorted it. The amp looked in High Grade inside & again it could have been Damaged very early on & sat unused nearly 50 years. The Amp we ran in for a few days yet the Transformer still ran rather Hot. No Issues causing it could be found, if it did improve & to think it'd improve far more over Weeks of Use. Hearing back from the Customer, it started to improve & run a lot cooler over a few weeks. The amp was all Recapped includin g the large Main Capacitors. It clearly needed a Longer Run In than usual.

March 2026 Blog

Voltage Regulators: Why Are They Needed?
In Earlier Amplifiers a Regulator gave a Reduction in DC Ripple which could be a bit too High in Amplifiers using Capacitors of the 1960s era. You'll notice that No Valve Amp pre 1967 uses any Regulators, they use the often large long Red Resistors, Black ones seen oin some brands. These Drop the Voltage to the Required Voltage if they can Run a bit Hot. In the 1966 Pioneer ER-420 there are several underneath & they are mounted apart with enough ventilation clearance they are no problem. Te 12973 Yamaha CR-1000 Power Supply Board has lots of regulators & generally Transistor Amps have Regulators starting with the 1965 Sony TA-1120, 1965 Pioneer SX-600T & 1965 Trio-Kenwood TK-80U. The 1965 Sansui TR-707A & 1966 Sansui 3000 don't have regulators. The trouble with Regulators is they have Capacitors in circuit that need Charging when turned on, This can make a Noise on turn on that can fade in 1-2 seconds but isn't what you want to hear. To see on Some Designs the Regulator only drops 1-2v gets the point of them Questioned. The answer isn't for Keeping Voltages stable as there's no real need, Zener Diodes are lazy design if they do hold the Voltage to say 14v if the Zener is rated 14v. This saves bothering to design things via Resistors & to see Regulators & Zener Diodes going back to 1965-1966. Zeners first seen in the 1966 Pioneer SX-1000TA to get the Tuner voltage set. So Why Are They Needed? On Upgrading, to use Modern Parts to see the DC Ripple that might be 200mV-400mV in older amps, the Ferrograph R307/20-20 Amplifier had very high DC Ripple yet No Regulators to better it. Even more recent ones use Regulators, if why they are needed is probably more about designing cheaply with Zebers & not using such expensive Capacitors. Regulators & Zener Diodes aren't so essential in better designs, but we'd not recommend messing with them as you could bring voltages too high or cause noise. Leave advanced stuff to those who understand.

Beware Ebay 'AI' Rubbish Item Descriptions.
AI 'Artificial Intelligence' is a Menace to those who can think for themselves, but sadly it's Life Today. People don't need to make the effort anymore so ebay adds rubbish lilke this to listings. To see this one as it showed '20% VAT will apply' & see the seller looking like a UK seller is in Australia. Where are the goods? Says Collect in Person from a UK place. So why put Australian details? Experience retro high-quality sound with this Amstrand EX222 stereo receiver and amp. The brand is known for its reliable and durable audio equipment, making it a great investment for your home audio needs. This receiver and amp combo is perfect for any room in your home and will provide a seamless listening experience. But this is for a 1979 Amstrad EX 222 receiver. It has no Description in reality. These 1979 items by Amstrad are very poor, they put low quality untidy electronics in Japan styled cases. They are far from reliable as Amstrad often bought at the weekend & back in on Monday once they failed. Very Poor Quality Control if they Were Sold Very Cheaply. Amstrad continued by making Stack Systems into the 1980s that seemed more reliable & sold well, but Amstrad was a 'joke' brand like Skoda Cars were still in the 1990s if now are considered differently, probanly as the Brand was soon after bought by another, Volkswagen. AI should be Banned for Selling & giving Fake Photos. Koalas with 6 toes, Women with Unrealistic 'perfect' looks & be sure AI is in everything. The Amstrad AI comment is ridiculous & in that slimy USA style 'everything is wonderful' way of Fluff Talking. One recent buy, the 1966 Nikkio TRM-120 had AI rubbish in the listing & contacting the seller their English was very poor, so they are the types AI is for. It's Dishonest. As the Nikko review by us tells, it powered up but No Sound. It's perhaps acceptable to us, if not a general buyer, but the Way Today is to treat people like they aren't very intelligent. We read their Feedback & asked them to pack it properly in a Box, not just Bubblewrap which caused Damage on other items. They did & it arrived intact. Very tightly packed & as Royal Mail brought it, it survived, if UPS or Fedex would have treated it much harsher. The AI description was This nikko solid amplifier is in a proper working condition,nice one from Japan .Good for every occasion. The item specifics suggested it was a Dolby Surround Amp & rated as 'Used- Fully Working'. Utter Rubbish description & factually incorrect. To us, if it at least Powers Up on one of this age from 1966, it's all we'd expect. The AI World dealing with Sub-Human Stupidity is the World People Want, just like they accept the Hideous World of TV Ads & the huge over-representation of certain types undermining The Natives. One 'Bargain Hunt' presenter puts a Beach Picture in July 2024, coyly done & the first time she (Natasha) has ever shown herself more, But you're not allowed to say 'Looking Hot!' & no-one does, on instagram the same picture not getting that many more likes than her others oddly. With 'AI' You Must Read Between The Lines & judge items on what you know. It's Dishonest Trading & will just result in More Returned Items. Buy ebay don't care. We saw the Nikko, saw it was worth buying at under £100 so just took it for what we know. But if items £500+ are given the same 'Idiot AI' then either ask questions or walk on by.

"Nikko" Hi-Fi Brand 1960s Onwards.
Finding their 1966 TRM-120 initially a great amp, much the same reackaged & tidied internally as the TRM-1200 if with an unreliable IC for the Phono, a 1976 Bulletin tells how to make the IC as Transistors, which we did on our 2015 TRM-1200. These mostly seem Lower Power until the later 1970s with the HFN site detailing the "TRM" series. We've had the TRM-500 & STA-5050 receiver both from 1973. The TRM-500 we got early in our Transistor Amp buying, our 2012 review is quite brief if we certainly liked it. Nikko are not much around, online to read their Distribution wasn'y so good & they closed in the 1990s. The HFE list doesn't show too many items for a Brand that lasted at least 1966-1990. HFE says they were formed in 1933 so there should be Japan-only earlier gear from Radiograms to Valve Amps. Nikko first in the UK by 1967 with HFN adverts for the TRM-40 & a Tuner. The construction is not like other Japanese brands so must be Nikko builds, using the similar quality parts, the build is different. The TRM series has TRM-40 1966 model with TRM-40B update in 1970 with the Silver-Black fascia like TRM-1200. TRM-50 a 1970 styled 17w, others in mid 1970s style TRM-210 12w, TRM-400 12w, TRM-500 22w one we've had, TRM-600 34w looking more advanced with lots more controls, TRM-650 50w from 1978 with plainer looks, TRM-750 75w maybe 1976 styled, TRM-800 50w in 1973 style. Our 'List Of Amplifiers' shows a Pre-Power Alpha-Beta II 110w pair in 1979. The STA Receivers range from very low Power 4w to 7w, mostly 12w-25w if STA-9090 is a 60w & 9095 is a 65w, the few 'xxx5' ones continue the STA 'xxx0' series. More in different series into the 1980s-1990s with ICs & beyond our interest. Look on ebay & really not that many Worldwide For Sale or Sold in the pre 1980 ranges. A More Specialist Brand, not taking on Pioneer, Marantz etc in the 1970s if from the ones we've had, they are better sounding.

What Other "Nikko" Are There 1966 To 1973?
We've got the 1966 Nikko TRM-120 recapped & playing right as we type. For an amp still much Original beyond Recapping & losin g the 'T' Bass Filter, the Sound is really a lot better than others. Meaning Amps we've upgraded a lot & this sounds like them already. Nikko a lesser known Japanese brand, made Hifi into the 1990s. None of it that well known & therefore no real 'standout' models without looking through HFE to find ones of over 40w. 1967/68 HFYB first showing the Brand & the 1966-67 HFN mag shows adverts. TRM-40 15w at a modest £39. The TRM-120 45w at £95 was in shop ads but doesn't seem to have sold if the TRM-40 is more arounmd as priced to hit the Budget-Midprice level likely with a sound ahead of the price. Receivers were the ST-701 25w for £133 & ST-501 18w for £119 by the 1968/69 HFYB book, showing two versions of the TRM-40 silver or black later fascia. 1970 brings TRM-30 17w & ST-301 10w receiver. 1971 has new Receivers STA-7018 25w £135 & STA-1101 37w for a high £246, a futuristic looking black fascia with a square window on the left that is the Tuner Dial trying for a new style as the Akai AA-8500 has, try find one. Sadly it has ICs on Phono, Tone & Power Amp with only Transistors on the Outputs & a strange Stepped Volume on the outputs. 1972 brings the updated TRM-1200 with the black fascis & updated innards to the TRM-120. 1973 with the STA-910 receiver 45w £163. 1974 into the later era, still quality sounds, STA-7070 40w £143. There are further STA receivers as blogged above in the HFE list, some as low as 4w. The TRM-120 in 1966 was an ambitious model, got a 1969-70 update if neither sold well.

Comparing Three 32w Trio-Kenwood Amplifiers & Receivers With Others.
By a Freak Of Nature, we actually have Three 32w Amps & Receivers by Trio-Kenwood. The 1970 KR-6170, the 1968 KA-4000 & 1965 TK-80U the First Version. To play all to Compare. Two are For Sale currently (July 2024) & one is a 1965 Germanium Amp rebuilt as Silicon that's a Recent Arrival. All are Capacitor-Coupled Designs & all we Rate as Better Than Average, with the KR-6170 Upgraded most, the KA-4000 Recapped with some Upgrades & certain Transistors replaced. The TK-140U Recapped with Upgrades if beyond Silicon transistors, the Resistors Design is as Original. As is Always The Way, they are 32w but all Sound Different in Tonal Balance. We could happily listen to either on Speakers for our TV use. The KR-6170 sounds very clean if never was a very Bassy amp. The KA-4000 is a fuller Sound with a Clean Sound even on the Original Resistors design. This KA-4000 came before the KA-6000 & is a better design for being The First, the KA-6000 runs a 90v HT with Hot Dropper Resistors. The other two use 70v HT & still Dropper Resistors if not Running Hot. The KA-4000 has a solid Precise Midrange & compared better than expected in this comparison. The TK-80U the first one with the Valve-Nuvistor Tuner & Germaniums, if now as Silicon. The TK-80U has more Bass as the 1965-66 Amps usually do. The Midrange is just a little different with the KA-4000 midrange making Direct Compares show the TK-80U as having a Deeper Tone, as in More dB gain creating a Midrange just a little Deeper. The other Trio-Kenwood we have is the TK-60BU which needs more work. It had a good sound in there perhaps closer to the KA-4000 if in need of work. It's only a 20w one if it doesn't sound any less. Of the initial Three, both the KA-4000 & TK80U are extra quiet backgrounds, the KR6170 has only a slight background noise of no issue. Up The Power In Comparing. The 1969 Pioneer SX-2500, the amp that's had probably more time spent on it than even the 1973 JVC 4VN-990. Both Amps certainly got 'Called Names' more than any others & deserved it too. The SX-2500 has Quite A Different Tone to any of the Trios (read on why). Now the 72w vs 32w is the thing, we put the SX-2500 Power Amp design into the KR-6170 yet 70v HT for 32w & 92v for at least 72w doesn't seem much, Current for the Extra Voltage does tell, the Extra Weight & Confidence especially on Speakers tells. The SX-2500, only as our much redesigned version, has a Richer Fuller Bass with a Crisp Treble to compare with the Trios. The SX-2500 at 72w isn't a Tamed Design like later Amps, some 70w can really not Sound like a 70w as they are too tamed. The Bass is fuller if Tight not Thick or Boomy Sounding. After playing some Reggae, the Style of Music that gets most Play in Testing amps, 1970s Tracks in Mono or Stereo have better Bass & some are very cleanly recorded, the Jamaicans used Quality Gear as TV Reggae Documentaries show. We're looking at the KA-4000 sound to get it from the SX-2500 by the Controls. The annoying thing with Hifi is without Comparing, you could be Listening to a Sound 'not quite right' & not realise how Bassy an amp is playing at 2am, even quietly. The 72w still adds that Confidence, even on Headphones. The SX-2500 was sitting around still being used on Headphones & needed this Compare Session to understand it. Onto 1970s Rock in Stereo, Black Sabbath 'Evil Woman' the LP version gets used as a Test Track often, the Weight of the Guitar suits 72w & bass at -2 or 0 is still powerful. Last Compare is the 1965 Pioneer SX-600T Germanium Amp, now All Silicon. 25w. Sound quite different, needs +2 on Bass to sound more like the SX-2500. A more Open Sound than the SX-2500 & -2 on Treble as they are quite different. Sounds fine on Speakers as Speakers need Tone, 95dB Tannoy Golds are Flat, not the Enhanced Sounds of later Speakers. With Tone Adjusted, the 25w SX-600T packs a puch, but that's what the 1965-66 amps do, before they quickly got Dumbed Down. The SX-600T & SX-2500 were likely designed by the same person, if the SX-2500 'ruined' by others trying to lose it's Real Sound & not sell an Amp Too Good. Conclusion. All these Amps are Recapped & Upgraded by the same Ideas. Some are still much as Original on the Resistors design. We only compared Trio-Kenwood & Pioneer, two brands that are More Lively Sounding in the pre 1971 era. The Two Sansuis for another day. All could be Enjoyed on Speakers playing the Bass EQ sound of some TV shows. Our current Speakers play is the SX-600T for listening after giving it a bit more Gain after Germanium-Silicon. The Pioneers both just better the Trio-Kenwoods. An idea the KA-4000 could do better is always the deal with Comparing Amps. Which ones to Keep or Sell is an unending Dilemma & subject to Change depending on what amps we get & Hear Better In. The very recently got 45w Nikko TRM-120 sounded as good as the other 1965-66 amps & will be hard to decide between yet another 1965-66 one.

April 2026 Blog

Not All Vintage Amplifier 'Bargains' On Ebay Are Worth Buying.
In July 2024, a very sad looking 1967 Trio-Kenwood TK-66 20w Receiver, We had one before, photos on the site, and it needed a lot Rebuilding as it was very tired. By Chance or Lack of Info we get the Trio-Kenwood TK-60BE which is the Same Amp beyond the Tuner & an a bigger case. It needs the Big Rebuild too. The TK-66 looks like it's been wet for a long time, the well pained lid with a larhe rust patch & the base cover shows water leaking marks. The Fascia despite dirty might clean up or it might be Corroded. The Seller knows it's too Far Gone & puts £30 Delivered on it. Next day they 'Offer' it as being Watched for £5 less & someone jumps at it. For Parts, unless you have the similar amp, only really the Control Knobs could be worth having as they fit the TK-140X and others of the 1967-68 Trio-Kenwood range. Now we had a TK-66 about 2011 that was rough & at the time beyond us as well as having Messy Repairs. so we still have a Nice Brown Wood Effect Lid for this Model & got it out of the Loft. The Trouble Is the Rebuils to get 'Use Daily' despure a 20w is like with the TK-60BE, it's still quite a job & would outprice what it'd sell for. For 20w to not really see more than £550 in Nice Grade all Rebuilt, the Rebuild job could easily Double That depending what you find . Odds are it needs the Deeper Rebuild as oiur TK-60BE does. Even with a Nice Lid, we didn't fancy buyimg it for the fact Water Soaked will mean more Corrosion inside. They said the Power Switch was Solid to not move, to try to find one if we may have the one from 2011 as we still have the Control Knobs. Avoid Water Soaked Hifi. Wet & Left Wet or Very Damp will make an amp "Too Far Gone". Have seen Rusty ones, the Transistor legs even Rust Away & be sure all the Controls will be a Mess too. Saw one decent High Powered mp long ago, big brand Money type amp of some sort. It was Water Soaked & Rusty inside. Recent UK Bad Weather where Floods caused Huge Damage will have resulted in Insurance Claims & items thrown away, if to be Found at Recycling Yards etc. Rusty Screws & Fittings on Amplifier Backs can be a different thing. Some are not Plated too much & go Rusty-Corroded when the rest of the item looks reasonable. Items as Barn Finds, Dry but still in the Air like Cars are found will still need a lot to get them working. These sort of 'Long Sleeping' amps are Not For General Buyers & often we see they are too far gone oncluding Parts Missing that aren't findable. As Time moves on, more Vintage Hifi is coming out, the Hoarder type dry Housed gear is the Best Bet, but Damp Garage-Attic-Shed finds are often ones we'd avoid.

PCB Double Sided Track Is Not Tech Friendly.
On Modern Gear, the PCB track is ultra fine, narrower than a Strand of Wire & hardly enough for the Voltages & Currents. Be Sure it's "Built-In Obsolescence" because once you try to Repair It, you'll find it Won't Let You. Double Sided Boards have Track both sides. They are joined by a 'tube' of Metal in the Holw to join top & base track. Earlu Double Sided Track from the Early 1970s often has far too much Flux, making Bubbly Solder that looks like it's Bad Soldering, seen on Trio-Kenwood KA-6004 preamp & others. Other Double Sided Track as on the 1971 Leak Delta 75 will tear off rather than Unsolder both sides. To try to Resolder new parts can be done, but it's not Straightforward. You Can also find the Front & Back track Isn't Joined making the Board appear Faulty but it doesn't show. An excess of Flux can hide a Top Track that none of the other parts use so is hard to see. Saly these "clever ideas" are done to make you give up & throw away amps for Parts, because Logic is not there. The More Amps we get, the more 'Stupid Issues' crop up & it can leave an Amp sit for Months as its not worki g right & needs a certain Attitude to 'Think Outside Of The Factory The Box Was Made In" & find the fault, which chooses to annoy you. The facxt some Transistors can be hissy, the Hated 458s in many amplifiers 1967-72, the 2SC458 can be Hissy or have the cheek to go Hissy once New Capacitors are fitted. Double Sided Track just adds another annoyance really can finish an amp, if you're not patient enough & let it sit months.

Digital Clock Radio Doesn't Last So Long?
Seems to be an 2010 model so 14 years use today is actually good. Used to read fine at night but it's been getting more and more Dim to be unreadable in the day. The LED 'dots' have failed & the Snooze Button Display Brightness adjust on the Sony Dream Machine ICF-C218 makes this the Brightest setting. To see ones on ebay with the LEDs uneven says they'll not last long, an item Permanently On & it works on 12v AC from the Transformer inside with 8v DC read. There's nothing to adjust, no resistor to alter, the LED Display has worn out. In a similar way VCR Glass Displays used to Fade Away, it's Bin Time. Lucky Manufacturers, they'll get £30 out of you for similar. Thing is the Display you get used to & different colours to Red or Green don't appeal so much. Never use it for an Alarm or a Radio, so time to look for something like a Clock. Many will not bother with these & use the Mobile Phone as a Clock or Alarm, but how many times do you forget to charge it so it'll not be as reliable. So leave it for the while as we have a 1977 President Timelite that we had in the Early 1980s & bought one as a Retro piece. Blogged it before in Jan 2019, recapped it & redid the buttons foam so it works fine. Bulb worked if the Bulb like a Car Indicator never used to last long. So we have that set up, the Display is much Brighter so try that. The Sony did change GMT to BST to save doing that & it kept very good time if not perfect, 3 mins out in a year. The Timelite will do, it lasted well for our one got 1981-82 & shows in a c.1990 photo if not sure what ended it or replaced it, but a red display wasn't around in c.2010 to buy the Green light Sony one. The Timelite we had on for several months with no problems, keeping good time. an Earlier Sony ICF-205 seems to have better lights as in smoother, depending on how pictured, but seeing wear marks, don't want that. To look for a different sort of Digital Night Time Clock. Looking at the Timelite, the Numbers are quite small & where we put it. it's not so clear beng smaller. Buy an £11.50 Delivered High Grade Used one. It's like with Logiteck Keyboards, but a good Used one when the letters wear out. Our current one is more worn than the previous one now, but with the Desk Light on it, can read it so "Why Buy New". It's getting old, of course. You don't especially want newer things. Looking at Backlit Keyboards, there is a Business in selling spare keys as they break too easily. Stick with what you know. Arrived. Looks like New, the rear 'feet' bumps not worn even. Plug In & the Clock doesn't Auto-Set, so to do it Manually. The Battery underneath reads only 0.25v not 3v. Probably why it got Sold. Display on a barely used one is how it should be. Keep the old one a while to be sure, if otherwise it's e-waste as too dim. How many would realise it needs a new Memory Battery. They'd complain & return it as Faulty.

1980 Marantz PM-4 Amplifier "Esotec Series".
Always lookimng for interesting post 1977 amps, but are there any we'd actually Buy? The Trouble with Post 1980 Amplifiers is the HiFi Yearbook ended 1980 with the '1981' edition in a A4 Book Size. It doesn't show this amp so it's an Unknown to us if part of the "PM" series used into the 1990s with the 1992 PM 62 familiar to us as we bought it New then. The PM-4 is 60w with 15w Class A. Class A runs very Hot & as we found on a Yamaha CA-800, once recapped & upgraded, Class A really makes No Difference, if be sure many will argue Class A is 'far better' on an Original Amp, it certainly ages the amp for the Heat. A more Specialist type of Amp aiming for the 'High End' crowd, High End means "Overhyped" and "Expensive" in reality. So to see what Marantz are offering on this Amplofier as it looks decent. Silver lower half & a black Grille top lid with perfect symmetry on controls. Is it worth £750 as the seller asks? Phono sets the scene here, it's that IC type design with Differential & Class B design. 8 transistors instead of the usual 3 in Class A Phono stages. Must be better then. Tone again a Differential then a single Transistor. Unusual design with Passive & NFB design. Of the Era, both seem acceptavle. Power Amp is All Transistors but Double Differentials. Ridiculous amount of Diodes, 13 of them including 2 zeners, some labelled as 'Protector' as in Relay stage. That is offputting to One into the Superior Sounding 1965-67 designs. Power Supply for ± Voltages needs the usual Regulators & more Diodes beyond the AC to DC ones. Works on ±52.5v Power Amp & ±32v Preamp etc, would take ages to read what voltages are where. Well to At Least Look, it's got far too much Overdesign & Copying the same Circuit Styles used by 1977. As with Marantz usually, it'll sound 'Nice' but with a Tame Sound. We'll Watch to see what it sells for, up for offers too. It looks nice for sure, but the Circuitry isn't for us. If it even sells for £600 be sure it'll not sound too 'exciting' when we can Upgrade Earlier Amps to get much more Lively Sounds for your Money.

The TV Repair Guy Bodge Job Is Still Alive In Vintage Hi-Fi.
Basically it's Your Amp. You can do what you Like with it. There are lots of Dreamers who think they can Tackle Complex Amps & think they can make a 50 year old Amo or Receiver Safe to Use afain in the "Use Daily" way we can. Some amps can be very difficult & really test your Fault Finding Skills. The Amateue will have Their Patience Tested & may get annoyed & smash it up. The Advanced Tech in their Specialised are of Hifi will have gone past the 'Smash Up' years but still yell Spiky words as sometimes it seems like Everything That Can Go Wrong Can Go Wrong & the Forever Battle of things going missing or on the floor. To try to make Deals buying Amps that interest, if they reply saying they'll keep it & get it going when they offer it to get a Modest if Realistic Price, as in Under £100 when if it was Old but Working it could make £300. The TV Repair Guy On Hifi is a real menace, the things we've seen, Bodge Jobs, Use Anything They Have even if it's totally wrong, bits ripped from Parted Amps & used randomly with No Care. For Us, we Gamble on Buying Amps & not all work out, as in they're not worth a huge job to sell for a fraction of the work or are too far gone on closer inspection. Keep Vintage Hifi alive & go the Extra on some. To hear the amp we see as an advanced job being told they could get it going for £100 in a day is just not realistic. To try for other's opinions, if aware they'll get upset if you push too hard as you've found them out. Never ever believe they've 'Not Tested It Further' when you see they part out other Hifi parts from failed units.We may not get loads of Amp Rebuilds as the Costs put Buyers off, but Spend The Money, get it done properly & get Years Pleasure out of it. Recapped & Custom Upgrades is the thing.

May 2026 Blog

Why Not Do Cheaper Jobs Just To Get More Customers?
We Don't Want to be TV Repair quaity techs. It's a Miserable Existence as the B-Tec TV Repair module guy said in the early 1990s. We had no interest in doing that, if to learn about Electronics more as near to Hifi as possible. College Course didn't really teach much is our opinion. The age of Amps we're into are 40-50-60 years old. Long past the expected 5-10 years of today's gear if things were better made years ago, they don't all last forever. Repairing Vintage Amps Doesn't Mean It'll Last Long. Not that The Repair is bad, often they are though, the rest will still be as aged & fail soon after. Surely people realise this from Cars? We use Our Vintage Amps & have done Daily for at least 10 years, before that we usedthe Tube Technology Gemesis 100w valves if saon foumd Transistor Amps were better sounding. Design more than Valves vs. Transistors. To Know What Fails Over Time, so on Vintage Gear, just Rebuild the Lot & from the amount we've sold, buyers get a Reliable Product. To Replace Main Capacitors always. The first amp that the Main Capacitors didn't last long, the buyer said they made noises & smelled a bit wrong was the Heathkit AR-1500, a very stylish 1973 USA made 'Kit Amp' if they were sold as Factory Built ones. To see they had aged for being used more by the Customer after nearly a year since they bought it, we actually used the amp quite a lot if not on Speakers for days of use. To redo the Capacitors at cost seemed fair & the amp still lives on. We've rebuilt a 1971 Sony TA-1130 amplifier recently, the large main Capacitors really wouldn't be aged, but without cutting them open, they might be fresh still or going crusty. To buy New Capacitors to sell it as Fully Recapped, if the main caps & work adds to the price. To Do It Properly. Watching an 'Edd' era "Wheeler Dealers", S9 E12, case in point. A Fuel Tank on a Triumph TR6, a pleasing car from 1975. Hole in it from considerable surface rust. £300 to buy a new tank, or an old-timey 'Tinker' way for £100 to solder a patch on & repaint. To us, we'd get The New Tank as one rust hole means it'll fail again soon, despite air testing it. It's a cost cutting way that some may prefer a it's £100 not £300, but for the nice car, Do It Properly, not that TV-Grade repair-bodge job. You'll probably Not Be Grateful as the new tank won't cause any bother, but knowing a critical part is replaced is the way we prefer in Hifi.In Car Terms, not wanting it to catch Fire, in Hifi Terms, not wanting amps to Damage Speakers. Useing them on Expensive Tannoys means they have to be trusted to even try them on speakers.

By Late 1968 Hi-Fi Goes Mass Market.
Our Final Read through 'Hi-Fi News' magazine, it's very clear by late 1968 that Hifi Has Gone Commercial. There are still quality items like Sansui, Pioneer, Trio-Kenwood & Fisher plus others, but a saddening array of "Crap" that will have been thrown away long ago. Rubbish like 4w Systems, naff large print of 'English audio' brand ultra cheap Audio Seperates. The last years of most UK Brands as their stuff was not keeping up with the Japanese Gear on Quality or Price, yet the Mediocrity of "Quad" gear still continues with the hopelessly outdated & very contrived Quad 33/303 Pre-Power to still build in cabinets. To make gear to appeal to Older Buyers is always important. The Quality of the Budget Gear is not good & even Philips who laughingly put "The Friend Of The Family" as an Advert Tag Term, are with very mediocre audio gear. We've never bothered buying Philips gear even the more stylish ones. But Sadlt The Market Wants Cheap Gear. Budget Speakers like a 'Solent' discounted from £18 each to £11.50 (£11.10.0) just to appeal to those in need of Audio Gear but not realising (yet) that it was Poor Quality Junk. In all Realms of Commerce, the Best Gear at High Prices will only sell to a small market, most will buy the Under £100 systems of 1968. The fact they don't last for long doesn't always teach to buy better things & as we've found with Fridge-Freezers, the expensive ones don't last long if a bit of a "Sigh-Buy" to only find a Hotpoint one in stock, needing it in Summer 2013 & it's still going Summer 2024. That's the Best one we've had. No Thermostat & silly elecronics to go wrong & it lasts. A"Sigh Buy" into a Great Buy as it's reliable for not being Overdesigned. Much like buyers of AV Amps are finding, these £500-£800 items soon become Fault Mode & Unrepairable. Off to listen to our 1969 Pioneer SX-2500. why Buy New Things.

1983 Realistic STA-2250 Receiver - All Transistors.
Realistic is "Radio Shack" USA & "Tandy" UK. They were an Electronics shop that used to be on many High Streets, one across the road from us & another where we worked. They were a Shop of varying appeal, to aim for Budget Buyers if did better quality. We bought the 1986 Realistic STA-2280 as reviewed in 1987-88 when they Discounted for the Next Modell. We've had their Early ones made by Hitachi that were certainly high quality. The Trouble with Tandy is Buyers didn't treat them with much Respect if they deserved it, but if bought cheap it attracts a different buyer. So therefore Realistic gear in Hifi is not in good condition, which is just how it is. Realistic STA-2250 is probably the Model of FM Stereo Receiver before our STA-2280. 2250 is a smart looking Silver Receiver, the 2280 was a Black one on ours if seen it part Silver on earlier ones. For 1983, to expect ICs as the 2280 had, but this 50w Receiver is All Transistors beyond the Tuner. All Transistors in 1983 is very unusual on any Brand. Looking on ebay to see what Realistic Receivers are out there, not many in the UK. One seller has two of the STA-2250, one looks like it's been dropped hard yet they want £180. Amother in much better grade is £275. Both are Very Overpriced, but this is typical ebay, dreamers aplenty. Message them trying to see what they'd take, they won't even reply which is telling. We see overpriced amps from 5 years ago still sitting from pre 'The Hoax'. If they don't want a Sale then go find something else. The FM Stage has a Digital Display with the LED type lights in a Glass Tube item, like a VCR etc uses. These Fade over time if left on, our Clock Radio & even our Microwave display is getting dim. Here the better 2250 display is good, but as it's on 87.50 FM the internal Memory battery has long gone & from the 2280, the FM was not that good, even with an Aerial not getting Stereo or more than 2 bars strength. The odds of the 2250 being simiar are likely & make it a wary buy. It's worth about £100-£150 to be "Realistic" & the damaged one is just a Bargain item. But having Found It, to look deeper at the Circuits & Try It without Buying It for Understanding Design & Circuits. If we bought it & recapped-upgraded it, what would it sell for? It'd be under £500 with the rebuild costing more than sell price. Realistic are "Sleeper" amps, some better than others, but they don't have Much Cred to make Higher Prices & 1983 era will put many off. Realistic STA-2250. Circuits. Needs a bit more to work out who Made this, nearewr the 1974 onbe than the 1986 one. An older type of build for All Transistors. Phono with a Differential then PNP-NPN gain stages, none of that Class B style design. A Relay Stage next, before the Tone-Pre & Power Amp, not on Speakers out isn't what we'd expect. Tone-Pre after the Relay that seems to just Mute the amp, 7 transistors per channel, 2 as a Differential, 1st & 5th one is a Buffer as is the last one, so only 2 gain transistors beyond. Power Amp has 11 transistors, 2 Differential pairs. Still a few more Diodes but not too excessive especially as a1983 design, it seems more 1976-77 and it probably is. Why bother with 'New Designs' when the older ones are better. Big Brands who sold more went Over The Top on Overdesign, here it's still got appeal to those who like a 1976 amp. Power Supply has three secondary windings, Powrr Amp, Pre Amp & Tuner showing further this is a decent amp. No Voltages shown if 6800µf 50v main Caps are a bit low. Power Supplies the usual Regulators & Zener Diodes, keeps designs easier if they're not at their best. Display shows a large IC but still transistors. Tuner has a few ICs but still quite a few Transistors. The Design is before the Relay Input Selectors & Remote Control of Amps that soon started to appear a few years later & into the 1990s. For not having a Relay on the Speaker Outputs it loses some of what a 1983 amp or receiver would have. The Transistors design adds appeal. Inside Build. Online photo shows a large transformer, one main Tunerboard with another under it the Audio Boards. the Power Supply at the back, all a packed Amp & far from a 1983 one beyond the Digital Display. As with the 1986 STA-2280, it has Ribbon Cables with the Audio on them as a Tone labelled one shows. This is the 1983-ness into Focus & to see Ribbon Cables on 1978 Marantz even. An extra Transformer at the back is for Memory Backup it appears, Overall Opinion. It's a Decent one for 1983, rare to find Transistors not ICs for Audio. But it's not got a Relay on the Speakers & is only a 50w one. The Tuner might not have aged well is a Risk. To be able to Read Circuits plus finding Inside Photos to see it's a Quality Amp, if for us, once it's Insides are Known, past listening to it & thinking what could upgrade when it'd not be one we use having several others. To Investigate For Free rather than Investigate & Want One to go Buy one. If there was a Profit in it at a far better Buy Price it'd be worth getting. But £275 is way too expensive to us. If you wanted it to Keep & Use in a Smart 1980s Retro Way, £275 might be justifiable, but look how many more 1980s 50w Receivers are out there, if in Black that's not so Retro to us.

It's Because Nobody Wanted Them.
A Jan 1969 HFN ad by 'UTS' a shop in Tottenham Court Road, London. Pictures of Hifi they were offering for sale. Noticed as the Middle 0nes are the 1965 Sanyo DC-60, 1966 Nikko TRM-120 & 1965 Akai AA-5000. For our Buying Vintage Hifi, actually We Have these three. Others are 1968 Armstrong 400 series that quickly got relaced vy the 500 series as the looks of the 400 got unkind reviews for the Quirky looks. The 1965-66 three still in stock & still advertised by other shops. The Akai was getting Discounted & the Adverts got the Power Ratings of the Akai & Sanyo wromg, they are not 15w amps. The Nikko was being updated to match the half Black fascia of the TRM-40. These were Amps & Receivers being 'Cleared' in the days just as Comet were starting up with their One shop, as Blogged before. Other Japanese Brands we've had like "Duette" & the 1966 "Rotel" were Sold Off Cheaply in the 1970-71 era despite being 1966 models, they were Dead Stock in some countries & offloaded wherever they could. The early Sanyo we found ended up in Eastern Bloc countries like Poland which is why more on 1965-68 Sanyo gear online is found in these Countries. Typing this on deciding the Nikko wasn't trusted for the awful noises at turn-n & turn-off despite full recap & more. we wouldn't trust it on Speakers. It's a Direct Coupled Amp too with high DC offset needing redesign, Meters not reading well, noises & squeaks give it away as Not So Good. That means it couldn't be sold & for the 'tatty' build quality, one best sidelined if otherwise finished with. The Sanyo we had a DC-66 for a customer, no Manuals then if it had a good sound, so we got the DC-60. It's a Germanium amp, amid the Noise it sounds great like the Nikko, but again it's Direct Coupled. The Sanyo build is too much to do in the usual way, it needs totally taking apart to even get to the Amplifier Stage. To redo as Silicon & Recap the lot in one go is being Too Hopeful. Aux is through Phono. Tape Monitor for a more Direct input is via a DIN socket which isn't a popular fitting. The Tuner board was broken as unsupported midway if we got AM workimg, no FM so further limiting a 25w amp. The Akai we started by redoing all he Resistors on both Phono-Pre-Power boards, a huge job. But now realising the Germaniums should be Silicons, again a job too far & an amp that's hard to work on without unsoldering many wires. It's been abandoned, if we did sell one before & bought this the day after it went just to have as an ornament. The Akai needs a huge amount of work still, it may get another go. To see why they were Unwanted even in 1969 is telling, they weren't as good as other Brands or even later ones by the same brand. The Rotel gave false promise, it was just No Good (100AMP). Some Ritel are decent, but it's not a better Brand & not one we'll buy again even knowing te big RX-1603. The Duette was one we had early on, a bit of a Wild Thing but Customers wanted it to buy so we sold it. They liked the sound but found it a little too Wils, as in it wasn't the most Trusted or Stable Amp, probably it got played Too Loud for it's 16w which isn't really for pushing hard. Not Al Amps Are As Great As They Could Be, Upgrading & Recapping does bring out problems as well as bringing out a Wonderful Sound from the Best 'Sleeper' amps. upgrading on Our Own Amps is Redesign to get the Best out of it potentially. Some brands kept a Quality for several years, others Peaked for just a few years, meaning in the 1965-1985 era with mostly 1965-73 our interest. Most Amps Are Reliable & Trusted on our Speakers, meaning not just the small Test Speakers but the 15" Tannoy Golds. The ad showimg Three Less Great Amps is a lesson to be careful what & where you Buy. Some Off-Brand items in any category can be good as well as some Big Brands not being so good.

1979 Sony STR-V6 115w Receiver.
These "STR-V" series first appear in the 1980 HFYB. The Earlier V-FET series from 1975 have confused the issue, with TA-8650 etc on the "Other Amps" page. That page mentions the 'Late 1970s STR-V' series, we weren't keen on those for the Preamp-Tone ICS. Not so much ICs sounding Rough, if many certainly do. But more the facxt the Pream creates the Amplifier Sound & an IC with it's many internal transistors running at low voltage & low current mean they'll only sound Tame, as proved by the Marantz 2385 185w but No Real Kick Or Life in a smmoth tame sound, nice but thought Boring. Have to try these amps. ICs in Sony are in the STR-7000 sseries & TA-1150. The TA-1150 with ICs for Preamp after some tidying how unbalanced the Voltages were, acually sounded nice & clean, but the TA-1150 power amp wasn't very good, so to not know how good or otherwise it was. STR-V6 on ebay for £1249 by what seems a Big Marantz & simikar collector clearing out a load of Receivers, too many at once will flood the market & Marantz sold well on many models to not be Rare. They show how Large the V6 is compared to the Marantz 2285. Says Part Recapped & LED bulbs. 115w but it uses Spring Connectors for Thin Wire is often the case with older amps, the Thick Cables we use now only really came in more by the 1990s if the HFN/RR in the 1970s actually Reviewed Cables. Various V6 versions 21.4kg to 23.2kg likely for Transformer Fixed or Multivoltage, the Yamaha CR-2020 Transformer varied in sizes. Sizes bizarrely vary by 3mm USA to UK-EU versions, 525mm W x 195mm H x 450mm D which oddly is about the size of the 1966 Akai AA-7000 on our desk now, if two were piled up on top. Monster Receiver & a Good Loking one, the Tuner Window in the Centre not the Top is an Odd Sony look from the 1975 ranges. Rear Panel. Inputs on the rear are Two Phono if into one Phono stage, MM only not MC which seems lacking. Only one Aux, but Two Tape Loops. No Pre Out-Main In & a Maibns Plug called 'Kettle Plug' as were around pre early 1990s on Kettles. Inside shows a Toroidal Transformer which often is a standard block one in a Round Case. Large Heatsinks in the centre with PCB Boards in the middle which will be fun to work on. Tuner Board on the right with the Preamp etc underneath we assume. Power Supply atthe front left. Looks Smart in nice grade with the Green Tuner & Meter lights but the Thin Aluminium can age badly to look Tatty on these similar Sonys. Circuits. Tuner starts with Discrete Components, FET, Differentials & other Transistors with 4 Ceramic filters, so looks the Quality the STR-6055 & STR-6065 Tuners were that sounded better than most 1970s Tuners, But then 3 Busy ICs. Phono for MM only is 3 Transistors per channel, 2x PNP + 1x NPN has an unusual design. Tone-Pre is the Killer, the HA1457 IC used in many amps is a 7 pin small in-line upright IC hardly capable of much power compared to Discrete Components. Tone surpriingly is still Passive with Filters of a simple design to not affect the Lovely IC sound. Power Amp is 17 Transistors, including a Differential & 8 are the Protection Circuit. Back to Transistors instead of the V-FETs which must have caused a lot of annoyance & why they aren't findable now unless £250 a pair appeals, risking buying fakes from China, oh dear. 2SD736 & 2SB770 are still unusual 'Flat' Pin type Transistors with a Flange, so beyond one on ebay & no 2SB770 , they are possibly long Obsolete, another Killer. Amps can be altered to fit other Output Transistors, if it's not a TO3 one they can be difficult. Power Supply the usual Regulators & Zener Diodes plus the Dreaded Fuse Resistors the Power Amp has too. 71v 15000µf Main Capacitors is High Spec & oddly buying ones to fit as New you'd not be much away in Spec if the size can be found. Fuse Resistors are horrible as why not just use a Fuse. Transformer only has One Secondary Winding, yet Power Amp winding is used for Tuner, Phono & Preamp which ads to the Tame Sound. Verdict. It's a smart looking receiver, poor Speaker Connectors, IC for Tone, Risk of Unavailble Power Transistors if this is often with Amps past 1978 that use Custom ones. It is very likely to sound 'Nice' but always that Tame Sound unlike pre 1974 designs. Lots of Light as Bulbs, seller says they fitted LEDs so must be not so hard if some Bulb Sets are tricky. Is it Worth buying for £1249 for 115w? For you to decide. We'd like to Hear One as with Any Amp we've not tried, but The Seller is trying for Highest Prices, what they sell for is another thing & no photos showing Recapping. Hifi Shark sees ones selling or going unsold at £500-£800 which seems more what we'd expect, nearer the £500. An Interesting one to Look At for Blogging on it, but finding possible Difficulties if it's not working right.


June 2026 Blog

Late 1960s Designs Questioned: Class A, Crossover Distortion & The Transistor Sound.
By reading Hi-Fi News magazine, by 1968-69 you hear these Terms quite often. Crossover Distortion is just for Bias not being set to a few mV. Having Redesigned Sansui 1965-66 amps for Fixed Bias, to see the Slight Kink in the Sine Waveform is actually what Crossover Distortion is when Bias is too low or 0mV. A Class B amp requires a slight Bias into Class A, called Class AB. This Bias keeps the Output Transistor working slightly beyons strict 50% opf the signal so it can seamlessly Crossover from one Output Transistor to the other, as in one transistor has the Top-Positive Half of a Sinewave & the other deals with the Lower-Negative half. Push-Pull Amplifier is just that. Bias set right, no Crossover Distortion. Class A is when both Transistors are Highly Biased to both be always on. The 1973-75 Yamaha amplifiers like CA-1000 & CA-800 demonstrate this well asadjust to over 900mV. Class A runs very hot which Ages these Amps quite considerably. Class A claims to Sound Better, but upgrading one Yamaha there was really No Difference Class A to Class A-B (B) operation. Just that it's on a Higher Bias using much Higher Current. The Transistor Sound is a Fallacy. If the Amp is Biased Right, the 'Sound' they complain of is Extended Treble that Amps usually Tame Down to Hide. It brings out High Sibilants & is Clean & Precise, not the Chromium Plated-Glass Cutter Gritty Treble some amps offer you. Valves can do this Extended Treble to a degree too if designed-upgraded right so what the 1960s People are doing is comparing typically Duller Sounding Valve Amps to Fresh New 'Wild' Transistor Amps. Be Sure the Manufacturers didn't like the 'Transistor Sound' disparaging comments when they were Offerimg Higher Quality to Ignorance because it wasn't ever explained or understood perhaps. So they just Tamed The Sweet Extended Treble by 1966-67. Don't make it too Crisp or genuinely Fresh as People Complaioned as with heap Rumbly Turntables needing 'T' Bass Filters. Sadly the General Public doesn't understand better things which is why Mediocrity suits many. "They Actually Complain About It So Why Bother?" Three Big Subjects Condensed into One Blog. It takes a lot to find this out, but Why Not Tell A Truth or Three. This Hifi Site is Our Interest in Hifi, we're certainly avoiding a lot of Amps but would readily buy others that Upgrade well & have a Profit in doing so. Many Amps are Nice, But still Tame, Undynamic, Lacking Bass & are Diappointing those who keep trying to 'Upgrade' as in Buying seemingly 'Better' Domestically Sold Hi-Fi. You'll Never get in Shop-Bought Gear. It's Why We Upgrade & buyers of our amps tell us How Much Better ours sound, if there is a little insincerity putting 'Buyer Comments' as it looks like they are written by the same person & even Amazon gets many fake reviews, you need to work the Reviews to see Real Views by Worthy Commenters who naturally are The Minority as "Looking For The Best 'Uns" is so 1982 as 'Only Fools & Horses' theme tune sings about. The 'Not Asking Questions' is about Knock-Off gear as in Stolen not Fakes of today. Is there Fake Hi-Fi out there? The Tooling of the amp chassis & getting Vintage Style Repro parts suggests not on Vintage.

Early Hi-Fi Ideas Quickly Forgotten In Power Supplies.
Valve Amps often use a Mains Choke, a Transformer-looking item that has a small Henries (mH) that reduces Noise & for it's Resistance also reduces AC Ripple. Some Valve Amps use a Resistor in place of the Choke. This Choke is seen in a few 1965-66 Transistor Amps, the 1965 Sansui TR-707A has one if they don't quite get it right, on purpose perhaps. To not remember others if to thinbk on it. One Transistor typre design rarely seen is a Voltage Regulator on the Main HT Supply. The 1966 Akai AA-7000 has this & rarely seen elsewhere, again where not remembered. The Benefit of this simple Circuit is to Make AC Ripple into an extremely low amount. Some Transistor amps are awful, the Ferrograph design leaves a Huge 400mV ripple on the AC. We've read better AC Ripple but never as Low Main HT AC Ripple as the AA-7000 has. From the TX into the first capacitor (as upgraded) it still reads 108mV AC ripple which is typical in many amps. But after the HT Regulator it reads below 2mV, just a TO3 transistor & a 100 ohm resistor, plus Capacitors. Why Are These Ideas Forgotten? With the HT the Main Voltage on the Amp, the very low AC ripple doesn't need further Regulators or Diodes (Zener Diodes). The Choke Transformer pieces aren't made anymore & we got ours from Maplins as left-overs from their Valve Amp Kits. A Regulator for HT is much easier to do, but one long forgotten. The 1965-66 Transistor era has many great ideas long forgotten as Designers never think to look back or know what ones were better.

2003 Anglepoise Type 3 Lamp.
We've Blogged on these before, thnk they were about £200 each & we bought Two. Round Stepped Art Deco style base. The Poor quality Lamp Holders Age Badly & after Complaining onlinwe, Anglepoise contaxcted us after they didn't want to Help before. Pays to do that, we Returned both Lamps minus the Heavy Bases. One got Repaired & the other was a Brand New one. They are still in use, one used as a Lamp & Uplighter to Watch TV givi g a subtle light & was god with the Twisty ESL Bulbs & now the LEDs. That one is still intact on the Bulb Holder, from the Bulb Heat rising upwards as mostly used as the Uplighter. The second one is our Desk Light, it son needed a better Bulb Holder, a Fish Tank Ceramic one but with an inline Power Switch added. It now keeps fallimg down just the last few days as thew Screw just above the side Spring has worn out & currently a Cable Tie keeps it still. It could be Repaired, but it's an Annoying thing. Imagine how many times a lamp uswed Close to your Working gets Hit. It's like having a Bell to get hit many times. Very Annoying. First got an Anglepoise type lamp from a Charity Shop in the early 1990s, it lasted a few years & to get ones from Homebase at £20 each suited fine. These had a Tightening Star Wheel to hold it in place. After having the Anglepoise a while, how much more Sensible to buy 20 of the Homebase ones for the £400 spent. They looked Smart all Chromed & Gleaming, but 100w Bulbs ruined them if they were Sold as 100w compatible. The Replaced one had a later 60w stcker. For the lack of them on ebay with sellers offering the round base only shows they didn't last if show 2003 as a possible year. 21 years from Modern Anglepoise lamps. So to be tired of the Drooping Bell' one, found an old Homebase one online for £20 delivered. Once again, go with things Trusted like the Sony Clock. The wide Fluorescent Bulb lamp Blogged before still in the Loft as it was annoying & the Bulbs don't last lon. Truth is LEDs are so much better, don't want Glass Tube Bulbs no more. An Anglepoise Type 3 on ebay as parts, theirs broken where ours is being trouble, 'Fork Broken' they say. Funny How Anglepoise going back to the 1950s are still around, Shades too Small was a problem as we bought one before the Type 3s. Looking at theirs apart, ours needs New Nylom Bushes & Bigger Screws that can be Tightened netter. Make Do And Mend. But seeing that Parts one has a good shade with the switch & holder, buy it & cobble together one good one. Both Arrived. The Anglepoise half spars one in high grade beyona an odd few chips in the chrome. One Careful owner using small bulbs so the Risky Bulb Holder doesn't look overheated. Bargain. To cobble bits together & make a Nice One. The trouble is the Anglepoise is quite fragile, it's not meant for a Hard Work Lamp & a £200 lamp used as such for being there & they do get rough in use for our Hifi use. It'll clean up & be put elsewhere, not really made as a Work Lamp. The Homebase one is more sturdy, only needs a light clean & a LED bulb, if has a bulb in. The design is far more intelligent than the Anglepoise which is more a decorative light. Simpler springs with Two Tightening Wheels & it stays put far more solidly. The Bulb is a screw-in of a smaller fitting. Shade shows "Max 28w SES or LED 4w Bulb" which is over cautious. We want 100w Glass Bulb brightness & modern LED 10w ones we use 'Day White' 5600-6200K brightness that don't get Warm like the earlier Twisty Fluorescent Bulbs did & were smelly. Their 9w Bulb works if is a Warm Yellowy Light, so to buy different bulbs, E14 fiittibg screw smaller than E27 one, like we're told what they are until searching. To resrarch on ebay to find the E14 with the old-style Bulb shape as LED. How many buy the wrong bulbs. The Homebase DK-00198 lamp using thse E14 scrww bulbs leaves better cooling so with the Plastic Holder it'd not get Hot & fry the innards like the Anglepoise did. E14 seem to mostly be LEDs with visible elements, not a diffused light. Looking online, you can still Buy These New at Homebase for £25 'Lucas' model & it says E14 Bulb to be sure. They say 40w or 6w LED playing safe, if 10w ones run Cool. E14 Bulbs seem smaller & won't be like the Bulbs we want, so just buy an adaptor, E27 Bulb into E14 holder for £4.60 delivered & see what that's like. A different bulb has a deeper 'Live' point to to alter the one in the holder so it actually touches. E27 bulb overhangs the shade putting a Glare on the Computer Screen. at least the lamp parts stay put. See how it is to use. It looks cheaply made, as a £25 item compared to a £200 one would. A lamp that won't hold still can be very annoying, to rebuild the Anglepoise with the Spares one, oddly you need a Desk Light to do that. Homebase OuT - Anglepoise In. Rebuilt our Anglepoise with the Spares Shade-Switch & upper arms. Assume they had fun with the Springs as not included, but ours were good. Homebase lamp a False Economy, it was hopeless to pull around as Light is needed. Base too light, movement Too Limited & it could easily Fall Into your Job. The Bulb Overhang leaves you Dazzled. Homebase Lamp for Light Desk Reading, not Hifi or any other sort of Working. Anglepoise with the Original Holder that won't get Hot to Damage it now so like the other one it'll last years. Thev weakness is the 2 Hex Bolts that join the Lamp parts to the Yoke, the thread nay be fine but the Hex Holes wear from tightening too often with the heavier Bulb holder. The replaced Bulb Holder was a Ceramic Fish Tank one & naturally heavier. Repaired One back together it moves more freely than our other one does, a little bounce in it but it won't fall down or droop. Stretch it out 30cm & it stays put. Success. That's the Trouble with things, Know The Premium & don't like The Cheap. As in Many Things, Hi-Fi included. The Anglepoise Problem is the Bolts that fix to the Yoke part, the Washer bits wear out, go weak & the Bolt Hex end wears from using the wrong size one. 'Fork Bolt Kit {Type 75}' is the only Spares one they offer on ebay for £10. This offers Two longer Bolts, 4 Washers & an Allen Key. Type 3 to Type 75 differs for a longer bolt, an extra Metal Deep Washer-Tube, but just put it on the Outside of the Bolt to have it fit correctly. Tighten just enough to Hold & try it. It's like they were New Decades ago, the Arms stay put & move as good as it used to. The Plastic part looks like an ovrsize TO3 Transistor part so are probably an Easy Find on Tech Parts sites. These Anglepoise supplied Washers look more like the Inner ones on the Yoke part so keep two as Spares for another time.

LEDs in Uncoventional Receivers Tuner Windows.
The Receiver is a more Retro Looking item than an Amplifier that is far more Plain if Needle Meters as on 1977 Yamaha CA-1010 add interest. The 1966 Nikko TRM-120 & the updated 1969-70 TRM-1200 with Meters are likely one of the Earliest. Today's ESL & LED Bulbs, depending if you prefer the White Light or Cooler more Yellowy light like Glass Bulbs can depend on what you Prefer in Hifi Lighting. Tuner Windows in Receivers witl Glass Bulbs get Too Warm & ruin ones like Mid 1970s Marantz as the Plastic dries out & gets Fragile. A Glass Bulb can vary a lot in how it ages, to use the Correct Voltage ones to not age them too fast. Many Amps in the 1966-73 era are with the 30mm Fuse Type Bulbs. The LED versions vary in brightness, a 12v one will be a bit less bright than a proper 8v one. The Difficulty is with the more Specialist Ones. They use Obscure Bulbs that you dont see in other Receivers. Some Small Bulbs can be replaced with LEDs of 5mm size if the light is far narrower. One Receiver we've wondered on is the 1966 Akai AA-7000. This requires you to take a lot apart to get to the Bulbs, a job you'll not want to repeat. AA-700 to take the top lids off, base lid off. Be sure to Unplug it first. Then to undo 10 screws holding the Wood Sides on. Then turn it upside down to undo 4 screws holding the Glass Window part on. Careful not to damage the Glass, it can slide out & stick leaving a small bit to break off unexpectedly as the 'Solds Gallery' one shows, the one we still have back again. AA-7000 takes 6v Bayonet Bulbs. From selling it before, we put a Full Set of Bulbs in, getting it back, half had failed, but it doesn't really need the Lights on the Tuner. Beware the White Paint fallimg off if it can be redone as it was Acid Etch Paint that can be skilfully redone filling the Etched Design. The Gold letters stay put. So as we had some 6v Bayonet LEDs from using them in 1965-67 Pioneer, to have 6 to put in the AA-7000. They flickered only slightly & once back together no flicker. Looked Subtle in Use. But then when it was Darker to see it as Night Use. It lights up with LEDs quite well, but then to see a Dark Light Gap in the middle where the Bulb Holders change <<< to >>> with a gap. It needs one more LED fitted midway. One to think on & try sometime. The 1973 Trio-Kenwood KR-8340 is a 4ch Bridged Receiver, one of the Best of it's type. The first one we had for a Customer had All the Bulbs working, so no need to change any. But Ours had the Tuner Meter Bulb out. It's hard to get to, front panels & Tuner assembly to undo. The Meter bulb was a 5mm Frosted Bulb, an LED isn't a wide beam, a Huge Failing in LEDs for just one element. The Input Label lights are a Bulb with long wires pushed into a rubber part, like Yamaha use. The Tuner Window lights are a bit Dim & as blogged above, they are ones to think what to do. Ideally to use 30mm Fuse Type LEDs if these can be limited in spread of light. To not want Hot Glass Bulbs anymore means we'll solve it & Blog sometime.

Be Careful Who You Trust Sending Hifi To For Repairs Etc.
Hearing from one who sent a decent 1973 Amp to an Ebay 'seller' that propbably Offered A Cheap Repair to entice. The trouble is they still don't have the Amp back & they've been told "it might be something..."' meaning they haven't got a clue. Understand What You Have Done. We'll explain, hving been on ebay since 2000 on getting our first computer. Basically you've sent your Hifi to a person who claims to Repair it, paying say £40 for a quote. We've blogged this before, but These People as shown are Not Capable. Do you Realise if the 'Seller' closed their ebay account how little Power you have to get your item back? Notice with us we have This Website which is Long Established for Records & Hifi. We only deal by Tracked Courier & Traceable Bank Transfer to give a Paper Trail. Sending Hifi to an Ebay 'Seller' of a Hifi Service, you'll have used a Courier. The Status of The Repair Person won't be a Pro with a Website & even if they were,ebay won't let them Link or use Images showing Website Addresses. Ebay has become a Gangster Site for How Much Dodgy Dealing goes on & be sure we really have to Fight to get a Fair Deal. If your 'Repair Job' person vanishes, what can you actually do? You've done something similar to Dropping Gear off at aResidential Address. We've had people do that & didn't like it as they Try It On trying to Undermine. also where's Proof Of Delivery to you? People Are Generally Good & You Can Trust Them in 'Goodwill' Ways. This used to be true, but certainly one to use with Caution. Give people a chance & they'll screw you over. In the late 1980s Days of the Family Shop, two men used to buy Antiques a lot becoming regular buyers. They wanted a Quality Set of Antique Chairs & they were trusted by an Emplotee to take them & pay next time. No Money, No Goods, whoever you are. as you'd expect they were never seen again neither the Chairs or Money posted. A Business will generally operate in a 'Goodwill' way as they are Established & Want future trade. An ebay 'seller' who is a 'Nobody' can easily advertise Cheap Repairs, get sent Goods over several moths & then do a Runner. Ebay won't Help At All. Even Years Ago Paypal wouldn't cover you for 'Services' as they were getting conned. Of course any established Shop or Website could suddenly close, but you will find it's Different as Owner Passed on & it could take Months to get Affairs sorted. People Are Too Easily Swayed By A Bargain. If it's too good looking be sure what happens if things go wrong? Ebay now are allowing Sellers to Cheat. The Ebay Rules are all intensely written & if you Don't Follow Them exactly, Ebay will refuse a Refund even if you never got the Goods. Sellers can Refuse to Cancel A Sale is what caught us out & we refused the Parcel as it usually meant it was Returned & you got a Refund without having to book Couriers etc. Will Ebay do anything about you not getting an item back that you sent to a seller. What Do You Think. If the Sale is 'Over A Certain Amount' you can use Banks or Credit Cards to Report Fraud, but 'Under' means they'll not do anything.


July 2026 Blog

Restoring Hi-Fi On Tne Cheap!
You Can Do It Too. Vintage Hifi, as in pre 1984 meani g Over 40 Years Old, does sell well. From What We See, not including our Upgraded Recapping Rebuilds. A lot of the Overpriced Gear sits for Years & never reduced, it's not really for Sale if there's no Attempts To Sell. Hifi we had in the Early 1990s is now Over 30 Years Older which isn't always realised. Hifi Bought in 2000 as New is now 24 years old. Based on the Fact Modern Electronics soon be come E-Waste, look at the amount of Faulty AV Amps out there, once £500 now Worthless unless you need a front panel part, they aren'r Repairable. Older Gear pre 1977, by 1979 the Build Quality got more & more cheaply made, just look how Fine the Board Track is, try soldering that once to Unsolder & then Resolder, it may not let you. Vintage Pre 1977 gear is better made & goimg back into the Mid 1960s, a lot of it is Forever Repairable as Parts can still be Bought & For Transistors, beyond V-FETs & Custom Ones, many Equivalents exist, if finding which is a Dark Art, just like Fault Finding is. Buy Yourself A Good But Very Old Amplifier. Transistors or Valves. UK Valve amps from Leak to Lowther to Radford are Popular. They are Quite Simple inside. What most do is Recap them Like-For-Like. This means seeing a 0.05µf Capacitor & replacing it with a similar type 0.047µf one in the current range of Values. No thought to What It Does & probably for the Best as Upgrading can bring Big Problems as you can make one section 'too good' yet leave other sections still Like-For-Like. The Multi Capacitor Cans in Valve Amps can be hard going, there are ones with 2, 3 or 4 if we've just seen one with 5. Generally the Like-For-Like Recapper will just leave them alone if they Hold Voltage & aren't leaky. Some Age Badly if our 1962 Lux(man) has Capacitors that read good if how long they'll last is another thing. Valve Amp users don't use them as "Use Daily" as they don't trust them enough. To get an old Valve Amp Working to be Useable is Good to Some if not to Others, such as Us, to go over Old Work & not know What Is What on a Rat's Nest Valve Receiver lower insides can be more of a Job. People have Good intentions, using a Modern 1000µf 50v capacitor when a 1967 one is much larger, the rather amusing efforts we've seen by the Like-For-Likers. They are keeping Hifi alive, but it'll Not Impress Them. Most Like-For-Like Rebuilds Get Sold On. The New Brighter Sounding Capacitors have lost the Old Wallowy Duller Sound & now the Amp os too Trebly with Bass no Good. To Redo an Amp Prperly Needs Redesign, not just following The Rules as the Designer built the Amp too, under a Budget & often not using Optimal Ideas. These Ideas we've put into Amps, but it can Take Years to send an amp onto Fully Optimised Territory, if it can even take it. On ebay, you rarely see Inside Photos of whatever Work has been done, to see Decent Amps not done very well & a lazy Part Recap wonders why they only part did it. Forum Advice is usually why. What's Going To Happen To Vintage Hifi? Like asking if Million Dollar 1960s Classic Cars will stil make that money in 20 years when the Buyers who had them New or it was Dad's Car aren't paying the Big Bucks. To look at the Endless TV Antiques Shows, Shops full of Outdated Items, who wants them? To see 'American Pickers' with Guys 70-90 with rooms full of Great Coolo Vintage Signs, Cars, Bikes & more. There will inevitably be a time when Too Much is for Sale & not enough Buyers. Some Great Stuff will fall by the Wayside as there's not the interest. On TV to see High Quality Georgian Corner Cabinets once £300-£500 as Much Wanted in the Mid-Late 1980-s, like the Bureau-Bookcase was, but now they can make Under £50, but notice They Do Sell that cheap, hopefully not to be Painted White. Vintage Hifi will slowly Age until it's not reliable. Early 1970s Hifi we get needs a Full Rebuild, it can be Borderline Useable, but for the Want of Use Daily, to fully recap including the large Expensive Capacitors, just as with a Sony TA-1130 from 1972, they are likely 53 years old. They might be Dry & Crusty inside, or they might be still Fres smelling, but only known by cutting open. To see Vintage Radios on 'American Pickers, these are already far too old, but ones that are Stylish stil make Good Prices working, restored or not. Considering most Radios from Portables to Floor Standing Consoles are not much to look at, the Smart Lookers is a small market. They will become Ornaments & as one 'AP' guy said about Radios, if he wanted to Listen to Rafio, go buy a new on. Simplistic because Own an Old Radio, you'd like to Hear it. But Always the Limit is Cost. Those doing Like-For-Like rebuilds on't keep them, they'll not bother doung another one. But look at Us, we keep gettig Grear 1960s Amps to Rebuild, initially fr Our Interest & Write-Ups. Doing Redesign & more Extreme Upgrades with Recapping, to find some Awesome Sounding Amps. The 1963-69 era has some wonderful amps, plus a lot of junk too & not always the Budget items sold as lower level items.

1969 Sansui In USA Military Base Exchanges.
The Vietnam War ran 1955-75 which is a lot longer than TV gives the idea, more 1965-70 from what you hear. Plenty Online about that. There were USA Miltary Bases, Army & Navy stores where Military Folk could buy gifts to Send Back Home. For some Reason, Sansui were way more popular & made many Models Valve & Transistor, of varying quality frm Best to Budget. We had a Sansui 3000A with a Military Shop sticker on the rear & there will have been Good Trade in Sales as Gifts. The Budget Gear seems to let the Brand Down. The Big Sellers were selling large amounts n the Day for Sansui to have made so many Versions of the 1964 Sansui 1000A that was still in a 1969 Brochure. HFE has the 1969 one with a Military edge to it & interestingly it gives prices. The Wooden Cases that add to certain models were all $11.95 each. The Military Prices seem lower than UK prices, the APO Address could be in several countries, the fact USA $ prices says they come from USA stocks. UK Prices are in our HFYB pages @List Of Amplifiers/Receivers'. Shop prices slightly vary if seeing one Shop 'F. Cave' in Ag 1969 offering some as a compare. 1969 List has Power Ratings as 'Music Power' as do the USA Sansui ads, if UK shops are putting more honest RMS ratings, if still 48w/48w meaning 48w one channel playing, hen 45w Both Channels, 1969 List still has Valve items. 1000A 50w/50w 51lbs (boxed) for $147 & the 500A 25w/25w 46lb $120. Knowing both 1000A & 500A, they are worlds apart in quality,, if weight & price not so far. UK prices appear in the 1970 HFYB but these two no longer made so the 1969 listing is 'end of range'. Prices in UK not known therefore, if HFN adverts will list hem. 1969 HFN ad has '2000' at £154 Discounted to £137, the Military price is $147. The '5000' is £198 discounted to £174 the Military price is $195. This shows the Mark-Up on USA prices for Importing, exact $ to GBP in 1969 can be found online, an idea £1 was $2.40 in 1969 so the UK price of the '5000' was £81 made into £174 by Importing. This makes Imported Hifi expensive in The Day as was UK gear sold in USA.

Farnell Show Our Regular Panasonic Capacitors as "No Longer Manufactured".
Also to see "Until Stocks Last". This is Tragic, the Amount of Panasonic small Capacitors & Medium-Larger Can Capacitors in the EEUFC range. The larger Can ones faded away nearly 10 years ago as did most of the Red Fil small under 0.1µf not much after. To buy an amount that Lasts but to be Running Low to Order More but find you can't. Panasonic make Surface Mount ones far more, but we don't want those. These can be Dry Capacitors not the "Old Style" Electrolytics that Age. We want the 'Through Hole' ones that are getting more & more Vintage & Panasonic don't want to make small amounts. You can order 4000 of them & they'll knock up a Batch for you. No Doubt Ebay won't have them & few carry stock as most ebay Electronics components just buy from Farnell or RS & make a big mark up. We've used the Panasonic EEUFC (once FC) capacitors since the early 200s, but Time Moves on. 50v Capacitors aren't nade, but 63v versions are but only in more Standard types. Other Brands make Hifi Electrolytics if seems we need to research deeper to what can be Bought & hope they stay available. There are other Brands like Nichicon, United Chemi-Con plus the Brands that make the larger Can Capacitors. Hifi is only Kept Alive by Parts Available & to lose the Panasobic which have been generally Hard To Buy in the last few years, what to do? Looking at the Yellow Vishay Capacitors we use in Valve amps, they are also 'No Longer Made'. Again Tragic, we've bought these since the late 1990s before Vishay bought out Philips who used to make these. We only bought some for the 1965 Pioneer ER-420 in late 2020. The Cost Cutting to chop out lower volume sale items is already getting Difficult to keep to a High quality. At this Rate, you'll only have Made In China rubbish capacitors to buy. But Look Again A Few Days Later. They are all Back & In Stock. the Yellow Vishays too, the Panasonic EEUFC. THis looks like a Computer error as they usually have loads to buy. But it does show that the Capacitor World id forever changing. It seemed Insane they could stop making certain items, but seeing many Panasonic ranges disappear. Panasonic way from the Heights of the DVD & TV era of the late 1990s to late 2000s.

1971 Hitachi IA-1000 Amplifier: Our 2015 One Returns.
Got this in 2015 & our Reviews show we got the 1971 Hitachi SR-1100 receiver in 2013. As with Most Brands, the Quality varies, these 1971 ones are Quality as are the ones Hitachi made for Realistic, as in our reviews, 1972 Realistic STA-220 & STA-150. This one needed some work so we got it back. For one quite Early in our Upgrades, we'd done quite a lot to this. It had limiting Resistors & other Dumbing Down as it was Too Good to sell an Amp like that & we've found others 1969-72 that were deliberately Dumbed Down similarly, not to make Customers never want to buy anything New Again. Actually the Dumbing Down goes back to the First Transistor Amps from 1966, the few from 1965 still were designed like Valve Amps. Be sure many complained of Rumbly Turntables so the awful 'T' Bass Filter is in many amps, deliberately steeply reducing Bass together with the equally awful 'Reyro Bass' that tried to give Bass to suit Cheaper Speakers. All 'Rubbish Design' we look for to Undo, some of it is so hidden, you'd never question it. How Does An Amp Age Over 9 Years? We use Best quality Capacitors, no issues there. Assume it's had Use as a bag of Spare & Used Meter Bulns on the back, we pit the Non-Flickery LED ones in that look smart. The issue was the Three Plug In Boards, they need a lottle help to grip tighter & it's as reliable again after Hours Running In. Would We Want It Back? As with anything Better, to see it again, you'd like one. But we're more into Receivers as the Aug 2024 test shows, the Amp like the 1971 Sony TA-1130 wouldn't get used however good it sounded, as proved by Selling the 1971 Sony Pair Ta-2000F-TA-3200F. Good to see what we did 9 years ago & play it to hear what we've found in Designs since. Our Notes show things that we hadn't worked out in 2015 & oddly only encountered them again more recently. To see why more Hitach we've had if not wanting the later 1970s ones which are more Mass Market than the more Specialist early ones. On our 2015 notes, we put "One Of The Best" & on our Reviews page to list in Order all Amps & Receivers we've got, to see we didn't find ones as good as the Hitachi until the Realistic-Hitachi ones. Soon after getting more into the 1965-67 era only brought this quality again. Do remember seeing an IA-1000 n ebay before this one, home made Wood sides was offputting & not in great condition. The SR-1100 & SR-800 are a bit rare to find if the IA-1000 a bit rarer. Explains why Hitachi went to Custom building for Realistic & only back as a Hifi Brand in later years. Low Sales. Circuit Errors. The earlier .pdf manual wasn't very clear & the 'improved' one isn't much better. To see around the Low Filter & Pre-Out/Main In there are Circuit errors not explaining where switches are or connect. Does it have a 'T' Bass Filter or is that the Low Filter? The board under the top row of controls doesn't match on at least two. To take it apart to see better is Hours work. Sometimes best to leave things be as it sounds Great still. Circuit Errors aren't so rare but the time to make sense of things is hard going& to need to know Design to correct 'The Experts' is what it takes.

Amps We See: 1969-70 Sansui 5000A Receiver. 
A No-Brainer to buy at £200 you'd think. But it's missing the Tuner Knob which is a Black one, not Silver as our 5000X pjhotos show. It lacks a Tape Monitor Button missing the Black cap & the 'stalk' of the Push Button is missing too. Not got any of the Buttons if the broken switch post could be replaced. No Wood Case if UK buyers rarely went for them. Decided it wasn't for us for not having the right bits which can put buyers off. It Sold within a few hours, not even wasting time on an Offer. The Sansui 5000 range, 5000 5000A & 5000X from 1968-1970 probably only differ for Tuners as Technology changed a lot as with Pioneer of the era. Decent Amps, not the Best of Sansui. They hve the Aux Into Phono which is a lazy idea. Very Small Power Amps on these, but ignore the incorrect Forum scarng of years ago about Diodes. The 5000 range follows the Sansui 4000 & aren't easy ones to find in the UK at 55w, they were aheard of British Buyers still. Hopefuly the Buyer will have Good Use of it, the stated 'recapped' without any photos, this puts us off not having Amps original as usually they only buy the cheap ebay 'junk' capacitors. The FM said to work only very quietly is at least it workimg, but another job. Six Strikes. No Wood Case, Two Buttons Missing, One Push button assembly to replace. FM needed work & Someone else's idea of Recapping do add up to Six Strikes. We have had the 5000X as reviewed. surprisingly as long ago as 2014. It's an Amp to Buy, Rebuild with Upgrades & Sell On. The missing bits could make getting a good price not so easy. Even if they were on USA ebay, the parts & delivery could set you back £60 delivered, to take into consideration. £60 of parts on this would be worthwhile. Looking on ebay just to see, ones parted out with parts that would likely not be needed, the bits that can fall off could have sold years ago.

August 2026 Blog

Amps We See: 1976 Sansui 771 Receiver. 
This later range you only see the very low power versions, the 771 is rated only 32w but 40w at 1kHz shows Bass bis ver limited, as is typical of most amps. Decent looking amp, £200 is at the higher end of Pricing based on the £40 these amps used to be 10 years ago, the Perils of telling people How Good Vintage is & up go the prices as gear just ages more. See some styling follows earlier models. Aux into Tone Stage, finaally losing that awful 'Aux into Phono' idea. All Transistors, design looks good, has a Relay as now a Differential Design. Ticks quite a few boxes & the Amp is in nice condition. To look online to see The Insides, it's typical of 1973, messy like the Sony STR-7000 range. Power Amp boards are still tiny, under a strange cover to keep the dust out or add to the Heatsink. It's a £200 buy. It interwsted, we considered it but the Build Quality doesn't make us Want It. After all, Amps we buy Interest Us First, to just Buy to Do Up & Sell when great amps aren't selling means one to leave. It'll be as good as the 1970 Sansui 350A we liked & has a better Tuner by the size of the Board. Whoever buys it will get a Quality Amp. These of this Era are often so Heavily Tames, hiding a Quality Amp by Penny Pincking, in the way a recent revisit of a 1973 Akai AA-8080 seemed. Looking at HFE, owners like it. Seeing comments about 'Great Bass' we see it's got that 'Retro Bass' that Unawares think is Real Deep Bass that few Amps past 1966 can do even much upgraded. Perhaps we know Design Too well. Another Look. The trouble with online pics is too small or not easily zoomable. One bigger Photo of insides on Google has Messy Wires all over it, like the Sony STR-7000 series as said. But they are the person's Test wires, for those who on;y redo bits, what that tells them, who knows? The Power amp still with the 1966 era TO1 transistors, the first Silicon ones in TO1 cans. One power amp board with half not showing. Power Amp is a plug-in board unlike earlier 1970s Sansui. Uses the typical Sony drivers so betters the Sansui 5000 range above. Design is still much like any 1971-73 design. Nothing too special but a Decent Amp worth having for a Buyer, if it is now 51 years old. Looking At The Sansui 881 seeig this one is Decent, the 881 is rated 60w in a different way to the 771 which is 40w to us. But the Horror of ICs hits hard. Sadly ICs were seen as 'Bretter' when the nasty things jjust Ruin audio. 881 has 'BA312' ICs for Phono, Mic, Tone-Pre if the Power Amp is all Transistors. Lower models in this 'xx1' are probably ICs too. "551" Phono is ICs, rest not. "661" is all Transistors. "441" is not good, IC Phono but the pitiful STK block as a Power amp means we'll not look at the "221" or "331". Only "661" & "771" are better designs. As on our Receivers page for 1977 Sansui 221 30w music power 10w £96, 331 40w music power 12w £106, 551 50w music power 15w £139, 661 75w music power = only 20w RMS beware dishonest MP ratings, 771 32w RMS £221, 881 60w RMS £286: , 8080 80w RMS £362, 9090 110w RMS £398. These "xx1" models appear late in HFYB, may be 1975-76 range based on a 1973 catalog on HFE, need the HFN magazines to see more. By 1979 Sansui onto the "G" ranges, more cheaply made but not bad sounding. By 1981 more modest ranges as suited the post "Monster Receiver" era which UK didn't take to. Sansui a long runnimg company, peaks & so-so gear if th1984 Sansui AU-G90X carried forward from earlier designs as it's a Bridfged design. "77!" possibly the Last of the more Classic Era. Not many viwers of the 771 as the range is mostly low power, we suspect 771 is a Sleeper & for 1975-76 it's in the league of a 1975 Nikko receiver still using good design. The Date Confuses. Serial number of 9 digits, 3rd is year (1970s) & 3rd-4th is Month so June 1976 so we'll call it 1976. Then look again inside knowing 1976. Still has 'proper' TO£ outputs, not this annoying-obsolete smaller ones. Vinyl Wrap lessens it a bit, it splits on the top grille a bit. Some models have a bigger wood case, maybe USA only like the Yamaha CR-2020 one we had, importing just the case. Lots of "771" on Google show it sold well, maybe not in UK so much. These Blogs are often us workimng Amps out if they interest, this seems to. Ebay Prices. Looking at Sold Original grade ones they are going around £400 on two in USA in the slim case. Shows it is a 'Sleeper Amp' with a following, probably way ahead of the usual 1976 gear. So we buy it. That's how we research & decide on amps. Overall with this one there's an earner in it to sell Rebuilt.

Pioneer 4mm Speaker Sockets Instead Of Those 1966-73 Plugs.
For Speaker connecvtions, Pioneer in 1966 on the Pioneer SX-1000TA that we have, introduced those Speaker Plugs. They are often hopeless as even light wire pulls the plugs out. You're supposed to git Fork "Y" ebds to thin cables. For our Pioneer Scx-2500 we devised a very neat way of using 4mm Plugs in the Pioneer Blocks. See Here fot the Info we put on our Sales Page, just scroll down two small sections. To see this linked image shows a 2020 design by us. Be sure some will have tried to copy this & broken the Sockets. They are made by Hand & take a few hours. Not had anyone ask for these & would they Supply the Part Pay for a few hours work? The Plugs are probably as 'unliked' as other awkward fittings like small screws, DIN sockets & even the spring connectors that only take small wires. The 1966 Pioneer SX-1000TA we don't play as the Speaker Connectors are awkward to use & maybe why it's not selling despite sounding so great, it's a Quirky slightly Crude build like other 1966-67 Pionee are. The SX-1000TA needs the 4mm sockets, to make a set, one pair only needed,. only the third we've made needs doing. If the amp goes for sale again, the price will include the Cost of the Sockets. worth £100 to you? Pioneer used these until aboit 1972-73 before changing to Spring Connectors. The 4mm Sockets only really cme in by the Early 1990, even ones like the 1984 Sansui AU-G90 had 4mm looking ones but they weren't & fitting 4mm ones was very tricky on what's there. Still, if Things Were Easy, Everyone Would Be Doing It. Could We Make A Pair of Four Sockets In Five Minutes? Always the question. With Tools & Skills in a workshop, you'd still Break Them using Power Tools. The VOSO parts do vary in quality too. Like anything, the R&D plus Tooling is the thing. Someone might be better remoulding the centre part & making the metal bits which is possibly a 3D Scanner thing. The Oppotyunity is there... Until Then we can only Offer This as a Custom Job with Your Amp Here. You can't ask Non-Tech types to remove the Socket & Refit it without Shorting. We can't guarantee all Sockets are workable our way either. Great Solution though.

The Woes Of Comparing Amplifiers.
If you have just One Amplifier or Receiver, it's the One You Know & you can be pleased with it for years. To get to hear the 2015-sold Hitachi IA-1000 from 1971 just recently. It needed some work, if the Plug In Boards aged a bit. The rest was fine & even the Adjustments were still right whic shows we use Quality Parts & it shows us they age well to bot really age at all which is Encouragibg. Our Opinion hearing it again was it had a great sound, a bit Upfront & the Bass wasn't as Deep as it could be. To see Board Errors & not really understand the Filter Circuits as what the schematic diagram showed the actual Board differed. If the Customer likes the sound then leave it be, never to Experiment on Customer#s Amps. But hearing that & their possible interest got us playing the Tuners Test on the Aug 2024 Blog. Having got the 1964 Sansui 1000A 40w Valve Receiver & unusually being able to play it on Headphones after a few replacements gets us o hear what the Designers offered in 1964. Since then, swappng around Receivers on the Tannoys forever changes opinion. Some we didn't use for long, others like the KR-6170 & SX-1000TA that were for sale & remarkavly being ignored are now being Kept which allows thinning out of the others as 3 Amps in has to equal 1 or 2 out. Opinions on amps forever change, one in particular, the 1965 Sansui TR-707A hasn't been played in a whle & not altered either in a while. To find it Too Bassy is more as Tone gives more gain, so don't overdo Tone. From last playing it & not liking it so much, it now matches more with the 1964 Sansui 1000A which isn't too surprising as both look similar even. TR-707A has had deeper Upgrades & Redesign to now suit the 1000A better. It's All In Your Head. It's not the Amps changing, it's your Opinion & use of Tone plus comparing to others. All Amps vary Tonally, even if Recapped & Upgraded by the same person. With Comparing the 11 Receivers based on Tuner it gave a different aspect. Opinions will Forever Change, not so much as in Better but Different. As long as an Amp makes you Happy to listen to it, then it's a Great One with others Great too but Different as the Many Tastes of Food can please but Eat The Same Thing too ofen you get Bored of it & want to try something Different. Swap Your Amps around but to be careful Not To Sell ones that gave Pleasure as they could do again. There are many Good Amps but not so many Great Ones. Our Ratings keep it sensible as "Excellent" has Qualities we like, but Just Scrapes Excellent to High Excellent is what "Excellent" can be.

Risking Using a 1964 Valve Receiver: Sansui 1000A
Using Any Vintage Receiver can be a Risk, even 1990s Amps with Bad Capacitors that were in Computer Motherboard. They Exploded & can't really be fixed too well on Surface Mount Items. Baby Goes Boom' Turn on the Sansui, not tried it since the Tuners compare 6 days ago. It worked fine then. To actually try Hifi as original to hear what it's like & how a 1964-65 Buyer would hear it & the Sansui sounded surprisingly Great after a few replacements, not upgrading anything yet. But it goes Bang! like a loud Cap Gun & smoke from underneat. Base off to see a Splat! on the inside of the Base lid. But where is it? A Capacitor that goes Bang has got very Hot so you'll see a Capacitor looking Shredded & debris. "Oh it's that one" & we'll not Risk using the amp again until Recapped as t's Had Two Bads now, Nothing Damaged beyond that, the Capacitor over one of the Main Diodes, the Diode tested good so it could be used again. Any of these Electrolytic Capacitors can fail & looking like it's not been used maybe 20-40 years, it'll be a Progression of Failing capacitors, there is already a small Hum on the Right Channel. We've played it enough to Understand It & to hear the 1964 spec. A 60 year old Valve Amp running towards 500v is really not for Playing Around with, having it on the Plug Circuit Breaker plus the Box by the Front Door, it's Circuit Breaker is even faster we've found. No Breakers Tripped. Not Just Valve Amplifiers. Transistor Amps have Mains Capacitors to Stop Switch Clicks, these often fail by Swelling Up & Breakinmg Aart, Going Bang or Billowing Smoke Out. This is often what gets an Amp binned or put in the Attic, users don't know what it is & won't trust it. It's A Cautionary Tale to us, don't try it as Original for Too Long. Some of these Mains Capacitors are Always Connected On The Live Mains, connected Live to Neutral etc.

Computer Printers Don't Last Forever. New Wi-Fi Ones Are Hard Work.
We've only used our Printing out B&W for Record Orders & Courier-Postage Labels. Easy Life. Used to print out lots of Colour Photos back in the 2007 era & gpot through a few of those. The messy Inkjet Cartrides printing via their own Inkjets, not the better 'Direct from Cartridge' type. HP Deskjet 1000 seens we bought in Jan 2013 so 11.5 years use is typical for Today's Gear, all cheaply made with Built In Obsolescence as is standard. Tech Moves On so the Cheapest HP is some Wi-Fi set up thing, others on Amazon say it's good if some do have difficulties, but bear in mind this is Mass Market Gear selling Thousands. Try an Epson Printer this time Epson Expression XP-2200, a HP Deskjet 2801E looks much the same as the 1000 model, if to try Epson as the HP had been printing 'Not Very Well' for a while, the Basic Greyscale wasn't printing fully if better, not perfect, as Standard Mode, which uses Ink Needlessly. It prints with "Micro Piezo" technology, as long as it's a Cartridge you plug in, it'll do. Ink in New Printers is a small amount compared to the ones you Overpay For. '604' Ink Cartridges made by several & away from the insane £25-£30 the Cartridges the HP used. These cheaper ones aren't Epson masde, if again, they work fine on B&W general printing, they'll do. To get the Printer first. What Went Wromg With The HP? Beyond the poor printing, it worked fine last use printing several items. This time the button pressed does nothing. Power Pack reads 29v rated as 30v so that was not the problem. Take severa screws off, some awkward as always & see the Voltage Input board. One of the Coils Smoked a bit when plugged in. Nothing to see & nothing to do on tiny Surface Mount gear & impossible evn to Recap of these weren't swollen. Do they Program in a "Failure Mode" after a certain amount of use? Manufacturers are So Cynical to get you to Buy New, who knows? Epson Expression XP-2200 Arriving. Next Day Delivery by Amazon is Hrlpful. Read the .pdfs that Amazon link to, Click To Set Up apears deceptively easy. It's as Printer with a A4 Scanner with the typical Glass Window. Rest doesn't tell much at this stage. Printer Arrives. Within One Minute of typing the above, it arrives, cool. We're Not Reading Anything & just as well as it Tells You Little. This Wi-Fi Printer is for Modern Recent Phones & I-pads. The Software is only for these, beware it'll Not Work.Takes us 3 Hours to get it Printing Ouit. To Cut a Very Long tory short, go to the Epson site, Download the Drivers for your PC Desktop Computer that are not mentioned or linked to. Clearly the Epson Audience buy each New I-Phone "as you're supposed to". Set Up WPS by pressig the Router Buttyon & the WEiFi button on the Printer, it won't show up the Printer on the Wireless Networks unless you set it differently. Install Drivers, it takes many tries as it won't fully download. Once it appears to Work, it won't. We ran the 'Connection Checker' on the Stat Menu progrms, said it worked but it didn't. Reboot Computr, run that again & it finds an Error & Corrects it. Now iot Prnts. Three Hours later, this Blog much edited. Clearly Epson haven't used this 2022 item on older W10 Desktop PCs that are a few years old. Why can't they gibve an optin to use an USB Cable, the Square USB at the back is only for the Scanner matching the Shape as Epson Scanners have. You Can See Amazon Reviews have had the Same Issues & given up, we stick with Stupid Problems until we solve it as with Hifi, else youy'd just end up smashing everything up. Item itself = Great Value for £49 delivered, but Softare & No Explanation about going to Epson Site for Drivers, if one Amazon Review told of Downloads so we looked. 0/10 for older users with older computers, if fine once sorted. If it took us 3 Hours, imagine the frustratin of less tech sorts. Without Wires, to put the Printer right in front of you on the Desk, use & put bak where the last printer stood, no need to forever get up to print ebay Post Labels. Beware The Stupid Will Get You Again. Trying to do ebay labels as cheaply as possible. New Printer. Inks that are 'Compatible' but will they work or is it Expensive Epson ink. The most Illoghical one os the 4x6 Printer Labels. We had some A4 sticker labels from years ago & have been cutting these to size, not he most neat but unimprtant. The USa-Custome ones prints the whole sheet so what do others do? 4x6 stickers are only Thermal ones & making you pay £150 for the Printer. Thermal Paper is like Fax Paper of Old & fades or darkens, it's a coated paper & not for Inkjet type printets. Such Genuis Involved these days, lilke it's always the Least Intelligent in Control, new PM proves it. Manic Yelling at the Annoyance is often these days, if it gets solutions. Just buy more A4 stickers, be sure to load them with the peel lines upwards & just be happy that you escape more of Today's Stupidity. Second Use of the Printer you'd think would be easy & instant, as if. Needs to run the Connectivity 'App'. They really do want you to Smash things up & buy another, don't fall for it.

September 2026 Blog

1975 Luxman R1500 75w Receiver.
This is a Model before the better selling 1978 R1000 range such as R1040 & R1050 we've had. Previous receiver Luxman RQ-900 we've had. This is a Rare One & to see one Sept 2024, time to look deeper. Seller wants over £1000 for it. Sadly much Hifi is way overpriced & can sit for Years with prices never altered & you just get Ignored if you ask them for a better price. These are Raw Aged Am,ps, not ones with Hours of Work rebuilding & New Parts. It's how some sellers are & wait a while until one prced more realistically arrives. Hifi Shark site shows one Forever Relisted & ones in less typical countries. Seems €300 to €750 sales, so the UK one is Overpriced. Luxman are a Strange Brand, there is Quality there, but also to often find them Deliberately Limited to Not Sound Loud Enough, see our reviews, Got the Service Manual since 2014, not on our "Other Amps" page so one to Blog on. Photocopy Quality Manual & HFE has no better still. Circuits. Tuner has 3 ICs. Phono & Mic 3 Transistors per channel, Preamp-Tone is 2 sets of 2 Transistors with NFB, designs with Stepped Controls are complex & unusual. Power Amp Differential with an Unusual Driver Pair before thr P-P & Output Drivers. Two for Bias also. Runs on ±52v, 3 versions of the Power Supply for Regions, the UK-EU one without Regulators or extra Diodes. Based on other Luxman of the era, like the R1050, it'll have a Good Sound but probably that usual Luxman lack of Volume. Smart looking amp, typical Rosewood case. A style a little like the 1975 Luxman L-100 amp we had, to find that Very Tame Sounding, but that was here in 2012 as one of our first Bigger Buys in Amps. It'd be Good to Hear this Quality Amp, but to forever be looking at Upgrades. Try Find One. £1000 is too high, but £500 sounds like a good price.

Try An Armstrong Germanium 421 Amplifier?
This short lived 400 range from 1967-68 is Stylish looking, a 25w amp. The Receiver version rarely seen & the Amplofier even harder to find. The 1968 updated Plain Looking 500 range is much the same. Sadly Armstrong were Budget Gear & a Valve Amp we had early on we found Rather Poor if to be fair, their 700 range into 1973 was better Electrnically but the Cheap Plastic Casing wasn't great. The Germanium Amp is those 'Tin Whiskers' type UK Germaniums, often Mullard ones. They grow Metal Strands that Short Out the Transistor inside because the Seal on the Transistor Case eithr wasn't made right or it lets in Air to age it. Metal Oxidised & sometimes Steel can turn Dusty which is a similar thing. Lack of Quality. If we did get an Armstrong 400 series, to see all the aged Capacitors to replace, the Transistors will all be Poor Germaniums & we had a 500 series amp before, it sounded terrible from how the Transistors age, a strange Surreal Limited Frequency range Heavily Retro sound. People still buy Atmstrong gear, it doesn't make much & for £89 the '421' amp needs a Full Rebuilt, Upgrade & Redesign. It might turn out rather well, after all Armstrong did sell well & were good with Customrs willingly repairing Faults as HFN Mag tells. HFE site only has partial info on Circuit Diagrams, we have found more info from other sites, if it's not done neatly to be easy to use, as in Components Numbered but not given Valves. There would need to be Work Done to create a Good Schematic. In Terms of it being 25w & a Huge Amount of Work to basically Redesign the thing, it'd way outprice any Sell Price. Unlikely you'd get £300 for a Fully Redone one let alone covering What It'd Cost. You could put 20 Hours into it easily & at £50 an Hour for Skilled Labour plus Parts it's best left alone. The Seller says they Bought it to Rebuild, but they saw it wasn't worth the effort, hoping to make a Profit on it is very optimistic. The World of Hifi hoping to do Quick Jobs to 1960s Amps is a World that Doesn't Exist.

To See Much Hi-Fi & Electronics Is Just E-Waste.
The Cheaply Made Construction & Proliferation of Surface Mount 'Technology' means that Much Today Is Unrepairable. Some things you can get Repaired like Broken Glass on Phones, why is it still Glass we wonder. 5-10 years use or less if it gets Heavy Use means it's Unrepairable E-Waste. Our 11 year old Broken printer may provide Parts to a real Bottom Feeder- Rubbish Tip Scratcher, if how Cheap they are New, why Bother? The 'Running Joke' looking at ebay is seeing Once-Expensive Multi-Channel receivers offered for a tiny amount hoping someone will need a part, as in you smashed the Front Panel or lost a Control Knob. In their Lifetime they'll have just sat unmoved beyond Moving Home so there is No Demand. The "Unrepairability" in Electronics has always been there especialy at the Budget end. Use it, Bin it, Buy a New One has been in Hifi since about 1968 with Hifi News Magazine ads offering the Cheapest Nastiest 5w 'Stereos'. These will have been Thrown Out Years Ago. The Side Effect Is Repairing Things Is Becoming Rarer. Cars of today are Much Plastic & Plug-In Diagnostics. Parts are Very Expensive if even Buyable & the Old Days of Buying Parts is getting lesser. Even 'Wheeler Dealers' from 10+ years ago tells of Parts they can't buy if the Reconditioned & Seconhand Spares market helps often. The Person Buying Expensive Items is often No Better Off as Overcomplex items break down & can't be Repaired.

A Rebuilt 1956 Quad II Amplifier.
We had a Quad Set of Tuners, Pre & Power Amps about 2002 together with two White Oil Garrard 301s. Kept one of the 301a finding it better than the Grey Grease one which 'Damped' the Sound a bit much, Oil has less drag. Heard of Quads being Rebuilt over the years, our 2002 was exceptionally clean & we put certain Voltages read to show ow Good It Was. We got the Best Price for the set, £1600, that it took many years for any other seller to get near & still can't. Selec45rpm leads the way. Sep 2024 Ebay one. This s just One Quad II power amp, it's got marks on the casing & we've seen these Repainted looking good as they picked the right colours. Here a Tech spoken of as "Second To None" had Rebuilt it, as in New Capacitors & Valves. Is It Worth £1000, who would want just One is the thing. They've found a Multican Capacitor to replace the old Block one, Guitar Valve Amps still use these. The thing with the Quad is it has a Valve Rectifier & you can only use Smaller Capacitor Values as the Rectifier Valve can't take more. Our 1932 Pye G/RG has low value 47µf Main Capacitors & other Radios or Radiograms with Valve Rectifiers we could only do similar. The Quad II relies on the 1.4v High Output from the rather Crude Preamps, with their Loud Clicky Buttons that need pressure to Use & send the Preamp sliding around. The Quad 'old man' idea of Building into Cabinets carried on in 1967 with the rather Ugly Quad 33/303. What's Not So Good is it still uses Parts they really should have Replaced, Resistors & rather tellingly they left the original "C5" 5µf 25v thin blue electrolytic which is a Critical Component yet they leave it there. Old Timer Techs have Book Smarts Ideas, following Safe Rules & Keeping Hifi sounding still as it was 40-70 years ago, the Quad II is a 1953 design. It's easy bto Criticise other people's work, best not to too much as they Are Keeping Hifi Alive, but really not doing it as we'd do it, possibly not the Best Amp to try to Upgrade. As the seller is being a little Smug with the comment yet showing an unchanged critical component, to mssage them gently saying the error. Will they Reply? "Second To None" means they say they are The Best Hifi Rebuilder. Are We? We show our work for you to Decide.The Price Paid decides How High Quality Rebulds are. Our new 1964 Sansui 1000A is strarting to get Rebuilt, hours & hours working things out & to Redesign to be like the 1965 Pioneer ER-420 is a Huge Job, taking a lot of Thinking & deciding what to do & to find Correct Parts to look right. Seller Replied berating our noticing. "Nothing Better To Do With Your Time? The Original C5s Work". To assume it was their work & they don't like being pulled up. We Look because We Want To See Others Work. Out 1964 Sansui 1000A apparently worked, within 3 mins the Ouput Anode of one Valve glowed red & next day after our Tuners tests one Capacitor went Bang. Nobody Taught Us Vintage Hifi, you don't find 'Tricks Of The Trade' told in Audio Repair books, it's Problem Solving.

A Cautionary Tale In Hi-Fi Working.
Be Sure that Anything that can go Wrong will. It's like there are Demons out to Annoy you at every stage in anything A Bit More Complex that you do. If it was Easy, Everyone Would Be Doing It. The Difference between a Pro Tech & A Newbe is the Newbie will get Upset far too soon & often smashes the thing up. Not the same as Realisting an Amp is a Waste of Time & you'd not be happy selling it, but have done too much & want your New Parts back. You hear Steve the Clocks Guy on 'The Repair Shop' say similar, it's the Bane of Trying to be Clever, the Demons will get you at every possible chance. Some things you can predict, so you have several of the same tool as be sure theyll go 'Missing' five minutes after you last used them.It went on The Floor, in an open drawer but never in The Bin as that's too Obvious, ages picking through a full bin to find nothing & even nothing you couldn't find before. One pair of Needle Nose pliers went missing o after a while just bought another plus another to not get annoyed when that goes missing, when will the first ones appear again? Boxes of Spare Parts, but where is the part, even after sorting pieces into 2L Ice Cream Tubs with lids, the part could be amid several as it's borderline the right category. Eventually to find the item as you knew you had it, but it's not quite right for the job. Dropping things on the Floor is so Regular, you look on the Floor & there it is. Feeling Better Now. One annoying one to get this Typed is a Spring that flies off on taking a front panel off. To see the Push Button go on the floor & the Spring too. Button found easily, but the Spring, can't find it. It's Springy so could have bounced anywhere. You can walk parts on your Footwear or Clothes into other Rooms & later find it in odd places because that's how it goes. The Spring was elusive for several hours, many places checked & the bin. Never found it, found some other Springs but not the right type. It's a thin spring so to look on the Floor yet again, because things Do Come Back even if you looked three times. The last place you look is where you'll find it. Already looked in the Desk Footwell as that's where the Button was, to decide to sit on the floor & look yet again, the Demons might have brought it back. Know what the Spring looks like as the Manual shows the exploded parts diagram & it's like other amps & be sure they pinged away if not to remember that from years ago. Roughly move the Desk Chair away & prepare to sit down but see something where the Chair Back was. Not in the Cushions, checked twice already, but there's The Spring. It wasn't there several times before. It wasn't damaged so not caught up in the wheels. Look at the chair legs, they have a recessed groove on the leg tops. The Spring landed there & only moving the chair more strongly, the Spring fell off the Leg & on the floor to be easlly seen. You Do have to Think Outside The Factory the Box was made in with Hifi Working, but this sort of 'Stupid' happens a lot. Thats what happens when you try to do more Advanced things. Keep Thinking of ways to avoid it. Another one with Spare Parts is you'll find 3 of 4 screws needed, you threw away that part many times before thinking you'll never need it & often the part can be on ebay but you spend ages looking for one. It is Often an Uphill Battle against things that are Illogical. Like learning Hifi Fault Finding & Hifi Design, to not be put off by 'Annoyances' else you'll never get anywhere. Getting Great Results & Sales is Your Reward for not giving up. Annoyances again with a Screw & Washer that came out of a supposedly sealed plastic bag. If it's in the Amp odds are it'll short something & damage it. Spent ages looking for it & not a thing. Actually found both weeks later on the floor, in a place checked several times before. Note the "Several Times Before" part. Yet another with a 0.5w Resistor pushed out of an Amp board save taking it all apart again. Know where it falls, go to get it with pliers as seeing it, but it slides away into oblivion. The fact a resistor has wire ends again means it could short. This is a real pain & what was planned didn't work out. Shake the amp about & actually hear it, but the noise stopped & no trace of it on the desk, or anywhere. The amp is basically 'Useless' as to turn it on is a big risk of it shorting. Looked everywhere & same places several times. Loads of checkimng the amp as it might be caught in wire runs. It probably was, but we didn't see it. An excuse to tidy up things like Desk Drawers that get full of tiny bits, not there. Tidy up more & look right where the Desk footwell is, that looks like a Resoistor. Sat on the floor with the Phone Torch to try find it, but Now It's There, right by where you'd put your feet. It's That Resistor, the same 15K one. The other one we already put in the bin not to double-get it. Must have been in the Wiring Looms which we'd ben moving around. This Always Happens. If you try to Do Something More Advanced, It'll Get You. There is No Escape from it, as any Tech using small parts or tools knows. Going Missing but turning up Somewhere Obvious, where it Wasn't Before seems to be the way. It's like a 1980s 'Twilight Zone' with the Blue Men creating The Scene for 2.21pm on a particular day. They made errors.The Trouble Is you can't clean up & Hoover-Dyson the floor until you find the piece, to be fully satisfied it's not inside the Amp ready to short it.