Vintage Receiver Opinions

hochpt21

I know, I know...but I got bit by the bug a little.

Also, I know that this is the wrong time to get bit by that bug.. Those prices are wowsa!!

However, let's see what we can do. For my second system I am looking to move to a vintage receiver. Here are some thoughts...

1) Pretty to look at (I'm a sucker for blue lights etc...)
2) Warm sound
3) Completely serviced/re-capped etc, and ready to roll (I am not up for any projects)

I just missed out on a Marantz 2270, and from my research that is the model I am leaning towards. I guess first question is, will the 2270 work with my SDA 2a's in a small room?

Otherwise, I am open to other options, but to be frank, I'm leaning towards the Marantz.

Budget is $800-ish. I know that's tough, but I've seen a few going in the $700-$900 range.

Let me know your thoughts!

Thanks,
Paul

tonyb

I have a Sansui 771 sitting here doing nothing. No blue lights but you could always change them out. Especially for the price difference....150 bucks for the Sansui vs 800 for the Marantz.

Mikey081057

I'm a vintage Marantz fan.... I have a 2252B and a 2385....

Both are very warm sounding and I would believe a 2270 would easily drive your 2A's
Plus IHO they have the warmest vintage look.

mhardy6647

Superscope-era Marantz equipment is way overpriced (IMO, of course -- I cannot say that's immutable fact, even if I think it is ). I think folks are smitten with the... umm... rather Rococo cosmetics. Personally, I am not crazy about the sound of most of it, either. The 2270 is one notable exception (probably most of the unsuffixed 22xx receivers, but my experience is limited with others).

Having said that -- then and now, dollar for dollar, I thought (and still feel, at least in terms of vintage stuff) that the best investment (if you actually intend to listen to it) is an integrated amplifier.

Finally -- and realizing it's probably not even worth the ATP I've got to hydrolyze to type this! -- if you want stuff from that era to actually listen to... umm... Yamaha.



Sorry, I realize there's zero information in my reply that every single denizen of the internet hasn't already seen me spew.

EDIT:

PS That Sansui 771 oughta be pretty pleasant to listen to. It's certainly attractive, and I can pretty much guarantee (based on experience with other Sansui components from the 1970s) that the tuner(s) -- FM and AM(?!?!) -- will be very, very good (as radios and even as audio sources).




source: https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2512697#Comment_2512697

hochpt21

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Superscope-era Marantz equipment is way overpriced (IMO, of course -- I cannot say that's immutable fact, even if I think it is ). I think folks are smitten with the... umm... rather Rococo cosmetics. Personally, I am not crazy about the sound of most of it, either. The 2270 is one notable exception (probably most of the unsuffixed 22xx receivers, but my experience is limited with others).

Having said that -- then and now, dollar for dollar, I thought (and still feel, at least in terms of vintage stuff) that the best investment (if you actually intend to listen to it) is an integrated amplifier.

Finally -- and realizing it's probably not even worth the ATP I've got to hydrolyze to type this! -- if you want stuff from that era to actually listen to... umm... Yamaha.



Sorry, I realize there's zero information in my reply that every single denizen of the internet hasn't already seen me spew.

EDIT:

PS That Sansui 771 oughta be pretty pleasant to listen to. It's certainly attractive, and I can pretty much guarantee (based on experience with other Sansui components from the 1970s) that the tuner(s) -- FM and AM(?!?!) -- will be very, very good (as radios and even as audio sources).




source: https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2512697#Comment_2512697

I agree that it is overpriced. Probably 5 years ago, there were completely rebuilt 2275's going for $700. Now it's darned near double that.

mhardy6647

I find most of the Superscope-era Marantz receivers to be (to me, that is, of course!) unacceptably grainy/gritty sounding -- typical "solid state sound" as those who don't like 'solid state sound' might refer to it.

The 2270 is an exception; those are pretty good -- but crazy 'spensive.

Try something like Yamaha's CR-800 (or CR-1000, if you can stomach the Disco-era cosmetics) -- or something like a Luxman R-1070 (which, and, FWIW, I find absolutely gorgeous). Those are 1970s Japanese receivers* that sound pretty darned good.

______
* note those three qualifiers

EDIT: I don't have an R-1070, but I do have an example of its smaller sibling, the R-1040 (40 wpc). Cosmetically of a piece with the aforementioned higher-powered Lux receiver and also quite nice, IMO.

DSC_5978 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Tony M

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I find most of the Superscope-era Marantz receivers to be (to me, that is, of course!) unacceptably grainy/gritty sounding -- typical "solid state sound" as those who don't like 'solid state sound' might refer to it.

The 2270 is an exception; those are pretty good -- but crazy 'spensive.

Try something like Yamaha's CR-800 (or CR-1000, if you can stomach the Disco-era cosmetics) -- or something like a Luxman R-1070 (which, and, FWIW, I find absolutely gorgeous). Those are 1970s Japanese receivers* that sound pretty darned good.

______
* note those three qualifiers

EDIT: I don't have an R-1070, but I do have an example of its smaller sibling, the R-1040 (40 wpc). Cosmetically of a piece with the Lux receiver and also quite nice, IMO.

DSC_5978 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Luxman...A Darn nice overlooked EXCELLENT sounding and powerful receiver. I had 2-R1030's years ago and HATED having to sell them. I think mine were rated for 30 watts but that rating was meaningless because of the power those things pushed to my speakers.

pitdogg2

SDA2a start at 4 ohm and drop pretty good be careful.

jdjohn

Don't forget to look for 42XX Marantz as well. Sometimes I regret letting these babies go from a while back :


https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2421752#Comment_2421752

hochpt21

pitdogg2 wrote: »

SDA2a start at 4 ohm and drop pretty good be careful.

Yea, that was part of my concern. It is a small room, and rarely do I go loud in there, but still wanted some opinions on that just to be safe.

mhardy6647

jdjohn wrote: »

Don't forget to look for 42XX Marantz as well. Sometimes I regret letting these babies go from a while back :


https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2421752#Comment_2421752

The quad Marantz are pretty pricey, too, though.
Quad hardware has a certain mystique in the current era that renders it... collectible.
But, I've gotta say -- if you want knobs and buttons, well, they've got 'em!

Scan_Pic0048 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Faustin

I have a beautiful Yamaha CR - 2020 listed for sale on my local Craigslist - Chicago. I had it gone through by Stereo Rehab in Chicago ( in my opinion the best in the Midwest. I have had Casper go through many, many pieces) to the tune of $270.00. Plug and play for $800.00. I am the second owner and it sadly gets little to no use. It looks and performs perfectly. PM if interested.

mhardy6647

re: ^^^

Semi-monstrous 1970s soiled state receivers by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

hochpt21

Faustin wrote: »

I have a beautiful Yamaha CR - 2020 listed for sale on my local Craigslist - Chicago. I had it gone through by Stereo Rehab in Chicago ( in my opinion the best in the Midwest. I have had Casper go through many, many pieces) to the tune of $270.00. Plug and play for $800.00. I am the second owner and it sadly gets little to no use. It looks and performs perfectly. PM if interested.

Thank you for the offer. Lots of good reviews on that one. It seems maybe the house sound is a little more clean and accurate, than warm and fuzzy? One guy compared the house sound of Marantz to a two martinis and Yamaha to a double espresso. Thought that was funny.

Faustin

^^^ Interesting description. I always liked the Yamaha receivers a bit better than Marantz. But everyone has their own taste.

mhardy6647

While fuzzy is a pretty apt description of the Superscope (Chatsworth, CA) Marantz sound (relative to my ears & tastes), I would never consider them warm. Brittle and icy are they -- again, to my ears and tastes.

The Yamahas sound (yet again, to my ears and tastes) good. Quite good. Simple as that.

Listen before you plunk down your lucre... or, buy whatever you can find/justify -- and resell anything you don't like. The market for the Japanese made Marantz stuff is very, very good (as we all know) and prices are high. Not likely to change until my generation is mostly in and past its dotage. You won't make a mistake buying Marantz from a mid-term financial perspective, that is fo' sho'.

That being said, be sure to buy from a trusted source (local, if at all possible) to minimize your risk.

Heck, I'd buy @Faustin's CR-2020, but I don't need two of 'em.



Oh, one final thought -- have you considered the Marantz Eighteen or Nineteen receiver(s), @hochpt21? Both are early Superscope-era (Saul sold out to Superscope in 1964, per Wiki-P), but were US-made and (it is widely believed) more of a piece with the "true" Marantz hardware. I have essentially no experience with either, myself (in full disclosure).



A fun stack of Marantz components from a 1966 catalog Too bad the preamp's a 7T and not a 7C, though.

That Sony 777 was, and is, a pretty darned nice reel to reel deck. Ahead of its time -- Sony made them for a long, long time.

hochpt21

Faustin wrote: »

^^^ Interesting description. I always liked the Yamaha receivers a bit better than Marantz. But everyone has their own taste.

I agree. From what I was reading (which was mostly regular peoples opinions on random forums) people preferred one over the other at a pretty even rate, and almost all said there were definitely differences.

I set up my main system (to my ears) to be pretty clean/accurate/forward, and I'm looking for the secondary system to be a bit the other way. I heard a Marantz 2235 (i think) a long time ago with higher sensitivity speakers and thought it sounded pretty magical. I bet that Yamaha sounds really good as well.

dhart86

Fisher 400...not the best looking, oh but the sound is killer!!!

mhardy6647

dhart86 wrote: »

Fisher 400...not the best looking, oh but the sound is killer!!!

That's a big 10-4... but cut from very different cloth than the 1970s ss receivers we've been chit-chatting about so far in this thread.

Heck, the 500C (photo below, with a Sansui 1000A) here even made my Cornwalls sound good.

PS The 400 and its kin are gorgeous in that 1960s Rat Pack/Sean Connery-as-James Bond/mid-Century modern way. At least, to me they are.

The 400, 500B/C, 800B/C units tend to be a little pricey nowadays, too.

DSC_9817 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

I don't actually have a 400, although I've rehabbed a couple for people.
They are nice, basic little receivers. Easy to work on and well worth the effort.
Actually, I do have one -- but it's a basket case and might not even be restoreable. At any rate, I've never tackled it.

My basket-case trio of Fishers...

Fisher1400 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

BlueBirdMusic

This Hitachi 7700 dual mono integrated amp (1979) is on Atlanta Craigslist for $200 (Mint).

I am somewhat interested but really don't need it. He is original owner and has KEF 101 vintage speakers from 1981 connected. The Hitachi was the first series of amps that used MOSFET.




https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/ele/d/duluth-hitachi-ha-7700-dual-mono-mosfet/6923584288.html

I explored the Hitachi 7700 a little and found this review from Feb 2018 as a "How does it sound today" article. Sounds like a good amp and buy for a second system. It weighs about 35 pounds.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/hitachi-ha-7700-amplifier

Mark do you have any experience with these?

mhardy6647

I remember that generation of Hitachi hardware (my parents had the entry-level receiver... all 15 wpc of it), but, no, I've never seen, nor heard, that particular amplifier. Sorry.

Looks good, although the price strikes me as a little high. This is not to say it's not worth that much... but the name recognition/cachet thing works against Hitachi the same way it works for Marantz Also, that amp dates from just past the classic era for massmarket Japanese hifi components in the US (which was driven at least as much by the economy and demographic changes for the boomers as it was by the quality of the hardware). I'd expect both to conspire against the market value of that amp, especially on a local venue (CL).

EDIT: It is probably a pretty decent amplifier -- forgot to mention that!

audioluvr

BlueBirdMusic wrote: »

This Hitachi 7700 dual mono integrated amp (1979) is on Atlanta Craigslist for $200 (Mint). The Hitachi was the first series of amps that used MOSFET.

My uncle had this unit with some Klipsch Cornwalls. From what I remember that combo was very musical. I remember being thoroughly impressed leading me to my first purchase of the Carver M500t, C2, DTL-100 and Polk SDA2B's.