Feedback on these Vintage Receivers

I agree with doro. Don't know much about the Lafayettes, I do remember them, and remember a lot of guys buying them back in the day. I see that that particular model is a bit of a power house at 100 watts/channel?

Lately, though, I've been researching a lot of the Pioneer SX series and have picked up one of the larger models. Very nice. The SX-525 is an 'early' SX at 17 watts x 2 RMS (enough juice if you have 'efficient' speakers. Here's a Pioneer resource site if you haven't found it yet.

http://www.silverpioneer.netfirms.com/500_series_receivers.htm

Those are 'great' prices if the units are in decent shape!! Don't see a lot of info on the TX-7100? 1973 or so?

cnh

The KLH 32 is a surprisingly musical and satisfying little loudspeaker...



-- there is a tweeter hiding behind that fiberglass "pad" :-)

cnh wrote: »

Mark H., a question. Why are the tweeters behind the damping material?

Thanks!

cnh

That was a Kloss thing wasn't it? I think he wanted to tame the highs so they limited the tweeter with stuffing material. Or was that another speaker?

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I reckon so - a handful of pink fiberglass was probably cheaper than the components and wire to build a fixed L-pad :-)

That pair of 32s in my previous post was (of course) a dump find... I couldn't resist a pair of 'real' KLHs, however small. I was shocked by how musical they were. Ol' Henry and his cronies were pretty good at getting good things out of cheap packages (right up to and through his last company, Tivoli Audio).

Since this is the Polk Forum and all, I don't want to go too far off-brand... but for the info of those here who aren't in New England and/or aren't all that familiar with the classic New England school of loudspeaker designers and manufacturers (commencing with Villchur/AR)... the one-stop shop for info on the New England speakers is www.classicspeakerpages.net

I read a review of classic components back in 90-91. I have owned a pair of KLH Model 6 speakers before and should have kept them.

Anyway, The material was fiberglass placed under the protective grill on the tweeter or midrange drivers. It all started with the AR-3's 2-inch midrange driver back around 1961 or 1962. A fiberglass "pad" was fitted under the dome for the 1⅜-inch tweeter and the 2-inch midrange to improve damping within the "cavity" under the domes themselves. In addition, more fiberglass was placed further down in the magnet cavity between the ring magnet and back-plate/pole piece. It was found that the fiberglass under the dome tended to push against the dome, and in some cases the dome would "pop" out of the gap -- especially under high-power input -- thus basically ruining the driver. AR quickly recognized the problem and decided to put fiberglass on the outside of the dome, under the grill, to offset the pressure under the dome. The tweeter, in the absence of a protective outside screen and fiberglass, continued to have the problem, but it became a minor issue once some adjustments were made. It was found that the fiberglass smoothed the measured on-axis response a small amount (perhaps 1-2 dB), so the fiberglass was ever-so-slightly beneficial.

Acoustic Research, Advent and KLH used very similar designs back in the day, especially AR and KLH. So you see this on multiple speakers from both manufacturers.

this has nothing to do w/your choice of recievers but my memeory is haunting me.Did Lafayaette become the Tandy Corp. and now Radio Shack or is my timeline all screwed up.I did have a pair of Criterions100s as my first pair of large speakers.Again I just had to interject some of my recolections.

Yes, I buy quite a few parts from Allied, they do a nice job.

Kenneth Swauger wrote: »

Looks like a Marantz chassis...8B maybe?

That's a big 10-4. I had the privilege of rehabilitating that one for a local enthusiast. One of the best-sounding amplifiers I've heard in my own home - it made my erstwhile Klispch Cornwalls sound like they were actually in the big league in terms of performance. Just a stunningly beautiful amplifier in every respect... I'd love to own one someday.

EDIT: That's a 'before' photo in the previous post - exactly as acquired by the amp's owner. I rebuilt the bias supply, installed high-speed rectifiers in the HV supply, and replaced the Bumblebees with good (not boutique) coupling caps). If the 8B's owner sold the surplus Bumblebees... he probably recouped the cost of the amp! :-)

I hear you; the 8B is one of those amps which is worth more stock (even if it might be improved by a refresh) - the amp's owner wanted certain things done to it; I gladly did them and felt that the final result was well worth the effort. He was more concerned with using it as a daily driver than what it would be worth on the open market (and I would think it's still worth plenty; it is in like-new condition and includes the seldom-seen tube cage as well).

TRIO was the Japanese and ROW name for the radio/hifi company we know as Kenwood. Many of LRE's vacuum-tube receivers in the 1960s were rebadged TRIO/Kenwood (and pretty nice midlevel hardware, then and now). harmon/kardon also had a product or two named Trio in the same rough time frame, so it can be a little confusing.
http://www.audio-heritage.jp/TRIO-KENWOOD/index.html

Yeah, I've also heard of the Planet Research OEM - don't know much about them, though.