Realistic STA-84 Receiver

I stumbled across a 1977 Realistic STA-84 receiver that was in mint condition with the original owners manual still taped to the unit.

This receiver was rated at 25 watts per channel and has a cool glide path FM in the tuner and quadraphonic sound

It was exceptionally clean when I opened the beautiful real wood veneer cover. Just a bit of dust was scattered when the compressed air hit it.

It appears to be a really well made Japanese receiver with a pretty heavy transformer and two 5600uf caps neatly in place.

The amplifier rail has Sanyo electronics installed so I wonder if Sanyo had made this to Realistic spec?

This unit shows no scratches in the face plate of the veneer case, it is absolutely mint for it's vintage.

I cleaned the pots and the volume slider with contact cleaner, this removed the scratchiness from the unit.

I also found that the "Perfect Loudness" was really muddy in the bass region and the unit sounds best when the bass and treble are at this setting.

So what a bout the sound? Well this is the second Realistic receiver that I have owned and I was impressed with the System-7 that I sold off about a year ago.

The sound from what little information there is out there that it is a warm tube like sound and that the 25 wpc are a little understated.

Once I got the system up and running I was simply astonished in how good this unit sounds. The STA-84 as I had set it up had the perfect amount of bass that was clean, very clean. Where this unit really shines is in the mid range and how well the transparency is in the music. The highs where spot on with out being brash or harsh.

I managed about 5 hours of listening time since Saturday and have run the receiver with speakers that image really well already but this amp kicked it up the sound stage to a new level. 

So far I have run mostly 2-way speakers including the B&W D5, Mission 770 Freedom 4's, Audio Spec Perseus (which are a harder pair of speakers to drive.) the EPI 120C'c (wow) and the Advent 2002's

To be honest I will have to do a side by side with the Myryad T-40 and see which one sounds better, it is that good for Realistic.

This receiver will definitely be sticking around for a bit. There is plenty of music and speaker combinations I want to explore with this unit.

The Realsitic STA-84 probably flies under the radar of most Pioneer, Kenwood and Marantz aficionados and therefor can be had for a reasonable price. This unit is well worth picking up if you come across one.

Braun L830's update

These Braun L830's were dropped off by a regular reader of this blog that is now hooked on finding vintage loudspeakers to try, he once swore by his JBL L26's but has since expanded his perceptions.

When they came over they looked like this.

They still had the original speaker wire that was like an umbilical cord into the back of the speaker.

Whoever did the "Professional" re foam job made a mess out of the speakers so much so that they had two different dust caps and cement like glue everywhere.

There was not mush I could do besides get matching dust caps and mask the poor glue job with a solid colour, flat black.

Banana plug terminals went into the back of the speaker box which I should have taken a picture of.

The caps on the inside would be an expensive proposition to change and these speakers really do sound terrific so I did not think that that would be money well spent  (unlike EPI's).

Over all these are a beautiful speaker designed by Dieter Rams, their aesthetics are pleasing to the eye they have very cool mid century speaker stands, these are a pair of speakers worth seeking out and holding on to.

How do they sound?.....Wonderful! The extra large mid range dome reveals the intricacies of music that most 2 way systems do not. The tweeter gives off highs that pinpoint cymbal clashes and the 10 inch woofer takes care of the bottom end tightly.

It was a real pleasure to have these speakers for a short period, it had good company with some other German gems.

JVC JR-S300 Receiver

As part of the EPI 100 purchase I also got this 50 watt per channel JVC JR-s300 receiver.

This receiver is in the middle of the line with 50 real watts per channel and two massive 10,000uf capacitors that can easily drive any speakers. These receivers were made circa 1978 during a period when JVC made some pretty decent audio products.

Braun L830

A friend of the blog dropped this pair of Dieter Ram's Braun L830's off for a bit of a work over.

These speakers had an atrocious re foam job that looks like it was done by a six year old.

The cabinets are in great shape and they do sound incredible, a sound that is very detailed and neutral. These are on par with my Dual CL 390's and the Visonik Euro 7 speakers that I own.

I will install banana plug terminals into the cabinets and hopefully clean up the the way the woofers look.

 

Another pair of EPI 100V

I never get tired of re furbishing these speakers. EPI 100's easily benefit from some straight forward but easy to do upgrades. These speakers are incredibly musical and are a real joy to listen to.

The weak point in the speakers is the internal wiring, the capacitor and the speaker terminals.

I always upgrade these to a poly film cap, with 12 gauge speaker wire and new terminals to accept banana plugs.

I also added more fill in the back of the speaker to help dampen the standing waves.

EPI 100's are one of my favorite vintage project speakers, the gains from simple mods really bring out the best in these speakers.

Advent 2002 returned home

This pair of Advent 2002 with EPI tweeters came back home today.

The original posting on these speakers was here.

I gave them to a friend of mine and then I gave him this pair of Mirage 450's as he wanted a pair of speakers in black.

So I might do a bit of fiddling around with these speakers to either bring the tweeter output to match the woofer or move the crossover higher up on the tweeter as the woofer rolls off at 3500hz and the tweeter rolls off at 1800hz. Maybe a resistor will be needed to balance the sound.

Update: I replaced the 10uf tweeter cap with a Solen 5.6uf polypropylene cap and it has really smoothed out this speakers, it is way more in balance now. 

Paradigm 3Se Mini Speakers

This is my fifth pair of Paradigm 3SE Mini speakers that I have owned and I am always amazed at how their big sound belies their little size.

This pair came with Peerless SC-165 woofers which I took out and put in Vifa woofers from a donor pair of Mission 70 speakers and they work perfectly.

I also recapped the crossover with a poly film cap to open up the top end.

These speakers are one of my favorite 2 way speakers with 61/2 inch woofers and they happen to be my favorite out this era's Paradigm line up. These speakers sound way bigger than they are and are a joy to listen too.

Just arrived, Paradigm 3se Mini's with Peerless SC-165 woofers

I brought home a pair of Paradigm 3SE Mini's today, the fifth pair I have owned. The cabinets are a little beat but they work just fine. When I took them apart I was surprised to find Peerless SC-165 woofers were installed.

These woofers are sought after for Sonab replacements and I will probably sell them off.

The specs can be found here.

 The woofer has a large voice coil, heavy magnet, and low loss rubber surround. It has high power handling and is specially optimized for use in small bass reflex constructions. * Power handling: 150 watts RMS/210 watts max * Voice coil diameter: 1-1/4" * Voice coil inductance: 1.2 mH * Nominal Impedance: 8 ohms * DC resistance: 6.3 ohms * Frequency response: 37-4,000 Hz * Fs: 36.2 Hz * SPL: 88 dB 2.83V/1m * Vas: 1.14 cu. ft. * Qms: 1.55 * Qes: .35 * Qts: .28 * Xmax: 4mm * Net weight: 3.0 lbs. * Dimensions: Overall Diameter: 6-1/2", Cutout Diameter: 5-5/8", Mounting Depth: 3-1/4", Magnet Diameter: 4".

The cabinets are now being re glued and held together with wood clamps.

The person who installed the Peerless SC-165 threw an inductor in the crossover also.

New Home's for the ADS, PSB and the Paradigm's

ADS L420, PSB 50R and Paradigm Control Monitors all found a new home in the past 2 weeks.

These where all great speakers and I hope the new owners get years of enjoyment out of them. Now I got space for a new set....I wonder which will come my way.

Speakers that I currently have listed for sale are the DB Plus 440 Monitors for a low low price of $50.00 and soon to be the Advent 5012's.

The Audio Spec Perseus are listed on Canuck Audio Mart, I am asking the top end for these but they really are a beautiful speaker and if I do not get the price I want I will keep them.

The EPI 120C's are really shining with the Solen cap and the internal upgrades. The 10' woofer just adds the extra bottom end punch that the EPI 100's can not do, I am very happy with the way these turned out.

EPI 120C upgrades

I upgraded the EPI 120C speakers today with Solen 10uf capacitors, 14 gauge speaker wire and new speaker terminals to accept banana plugs. I bypassed the tweeter level control.

EPI's shine with the simple upgrades that I just did.Wow! These are the best EPI's I have had yet. I am really enjoying them.

Advent 5012 update

I finally restored the crossover to the original specifications as it was drawing a ton of current from my amp and tripping the overload circuit. I tried changing out the 7uf and 33uf series caps and used a single Solen 5.6uf cap.

The original write up can be found here.

Now that the crossover is back to original specifications these speakers are really nice.

Some feel that these are the best of the large Advents, I have not heard the other versions but I do like these speakers a lot.

The last step is to reassemble the grills as I took the cloth off to clean the fabric.

EPI 120C Speakers arrived

Another pair of EPI speakers have come my way, this time the EPI 120C. This is the big brother of the EPI 100 with a 10" woofer and bigger cabinets.

So far they sound like the classic EPI 100 sound but with fuller deeper bass.

This set of speakers, although in pretty good condition need some regular EPI upgrades.

It is well documented that the internals are the weak spot in otherwise great drivers that work perfectly together. Humanspeakers does a great write up on changing out the spring clips, internal wiring, the capacitor and bypassing the tweeter level control.

This pair had the woofer re foamed which is not up to the standards of this Speakerholic.  Who ever did the job cut a larger surround and spliced it to make a 10" leaving a awful overlap and air leakage, this will have to be redone.

 

One nice thing is this pair of speakers already has the brace from the front baffle to the rear baffle, something that the Advent 5012 did not have but I added to.

Other EPI speakers that I have written about that have come my way are the pink home made ones, this pair of Genesis 22, this pair of EPI 100 Plus T/E of which I yanked the drivers out and put in CTS ALNICO 8" woofers with CTS Phenolic Ring tweeters, which is an Acoustic Research AR4X clone. This little pair of EPI 70C which got a Dayton 6.5" woofer replacement, this original pair of EPI M100's and last but not least the Advent 2002's that got the EPI inverted dome swap.

Paradigm 9SE

A friend of the blog stumbled upon these Paradigm 9Se speakers by the side of the road and was stoked to drop them by and ask for my opinion and wanted to know if there was much to do to improve upon these speakers.

The vinyl veneer had seen better days but the job would be laborious considering their size.

The 9Se is the second from the top of the line with the range staring with the 3SE Mini, 3SE, 5SE, 7SE, 9SE and the 11SE. I have had 4 pairs of the 3SE, which I like very much 2 pairs of 3SE a pair of 5SE. I always found the 3SE and the 5SE a tad bit boomy in the bass.

These 9Se have a double 8 inch woofer that makes the very efficient running at 4 ohms. The bass is done right and is tight unlike the 3SE and the 5SE.

The 9SE are very airy with a wide sound stage, the mid range is upfront and full.

These are a fabulous speaker from Paradigm and worthy of seeking out if the price is right. You will need a good amp to drive them properly.

PSB 50R Speakers finished

The PSB 50R speakers have been finished for over a week and this was another very worthy project. These speakers are typical 8 inch woofer paired with a dome tweeter.

These speakers are designed by Paul Barton using Philips drivers. The cabinets are very well built with bracing behind the woofer. Apparently Paul used the NRC testing facilities to design these speakers. I remember the 50R's getting really good reviews in the early 80's

These speakers got a re foam which was tedious as the foam surrounds are unique but I found a correct pair.

The crossover 4.7uf cap was replaced with a polyester foil cap, which opened up the high end.

The sound is incredibly smooth from these speakers with tight bass smooth mid range and 3 dimensional depth. They do not give off the spaciousness or airiness of other speakers I have but they put the instruments in the right place 3 dimensionally.

I always wanted to try the 50R speakers and I am glad I have the time to audition these classics.