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.