Vintage Receiver Advertisements

I want to share this link to a good collection of vintage receiver ads from the late 60's to mid 80's. If you are a fan of these receivers or just need to know more about them follow this link here.

http://www.chrisinmotion.com/ReceiverAds.htm

Great little resource for the vintage audio nut.

Sansui SC-1330 Belt Repair

I picked up this beautiful Sansui SC-1330 cassette deck for $10.00 that needed the main flat belt repaired. These decks are circa 1979-1980, retailed for around $350.00 and by now the original belt had turned to goo.

The deck looks like it was made to complement the Sansui AU-517, AU-717 or the AU-917 line of amps.

First off the main flat belt has an 8" inner circumference and these are hard to track down locally, one must search EBay or other online parts retailers. I opted to take the belt out of a dead Harmon/Kardon CD-91 cassette deck. After mush research I realized that these two decks share the same belt.

The walk through is pretty straight forward with no special tools needed.

Unplug and unscrew the 6 screws holding the black case of the deck.

Once opened you will see the motor assembly and all the working parts surrounding it.

Best to get a bunch of Q-Tips and I found Acetone worked faster than rubbing alcohol, clean all the gooey belt residue off the motor spindle and the main flywheel.

Next is to unscrew the 3 screws on the main motor plate and gently pull back the motor. Carefull doing this ans there are fragile contact plates attached.

Next is to undo the top flywheel screw as shown in the picture and loosen the bottom flywheel plate screw on the bottom.( Loosen but do not remove the bottom screw!)

Now you should be able to lift the flywheel plate and the flywheel high enough to loop the new belt in place. Once the belt is looped in place put the screws back in and tighten the flywheel plate.

With the motor still loose attach the belt around the motor spindle and re-assemble the motor plate into the original position...Note that there is a delicate contact point that needs to rest on the play mechanism and it is crucial that you do not bend the copper film upon re install. The black plastic piece needs to rest on the play mechanism. I found out the hard way. See picture below.

Now tighten the original 3 screws and check to see if the deck functions properly, if it does not work at all re check the contact points. You may have to loosen the 3 motor plate screws to make sure the contact point connect.

If you cassette deck works then replace the cover and enjoy.

It is a pretty easy fix for a nice cassette deck.

Below is a picture of the Harmon/Kardon CD-91 donor deck in which the electronic solenoids stopped working.

Myryad T-40 amplifier

I traded a pair of Energy 22 speakers for a Myryad T-40 amplifier from the late 1990's. The Rotel 840-BX has been a staple amplifier in my system since I bought it new in 1985. Like the Rotel the Myryad is straight line design with no tone controls.

The Rotel was rated at 40 watts per channel with 8200uf caps and the Myryad is rated at 50 Watts per channel with 10,000uf caps, providing the same headroom or a bit more.

The sound with the Myryad is very similar to the Rotel on the bottom and high end but the Myryad seems a little more fuller in the midrange and perhaps a little more control in the bass.

So far I have paired the Myryad up with the Pioneer HPM-60's, the Dual CL390's, the Paradigm Control Monitors and the Mission 770's. Of course the amplifier brings out the best in the Mission 770's and the Dual CL390's.

To my ears I hear the extra detail in the music with the Myryad amp. Being close to 30 years old the Rotel amp will be sent off for a refresh, replacing the caps at this point in it's life.

Paradigm Control Monitors

A pair of Paradigm Control Monitors came my way today, these are absolutely stunning speakers in a beautiful oak veneer, they arrived with the speaker stands and high end speaker wire.

Judging by the Hammered tone front it looks like these speakers were market towards the higher end Mission 770 line from the late 1980's. 

I have had about an hour with them so far and they sound superb...these will be sticking around for a while.

Heathkit AR-1214 update

I have had a solid couple of days listening to the Heathkit amplifier coupled with the various speakers including the Pioneer HPM-60's Energy 22's, Sony SS-E70's, JPW AP1's, the Audio Spec Perseus and the Mission 770 Freedom 5's.

The Heathkit sounds best with the Mission 770's as this amp needs an efficient pair of speakers to bring out the best of it's 15 watts per channel.

The sound is reminiscent of the Dynaco 80 amp that I had the use of for a short period of time, all the bass is there with a bight more brightness in the high end.

Very impressed with this little receiver.

Heathkit AR-1214

I picked up an early 70's Heathkit AR-1214 receiver today that was in pretty mint condition. The pots needed to be cleaned out to remove the static build up. The tuning is a bit off on the FM dial but every station comes in clear as a bell.

Right now it is powering my Audio Spec Perseus speakers in my office and I really like the sound stage, surprisingly deep and warmth. Next I will try them with the Pioneer HPM-60's.

The Heathkit AR-1214 specifications are as follows:

Amplifier Section:
Power Output:  15 Watts RMS (8 Ohm Load), 20 Watts (4 Ohm Load)
Power Bandwidth:  5 Hz to 30 kHz (< 0.5% THD)
Frequency Response:  7 Hz to 100 kHz (+/- 1 dB)
Harmonic Distortion:  < 0.5% (@ 15 Watts output)
Damping Factor:  > 30
Hum and Noise:  -60 dB
Channel Separation:  55 dB

FM Section:
Tuning:  88 to 108 MHz
IF:  10.7 MHz
Frequency Response: 20 to 15 kHz (+/- 1 dB)
Sensitivity:  2 uV
Selectivity:  60 dB
Image Rejection:  50 dB
IF Rejection:  75 dB
Capture Radio:  2 dB
AM Suppression:  50 dB
Harmonic Distortion:  0.5%
Inter modulation Distortion:  0.5%
Hum and Noise:  60 dB
Spurious Rejection:  70 dB

AM Section:
Tuning:  535 to 1620 kHz
IF:  455 kHz
Sensitivity:  100 uV
Selectivity:  40 dB
Image Rejection:  75 dB
IF Rejection:  60 dB
Harmonic Distortion:  2%
Hum and Noise:  35 dB

JPW AP1 versus Mission 700S

A little comparison on the these two speakers for the past few hours.

JPW is a little tighter on the bass due to the acoustic suspension design, the sound stage is also a little more laid back. The high end is the same as the Mission 700S.

The Mission 700S is a few db's louder and much more mid range forward, the bass not being as tight. The Missions surround you in sound where as the JPW's it is more like the sound is in front of you.

Could I live with one pair more than the other? I think the Mission 700S would win out in sound and the real walnut veneer.

Both are fantastic speakers.