Should You Buy a Vintage Receiver? Or Any Receiver?

Marantz, Pioneer, and Sansui, among others, made some beautiful receivers in the 60's and 70's. I talk about why you might want one, or not.

[sirsuse]

I listen to FM all the time. There are a couple of stations I really enjoy. One is a local college station that I enjoy because they play a variety of music styles. Never gets boring.

[Gordwell]

My Sansui 9090 has the lights on all the time! LOL. The only mod, and well worth it. Original owner, and still rockin on Monitor Audio Silver 300's. Oh, and I do love my FM. :)

[BIGD-gjvb]

Eye candy is a huge part of vintage gear. I mostly spin vinyl, but as an old ham guy I still enjoy drifting through stations. My pioneer sx1010 and marantz 2240 are my receivers Ive restored. I love tube gear as well. Cant afford anything super high end. Ive been restoring old tube radios and tvs for years. Dont commit has much time these days. I will always love old gear..❤

[jazzkatt]

Vintage receivers from the upper end models have fantastic tuners when they’re dialed in to spec. Please don’t mod vintage. Respect the period and buy new gear. 😎👍

[AUTISTICLYCAN]

Dang dude just make me feel like a fossil can't cha! YES sir I listen to FM radio on my Pioneer SX-1980, SX-1250, SX-1280, SX1050 and a SX-1080 and YES I love it. I have 4 Reel to Reels, cassette decks, CD \ MP3 players even DVD players connected to these receivers. I love all these things in 2024. My life does NOT revolve around my smart phone. My smart phone is just that A PHONE that also has voice mail and text messaging. In the age of LED light bulbs AM radio is officially DEAD! I live in a major city so we still have a few classical FM channels hanging on by their teeth. My most beautiful 70's receiver is my Hitachi SR-2004 a true monster sleeper. Tube amps & separates don't rock my world! Thanks for this!

[Daniel-]

I don’t know if I should be embarrassed or proud but I listen to AM & FM radio quite often. That’s why I’m partial to Pioneer and NAD receivers as they have nice built in tuners.

[DrNoahBoddy]

My dear Mr Lancaster,
Flagship, Second, and third tier 1970s Receivers were engineering works of audio art that remain UN-paralleled to this VERY day, my friend.
I had the pleasure of experiencing a Fisher TOTL RS-1080, driving a pair of Altec Lansing 1204 loudspeakers some 45 years ago in my hometown. Its FM tuner was playing a classical music station, and I remember being jarred by a performance so arresting, I can’t compare anything to it, even now.
I was very young, and the system belonged to schoolfriend’s Dad. I’ll quickly conclude that I now know why that antenna on their roof was so gargantuan!
(That full FM quieting, in that transmission, body-slammed the heck out of me to that floor! And it’s the very reason I assembled an Enormous! four antenna array that’s fully grounded to enjoy that same, black background that still astounds me this very day!)

[pathfinderdiscovery]

I have a 1978 Marantz MR 220 21 watts, an I love the sound, FM stereo sounds great where I live an that depends on the wattage of those stations one locally owned is only 100, 000 wTs an the main ones I listen to are 200, 000 plus watts an u can hear the difference not all stations boost high watts, but for my small Marantz 2 nd Onwer an it’s been serviced an cleaned it’s just amazing to me how good she still sounds, like the channel

[pedrofernandez]

Does anyone remember when they used to simulcast movies and concerts on FM radio while the image played on your TV set? How things have changed.

[roguesquatch]

I prefer to think in terms how many vintage receivers should I have, not if I should have them. Even if I almost never listen to the radio!
Oooh! Pretty lights!

[steveoszman]

Ya I have a preference for 60s to 70s gear. That whole phono thing, I haven't experienced that problem. Don't own a single dac streamer box, no separates. But, dawgs marbles that's some sweet gear! Yes I am rural, there's a college operated station in range not over compressed and playing a wide variety of stuff.

[MDchaz]

I love listening to FM in Baltimore. There’s WTMD that plays adult album alternative and WBJC that plays classical. There’s no commercials and they have employees whose only job is to find an interesting mix of music for me to enjoy. They sound great and are free! They have local events and concerts. Yes people should probably avoid those radio stations owned by mega corporations but people should rediscover their local college and independent radio stations. You might just hear something new. 👍

[julesl]

Keep up your videos give it about a year and you'll be one of the most visited hi-fi channels without question.

[jimsmoter]

I listen to the radio all the time. if in the garage or in my basement. Both locations with a Harman Kardan 380 HK receivers. Or my Adcom system in our dining room.

[Gili]

I have the pioneer SX-440, it was my father's receiver bought new...
Still going strong!
They don't make them anymore 😪

[KTBER]

I've desired a silverface receiver for some years now, but here in England our airwaves have always been heavily regulated for narrative control, and so in this era I'd really be engaging in a nostalgia for something I never had (anemoia) and the price is moving out of range of 'justification'.

FM radio was often broadcast post-processed with a series of compressors, limiters, expanders... The competent engineers that applied and understood those series are possibly rarer than a station playing decent music today.

[haqitman]

I listen to our local classical npr station, and a commercial-free alt rock station, but stream them into vintage gear via the tape or aux input. This bypasses all the noise you get from broadcast but still get the benefit of the processing. Funnily enough, I have an SX-850 but the tuner sounds terrible, like something is wrong with it, but not a problem with streaming. The amp sounds stellar.

[kaibooxD]

I am using a Kenwood kr-v7040 that was my Dad's he got in the 90's

[randolphblack]

I lived in the Colorado Springs area when I was in high school and I owned a Magnavox 1500DTI receiver. It had a decent tuner that could pick the 50kW stations in Nashville and Louisiana. And FM was magnificent when listening to Classical music. My next receiver was a Lafayette LR-9090 and it was great, but not as good as the Magnavox!

[CorgiConnect]

My receiver story. As a kid in the late '70s/early '80s I went from using my older brothers hand me down system to a YORX all in one my parents got me. I remember listening to WBCN, WHTT, WAAF, WPRO, etc (I am from New England) in my room, yes in the dark mostly, watching the dial glow. I would imagine that behind the dial was a virtual city of wires, circuits, lights, and so on, bringing the activity of radio to me. Years later, I had a Parasound DR40 for a receiver, nice unit, nice sound, but by then, the digital displays and electronic presets left me cold, as far as looks go. For years, used a Sansui 2000, which has a nice green lit dial, that yes, turned off unless using the tuner (at least that preserved the bulbs longer...??..). Also has a Sansui 881, which kept the dial lit all the time. Take this to just last week where I traded both my aging receivers for one good integrated amp, one with 2 phono, 2 tape, 2 aux, and external adapter inputs. Radio in my area is not worth listening to, and having just an integrated is something different for a while, but not having the dial lit up is a different look in the cabinet for sure. I actually am probably going to miss the weighted tuning knob the most, the ones where just a little twisting gave that heavy, gliding feeling. Maybe I'll have to get another sometime for a garage system, yeah, I think so.