I TRIED EVERY VINTAGE RECEIVER... this was the BEST!

Looking to upgrade your hifi system (vintage or new)? My company All Elite Audio specializes in assessing your system and helps you find an upgrade path to meet your sound goals!

What's The Best Vintage Receiver? I HOOKED UP ALL THESE VINTAGE MONSTER RECEIVERS, TO FINALLY FIND OUT WHAT ARE THE TOP 5 VINTAGE RECEIVERS OF ALL TIME!
But I didn't do it just for me, I want you to tell me your top 5 in the comments!

My Essential Vintage HiFi Tools
Clean your knobs, switches, and pots with...
Clean Faders & Sliders with...
Clean your faceplates carefully with...

My Essential Vintage HiFi Accessories
Add banana plug terminals to your receiver...
Another option for small speaker terminals...
My Favorite Banana Plugs
Switch Between Multiple Amps & Speakers

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#audio #vintage #audiophile #vintageaudio #hifi

Chapters
00:00 What's The Best Vintage Receiver?
00:46 Scott's HiFi Room
01:10 Hitachi SR-2004
02:01 Akai AA-1200
02:52 Fisher RS-1060
03:46 Sony STR-V7
04:49 Pioneer SX-1980
06:01 Sansui 9090
06:50 Kenwood KR-9600
07:40 Sansui G-8000
08:46 Toshiba SA-7100
09:30 Sanyo JCX 2900K
10:05 Pioneer SX-1250
10:49 Technics SA-800
11:40 Onkyo TX-8500
12:21 Sherwood S-9910
13:09 Marantz 2325
14:19 MCS 3125
15:10 Realistic STA-2100
16:00 Yamaha CR-2040
16:47 What Receivers & Speakers are we demoing
17:04 How we listen to multiple receivers at once
17:41 HiFi Room Tour
26:08 Speaker Room Tour
27:39 Pioneer HPM-100's
27:53 How to Repair Vintage Speaker Grills
29:19 SOUND DEMO
32:14 Top 5 Vintage Receivers w/Demo
34:00 Best Vintage Receiver

[pi.actual]

Sansui 9090. I bought mine in Japan when I was 19 years old in the Navy. I had zero audiophile knowledge, I bought it simply based on how it looked with the twin white power meters and blue signal and tuning meters. I still have it.

[huntinbuddy]

I have a Pioneer SX-1050, bought new in 1977....went thru college with me...drove 4 Altec A7's (voice of the theatre) for 30 years with it, still have the original box....and is still my daily user. Never had a problem with it. Everything on it still works like the day I bought it.

[jonlong]

I bought a Realistic STA-2000D in 1979. And 45 years later it still sounds fantastic. Not a bit of trouble.

[henry]

Sansui G-9000 here, it was left behind by a housemate that moved out many years ago. It sat on a shelf for 3 years and I was about to take that boat anchor to Goodwill to get rid of it, when a little voice in my head said "you'd better Google it first". I had no idea what I had and was absolutely dumbfounded when I learned that is held in very high regards by audiophiles. I hooked it up to my Klipsch Heresy II speakers and holly crap, I will always remember the moment when the big 60 pound Sansui put out the most glorious sound that I've ever heard from a piece of stereo equipment.

[mojryzin]

In 1978 my next door neighbor in Power Hall at LSU had a Sansui 9090 running through a pair of JBL Decade L36 speakers and I was so blown away by that sound that I never forgot it. 15 years ago I ran across a 9090 for sale locally and I bought it - best money I’ve ever spend on audio gear. I have the smaller two way JBL L26s and that sound still makes me smile every time I turn it on.

[johnnyq]

Many years ago, I was the repair technician at the Audio Room in Peterborough, Ontario. I was certified by Yamaha, Oracle, Quad, NAD and a laundry list of exotic audio manufacturers. I worked on just about all these receivers and loved them all!!!
We used to do a lot of comparison tests with different amps, receivers and speakers.
The proper way to do an honest comparison is to set all tone controls to flat or defeat, no loudness and then set the listening spot with a db meter and white noise generator.
My home unit was a Marantz 2252B, JBL L40s, Connoisseur BD-2 table(imported from the UK) and Empire 2000 cartridge. I probably had close to 1500 albums on a 4 shelf storage rack.
Wished I had that all back as todays equipment is soo digital and not the same as those machines.

[mindtekzone]

I use to repair all of these machines when they were new in the 1970's. Most of them looked and sounded alike. My favorites were Pioneer, Sansui and Marantz. Loved the features but the best test of performance was to place the speaker outputs under an 8 ohm static load with an audio frequency input... use an oscilloscope to look at the output waveform and measure the power output in RMS on a meter. I would run the frequency through the audio spectrum and make sure that there was no distortions or drop offs under specific frequencies. CAUTION! If you short the speaker wires at the output terminals in the back you run the risk of burning up the power output transistors, even if there are fuses. I replaced many power output transistors, diodes and resistors in all of these machines because of this factor. Nice video.

[PresidentSkroob]

My dad has a Sansui 9090 that he bought new in 1977. It still works great. In high school I had it in my room with a pair of Advent Legacys. That was a stomper of a combo, perfect for a teenager.

[billdaverne]

I had, and still have a Pioneer SX-780 that has been a faithful companion since brand-new purchase in London, Ontario in late 1978. Always delivered. And still does. Probably needs a good cleaning and some bits replaced as it has powered many speakers over the years and at high volume. Still love it.

Thanks for this. Ready to watch now.

[jamesrevell]

If I won the lottery I would pay this guy a visit. Nothing on the market today interests me. What this guy has is pure gold.

[davefox]

The Marantz 2500 was the centerpiece of my system for over 15 years. It boasted 250 watts per channel with 005% distortion. I sold it for big money when I moved to a surround system. A decision I’ve regretted for many years. It played as clean and open as any power system I’ve owned since. And the value has tripled since I sold mine.
If you haven’t seen one you should look it up. This was a 70lb monster that included a built in oscilloscope and a semi parametric equalizer.
It was the Holy Grail of receivers in 1980!

[AmericanPatriotAP]

I managed several Radio Shacks in the past. The Audio equipment was great. Rest In Peace Radio Shack. Gone, but never forgotten.

[SilverRailClub]

My top vintage receiver, which I purchased new in 1981 and still have today, is the Kenwood 9G. It's massive size, yet elegant design, with stainless brushed faceplate and large glass tuning window, combined with knobs and switches that have just the right 'feel' to them when used, plus the walnut veneer cabinetry all combine to make a great looking centerpiece to my stereo tower. It has a preamplifier section that can handle 3 sets of speakers, two headphone outs, has inputs for two turntables, two tape decks, aux (CD), microphone input with audio mixing capabilities, AM/FM, with FM Dolby, triple tone control which can be by-passed, and a timer which can turn off the unit and other audio components which are plugged into it. It was conservatively rated at 80 watts continuous per channel into 8 ohms, but its dynamic range and peak power output can easily handle up to 300 watts. What really makes it my top pick however is that even though I've owned it now for over 40 years, and it has delivered perfect musical performance while playing anything and everything, aside from some occasional cleaning of the knobs and switches, the 9G has required ZERO repairs, not even needing a light bulb, in all the many years I've owned it! That makes it an incredible value for the money I spent to purchase it way back then. In fact, I liked this reciever so much, that I bought a second one, a few years later when I found it availalble at a local pawn shop off base. I still have them both, and they still sound perfect. PJM

[JoeJ-]

I have a Sansui 9090 myself, and believe it or not, I actually found and rescued it from a TRASH DUMPSTER, along with the matching Sansui turntable of that same era! Both were in excellent condition, except for a few scratches, dust, and minor corner dings, (probably from being tossed into the dumpster!), and the turntable's needle was unfortunately broken, (again, probably from being tossed into the dumpster, because the tonearm was floating back and forth, out of the tonearm holder, and loose on the platter itself when i found it. Luckily the cartridge and tonearm itself was still totally fine, along with the dust cover!

Just the fact that both pieces of gear were relatively undamaged, even after being thrown into a metal trash dumpster, the commercial kind that the big garbage trucks pick up overhead with those front forks, is a MAJOR testament to how solidly these pieces of gear were built back in this era!... Literally like "tanks"! They definitely don't make stereo equipment of THAT high quality and robustness anymore nowadays, that's for sure!

I had a VERY difficult time getting the receiver actually out of the dumpster and safely onto the ground in front of it so that I could dust it off and put it into my SUV, because that thing weighs a TON! The turntable itself weighs more than most modern receivers do, but that Sansui receiver weighs a LOT more still!

I took both units home and looked them over VERY thoroughly before plugging them in and trying them out, including taking the top cover off of the receiver and VERY closely inspecting for anything visibly broken or wrong with it, and first cleaning the insides of it out thoroughly with an air compressor blow nozzle, before finally trying it out by slowly powering it up with a variac... I didn't know it's electrical condition, but it seemed to be in fine operating condition overall.

The only thing wrong with the turntable was the broken needle, and the only thing wrong with the receiver was that most of the controls, buttons, and switches needed a good contact cleaner treatment, as many were kinda "scratchy" sounding when adjusting them, plus one of the dial lights on the front panel was burned out, but once I replaced that and did all of the thorough cleaning and maintenance on it, now I have a really great, and "collectable" vintage receiver, (and turntable), for FREE, (other than my time to fix them up), so yeah; one of my absolute BEST finds of ALL time in a trash dumpster!

I thought about selling them online, but since they're both such nice pieces of gear, I think I'll just keep and use them myself!

I still can't believe that some idiot actually just threw them away, (probably because they "upgraded" to a modern receiver or "soundbar", LOL!), but oh well, their loss, my gain, I guess!

[thomasperina]

My monster vintage receiver is the Kenwood KR 9600 HANDS DOWN GREAT VIDEO GUYS, TMP FROM N.J. 😊😊😊

[StealthParrot]

For me there was something special about the sound of the Sansui 9090, it seemed to have warmth and detail that the others didn't except perhaps your number one the Pioneer SX-1980. I also love the look of the Sansui. All pretty cool receivers.

[ckane]

I remember going to the store to buy an Sansui 9090 but it was off the shelfs by 1979. Ended up getting the Sansui G7700 instead. I still have it and it works great!

[chevyno]

I have a Sansui 9090 that I bought broken, bought a daughterboard replacement and it is again kicking. I do not have much experience with all these amps, but I knew a winner when I saw it. Glad it made your #2! I think the sound quality is absolutely amazing.

[paulbalogh]

My father had/has a Marantz 2270. Was at the lake house & was in rough shape from so much humidity. Had it rebuilt to the tune of $750+. I now have a fantastic piece of my families history in my home.

[BenJammin]

What an incredible collection of high end equipment this gentleman has put together. I bought a low 22 watt Marantz, with 4-way speakers, and a Sony turntable, back in 1979. Cost around five hundred bucks, which was difficult to scrape together for a twenty year old. But it sounded fantastic to me. The thing I miss the most about all that great audio equipment, was the radio stations that you could listen to, and the amount of great record albums of country and rock, that was put out during the 60's-80's.