Sorry, Kevin, I think there may be a correction here. The Rectilinear "Model 6" speakers - if you go to 5:27, if that label is from that speaker then that is a Model XI "highboy" (Roman numeral for "11", not "6"). I have a pair of these from 1974! I'm further eastern Midwest (Detroit). Mine don't have that grill, they have the typical dark brown cloth. The guys that started Ohm left Rectilinear, and I have a pair of Ohm Model E also. I do see some Ohm speakers for sale locally, but no, not Rectilinear.
@@waxwax8781 , first, thank you for assuming I know what I'm doing. LOL! I don't. And since digging out all my old stuff now as "vintage audio" I don't have a good listening space setup, just a sunroom to experiment with my stuff. But of the few speakers I have the E's are probably my favorite and work nicely with my low power SX-434, 330B, and 661 receivers. I'm keeping an eye open for a pair of E2 to try with the extended range. For more power the C might be a better choice, I see those pop up in my area.
Those are not the Highboy model, the Highboy was a model III, those are model Xi, a much smaller two way speaker. The Highboy and Lowboy models both had 5 drivers. I own both the Highboy, Lowboy and am in the middle of restoring a set of both VI and XI speakers. The Highboy measured 35x18x12in, and the XI was only 23x12x11", or roughly the size of the Polk Monitor 7's. None the less, they were all really great sounding speakers with a very balanced and detailed sound.
@@jeffbranch8072- if you like the sound of the model E you'll just go ape for the Ohm L's. Got mine in 1978 (with single tweeter switch and binding post connections). Still in use today. I also added a pair of model H systems (two tweeter controls and spring loaded connectors) a few years back and they're boss. Like me, my Ohm speakers were born in Brooklyn. Ya got good taste.
It's funny how history repeats itself. In the 70's, Realistic receivers were bought by students as a first stereo and ended up cranking out the tunes of the day. In 2024, every 70's Realistic receiver that I repair and sell ends up in the dorm of a college or university student playing 70's rock! There's hope for the world!
Yeah, but then you remember when Tandy went high end, they were all Sony's. And who's children are these anyway? My son is 41 and has a lot nicer all Sony/ JBL system than I have. Mines more a mix and match with a pair of huge subs. But his is an all matched JBL set. He has the killer surround system. And he listens to all the same music I do. And he even like C.C.R. LOL He even has a USB fob for his car I made for him.
AFC as I have always known it was “ Automatic Frequency Control “, which basically locks in the FM signal once it was found with the FM selector, was told to me by my dad back in the early 60’s printed on his Heathkit tuner. Just saying and I love your content.
I'm 54. My dad bought that STA90 new in 78. I grew up listening to music on that receiver all through the 80s until I got my pos all in one. In the mid 2000s I landed a pristine STA90 off Craigslist. I'm sure there's better, but that piece of equipment holds the most nostalgic feels for me. Everything sounds exactly as it should to me.
Realistic's higher end gear was often very good. With Realistic you had to do research before buying. Sometimes the same model was good or not good based on which run you got. Some Pioneers and Sansui's had runs of better quality than others. The problem was many companies brought capacitors and other things in bulk lots and quality was generally very good but not always. I had just about every Sanyo turntable they made at some point. My biker friends and I were price sensitive (Cheap). We used to party hard back then. We tried our best to wear out Lots of Sanyo gear. We couldn't do it! Some Sanyo receivers, turntables & cassette decks were tanks! My Sanyo 2033 was for sure.
Kevin, I giggled all the way through this after "It's a Sanyo." As for the Realistic receiver, my dad bought a STA-65 in 1970, we had it for nearly 45 yrs without any issues (no caps, no cleaning, no noisy pots, nothing). Talk about a daily driver!
My dad was buddy buddy with our small town radio shack owner. So anything to do with electronics carried the radio shack in house brand. Our home stereo was no exception. I still remember that green glow. I wish I knew what model it was. But that sucker lasted well past after I moved out in my own. I remember seeing it when we cleaned out my parents home after they both died. We cranked it up while we did the packing. Wish I knew what happened to it. That 70’s realistic signature was the sound of my entire childhood and then some.
@gustercc I did a 'vintage realistic receiver' image search to find which one we had. Took a few minutes to find ours. Thanks for your story, good to hear.
I sold a lot of the STA-90s in the day when I worked for Radio Shack in High School. James Bongiorno was an audio industry legend. He did design work for SAE, Adcom, HK, Marantz, Sumo, Dynaco, Ampzilla, Crown and others. He just passed away in 2013. I meet him at a trade event at one of the CES shows. Just an introduction.
FINALLY! Great American Sound aka GAS makes it to Skylabs youtube video!! Top notch equipment.. I am a huge GAS fan and run updated GAS equipment in my main stereo today and couldn't be happier. Thanks for bringing this one on your channel Kevin!!
Love the 😊comments on Name Brand. I think part of audiophile-isms….is look, feel, and name often times. We sure miss some great stuff because of that. Your honesty on the subject struck a chord. 😊
Had a Sanyo turntable owned for 30 yrs only 1 belt replaced. It worked flawlessly Technique SA500 reciver , Ohm c-2 speakers. That was my first system and it was not bad at all
I have a STA-90 that I got to replace a Pioneer SX 750 that broke. As you said Kevin, the STA-90 sounds a lot like a comparable Pioneer. It been my daily driver for about a year now and drives my Large Advents as well as the SX-750. The only issue mine has that seems to be a common one with this model is that the FM tuner doesn't always play in stereo. It does occasionally work but most of the time it's only mono. While it may be rare in your part of the country but Radio Shack sold a lot of these between 1976 thru 1978 during the height of the stereo wars of the 70's. Keep up the good work Kevin. I look forward to you videos every week.
Hi Kevin! I've got some notes on the Sanyo Turntable. I was shopping around for some vintage gear to build my 30 y.o. son a nice little home stereo setup for his apartment. I picked up a very similar Sanyo turntable at a vintage vinyl shop for about $130.00 (Canadian). If I remember correctly the internet showed that the same turntable sold in Canada and the US but I think they were badged as Fisher in the US. So yes, the Sanyo branding would be somewhat rare in the States. This is a fully automatic belt drive TT. The one I bought was in very good condition cosmetically and mechanically. It had what looked to be an original Shure cartridge but the stylus was trashed. I replaced it with a Grado Black cartridge. i also replaced the drive belt which was cheap and easy to find online. The automatic functions worked perfectly. The grease points were lithium in good condition for the age of the deck. The motor spun right up and was smooth/quiet. The tone arm was well made, nicely finished and had a simple counterweight for anti skating. The mass of the Grado required some additional weight. I slipped a tiny steel nut onto the shaft and that worked fine. I tested the speed against a Technics SL-1200 with pitch adjustment and found the Sanyo ran about 2% fast. After digging around in the archives of some chat pages to find a way to correct the pitch I think this may have been common and there is no built in adjustment. Also there is no adjustment for tone arm/cartridge angle so my Grado upgrade may be off. As was common at the time the turntable itself is suspended by springs to isolate it from the base. Fine if you're on a concrete slab. Not so good if you are on a suspended wood floor. With the tracking set properly it skips pretty easily if there's dancing or adults walking nearby. I ran it through a couple of setups and settled on testing it through my Mitsubishi DA-R8 receiver which I've had since new in 1984 ( I found one on Ebay for about $150 US for my son). I routed it through a pair of Paradigm Studio 20 Bookshelf speakers in my kitchen. It was pretty good. Better than the budget Onkyo TT with the cartridge I could afford in 1984. Bottom line it's esthetically pure 1970's home stereo vibe. Comparable to mid level home hi-fi of it's time. It's well designed and well built for the price and has the auto function that makes it easy to play records at home, which is exactly what it was built for. Cheers!
Being a former "audio specialist, retail" back in the late '70's, early '80's we had a catch phrase: Say no to Sanyo". Usually in reference to their receivers, and tape decks. Some was o.k., but you're right, it was all about name recognition for us audio snobs. But, the more we knew, the less snobbish we became as we got older. Keep up the good work, great channel .
Enjoyed the video.. I remember I bought my sister a 18 watt per channel receiver from Radio Shack. Can't remember the model, may have been STA 64. It was a nice unit and sounded good. I bought me a SA1001 Realistic Amp. It was a 35 watt per channel. I loved it. By 1987 I upgraded it to the Realistic STA2700 receiver. Never looked back. It does not have the face of a 70's, but it has never let me down.
your G.A.S unit was highly regarded during it's time. G.A.S. was true audiophile equipment, the designer went on to start his own company called SST, it is still active today and I have two of his mono block Amps called SST Ampzilla 2000 2nd generation. they are Awesome sounding and powerful.
You are so right. There are a lot of snobs out there. All that matters, ALL that matters is the sound performance. You want a true sleeper? Chinon. AR 8000 receiver. Also Sony SS 1005 speakers. Nuff said. Great channel. Thank you for all the history and Audio porn.
"AFC" stands for "Automatic Frequency Control" Back in the analog days, FM receivers had a tendency to drift. This additional circuitry helped prevent that at a slight loss of sensitivity. It was sometimes referred to as "AFT" or "Automatic Fine Tuning".
I have a later design Sumo preamp and matching tuner. Both the GAS and Sumo had kind of silly names. Ampzilla, Son of ampzilla. My Sumo tuner is the model " Charlie " . Yeah, charlie the " tuna". Never met Mr. Bonjourno, but heard he was a genius engineer.
Thanks Kevin, it’s a big audio World out there and still some undiscovered countries to map. Those speakers show up in the Seattle area fairly often but I haven’t run across any of the other items. Fun stuff!
I still have my Radio Shack STA 90 bought in ‘77. It’s travel all over the US from U-Haul trailers to moving vans. It’s now in the workshop and plays daily. Still sounds great. Super clear, great tone.
GAS - Son Of Ampzilla. It’s a nice amp. One of my biggest regrets was not buying a Setton RS-440 receiver and a Setton AS-1100 integrated amp. I figured I could hold off. Haven’t seen another decent Setton for sale ever since.
Greatly enjoy this kind of content ! It's just plain fun and amusing to see what you'll present next. I have a dusty old TP-626 I'll be cleaning up and giving to a friend. I feel better knowing I'm not giving him a total POS! One of my favorite pastimes is perusing vintage hifi classifieds, finding something that looks cool and going down a rabbit hole researching it. Here I can just hit play, watch, relax and end it with a thumbs up. Nice work Kevin !
I remember the "G.A.S - Ampzilla". I always wanted one despite the fact that I had a Phase Linear 400 at the time. Today I use lower power "distributed" amps and a class-d 300w plate amp on a single 12 inch sub.
I went to a yard sale this past weekend and as we were leaving I looked at the free pile next to the curb. Laying there amongst the junk was a Realistic STA-740. The antenna on the back was partially busted and it was a bit dusty. I grabbed it, got it home and fired it up and it works awesome! I love it.
Kevin, there are two ampzillas for sale in Mt Vernon. Been on marketplace awhile id imagine. I've seen them off and on throughout the year while browsing.
I loved the Sanyo car decks from back in the day. I could go full volume with no audible distortion. I liked my old Pioneer supertuner deck too. I know it's slightly off topic but I also own a 2nd bedroom full of a lot of what I see on your channel. It's a fun hobby and I appreciate taking in your videos.
I've got a G.A.S. Thoebe and it's awesome. Had an opportunity to pick up an Ampzilla and didn't. I still kick myself for passing over that. Thanks for talking about G.A.S. products!
Great video! I'm 70 and messing in this hobby over 50 years so every thing I have is vintage like me. One thing I have had for close to 40 years and still quiet is a JBL pre-amp called a graphic controller sg-520 it supposedly came out of a Paragon system.
Hey Kevin, the GAS Thaedra brought back good memories. I bought a Thaedra and Ampzilla used back around 1982. Great pieces of gear but not very aesthetically pleasing. I believe GAS was owned by the legendary John Bonjourno. The Theadra had an awesome moving coil phono preamp. The Ampzilla was one of the first super amps putting out some 200W/ch. Lights dimmed for a moment when you switched it on….
As I was getting ready to open MY VINTAGE AUDIO store, I was watching your program. You were talking about how owning a vintage audio store people will call and offer you stereo equipment. I laughed, thinking about how many times it has happened to me. Just at that very moment, my phone rang, and I went and picked up a beautiful pair of cabinet speakers with JBL D120 speakers inside. Thank you for making my day😊 LOU at MY VINTAGE AUDIO
Enjoy all your videos. Recently acquired a ROTEL RX-603. It had not been used in decades evident of the dusty coat covering it and had scratchy dials/pots so cleaned with Deoxit D5 and replaced one 6.3V fuse lamp and received rocks, packs a punch even with a cheapo Sony/KLR speaker setup. Question: Occasionally the channels left or right statics and goes off, “no sound”, turning volume knob up/down corrects problem and all speakers play fine again. What are your thots on ROTEL receivers and the channel/volume issue mentioned above?
Hey Kevin, love the channel. I worked for Bongiorno soon after he started SUMO. We built EVERYTHING by hand, including winding our own transformers. A small shop, we were happy to be turning out a very high quality product. Yes, JB was a genius, no question. Multi talented, he played jazz piano in bands around LA. He was…um… an eccentric guy. Lots of stories in those wild days of start up companies in LA hi-fi. SUMO amps were built in Tarzana, CA. John Musgrave, (engineer/production expert) if you are out there, thanks for everything.
It is sad Jim has passed, I too worked with him. Eccentric to the nth degree, but a mind always scheming. Many lunches with him drawing on place mats. Good man!
@@michaeledwards9376 Hello! Thanks for the reply. I'm curious, were you working with him at GAS or SUMO? I learned a ton of stuff at that little outfit. It was a fine adventure. A close knit group, for the time we were together. It was such a great product, but I don't think the masses were buying on the scale that he needed to make a sustaining profit.
I miss RadioShack so much! They just sold interesting and unique gear that nobody else had. Their stereo components were hit or miss, but the good ones were really good. A lot of fun to browse the stores.
I bought a pair of the Mach II Speakers and was totally happy with them but yes, I miss all the parts and accessories they sold right from their stores, all the cables and connectors, speaker components, full size TV antennas, and they even had some basic PA gear. You have to look online now for most of what they sold.
Kevin, I bought my first system at Stereo Town in the Valley West Mall in 1977 or 78. I bought a Kenwood KA-3500 amp, Kenwood KD-2055 Turntable, and a pair of New Advent speakers in solid walnut. It was my pride and joy and I wish I’d never sold them. I graduated Valley HS in 1979, and worked at Brandeis in the mall those days. I miss those days.
I own a Sansui FM-5! The rubber isolation grommets for the tuner gang have fallen out in pieces so I don't dare turn it on until I rebuild it! As you mentioned, nothing on the internet about it, but I do have an ad/brochure showing the item for sale. I'm happy so see another one! Thanks for sharing!
Wow, that Sanyo! My dad still has a Sanyo TP-825D direct drive turntable that he bought brand new in 1976/77. He mothballed it in the late 1980s/early 90s, but it is nonetheless immaculate to this day (even the dust cover). Last year he resurrected the Sanyo, put a new cartridge on it, and started re-experiencing his collection of vintage 1960s and 70s records. My dad allowed me to discover music using his turntable until my parents gave me my own for Christmas in the mid-80s (Fisher direct drive MT-series - can't remember the exact model number), but man I have fond memories of that Sanyo. So glad he still has it!
Kevin, great video! I used to have a GAS Thalia preamp (little brother to the Thaedra) and it was matched to a GAS Son of Ampzilla. Loved listening to those for many years. Finally sold those and bought a Carver M1.0t amp and Adcom GFP555 preamp, which I still have today.
I have a Realistic STA-90 Receiver I bought a few decades ago more for the aesthetics than anything else. Loved the amber display as opposed to the usual blue or green. I put red LED’s behind the signal and center meter so the meters are lit red and the radio dial original amber, looks fantastic IMHO! Build and sound are excellent, better than most Realistic equipment of the late 70’s. Thanks for your channel, I really enjoy it as someone who’s been addicted to HiFi equipment since I was a kid in the 70’s to today.
Great video, Kevin! This topic could be an on-going series. There are so many sleeper pieces out there that were well built and great sounding. I think Radio Shack gear could be a 1 hour video of it's own.
my brother runs an online auction house, where these items have been available and go cheap. Turn tables/amps/8-track/CD/ reel-reels. There's some on there this week!.
I have a Realistic STA-90 and it's my daily driver - love everything about it! It really is a quality receiver, and sounds fantastic. The orange lights are unusual and interesting. Bought it I think mainly out of nostalgia because of how many hours I used to spend digesting the Radio Shack catalog, but was treated to an outstanding piece of equipment. It's paired with Altec 891A's and sounds terrific. A seriously tasty 70's setup!
When I was waay younger I worked at Dixie Hi Fi and sold alot of the equipment you talk about, the lower wattage and money makers. Had to be my favorite job of all time, but to get to the point I would go around to other audio stores and dream,there was a store in Greensboro NC that had built a room inside the store just for the irs speakers. I had never heard anything like that nor have I heard anything since, it was a life changing experience but I don’t remember them being 80k. My mind is old and cluttered but I’m thinking somewhere around 20k I’m not sure. Anyway I’m glad I stumbled upon your channel.
Kevin, thanks so much for showcasing decent vintage equipment at econmical prices. Prices of many 70's Marantz, Sansui and Pioneer products have just got out of control with too much speculation, even for parts only pieces. I'm going to look into that Realistic STA-90 which I agree is really well built. Thanks so much for your tips!
A couple of years ago I purchased an STA-90 with the original pair of Optimus-1B speakers complete with the owner's manual, handwritten receipts and warranty card. I think it was sold new in May of 1977. Stills works and sounds like a champ!
Hi Kevin in 1986 my friend found nos 1964 Sansui AU70 it used 7189 output tubes it had beautiful sound a lot better than the Scotts amps using the same output tubes
That Sanyo TT was made by the OEM manufacturer CEC. I have a similar direct drive version. CEC also made a number of the Marantz tables and many others. Generally good build quality. Mine weighs 27 pounds.
As a former salesman of audio while in college/grad school (late 70's, early 80's) I would choose lower models of higher cache brands For example, fell in love with Nak cassette decks and bought a 480 over higher featured more mainstream names.....
I knew James Bongiorno. He also created the Ampzilla. I used to sell him transistors when I worked at Motorola in the Los Angeles area. He was quite the character. Very full of himself and had an opinion about everything electronic. Great guy nonetheless that could keep you busy with his non-stop talk.
I owned a Thaedra. In fact I probably still do sort of own it as it may be buried in my ex-wife’s basement. A good friend of mine, Mike Bettinger, founded GASworks to restore and upgrade various GAS products. As I heard the story, the acronym was chosen because their first product, the legendary Ampzilla (which was a fantastic sounding amp!) could be referred to as a GAS power amp proving that engineers do have a sense of humor. My Thaedra was bought used and although it sounded very nice, it needed a thorough going over which I never got around to doing. I’m hoping I might be able to recover it and restore it one of these days. By the way, you are spot-on about the age of the Thaedra, it was introduced in 1976 (if my memory is correct) as the first GAS preamp. They went on to produce another, less expensive, preamp called the Thalia (they had a thing about naming preamps after women from Greek mythology).
Hi Kevin, I have an STA-90 that i had rebuilt and it's as good as you say it is. It drives a pair of Mach-I's with ease. I also have an STA-2080, rebuilt. It's tuner pulls in more stations than my Marantz 2285. It has a great look to it and has more than enough power to drive 2 pairs of Mach-1's that need enough power to amplify down to 29hz. As you say, lots of Realistic gear isn't very good but some is excellent. I do have lots of other 'name brand' gear like the Sansui AU 20,000 that tops my collection, but the Realistic stuff has a special place in my heart. Great videos. I'd like to drop in some time but I live in South Central British Columbia and I'm well past my long distance driving days.
Also have the STA 2080 . Great receiver! And a STA 2000. Which sounds like it at 120 WPC , not the 75 they claim it is. The 2000 is probably the best receiver I ever owned and I bought it new . Many others have come and gone , but I will never let those Realistic's go.
I purchased name brands that I couldn't afford as a teenager! But can as an old man! But the best advice on stereo component purchases. Came from a Louisville High End Audiophile salesman! After trying to sell me E-horn Speakers? That were made from metal instead of paper! In 73 home on leave, before going over to the Rock! And it breaks down like this! First bring a song in whatever format you choose! Next pick out 5 different brands, play the song through your picks with your back towards the systems, pick out the three that you thought sounded the best! And he told me out of the 3? They'll probably be one that sounded as good as the other two! And it might be a brand you never heard of and be the least expensive! I still believe in that strategy or did when I purchased my Toshiba Channel System Amp, Turner, reel to reel, 4 speakers and a Akai 2 Channel reel to reel with built in Speakers to play in the Rec. Area while shooting pool on the Rock! All for $550.00 +/- TMI! but Toshiba wasn't even known in the States! It's mostly an Asian product in the "70's" and is non existent now! But it's beat up, but still works and sounds? Well okay? Great to me! And the SS 47's & 37's concaved 3 way speakers (whatever the hell that means) in a full range mode has a good sound! I now add an active woofer or a passive woofer? (What ever I find at my local Goodwill) to my systems because it gives it more bottom without cranking up the amp! I really like your channel and your topics, but it's still about the music and the sound each individual wants to hear? The Brands that carried the sound to your ears is a mood point? SORRY! CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT MUSIC AND STEREO SYSTEMS! MUST HIT EJECT BUTTON! Be cool give a Wat Wat to your Father from the Senior Section! CMTFU
You had me chuckling with the Sanyo bit. It’s so true, especially buying vintage audio. You wanna impress yourself as much as anyone. Regarding the Realistics, those monster receivers they had like 2100d (I think) were beautiful.
We recently had a few GAS amps appear on the local FB Marketplace, all serviced and ready to go. An Ampzilla and a Theadra for 3500.00, too rich for my blood, but he had two each, with a slew of other high-end vintage gear.
The G:A.S. piece was high end "made in US" back in the day and Sanyo made some fine turntables. The bigger models of this series,like the TP-825D are REALY rare pieces.
Oooh, Love the Sanyo's! I had a TP626 like you showed in the video. Talk about an underated brand. I had JCX2100 wich sounded amazing. When I was looking for another JCX model with a bit more power I stumbled upon a JC2900... Love that thing all tje way through! Everything sounds just right (maybe a bit to clear bit nothing the tonecontrols can't solve). Later early 80's models aren't that good quality/sound but earlier stuff 70's) is all pretty neat, espacially for it's price and how many there are going around.
Im rocking a Hitachi TT from the same year as your Sanyo, and I have the same sentiments exactly on mine. Its just so damn solid. I also have an extreeeeeemly rare pair of SAS Audio Spectrum II speakers. College town brand that existed for 2-3 years before one founder moved on to work for Bose. Theyre L100 clones basically that kick just a little harder than the JBLs
Hey Kevin, you gotta a listener from Brazil here, and bellow 30 kkkkk. My dad always loved Vintage Stereo, and passed some of this to me - this passion was dorment until I find your fantastic channel (congrats on the excellent videos!). Here I have heard most of these fammous Brands of the US (thou it is hard to find them), but here we had some local too, like CCE (kinda like Realistic in the famme) and Gradiente (they had some ver good peaces). If you ever come to Brazil, it would be very Nice to show you these very different equipment from here! (My dad has a lot of them kkkkk).
Kevin, I believe AFC stands for Automatic Frequency control and was very common on the tuners of the late 50s and thru the 60s. I worked on many but never seen a Sansui mon. Cool piece.
Kevin, the frequency range on the FM-5 is the international standard. Japan FM is 76 to 95 Mhz, so I think the Sansui was aimed at the export market, or even the US military PX system, which was big in the 1960s.
Kevin, I don't believe I have ever heard of any of these. BUT, reading the comments revealed many who have! There were only three serious listeners in my circle of friends (we were filthy bikers after all), so the range of equipment was limited. Which is a big reason I immediately subscribed to your channel when stumbling across it.
I used an STA 2000 before I picked up a Pioneer 980. It is a damn good stereo. Has more of a to be tubey sound than my 980. Honestly the only reason I replaced it 980 so cheap. Thinking about hooking it up to my computer stereo.
Hi Kevin. I have a Realistic STA-90 and a Realistic STA-95. They cover the same ground (45 WPC) but I somehow can’t get rid of either one. They just look and sound so good!
I've had an STA 90 as well as several others since around 1980 or so. We had a record shop here that sold and horse traded used gear back in the day and they had a pair of Rectilinear III Lowboys there and a Realistic STA-95 with a Sanyo tape deck and 1010 turntable I 'traded in' an old Pioneer H-2000 receiver that had a built in 8-track, plus a pair of early Fisher speakers and $40 cash for it. I still own that pair of Rectilinear III speakers, plus several others, and wish I still had the STA-95. I handed the STA-95 down to my younger brother after I bought a new SX-1080. I had the 1080 till about 10 years ago, selling it for pretty decent money after having moved to all separates long before that time. I've been keeping an eye open for a clean STA-95 ever since. Both the STA 90 and 95 were 45wpc models, but I liked the bronze face on the 95 better. I've not heard those referred to as Rectilinear Model '6' before, they are Model XI. The XI was the second smallest of their models. I have several pair of Model III highboys and two pair of Model III lowboys that I'll likely never part with. They are amoung about 10 pair of speakers I'll never part with. The models they sold were as follows: Rectilinear: III (3-way, six drivers) - 35x18x12" - $279 - (msrp) III Lowboy (3-way, six drivers) - 28x22x12" - $299 - (msrp) Mini III (3-way) - 19x12x10" - $100 - (msrp) VI (3-way, six drivers) - 25x14x11" - $239 - (msrp) Xa (3-way) - 25x14x11" - $199 - (msrp) XI (2-way) - 23x12x11" - $80 - (msrp) XII (3-way) - 25x14x11" - $139 - (msrp) Back in the day no one around here laughed at the Realistic receivers, we would all have equally taken either a Pioneer, Realistic, or Technics back then, or even Fisher, Sanyo, or MCS too. Most us who were into stereo gear back then were far from brand specific and most who were seemed to be hung up on Nakamichi, Carver, or Yamaha at that time. Nothing against those brands either but you got far more bang for your buck with the Realistic, Sanyo, Fisher, or MCS. The STA 95 has a similar build to the STA 90, with just a few layout changes and in my opinion a better looking face plate. For what ever reason, that silver dial on a silver front panel was always my favorite style. These days my top Realistic Receiver is a STA-2100D, which I've owned now for about 35 years, having traded a used VW engine for it from a buddy who had just gotten married and was trying to build his new wife a car to use. He later bought himself a used Sta-2100, no "D" which I also ended up with years later after it lost its right channel. That Sansui reminds me of one a neighbor of ours had when I was a kid. He taught at the local high school, and had retired in the early 70's or so. He had been with the RAF in England during the war and he and his wife were very quiet but he never lost the instinct to teach, about once a week or so he'd invite neighbors over for cookies and hot chocolate or tea and he'd talk about his days in the RAF and his days lost in Africa after being shot down. He had a Mono Sansui, not sure of the model, that appeared to be late 50's or early 60's, that sat atop a huge old RCA speaker in a fancy cabinet/box with four legs on it. He'd sit there for hours listening to old 1940's era music on it in a chair he made himself when he was younger. It was more a kings throne than a chair with hand carvings all over it, something he specialized in. (In his retirement he carved decoys, something he taught me to do as well and is likely very much responsible for two of my other hobbies, wood working and hand carving. When he passed away he left all the kids who sat and listened to his stories something from his huge collection. I got much of his RAF souvenirs and his vintage Italian Moto Morini motorcycle. I think he left the receiver and speaker to his niece. Of course, all that was back in the mid 1970's or so.
The STA-90 also has two lamps in the dial pointer. In FM, it is orange, and it will turn red when in FM stereo. When replacing, use an orange and red led, or the pointer will appear washed-out.
I love the fact that some have problems with certain brands and that some brands are less popular as others. That means that us who knows what for instance Sanyo was capable of in the 70's get the good stuff almost thrown at us. Just imagine the prices we would have to pay if it was as popular as for instance Pioneer or Sansui. Quality went way further than within a few brands, and for the real vintage enthusiast outside the narrow box is where you get the thrills handed to you. A huge thanks to the brand skeptics.
Great vid as always! I've been running a 1950's Zenitheth Satalite with the tweeter and mid disconnected, only the 12" Alnico running from a Fender Mustang II with its speaker disconnected. Sounds Effin awesome. I even have to adjust the fon treble down, bass punch, to even things out. Old stuff can be Phillis Diller Killer. Cheers!
My father was a mechanical engineer who liked inventing things. He worked for MTI in Latham NY as a trouble shooter. He invented the Photonic Sensor that measures minute vibration with reflected light. We went to to Rochester NY. to check out a Edison recording and playback device. He set up a tracking device on the wax cylinder rolls and played back original Edison recordings all the while never touching the delicate wax cylinders. That's something I would like to have. It did zero damage to the recordings. It would be ideal for use on precious records.
Sanyo not only does turntables, there Sanyo JCX-2900K receiver is a 140 wpc dual mono power supply with a very good preamp section and tuner some claim more sensitive than many competitive models more than holds its own with a Pioneer 1050 and give a 1250 a run in shear audio performance for a lot less money. There downside might be the power switch though there are off the shelf alternatives to improve on that if you don't want to clean/rebuild the original. I also really dig the MCS 3285, that button laden faceplate is the bomb.
The STA 90, I worked at a Radio Shack as a teenager and that was very popular unit. We did not have much problem with them. The brand name was always an issue. That was made by Fostex. Toshiba and Panasonic all came out with fancy brand names. Sanyo, yes, a brother-in-law of Matsushita started it. They were maybe cheaper but not always. It is perception, agreed. AFC came out because tube circuits would drift and sometimes the tuners were hard to tune. It means Automatic Frequency Control and it would try and pull the tuner on station. Also, you get 3 lobes to tune in a station on FM. you only want the middle one and it would eliminate that but sometimes pull in a stronger station beside a weaker one.
Hi Kevin. Really enjoyed your review of the STA-90! I recently saved a STA-90 from the recycling pile, and so far so good! I've been very impressed with the low end response, and it has no problem driving my NHT 2.5i's. I was thinking about selling it, but I think I'm going to hold on to it! After all it was free! Love your videos, very informative! Keep up the work and feel free to send me a Sky Labs shirt! Thanks again Rich
GAS! Haven't heard that name in a LONG while. Quite the quirky high-end company. They also made an amp named Ampzilla, to be followed by the Son of Ampzilla. I used to frequent a shop named HiFi Haven in New Brunswick NJ that sold their equipment. REALLY good stuff!
Yeah, I got a few raised eyebrows from some of my friends that owned the major brands back in the early 70’s when they would see my Lafayette hi-fi equipment.. I liked it, so that’s all that mattered to me and I wish I still had some of the pieces I owned back then..
I bought 2 sets of those Rectilinear in perfect condition for 60 bucks last year...one set with the grills you showed...and the other has the brown cork looking cloth. I was blown away by there sound. One set is paired wirh a SX-727 and the other with a Fisher CA-120 with an EQ. Highly recommend them for their sound and 70's look
A friend has a couple of pieces from the Sanyo Plus line and they are fantastic. That said, I would have trouble putting them in my rack. Ridiculous but true and probably common amongst us gear nerds. I figure as long as your snobbery is directed inward - no problem! If someone is rocking their MCS all-in-one, more power to them.
I'm listening to this through a Sanyo 2050, and have many more Sanyos including the JCX 2900. I thank all of the audio snobs for keeping the prices down on the Sanyos so I can buy more at decent prices.
Sorry, Kevin, I think there may be a correction here. The Rectilinear "Model 6" speakers - if you go to 5:27, if that label is from that speaker then that is a Model XI "highboy" (Roman numeral for "11", not "6"). I have a pair of these from 1974! I'm further eastern Midwest (Detroit). Mine don't have that grill, they have the typical dark brown cloth. The guys that started Ohm left Rectilinear, and I have a pair of Ohm Model E also. I do see some Ohm speakers for sale locally, but no, not Rectilinear.
Lol! You are absolutely correct. My bad
How do you position and best enjoy your Ohm E's?
@@waxwax8781 , first, thank you for assuming I know what I'm doing. LOL! I don't. And since digging out all my old stuff now as "vintage audio" I don't have a good listening space setup, just a sunroom to experiment with my stuff. But of the few speakers I have the E's are probably my favorite and work nicely with my low power SX-434, 330B, and 661 receivers. I'm keeping an eye open for a pair of E2 to try with the extended range. For more power the C might be a better choice, I see those pop up in my area.
Those are not the Highboy model, the Highboy was a model III, those are model Xi, a much smaller two way speaker. The Highboy and Lowboy models both had 5 drivers.
I own both the Highboy, Lowboy and am in the middle of restoring a set of both VI and XI speakers. The Highboy measured 35x18x12in, and the XI was only 23x12x11", or roughly the size of the Polk Monitor 7's. None the less, they were all really great sounding speakers with a very balanced and detailed sound.
@@jeffbranch8072- if you like the sound of the model E you'll just go ape for the Ohm L's. Got mine in 1978 (with single tweeter switch and binding post connections). Still in use today. I also added a pair of model H systems (two tweeter controls and spring loaded connectors) a few years back and they're boss. Like me, my Ohm speakers were born in Brooklyn. Ya got good taste.
It's funny how history repeats itself. In the 70's, Realistic receivers were bought by students as a first stereo and ended up cranking out the tunes of the day. In 2024, every 70's Realistic receiver that I repair and sell ends up in the dorm of a college or university student playing 70's rock! There's hope for the world!
Yeah, but then you remember when Tandy went high end, they were all Sony's. And who's children are these anyway? My son is 41 and has a lot nicer all Sony/ JBL system than I have. Mines more a mix and match with a pair of huge subs. But his is an all matched JBL set. He has the killer surround system. And he listens to all the same music I do. And he even like C.C.R. LOL He even has a USB fob for his car I made for him.
AFC as I have always known it was “ Automatic Frequency Control “, which basically locks in the FM signal once it was found with the FM selector, was told to me by my dad back in the early 60’s printed on his Heathkit tuner. Just saying and I love your content.
You are correct. AFC = Automatic Frequency Control.
I'm 54. My dad bought that STA90 new in 78. I grew up listening to music on that receiver all through the 80s until I got my pos all in one.
In the mid 2000s I landed a pristine STA90 off Craigslist. I'm sure there's better, but that piece of equipment holds the most nostalgic feels for me. Everything sounds exactly as it should to me.
Realistic's higher end gear was often very good. With Realistic you had to do research before buying. Sometimes the same model was good or not good based on which run you got. Some Pioneers and Sansui's had runs of better quality than others. The problem was many companies brought capacitors and other things in bulk lots and quality was generally very good but not always. I had just about every Sanyo turntable they made at some point. My biker friends and I were price sensitive (Cheap). We used to party hard back then. We tried our best to wear out Lots of Sanyo gear. We couldn't do it! Some Sanyo receivers, turntables & cassette decks were tanks! My Sanyo 2033 was for sure.
Kevin, I giggled all the way through this after "It's a Sanyo." As for the Realistic receiver, my dad bought a STA-65 in 1970, we had it for nearly 45 yrs without any issues (no caps, no cleaning, no noisy pots, nothing). Talk about a daily driver!
Thanks Craig!
My dad was buddy buddy with our small town radio shack owner. So anything to do with electronics carried the radio shack in house brand. Our home stereo was no exception.
I still remember that green glow. I wish I knew what model it was. But that sucker lasted well past after I moved out in my own. I remember seeing it when we cleaned out my parents home after they both died. We cranked it up while we did the packing. Wish I knew what happened to it.
That 70’s realistic signature was the sound of my entire childhood and then some.
@gustercc I did a 'vintage realistic receiver' image search to find which one we had. Took a few minutes to find ours. Thanks for your story, good to hear.
I sold a lot of the STA-90s in the day when I worked for Radio Shack in High School. James Bongiorno was an audio industry legend. He did design work for SAE, Adcom, HK, Marantz, Sumo, Dynaco, Ampzilla, Crown and others. He just passed away in 2013. I meet him at a trade event at one of the CES shows. Just an introduction.
So cool. Thanks, Ed :)
FINALLY! Great American Sound aka GAS makes it to Skylabs youtube video!! Top notch equipment.. I am a huge GAS fan and run updated GAS equipment in my main stereo today and couldn't be happier. Thanks for bringing this one on your channel Kevin!!
Love the 😊comments on Name Brand. I think part of audiophile-isms….is look, feel, and name often times. We sure miss some great stuff because of that. Your honesty on the subject struck a chord. 😊
GAS (Great American Sound) made high quality amps back in the day. Build quality was outstanding.
No doubt!
Had a Sanyo turntable owned for 30 yrs only 1 belt replaced. It worked flawlessly
Technique SA500 reciver , Ohm c-2 speakers.
That was my first system and it was not bad at all
I have a STA-90 that I got to replace a Pioneer SX 750 that broke. As you said Kevin, the STA-90 sounds a lot like a comparable Pioneer. It been my daily driver for about a year now and drives my Large Advents as well as the SX-750. The only issue mine has that seems to be a common one with this model is that the FM tuner doesn't always play in stereo. It does occasionally work but most of the time it's only mono. While it may be rare in your part of the country but Radio Shack sold a lot of these between 1976 thru 1978 during the height of the stereo wars of the 70's. Keep up the good work Kevin. I look forward to you videos every week.
Hi Kevin! I've got some notes on the Sanyo Turntable. I was shopping around for some vintage gear to build my 30 y.o. son a nice little home stereo setup for his apartment. I picked up a very similar Sanyo turntable at a vintage vinyl shop for about $130.00 (Canadian). If I remember correctly the internet showed that the same turntable sold in Canada and the US but I think they were badged as Fisher in the US. So yes, the Sanyo branding would be somewhat rare in the States. This is a fully automatic belt drive TT. The one I bought was in very good condition cosmetically and mechanically. It had what looked to be an original Shure cartridge but the stylus was trashed. I replaced it with a Grado Black cartridge. i also replaced the drive belt which was cheap and easy to find online. The automatic functions worked perfectly. The grease points were lithium in good condition for the age of the deck. The motor spun right up and was smooth/quiet. The tone arm was well made, nicely finished and had a simple counterweight for anti skating. The mass of the Grado required some additional weight. I slipped a tiny steel nut onto the shaft and that worked fine. I tested the speed against a Technics SL-1200 with pitch adjustment and found the Sanyo ran about 2% fast. After digging around in the archives of some chat pages to find a way to correct the pitch I think this may have been common and there is no built in adjustment. Also there is no adjustment for tone arm/cartridge angle so my Grado upgrade may be off. As was common at the time the turntable itself is suspended by springs to isolate it from the base. Fine if you're on a concrete slab. Not so good if you are on a suspended wood floor. With the tracking set properly it skips pretty easily if there's dancing or adults walking nearby. I ran it through a couple of setups and settled on testing it through my Mitsubishi DA-R8 receiver which I've had since new in 1984 ( I found one on Ebay for about $150 US for my son). I routed it through a pair of Paradigm Studio 20 Bookshelf speakers in my kitchen. It was pretty good. Better than the budget Onkyo TT with the cartridge I could afford in 1984. Bottom line it's esthetically pure 1970's home stereo vibe. Comparable to mid level home hi-fi of it's time. It's well designed and well built for the price and has the auto function that makes it easy to play records at home, which is exactly what it was built for. Cheers!
Being a former "audio specialist, retail" back in the late '70's, early '80's we had a catch phrase: Say no to Sanyo". Usually in reference to their receivers, and tape decks.
Some was o.k., but you're right, it was all about name recognition for us audio snobs.
But, the more we knew, the less snobbish we became as we got older. Keep up the good work, great channel .
Enjoyed the video.. I remember I bought my sister a 18 watt per channel receiver from Radio Shack. Can't remember the model, may have been STA 64. It was a nice unit and sounded good. I bought me a SA1001 Realistic Amp. It was a 35 watt per channel. I loved it. By 1987 I upgraded it to the Realistic STA2700 receiver. Never looked back. It does not have the face of a 70's, but it has never let me down.
your G.A.S unit was highly regarded during it's time. G.A.S. was true audiophile equipment, the designer went on to start his own company called SST, it is still active today and I have two of his mono block Amps called SST Ampzilla 2000 2nd generation. they are Awesome sounding and powerful.
My current favorite turntable is a Sears Professional model, and I am not ashamed. It sounds and works great.
You are so right.
There are a lot of snobs out there.
All that matters, ALL that matters is the sound performance.
You want a true sleeper?
Chinon. AR 8000 receiver.
Also Sony SS 1005 speakers.
Nuff said.
Great channel. Thank you for all the history and Audio porn.
"AFC" stands for "Automatic Frequency Control" Back in the analog days, FM receivers had a tendency to drift. This additional circuitry helped prevent that at a slight loss of sensitivity. It was sometimes referred to as "AFT" or "Automatic Fine Tuning".
I have my Rectilinear highboys, I love them. The sound and imaging are incredible.
I have a later design Sumo preamp and matching tuner. Both the GAS and Sumo had kind of silly names. Ampzilla, Son of ampzilla. My Sumo tuner is the model " Charlie " . Yeah, charlie the " tuna". Never met Mr. Bonjourno, but heard he was a genius engineer.
Thanks Kevin, it’s a big audio World out there and still some undiscovered countries to map. Those speakers show up in the Seattle area fairly often but I haven’t run across any of the other items. Fun stuff!
Realistic...Sanyo wicked good stuff!!!
I still have my Radio Shack STA 90 bought in ‘77. It’s travel all over the US from U-Haul trailers to moving vans. It’s now in the workshop and plays daily. Still sounds great. Super clear, great tone.
James Bongiorno went on to found the Sumo electronics company- Legendary stuff!
GAS - Son Of Ampzilla. It’s a nice amp. One of my biggest regrets was not buying a Setton RS-440 receiver and a Setton AS-1100 integrated amp. I figured I could hold off. Haven’t seen another decent Setton for sale ever since.
Thank you for taking the time to read through and comment on our comments.
True. That is always greatly appreciated.
Thanks for commenting
Greatly enjoy this kind of content ! It's just plain fun and amusing to see what you'll present next. I have a dusty old TP-626 I'll be cleaning up and giving to a friend. I feel better knowing I'm not giving him a total POS! One of my favorite pastimes is perusing vintage hifi classifieds, finding something that looks cool and going down a rabbit hole researching it. Here I can just hit play, watch, relax and end it with a thumbs up. Nice work Kevin !
I remember the "G.A.S - Ampzilla".
I always wanted one despite the fact that I had a Phase Linear 400 at the time.
Today I use lower power "distributed" amps and a class-d 300w plate amp on a single 12 inch sub.
I went to a yard sale this past weekend and as we were leaving I looked at the free pile next to the curb. Laying there amongst the junk was a Realistic STA-740. The antenna on the back was partially busted and it was a bit dusty. I grabbed it, got it home and fired it up and it works awesome! I love it.
Kevin, there are two ampzillas for sale in Mt Vernon. Been on marketplace awhile id imagine. I've seen them off and on throughout the year while browsing.
Ampzillas are great, huge power reserves. But when they fail, they really fail.
I loved the Sanyo car decks from back in the day. I could go full volume with no audible distortion. I liked my old Pioneer supertuner deck too. I know it's slightly off topic but I also own a 2nd bedroom full of a lot of what I see on your channel. It's a fun hobby and I appreciate taking in your videos.
I've got a G.A.S. Thoebe and it's awesome. Had an opportunity to pick up an Ampzilla and didn't. I still kick myself for passing over that. Thanks for talking about G.A.S. products!
My brother in law still has his Rectilinears. Saw them today. He has the really big ones! He’s had them since 1976 or so.
Great video! I'm 70 and messing in this hobby over 50 years so every thing I have is vintage like me. One thing I have had for close to 40 years and still quiet is a JBL pre-amp called a graphic controller sg-520 it supposedly came out of a Paragon system.
Another fun one. Cheers a lot!
Hey Kevin, the GAS Thaedra brought back good memories. I bought a Thaedra and Ampzilla used back around 1982. Great pieces of gear but not very aesthetically pleasing. I believe GAS was owned by the legendary John Bonjourno. The Theadra had an awesome moving coil phono preamp. The Ampzilla was one of the first super amps putting out some 200W/ch. Lights dimmed for a moment when you switched it on….
Cool, thanks
I just bought and restored an STA-90! Great receiver, cool colour combination. This is a punchy 45 watts.
Love the opening ad....my motto is.... neighbors listen to good music whether they want to or not!
As I was getting ready to open MY VINTAGE AUDIO store, I was watching your program. You were talking about how owning a vintage audio store people will call and offer you stereo equipment. I laughed, thinking about how many times it has happened to me. Just at that very moment, my phone rang, and I went and picked up a beautiful pair of cabinet speakers with JBL D120 speakers inside. Thank you for making my day😊
LOU at MY VINTAGE AUDIO
Enjoy all your videos. Recently acquired a ROTEL RX-603. It had not been used in decades evident of the dusty coat covering it and had scratchy dials/pots so cleaned with Deoxit D5 and replaced one 6.3V fuse lamp and received rocks, packs a punch even with a cheapo Sony/KLR speaker setup. Question: Occasionally the channels left or right statics and goes off, “no sound”, turning volume knob up/down corrects problem and all speakers play fine again. What are your thots on ROTEL receivers and the channel/volume issue mentioned above?
Hey Kevin, love the channel. I worked for Bongiorno soon after he started SUMO. We built EVERYTHING by hand, including winding our own transformers. A small shop, we were happy to be turning out a very high quality product. Yes, JB was a genius, no question. Multi talented, he played jazz piano in bands around LA. He was…um… an eccentric guy. Lots of stories in those wild days of start up companies in LA hi-fi. SUMO amps were built in Tarzana, CA. John Musgrave, (engineer/production expert) if you are out there, thanks for everything.
It is sad Jim has passed, I too worked with him. Eccentric to the nth degree, but a mind always scheming. Many lunches with him drawing on place mats. Good man!
@@michaeledwards9376 Hello! Thanks for the reply. I'm curious, were you working with him at GAS or SUMO? I learned a ton of stuff at that little outfit. It was a fine adventure. A close knit group, for the time we were together. It was such a great product, but I don't think the masses were buying on the scale that he needed to make a sustaining profit.
I miss RadioShack so much! They just sold interesting and unique gear that nobody else had. Their stereo components were hit or miss, but the good ones were really good. A lot of fun to browse the stores.
I bought a pair of the Mach II Speakers and was totally happy with them but yes, I miss all the parts and accessories they sold right from their stores, all the cables and connectors, speaker components, full size TV antennas, and they even had some basic PA gear. You have to look online now for most of what they sold.
Regulators go bad on early Thalias. No parts available now.
Kevin, I bought my first system at Stereo Town in the Valley West Mall in 1977 or 78. I bought a Kenwood KA-3500 amp, Kenwood KD-2055 Turntable, and a pair of New Advent speakers in solid walnut. It was my pride and joy and I wish I’d never sold them. I graduated Valley HS in 1979, and worked at Brandeis in the mall those days. I miss those days.
I own a Sansui FM-5! The rubber isolation grommets for the tuner gang have fallen out in pieces so I don't dare turn it on until I rebuild it! As you mentioned, nothing on the internet about it, but I do have an ad/brochure showing the item for sale. I'm happy so see another one! Thanks for sharing!
Wow, that Sanyo! My dad still has a Sanyo TP-825D direct drive turntable that he bought brand new in 1976/77. He mothballed it in the late 1980s/early 90s, but it is nonetheless immaculate to this day (even the dust cover). Last year he resurrected the Sanyo, put a new cartridge on it, and started re-experiencing his collection of vintage 1960s and 70s records. My dad allowed me to discover music using his turntable until my parents gave me my own for Christmas in the mid-80s (Fisher direct drive MT-series - can't remember the exact model number), but man I have fond memories of that Sanyo. So glad he still has it!
Kevin, great video! I used to have a GAS Thalia preamp (little brother to the Thaedra) and it was matched to a GAS Son of Ampzilla. Loved listening to those for many years. Finally sold those and bought a Carver M1.0t amp and Adcom GFP555 preamp, which I still have today.
I have a Realistic STA-90 Receiver I bought a few decades ago more for the aesthetics than anything else. Loved the amber display as opposed to the usual blue or green. I put red LED’s behind the signal and center meter so the meters are lit red and the radio dial original amber, looks fantastic IMHO! Build and sound are excellent, better than most Realistic equipment of the late 70’s.
Thanks for your channel, I really enjoy it as someone who’s been addicted to HiFi equipment since I was a kid in the 70’s to today.
My somewhat rare receiver is the Setton RS-660. I had it as a kid, lost it and re-purchased one a couple of years ago. Fantastic receiver !
The GAS is a great preamp, also James other company was SUMO, I had two class A amps model 9 , yes keep it .
One of Sumo’s clever naming was their tuner- the Sumo Charlie. If you know you know
Great video, Kevin! This topic could be an on-going series. There are so many sleeper pieces out there that were well built and great sounding. I think Radio Shack gear could be a 1 hour video of it's own.
Realistic STA 90 was my first receiver I got In 1977. It played flawlessly for years and hard at time!
my brother runs an online auction house, where these items have been available and go cheap. Turn tables/amps/8-track/CD/ reel-reels. There's some on there this week!.
I remember Rectilinear speakers. Awsome speakers. MY late father had the Rectilinear III lowboys.
I have a Realistic STA-90 and it's my daily driver - love everything about it! It really is a quality receiver, and sounds fantastic. The orange lights are unusual and interesting. Bought it I think mainly out of nostalgia because of how many hours I used to spend digesting the Radio Shack catalog, but was treated to an outstanding piece of equipment. It's paired with Altec 891A's and sounds terrific. A seriously tasty 70's setup!
When I was waay younger I worked at Dixie Hi Fi and sold alot of the equipment you talk about, the lower wattage and money makers. Had to be my favorite job of all time, but to get to the point I would go around to other audio stores and dream,there was a store in Greensboro NC that had built a room inside the store just for the irs speakers. I had never heard anything like that nor have I heard anything since, it was a life changing experience but I don’t remember them being 80k. My mind is old and cluttered but I’m thinking somewhere around 20k I’m not sure. Anyway I’m glad I stumbled upon your channel.
Kevin, thanks so much for showcasing decent vintage equipment at econmical prices.
Prices of many 70's Marantz, Sansui and Pioneer products have just got out of control with too much speculation, even for parts only pieces. I'm going to look into that Realistic STA-90 which I agree is really well built. Thanks so much for your tips!
Hey Kevin. Great video as usual. I always learn something new when watching your channel, and that is saying something! :)
A couple of years ago I purchased an STA-90 with the original pair of Optimus-1B speakers complete with the owner's manual, handwritten receipts and warranty card. I think it was sold new in May of 1977. Stills works and sounds like a champ!
Hi Kevin in 1986 my friend found nos 1964 Sansui AU70 it used 7189 output tubes it had beautiful sound a lot better than the Scotts amps using the same output tubes
That Sanyo TT was made by the OEM manufacturer CEC. I have a similar direct drive version. CEC also made a number of the Marantz tables and many others. Generally good build quality. Mine weighs 27 pounds.
As a former salesman of audio while in college/grad school (late 70's, early 80's) I would choose lower models of higher cache brands
For example, fell in love with Nak cassette decks and bought a 480 over higher featured more mainstream names.....
I knew James Bongiorno. He also created the Ampzilla. I used to sell him transistors when I worked at Motorola in the Los Angeles area. He was quite the character. Very full of himself and had an opinion about everything electronic. Great guy nonetheless that could keep you busy with his non-stop talk.
I owned a Thaedra. In fact I probably still do sort of own it as it may be buried in my ex-wife’s basement. A good friend of mine, Mike Bettinger, founded GASworks to restore and upgrade various GAS products. As I heard the story, the acronym was chosen because their first product, the legendary Ampzilla (which was a fantastic sounding amp!) could be referred to as a GAS power amp proving that engineers do have a sense of humor. My Thaedra was bought used and although it sounded very nice, it needed a thorough going over which I never got around to doing. I’m hoping I might be able to recover it and restore it one of these days.
By the way, you are spot-on about the age of the Thaedra, it was introduced in 1976 (if my memory is correct) as the first GAS preamp. They went on to produce another, less expensive, preamp called the Thalia (they had a thing about naming preamps after women from Greek mythology).
Great video. Tks for bringing to light brands I never heard of and will look for now. Love this hobby.
One of my long standing TT was a Philips GA 427 (auto return, wood plinth). Gave it to a friend 10+ years ago.....still spinning.
Hi Kevin, I have an STA-90 that i had rebuilt and it's as good as you say it is. It drives a pair of Mach-I's with ease. I also have an STA-2080, rebuilt. It's tuner pulls in more stations than my Marantz 2285. It has a great look to it and has more than enough power to drive 2 pairs of Mach-1's that need enough power to amplify down to 29hz. As you say, lots of Realistic gear isn't very good but some is excellent. I do have lots of other 'name brand' gear like the Sansui AU 20,000 that tops my collection, but the Realistic stuff has a special place in my heart. Great videos. I'd like to drop in some time but I live in South Central British Columbia and I'm well past my long distance driving days.
Also have the STA 2080 . Great receiver! And a STA 2000. Which sounds like it at 120 WPC , not the 75 they claim it is. The 2000 is probably the best receiver I ever owned and I bought it new . Many others have come and gone , but I will never let those Realistic's go.
I purchased name brands that I couldn't afford as a teenager! But can as an old man! But the best advice on stereo component purchases. Came from a Louisville High End Audiophile salesman! After trying to sell me E-horn Speakers? That were made from metal instead of paper! In 73 home on leave, before going over to the Rock!
And it breaks down like this!
First bring a song in whatever format you choose!
Next pick out 5 different brands, play the song through your picks with your back towards the systems, pick out the three that you thought sounded the best! And he told me out of the 3? They'll probably be one that sounded as good as the other two! And it might be a brand you never heard of and be the least expensive! I still believe in that strategy or did when I purchased my Toshiba Channel System Amp, Turner, reel to reel, 4 speakers and a Akai 2 Channel reel to reel with built in Speakers to play in the Rec. Area while shooting pool on the Rock! All for $550.00 +/- TMI! but Toshiba wasn't even known in the States! It's mostly an Asian product in the "70's" and is non existent now! But it's beat up, but still works and sounds? Well okay? Great to me! And the SS 47's & 37's concaved 3 way speakers (whatever the hell that means) in a full range mode has a good sound! I now add an active woofer or a passive woofer? (What ever I find at my local Goodwill) to my systems because it gives it more bottom without cranking up the amp! I really like your channel and your topics, but it's still about the music and the sound each individual wants to hear? The Brands that carried the sound to your ears is a mood point? SORRY! CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT MUSIC AND STEREO SYSTEMS! MUST HIT EJECT BUTTON! Be cool give a Wat Wat to your Father from the Senior Section! CMTFU
You had me chuckling with the Sanyo bit. It’s so true, especially buying vintage audio. You wanna impress yourself as much as anyone. Regarding the Realistics, those monster receivers they had like 2100d (I think) were beautiful.
We recently had a few GAS amps appear on the local FB Marketplace, all serviced and ready to go. An Ampzilla and a Theadra for 3500.00, too rich for my blood, but he had two each, with a slew of other high-end vintage gear.
Pretty sure there is at least one of these, more I think in the recording studio equipment I’ve been left! I wish you were in the uk!!!
The G:A.S. piece was high end "made in US" back in the day and Sanyo made some fine turntables.
The bigger models of this series,like the TP-825D are REALY rare pieces.
I’ve got a belt drive Kenwood turntable from 1970s. Replaced the belt a few times, and the vibration-isolating feet, but otherwise it’s still great.
I have an elac turntable made for radio shack. Sounds great and works beautifully. 50+ years old!
Oooh, Love the Sanyo's! I had a TP626 like you showed in the video. Talk about an underated brand. I had JCX2100 wich sounded amazing. When I was looking for another JCX model with a bit more power I stumbled upon a JC2900... Love that thing all tje way through! Everything sounds just right (maybe a bit to clear bit nothing the tonecontrols can't solve). Later early 80's models aren't that good quality/sound but earlier stuff 70's) is all pretty neat, espacially for it's price and how many there are going around.
Im rocking a Hitachi TT from the same year as your Sanyo, and I have the same sentiments exactly on mine. Its just so damn solid. I also have an extreeeeeemly rare pair of SAS Audio Spectrum II speakers. College town brand that existed for 2-3 years before one founder moved on to work for Bose. Theyre L100 clones basically that kick just a little harder than the JBLs
Hey Kevin, you gotta a listener from Brazil here, and bellow 30 kkkkk. My dad always loved Vintage Stereo, and passed some of this to me - this passion was dorment until I find your fantastic channel (congrats on the excellent videos!). Here I have heard most of these fammous Brands of the US (thou it is hard to find them), but here we had some local too, like CCE (kinda like Realistic in the famme) and Gradiente (they had some ver good peaces). If you ever come to Brazil, it would be very Nice to show you these very different equipment from here! (My dad has a lot of them kkkkk).
Thanks
Kevin, I believe AFC stands for Automatic Frequency control and was very common on the tuners of the late 50s and thru the 60s. I worked on many but never seen a Sansui mon. Cool piece.
I am currently using a Realistic quadraphonic receiver, just in stereo, as my office receiver. I am not at all disappointed in.
Kevin, the frequency range on the FM-5 is the international standard. Japan FM is 76 to 95 Mhz, so I think the Sansui was aimed at the export market, or even the US military PX system, which was big in the 1960s.
Currently playing my albums on a classy-looking Sanyo TP-80sa. Best sounding and operating turntable I've had to date.
Kevin, I don't believe I have ever heard of any of these. BUT, reading the comments revealed many who have! There were only three serious listeners in my circle of friends (we were filthy bikers after all), so the range of equipment was limited. Which is a big reason I immediately subscribed to your channel when stumbling across it.
I had a Sanyo TP 1020 as my first TT paired with a Nikko 3035 and some Cerwin Vega r-10's later added an Onkyo A-5 and that system rocked!
I used an STA 2000 before I picked up a Pioneer 980. It is a damn good stereo. Has more of a to be tubey sound than my 980. Honestly the only reason I replaced it 980 so cheap.
Thinking about hooking it up to my computer stereo.
Hi Kevin. I have a Realistic STA-90 and a Realistic STA-95. They cover the same ground (45 WPC) but I somehow can’t get rid of either one. They just look and sound so good!
I've had an STA 90 as well as several others since around 1980 or so. We had a record shop here that sold and horse traded used gear back in the day and they had a pair of Rectilinear III Lowboys there and a Realistic STA-95 with a Sanyo tape deck and 1010 turntable
I 'traded in' an old Pioneer H-2000 receiver that had a built in 8-track, plus a pair of early Fisher speakers and $40 cash for it.
I still own that pair of Rectilinear III speakers, plus several others, and wish I still had the STA-95. I handed the STA-95 down to my younger brother after I bought a new SX-1080.
I had the 1080 till about 10 years ago, selling it for pretty decent money after having moved to all separates long before that time. I've been keeping an eye open for a clean STA-95 ever since. Both the STA 90 and 95 were 45wpc models, but I liked the bronze face on the 95 better.
I've not heard those referred to as Rectilinear Model '6' before, they are Model XI.
The XI was the second smallest of their models. I have several pair of Model III highboys and two pair of Model III lowboys that I'll likely never part with. They are amoung about 10 pair of speakers I'll never part with.
The models they sold were as follows:
Rectilinear:
III (3-way, six drivers) - 35x18x12" - $279 - (msrp)
III Lowboy (3-way, six drivers) - 28x22x12" - $299 - (msrp)
Mini III (3-way) - 19x12x10" - $100 - (msrp)
VI (3-way, six drivers) - 25x14x11" - $239 - (msrp)
Xa (3-way) - 25x14x11" - $199 - (msrp)
XI (2-way) - 23x12x11" - $80 - (msrp)
XII (3-way) - 25x14x11" - $139 - (msrp)
Back in the day no one around here laughed at the Realistic receivers, we would all have equally taken either a Pioneer, Realistic, or Technics back then, or even Fisher, Sanyo, or MCS too. Most us who were into stereo gear back then were far from brand specific and most who were seemed to be hung up on Nakamichi, Carver, or Yamaha at that time.
Nothing against those brands either but you got far more bang for your buck with the Realistic, Sanyo, Fisher, or MCS.
The STA 95 has a similar build to the STA 90, with just a few layout changes and in my opinion a better looking face plate. For what ever reason, that silver dial on a silver front panel was always my favorite style.
These days my top Realistic Receiver is a STA-2100D, which I've owned now for about 35 years, having traded a used VW engine for it from a buddy who had just gotten married and was trying to build his new wife a car to use. He later bought himself a used Sta-2100, no "D" which I also ended up with years later after it lost its right channel.
That Sansui reminds me of one a neighbor of ours had when I was a kid. He taught at the local high school, and had retired in the early 70's or so. He had been with the RAF in England during the war and he and his wife were very quiet but he never lost the instinct to teach, about once a week or so he'd invite neighbors over for cookies and hot chocolate or tea and he'd talk about his days in the RAF and his days lost in Africa after being shot down. He had a Mono Sansui, not sure of the model, that appeared to be late 50's or early 60's, that sat atop a huge old RCA speaker in a fancy cabinet/box with four legs on it. He'd sit there for hours listening to old 1940's era music on it in a chair he made himself when he was younger. It was more a kings throne than a chair with hand carvings all over it, something he specialized in. (In his retirement he carved decoys, something he taught me to do as well and is likely very much responsible for two of my other hobbies, wood working and hand carving.
When he passed away he left all the kids who sat and listened to his stories something from his huge collection. I got much of his RAF souvenirs and his vintage Italian Moto Morini motorcycle. I think he left the receiver and speaker to his niece. Of course, all that was back in the mid 1970's or so.
The STA-90 also has two lamps in the dial pointer. In FM, it is orange, and it will turn red when in FM stereo. When replacing, use an orange and red led, or the pointer will appear washed-out.
I love the fact that some have problems with certain brands and that some brands are less popular as others. That means that us who knows what for instance Sanyo was capable of in the 70's get the good stuff almost thrown at us. Just imagine the prices we would have to pay if it was as popular as for instance Pioneer or Sansui. Quality went way further than within a few brands, and for the real vintage enthusiast outside the narrow box is where you get the thrills handed to you. A huge thanks to the brand skeptics.
Rectilinear XI were my first pair of separate speakers, so your model VI really takes me back!
Thanks, Kevin. More '60s tube stuff, please.
Great vid as always! I've been running a 1950's Zenitheth Satalite with the tweeter and mid disconnected, only the 12" Alnico running from a Fender Mustang II with its speaker disconnected. Sounds Effin awesome. I even have to adjust the fon treble down, bass punch, to even things out. Old stuff can be Phillis Diller Killer. Cheers!
My father was a mechanical engineer who liked inventing things. He worked for MTI in Latham NY as a trouble shooter. He invented the Photonic Sensor that measures minute vibration with reflected light. We went to to Rochester NY. to check out a Edison recording and playback device. He set up a tracking device on the wax cylinder rolls and played back original Edison recordings all the while never touching the delicate wax cylinders. That's something I would like to have. It did zero damage to the recordings. It would be ideal for use on precious records.
Sanyo not only does turntables, there Sanyo JCX-2900K receiver is a 140 wpc dual mono power supply with a very good preamp section and tuner some claim more sensitive than many competitive models more than holds its own with a Pioneer 1050 and give a 1250 a run in shear audio performance for a lot less money. There downside might be the power switch though there are off the shelf alternatives to improve on that if you don't want to clean/rebuild the original. I also really dig the MCS 3285, that button laden faceplate is the bomb.
The STA 90, I worked at a Radio Shack as a teenager and that was very popular unit. We did not have much problem with them. The brand name was always an issue. That was made by Fostex. Toshiba and Panasonic all came out with fancy brand names. Sanyo, yes, a brother-in-law of Matsushita started it. They were maybe cheaper but not always. It is perception, agreed. AFC came out because tube circuits would drift and sometimes the tuners were hard to tune. It means Automatic Frequency Control and it would try and pull the tuner on station. Also, you get 3 lobes to tune in a station on FM. you only want the middle one and it would eliminate that but sometimes pull in a stronger station beside a weaker one.
I miss Radio Shack very much,loved that store,it's a favorite of mine for sure,bought Wally talkies there and all kinds of cool stuff
Hi Kevin. Really enjoyed your review of the STA-90! I recently saved a STA-90 from the recycling pile, and so far so good! I've been very impressed with the low end response, and it has no problem driving my NHT 2.5i's. I was thinking about selling it, but I think I'm going to hold on to it! After all it was free! Love your videos, very informative! Keep up the work and feel free to send me a Sky Labs shirt! Thanks again Rich
GAS! Haven't heard that name in a LONG while. Quite the quirky high-end company. They also made an amp named Ampzilla, to be followed by the Son of Ampzilla. I used to frequent a shop named HiFi Haven in New Brunswick NJ that sold their equipment. REALLY good stuff!
And then an even smaller amp called the Grandson.
@@billimbriale8535 Did not know about the Grandson ... I'll check into it. Thanks!
Yeah, I got a few raised eyebrows from some of my friends that owned the major brands back in the early 70’s when they would see my Lafayette hi-fi equipment.. I liked it, so that’s all that mattered to me and I wish I still had some of the pieces I owned back then..
I bought 2 sets of those Rectilinear in perfect condition for 60 bucks last year...one set with the grills you showed...and the other has the brown cork looking cloth. I was blown away by there sound. One set is paired wirh a SX-727 and the other with a Fisher CA-120 with an EQ. Highly recommend them for their sound and 70's look
Look at the Sanyo TP 825D and that is 1 bad ass vintage SANYO TURNTABLE!!!
A friend has a couple of pieces from the Sanyo Plus line and they are fantastic. That said, I would have trouble putting them in my rack. Ridiculous but true and probably common amongst us gear nerds. I figure as long as your snobbery is directed inward - no problem! If someone is rocking their MCS all-in-one, more power to them.
I'm listening to this through a Sanyo 2050, and have many more Sanyos including the JCX 2900.
I thank all of the audio snobs for keeping the prices down on the Sanyos so I can buy more at decent prices.
I have a Realistic STA95. It is a remarkable receiver as well. I play it through KLH 900B speakers. It’s a winning combination.