Excellent comprehensive article on the advent of hi-fi audio and the eventual 'monster receivers'
Audioholics editorial on stereo gear of the '70's
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Vintage receivers. They are fun (if not a bit finnicky), and glad I picked a few up before prices went nuts:
A Marantz 2270, a Sansui 9090DB and a McIntosh MAC1500. Two of which are now out of commission due to failed outputs.
Got the Sansui in the shop at the moment. Tech is backed up two months. It was just sitting under the bed anyway. When that comes back I'll be dropping off the Marantz.
The McIntosh MAC1500 is working like a champ, however a qualified champ: after you let the receiver warm up for half an hour the right channel joins the party. (Edit: after running it a couple days both channels fire right up upon start up.) The 1500 is feeding a pair of garage sale obtained Klipsch Epic CF1's out in the living room now instead of crammed into my little listening room. These tower speakers appreciate some room to breathe out from the wall.
Setup here with the Dual 1229 turntable and Border Patrol DAC.
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Sansui 9090DB
The 9090DB weighs in at 52 pounds with its power section accounting for most of its heft. It hit the market around 1975 and had an MSRP of over $900.00. It features 125 watts per channel into 8 ohms. Accepts three pairs of speakers. Has 2 turntable inputs.
Bass and Treble controls have 2 switchable center frequencies.
Bass: 300Hz, Defeat, 150Hz
Treble: 1.5kHz, Defeat, 3kHz.
Marantz 2270
The Marantz 2270 is rated at 70 watts per channel in to 8 ohms. It measures roughly 17 x 14 x 5 inches and weighs about 41 pounds. Has 2 phono inputs. It was manufactured from 1971 to 1976 and retailed at just under $550.00. The WC-22 wood case was optional.
McIntosh MAC 1500 - Sold from July 1965 - January 1967. (2,634 UNITS)
Size: 5-1/2"H, 16"W and 16"D. Weight: 40 lb. $499.00 new. 30 watts. Tube tuner and output. Solid state pre-amp. Has two turntable inputs.
McIntosh's first receiver.
VP/McIntosh co-founder Gordon Gow knew a growing market when he saw one but had trouble convincing his partner Frank McIntosh to make the move into receiver manufacture.
As the head of sales, Gow pushed for McIntosh to come out with a receiver in the ’60s but “Mr. McIntosh said no,” relates Ken Zelin, historian and director of U.S. sales training at McIntosh. “Receivers involved some degree of compromise, so year after year, he overruled Gordon.”
Finally, the owners came up with a solution they both could live with.
“They would build a receiver in the McIntosh factory but not call it a McIntosh,” Zelin reveals. “They formed a division called MAC Audio Company to market the receiver. It was built in the McIntosh Lab factory and sold through McIntosh Lab dealers but if you look at the receiver and its manual, both say MAC instead of McIntosh.
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1970's Receivers in the Golden Age of HiFi (Quote by Sansuiman on Audiokarma)
Receivers are generally regarded as being compromises out of necessity (for space, weight, price, etc.) versus their nearest equivalent separates. That said, there were many superlative receivers in the golden era of audio, and Sansui was at the forefront of making them. Owning both receivers and seperates myself, I'll not bash either one; both product formats have their merits.
I may be off base here, but American tastes for hifi in the 70's appear to have been heavily tilted towards receivers for a few reasons. First is cost. While many receivers were obscenely expensive in their own right, seperates cost more still. Then there was the aesthetic angle; receivers were almost always more ostentatious in their appearance, and American sensibilities on style in the 70's were known to be a bit...outrageous.
Compare a 9090DB to an AU/TU-717 combo. Both are impressive and stylish, but in entirely different ways, the 9090DB being rather over the top, and the 717's being tastefully understated yet substantial in an almost industrial quality. Receivers got what is now popularly referred to as the "bling factor". I think wife approval factor played into this as well, to some extent. A single unit (receiver), a turntable and maybe a tape deck, was an easier sell for the living room or den than a monolithic stack of imposing black (or silver) boxes eating up 4-5 shelves worth of space near the TV or fireplace. Most ladies of the house didn't see the value or appeal in having a rack full of gear that could've been set dressing in a sci-fi movie.
Also consider that the horsepower wars were focused primarily on receivers.
While integrated and power amps certainly saw increases in power from 1970-1980, the ratings on the biggest receivers easily outstripped them.
This culminated in the 300WPC mark being hit (by Sansui, Marantz, and Technics at least) before the party ended, and then we were left with BPC of far less power only a few short years hence. The best intgrated amps by Sansui generally topped out with (rated) power outputs of 110-125 WPC.
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Yamaha's were nice lookin' too..
1977 Yamaha 'Natural Sound' CR-2020 105 wpc 43 lbs.
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1974 Pioneer broke the three digit power wattage groundbreaking SX-1010 receiver, the industry’s first-ever 100 WPC receiver.
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So who won the 70's wattage wars?
The top twelve most powerful vintage receivers of all time.
1. Technics SA-1000 – 330 WPC
2. Marantz 2600 – 300 WPC
3. Sansui G-33000 – 300 WPC
4. Pioneer SX-1980 – 270 WPC
5. Marantz 2500 – 250 WPC
6. Sansui G-22000 – 220 WPC
7. Sansui G-9700 – 200 WPC
8. Kenwood KR-9050 – 200 WPC
9. Hitachi SR-2004 – 200 WPC
10. Marantz 2385 – 185 WPC
11. Pioneer SX-1280 – 185 WPC
12. Technics SA-5770 – 185 WPC
1.Technics SA-1000 – 330 WPC 1977-1979 87 lbs. Retail price $1800.
2. Marantz 2600 – 300 WPC 1978-1980 60.3 lbs Less than 1000 made. Retail price $1600
3. Sansui G-33000 – 300 WPC 1979 Retail price $1900
4. Pioneer SX-1980 – 270 WPC 80 lbs. 20" deep. 1978-1980 Retail price $1295.00
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