Obscure QUADRAPHONIC RECEIVERS & AMPS....any good??

[Jack the Reefer]

The MM adapter is called The Disney Memorial Orgy by Wally Wood.

 

[jrlinks]

I just picked up a SA-8000X Technics on fleebay only to use the CD-4 decoder... accepts semiconductor cartridge.
I have a EPC-450C-II and new Shibata stylus.



Also got a very rare Sony TA-2244 quad preamp for $175 (above), mainly to use as a selector and balance unit for direct
4 channel analogue input to a Yamaha HTR 6063 receiver.

 

[Doug G.]

The Technics is a true beauty when all lit up and I love anything with four meters or four displays or...well...four of anything on it.



The Sony's from that era are also extremely attractive.

Doug

 

[leevitalone1]

The Technics is a true beauty when all lit up and I love anything with four meters or four displays or...well...four of anything on it.



The Sony's from that era are also extremely attractive.

Doug

I agree!

 

[Doug G.]

Hehe. With those ears, MM was definitely quad-ready.

jrlinks, let us know how you like the Panasonic cartridge.

Doug

 

[chrzan49]

Hi Guys.
Replying to your questions:
a.all Duals play excellent
b.Blaupunkt 6011 medium quality
d.Wega 3135 excellent(one of thr best)
e.Telefunken 1000 medium clas.It's cheap model.

3 months ago I'e got amazing German receiver Koerting 4500 Quadro.Wonderfull.4x 40 Watts per channel.
Regards Tom

PS The best is Telefunken TRX 3000.Very rare.Have serviced this unit.

 

[kap'n krunch]

The MM adapter is called The Disney Memorial Orgy by Wally Wood. View attachment 4981

Wally Wood as IN THE Wally Wood who used to draw for Mad magazine????(Witzend, etc?)

EDIT: THANKS for that I was NEVER aware of that drawing!!!! AWESOME (thank you , St. Google!)

here is a link ...in B&W

http://ricardovigueras.blogspot.com.es/2007/06/disneyland-memorial-orgy.html

 

[phydo]

30+ years later I am still impressed how GOOD equipment looked from the Quad era.

Justin

 

[Quad Linda]

Nearly all of it was beautiful! Sadly, some of it was "all show and no go." Today's better gear will run rings around it, though most of it doesn't look all that special.

30+ years later I am still impressed how GOOD equipment looked from the Quad era.

Justin

 

[Kent T]

Re: Masterworks. Most of their gear was contract manufactured by Nippon Columbia, known best on these shores as Denon.

 

[Sea Level]

......

TOSHIBA SB-514 QUAD INTEGRATED (1974-ish) - I've got absolutely nothing on this other than this blurry Jpeg. I haven't been able to find one other image of this (..or any info) in 8 years of looking..!!

View attachment 2839

Anyone happily (...or otherwise) using any of these rare units..???
​

I saw the TOSHIBA SB-514 on Ebay Australia a few years ago and it had a fault. I begged a mate to buy it for himself and then we could have a look at it and see if it was fixable. It went for les than $70. he regretted not picking it up when he could have. He was getting in to Quadraphonic in a big way then he reverted back to his interest in Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris annd Steven Segal etc. Pity. It's a great looking amp. I have an Australian Hi-Fi magazine pic of it and the angle that it's shot at makes it look like it something almost celestial. If I had the money at the time I would have picked it up myself.

 

[Quadrockasaurus]

I saw the TOSHIBA SB-514 on Ebay Australia a few years ago and it had a fault. I begged a mate to buy it for himself and then we could have a look at it and see if it was fixable. It went for les than $70. he regretted not picking it up when he could have. He was getting in to Quadraphonic in a big way then he reverted back to his interest in Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris annd Steven Segal etc. Pity. It's a great looking amp. I have an Australian Hi-Fi magazine pic of it and the angle that it's shot at makes it look like it something almost celestial. If I had the money at the time I would have picked it up myself.

Less than 70 bucks!! Bummer..!! Another one that got away...I haven't seen one on OZ ebay in three years of looking...Yep, It's a great looking amp..!! I think a lot of people are now looking for one. It's gonna be an ebay catfight when one turns up..lol.

 

[Q8]

That Technics is beautiful

The above post is a quad record sleeve from Edgar Winter's "They only come out at night" shows some interesting equipment. View attachment 4672 Photo is a nice SA-8000X Technics receiver

 

[Frhodes]

Just picked up a Lafayette LR5000 from CL for $20. All it needed was cleaning, a few lamps and a new ac cord.
I now have joined the quadraphonic club. (SQ-W Rules)

 

[proufo]

I buy these for the looks more than how they sound. They are interesting and deserve to be played and enjoyed, there is a time and place View attachment 4681all the equipment out there. It all depends what you are looking for.

Planning to go Monterey Hendrix on them?

 

[Doug G.]

Just picked up a Lafayette LR5000 from CL for $20. All it needed was cleaning, a few lamps and a new ac cord.
I now have joined the quadraphonic club. (SQ-W Rules)

It's beauitiful and I hate...er...ah...congratulate you. 20 bucks!



Very funny, Pablo.

Doug

 

[Q8]

It's beauitiful and I hate...er...ah...congratulate you. 20 bucks!



Very funny, Pablo.

Doug

I got a Sony SQR-4750 for $15

 

[emaidel]

I was working for Lafayette when the LR-4000 was introduced, and it blew away almost all of us in the chain upon its introduction. Lafayette generally was a follower, coming out with its own variation of someone else's design a year later, but to be the first receiver with wave-matching, full logic SQ decoding, resulted inputting it in a class by itself. It was also far and away the best looking receiver Lafayette had ever made at the time. The "A" version was a bit cleaner, with friction-held volume knobs, as opposed to mere concentric ones and a cleaner, overall sound. The LR-5000, while more powerful than the others, and featuring Vari-Blend, was a bit of a disappointment, however. While the Vari-Blend did a superior job of separating front/rear center channels, it didn't do as well separating left and right rear channels, and so the surround effect was diminished. The worst was the elimination of Lafayette's exclusive "Composer A" circuit, which did an outstanding job of simulating a quad effect from regular stereo sources, and, according to at least one magazine, was spot-on perfect for decoding the Sansui QS, system, later called, "Regular Matrix." And so, the LR-5000 had an "RM" position in place of the "Composer A," which may have done a better job on QS recordings than the "Composer A" circuit did, but it did a genuinely lousy job of simulating quad from regular stereo.

The solution, which Lafayette never suggested, was to use the outboard Lafayette SQ-W decoder with Vari-Blend (the very best on the market at the time, and still highly valued), which DID have the Composer A circuitry, and which also had a superior SQ decoder than that in the receiver itself, providing vastly superior Left/right rear channel separation.

Lafayette didn't support the CD-4 format, and offered a plug-in module as an option for the LR-5000, which was a genuinely lousy device. It was horribly noisy, and had truly awful sound. I used an outboard Pioneer CD-4 demodulator, but still preferred the quad effect from the SQ-W decoder, especially since the fidelity was superior, and it wasn't noisy.

Those were fun days for sure, but I dumped the whole quad bit in 1977 and went full-bore "high-end" 2-channel, and have remained there since. Still, it's nice to have fond memories resurrected.

 

[quadjoe]

I was working for Lafayette when the LR-4000 was introduced, and it blew away almost all of us in the chain upon its introduction. Lafayette generally was a follower, coming out with its own variation of someone else's design a year later, but to be the first receiver with wave-matching, full logic SQ decoding, resulted inputting it in a class by itself. It was also far and away the best looking receiver Lafayette had ever made at the time. The "A" version was a bit cleaner, with friction-held volume knobs, as opposed to mere concentric ones and a cleaner, overall sound. The LR-5000, while more powerful than the others, and featuring Vari-Blend, was a bit of a disappointment, however. While the Vari-Blend did a superior job of separating front/rear center channels, it didn't do as well separating left and right rear channels, and so the surround effect was diminished. The worst was the elimination of Lafayette's exclusive "Composer A" circuit, which did an outstanding job of simulating a quad effect from regular stereo sources, and, according to at least one magazine, was spot-on perfect for decoding the Sansui QS, system, later called, "Regular Matrix." And so, the LR-5000 had an "RM" position in place of the "Composer A," which may have done a better job on QS recordings than the "Composer A" circuit did, but it did a genuinely lousy job of simulating quad from regular stereo.

The solution, which Lafayette never suggested, was to use the outboard Lafayette SQ-W decoder with Vari-Blend (the very best on the market at the time, and still highly valued), which DID have the Composer A circuitry, and which also had a superior SQ decoder than that in the receiver itself, providing vastly superior Left/right rear channel separation.

Lafayette didn't support the CD-4 format, and offered a plug-in module as an option for the LR-5000, which was a genuinely lousy device. It was horribly noisy, and had truly awful sound. I used an outboard Pioneer CD-4 demodulator, but still preferred the quad effect from the SQ-W decoder, especially since the fidelity was superior, and it wasn't noisy.

Those were fun days for sure, but I dumped the whole quad bit in 1977 and went full-bore "high-end" 2-channel, and have remained there since. Still, it's nice to have fond memories resurrected.

I have the LR-5000, and the CD-4 section actually seems to work pretty well. There are only two Quadradiscs that don't demodulate properly: Cat Stevens' Greatest Hits doesn't distort, but it sounds flat and lifeless to me, and Carly Simon No Secrets distorts during the first track on side one, which it doesn't do on the Sansui QRX-6001 or on the JVC 4-DD5. It's actually a pretty decent receiver, though you're right about the lack of the Composer-A circuit for simulating quad from stereo, but then my Sansui just smokes the Lafayette in that department. The SQ decoder in the Lafayette was better than the Sansui, until I had the Sansui restored. The tech put in all new high-end caps in the SQ section (actually throughout the whole receiver) and SQ performance improved markedly.

 

[motorazr]

Here is another TeledyneView attachment 4975

Looks familiar, here's another one. Sharp Optonica GS-5730