RECIEVER recommendations

Last year I wanted a receiver or integrated for my office system and I only wanted to spend about 700-1000 used. After listening to several receivers - Onkyo, Arcam, Rotel, Denon, NAD - I bought a vintage Luxman (R107? 70 watts) for $300 on eBay - great receiver with a wonderful tuner in it - nice looking too. Couldn't be happier. I think the rec for the 160 watt R1170 is right on. These Luxmans remind me soundwise of Accuphase gear. They're very reliable and smooth and the tuner sections are killer.

The Tandbergs are also great sounding and were SOTA in their day. Do consider high end receivers from yesteryear - especially if you'll be doing FM listening - those were the says when receivers were true statement pieces and still has excelent tuners. Otherwise, if you go the new route, I'd still consider a separate vintage tuner.

The Luxman won't outperform my (Cary/Herron gear in the main system but it sounds great in the office and it's easy to use. I think the tuner sounds better than the Magnum Dynalab. No remote though.

However, if I was planning to use a receiver eventually in any kind of HT set-up, the Arcam AVR200 was a great option. Its tuner is just OK, however, something I find typical with Brit receivers.

There are no better tuners in a receivers than the Sherwood s-7900,8900.My crew immediately went over to Dyna(components) or Sherwood(receivers). Fisher,Scott,etc. seemed to be declining, Sony/Superscope got Marantz (you should have seen Japanese stuff then,Akai was respected but that was because they got Roberts and then only for reel to reel)Hell,I remember when everyone was drooling over Sequerra's,the Sherwood CPU-1 blew that away,minus $1000!
Now on EBay you can get a S7100a(BOTL) for ~$40-50 & guys now talk about their "warm tube-like sound". Sadly after the S-9910, Sherwood declined into the CP Series, and The Sony's,JVC's, Panasonic's(by now Technics) caught up and surpassed everybody. The last great non-Shotz tuner was probably in The Proton Radio & I don't mean the MoMA clock radio.

BTW, I still have my Sherwood S-7300 & AR-5's, and my college KLH suitcase.

Regards,
-RGould

hi,

any one know the reciever remote code? or live in nyc and I can learn it from theirs?

thanks

Please do NOT consider the Magnum Dynalab MD-208. You can do much, much better by getting one of the hot and integrateds such as the Naim Nait 5 plus a vintage Kenwood, Sansui or even a brand new NAD tuner.

I used to own an MD-208, not that good really.

The Magnum receiver was once rated class ''A'' in Stereophile...No way. This thing used to have a Sim Audio amplifier in it, of the economy Celeste line, nowhere near the premium parts of the Sim Audio i-5 integrated (and you can beat THAT easily for less money too). I hear the magnums now have a ,.'Magnum'' amplifier inside..hummm...don't know about that one, they are first and foremost a tuner manufacturer....

I currently own a Luxman R-117 in mint condition including the original manual. I purchased this receiver brand new around 1990.The receiver has been in an enclosed glass and wood audio cabinet and used very little over the years.I am ready to sell it as I would like to get a new surround system.