Are the vintage Sony receivers any good?

[Woofman]

I am looking for a good vintage receiver, particularly Pioneer or Marantz because I know they sound great. But I am running across some really good deals on vintage Sony receivers. Does anyone have any experience with them as to how good they are or how they compare to the vintage Pioneer or Marantz receivers? I would welcome any of your thoughts. Thank You.

[Bradrock]

I have a Sony 7065 & love it. There are several threads here where folks who actually know what they are talking about ( not me) & the vintage Sony's get pretty high marks.

[Windwalker]

Welcome woof

Don't mess with the Sonys, you won't like them.
In fact lets us know where you keep running across ALL those really good deals. AKers can go help dispose of them, so that you'll never have to suffer. :D

[ta131js]

:banana:
I like my STR-7800SD - my main receiver.
In my bedroom is a STR-7065. They compete very well with my other receivers.
Yeah, you should read what Sony experts have to say in this forum before making up your mind.
Good luck. :thmbsp:

[Whitehall]

The "search" function can be your best friend.

Scan the following:

7065
6060
6200
6120
STR-V7
6800
7800

[reggaenaut]

Great tone.

[Isotonic]

Overall I prefer them to Pioneer and Marantz.

[willyrover]

I had an STR-7045. Really nice sounding receiver. Had a wood case that could be removed to reveal a black metal cover underneath.

[johnda]

The 60 and 70 series Sonys are extremely well built units. I remember when Sony opened up a listening room on 5th avenue to show their beautiful equipment. The women who were demonstrating the equipment weren't bad either! I have a Sony STR-6055 receiver rated at 35 watts/channel. It performs without any scratchiness in the controls and is noise free. The caps might be getting a little tired and it probably could use a tune up, but overall it's an excellent unit. Right now i have it paired up with my Kenwood KA-6100 amp in the basement system. The Sony is using the tape out to the Kenwood so I can use it as the tuner for the Kenwood. Next week I plan to hook the Kenwood amp to my KLH 6 speakers and have the Sony hooked to my AR4x speakers so it can work on its own if i wish. It's fun playing around with this stuff!

[1980'slover]

get a sony TA-AV411 they are da bomb! it is a high end 90's surround sound receiver! rated at 250 watts

[Jack Lord]

They're excellent. I grew up listening to my uncle's Sony monster receiver and it was top of the line.

[Unda Maris]

The biggest advantage of classic Sony receivers is that they are still available at reasonable prices (even the TOTL units), a thing which is not the case with TOTL Marantz, Sansui and Pioneer (compare e.g. the SX-1250 and the STR-V7 ...)

-> You can't do anything wrong with one of the receivers which Whitehall listed before.

[djlanden]

I recently recapped the STR-6050 for my nephew...it's easy to work on and sounded fantastic! Better than a lot of stuff they make today! Highly recommended with a really musical sound quality! :thmbsp:

[Rex Everything]

I sure do enjoy listening to my big V7 :thmbsp:

[MunkeyQ]

I have an STR-6046 - a later Sony receiver from the late 70's. It's doing lounge duty driving a huge pair of EMI's admirably...lacking a bit up high, but it probably needs a good deoxit attack. Not bad at all for 35wpc. And it has a nice veneered plywood case too - Sony really knew how to build things.

As Unda said, Sony units are very, very reasonably priced on ebay and the like you you can pick up a pretty high-end unit for not much money. I got mine for the opening bid, £0.99 on ebay.

[Theabs]

My STR-V7 sounds fantastic, I think the styling holds it's own with any of the other major manufacturer's late 70's products, very classy.

[KingBubba]

IIRC the output amps on the V series are well thought of but are unobtanium. Hopefully someone will elaborate and have more info about those.

[MAXZ28]

I'm with Rex Everything and Theabs.....I'll never part with my STR-V7 and it's been in the master bedroom since day 1. It's still the only receiver I have yet to take out of rotation- I listen to it almost daily.

[James Hart]

the Sony STR-6800 SD is my #1 listening choice.

[merrylander]

Been a few Sonys through here and one thing I noticed were the FM tuning heads, they seemed to use top notch heads on all of them.

[alwayslooking]

My brother has my 7065 or 7055, not sure model but it is very well built, sounds great, and looks great.

[Stoffie]

IIRC the output amps on the V series are well thought of but are unobtanium. Hopefully someone will elaborate and have more info about those.

I think you're referring to the VFET amps. No Sony receiver has VFETs in them, so they're a pretty safe bet :)

[KingBubba]

I guess I didn't RC. :no: :scratch2:

[tensleep]

Hi all,

A 7065 is on my local CL for $65. What should I look for and what can I expect for this much money?

Thx

[reggaenaut]

Hi all,

A 7065 is on my local CL for $65. What should I look for and what can I expect for this much money?

Thx

Make sure you getting output from different input. A fair price for this model.

[Whitehall]

A clean 7065 will go for $100 to $200 on eBay.

[Bradrock]

Yep; I just bought another 7065 yesterday on ebay for $135.oo shipped. I like mine so much, I bought a second one for parts security! Plus this one had the original owners manual & a nicer cabinet.

[Twenty20Man]

i think anything made in the 70's by one of the major players is going to be tough to beat..if you can get a Sony... well hurry lad go grab it..report back here with you Find and listening impressions

[reggaenaut]

Yesterday a clean 6800 went for $300+ on Epay. Sign of the times?

[Michael Powers]

The "search" function can be your best friend.

Scan the following:

7065
6060
6200
6120
STR-V7
6800
7800

4800

In my experience, sometimes the lowest powered version of a particular line sounds the best. I'm assuming that you're not playing music at levels that are likely to cause clipping, not driving stacked pairs, and that you are not driving electrostatic panels. If you are in any of these categories, go for the most powerful receiver you can find, or make the switch to separates.

[billyboyJBL]

i have following sony receivers:
two 6800's.a 7800,v5,v6,and the v7.
they will all go to the grave with me,if possible:thmbsp:

[onwardjames]

Another vote for the 7065, or the 7065A, which I own.

Fabulous, well-built, and one hell of a tuner.

Go get it!:yes:

[Woofman]

Thanks for the info on Sony receivers. I found what seems to be a good one on ebay. It's a 7055. I did want more power, but I am thrilled with this one. It looks like it just came off the dealer's shelf new, or pretty doggone close anyway. I haven't checked it out fully, but so far it sounds great. Here is a couple of pics:

http://www.datazap.net/sites/1850//SonyFront.jpg
http://www.datazap.net/sites/1850//SonyRear.jpg

[Mchaz]

I have a 6065. I purchased it supposedly new in box, and I don't doubt it looking at the condition. It sounds great, and the build quality is very nice. You can see some pics in Sony pic post thread.

I really like the looks of these old Sony receivers. I find mine sounds a little more colored than the Yamaha equipment I have listened to, but it still manages to stay pretty neutral. The overall sound seems slightly warmer, with a little boost in the low end. All in all, my experience with vintage Sony is that they made some fine equipment.

[reggaenaut]

Woofman the 7055 looks pristine. Good find.

[James Hart]

Yesterday a clean 6800 went for $300+ on Epay. Sign of the times?

:smoke: mine cost me about $35 shipping.

[Pilot]

I'm still using my STR-V55 which I bought around 1980. Done a few mods but the one that really mattered was to replace the crummy FM filter package with discrete components.

Bryan

[absolon]

great find woofman.

I've used one for a year as the daily driver in my shop. The 7055 is a nice sounding unit.

[tensleep]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the support. Well, I went and looked at the Sony yesterday. The young man was also selling a Marantz 2230, a Yamaha receiver, a Pioneer turntable and a couple pair of Bose speakers.

The Sony had a channel out. I couldn't isolate it to either the preamp or the amp. I was able to uncouple the preamps and the amps on both the Sony and the Marantz. This way, I was able to test both the amp and preamp sections on the Sony and it seamed the right channel was out on both. I also checked the input devices to make sure that they were sending signals on both channels. I also moved the input devices to different inputs on the Sony to be sure that the problem wasn't isolated to only one input.

Boy, that was a long way to say that I carefully checked the receiver and found that the right channel was out:blah::screwy:.

Anyway, I passed on the sony, but will be looking out for this and similar models in the future.

[CucamongaDan]

I got an STR-2800 for $7.99 at a Goodwill a few months back. Don't know how many wpc its supposed to be, but the power consumption says 95W. It has some age-related issues- no lights except the tuner pointer work, and the right channel has no volume at all till the volume is past 9 o'clock. To set the volume I turn the balance all the way to the right, then turn the volume to about 10 or 11 o'clock till its loud enough, then I bump the balance just a little to the left till the left channel matches the right. I imagine this might have something to do with the visible deterioration of that big "Dual-C" capacitor. You can't see it in my pic, but from the bottom of its circuit board it looked like some rusty crud had leaked from it.
Funny thing is though, even in this condition it can sound darn good, hooked to some JBL 2500s in my bedroom.

[Windwalker]

I got an STR-2800 for $7.99 at a Goodwill a few months back. Don't know how many wpc its supposed to be, but the power consumption says 95W.

I have a post of one somewhere in the SUYS thread

SONY RCV, STR-2800
Description:
Manufacture Years: 1977 - 1982
Additional Information:
Power: 20wpc
Retail
MSRP: $240.00