MCS Series A 3285 Syntehsized Receiver & MCS 8330 Linear Phase Speakers?

dan8drums

Active Member
Does anyone have any information on the MCS Series A 3285 Syntehsized Receiver & MCS 8330 Linear Phase Speakers.

I picked these up on Craigs List and they sound really good for the brand and quality. Receiver is very heavy and has all the bells and whistles a receiver at that time had, and then some.

I know some of the the MCS units were manufactured by different companies and sold at JC Pennys under the MCS name.

I think the receiver and the speakers were probabally one of top line units sold by MCS.

I just need to clean them up because they were sitting in his garage for a while.

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan
 
I have a 3275 receiver that puts out 75 wpc into 8 ohms, so I would like to know some info on your receiver as well. Post some pics when you can of your system & I am sure someone will stop by with more info.

Rome
 
MCS Series A 3285 Receiver Picture

I took a picture tonight of the MCS receiver.

Let me know what you can find out or who really made it for JC Penny's

Thanks,

Dan
 

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Wow!

I really like the style of that MCS receiver. It reminds me of the digital JVC receivers of the 80s, in which, I owned an R-S33 that was not digital.

Maybe someone will stop by with info. Quite an interesting piece, indeed!

Here is my 3275!

Rome

Man11.jpg
 
That is a nice system. It look like it has a lot of power. Who made that one besides MCS. Looks like Technics or someone else.
 
MIne is defenitly from 1982 I found out from a brouchure that I have with it.
It was cut from a magazine from 1982 so I assume that is when it was made.
Very well made and heavy. All lights work and digital display for the tuning. I just thought it was really a classic missed receiver that no one really bought that much of. A lot of tech stuff it does.
 
Yea Dan!

Your receiver is certainly well made & should pack some power as well. I don't know about the tuner, but it still should pull in stations for you pretty good.

I think Technics & NEC made the MCS products.

Happy Listening!
Rome
 
I have noticed that MCS was made by Sanyo and some other suppliers.
But I still think it is a great receiver that whould shock people out there of the power and clearity it has.
I own a Sansui AU 20000 and a TU 9900 tuner that sound just as good.
The speakers sound really good also like my AR speakers.

Thanks
Dan
 
Hi Dan - You found one of the biggest sleepers in receiver-land, as far as I'm concerned. I have a 3285, and it has grown on me to the point of becoming my favorite receiver. Look inside of it, and you will find 4 transformers. One huge toroidal with separate supplies for the left and right channel main amps - and nothing else. The regular transformers are for the control board, tuner, and the baby one feeds the memory that remembers all your settings when powered off.

Follow the circuits carefully, and you'll see the amp is almost "dual mono" in layout. A DC servo circuit controls the left and right pre-amp sections. While the heatsinks are under-sized (I built a fan to cool mine), there are sweet sounding Sankens with a total of 16,400 uF of filtering capacitance per channel. The sound is super clean, detailed, and powerful.

The phono section is very good - can use a MM or MC cartridge.

The tuner section is fine. I like the wide/narrow IF bandwidth choice.

The Stereo Review for it back in the day noted that the amp section is "uncommonly stable" - even when pushed hard. They reached 100 wpc before soft clipping, I think.

It was sold from 1982 through 1984, with a MSRP of $699. Specs are:

85wpc from 20-40k hz with less than 0.005% THD
Phono section 20-20k +/- 0.2db with s/n ratio of 80dB
IM distortion was less than 0.01%

FM section: 20-15k +/- 3dB
Sensitivity: 1.9uv
capture ratio: 1.0dB
Image rejection: 75dB
stereo separation: 45dB
Quieting sensitivity: 3.5uv
stereo THD: 0.15% mono 0.1%

weight 30lbs
 
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Your 8330 speakers were nice 3-way's mounted for linear phase.

12" woofer with 20oz magnet
5" midrange with 5.3oz magnet
2" tweeter with 3.2oz magnet

rated to use with amps from 25-120 wpc (8 ohm)

crossover frequency was 1500 and 3800hz

38 lbs.

And they were also the top model for 1982.

Hope this helps - Rob

oh - the receiver was built by NEC, and the speakers were rebadged Technics.
 
One interesting feature on it, is that when you hook a turntable up to it, only then can you choose between MM or MC cartridge. I didn't choose one when I got it, and the phono input acted like a regular aux or tape input, I think. Kinda worried me for a bit - hahaha.

Enjoy!
 
Wow, thanks for the specs and your experience in this receiver. I thought it was well made and could push some speakers. But to read what you wrote blew me away.
Thank you very much for the info on it.
I will clean it up and enjoy it with the MCS speakers which came with the MCS receiver from the original owner from the early 80's.

Thanks again for the info,

Dan
 
Yes it did Bob. I really apreciate it . I thought they were made by someone else
Very well made and sound very clean and crisp.
Technics when they were good.

Thanks again,

Dan
 
You're welcome. I know many AKers probably think I'm a little nuts to go on about some MCS pieces, but this one REALLY surprised me. I remember playing with the display model in the store back when I was in college. I vowed to never "want" one, because it lacked a loudness button.

Then I got one as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago, and I really didn't expect it to sound so good. Just like a great amp should, it adds no colorization to the sound. It's very accurate. And NEC was building some sweet amps back then. JCPenney really was trying to sell some great gear. Too bad the economy hit so hard back then, and many brands went south - fast. This was their last great effort for a receiver, IMHO.

Keep us posted on your impressions - ok? If I'm crazy, you can let me know. :D

Rob
 
I am sorry I called you Bob before. You are not crazy. I thought I was crazy for buying this MCS receiver and speakers. But they sounded so good that I was impressed and bought them all for $75.00 with a Yamaha CD player which I really did not want but it was included. Dont get me wrong they need to be cleaned and all tested out but what I heard at his house sounded great.
Thanks again for all the feed back and hopfully others will come out of the wood work for buying and trying the MCS brand.
I am happy with the purchase and think I made a good decision for all of the equipment I got.
Thanks again, (Rob)
Dan
 
MCS Series A 3285

I have one - mine needs some work, but I haven't been able to find a service manual for it. Some of the switches are very touchy - not sure if they need to be cleaned or what. The display is also goes blank when you adjust the volume, but then it comes back up after a second or two. Still it sounds very good & it's definitely not BPC.
 
I have one - mine needs some work, but I haven't been able to find a service manual for it. Some of the switches are very touchy - not sure if they need to be cleaned or what. The display is also goes blank when you adjust the volume, but then it comes back up after a second or two. Still it sounds very good & it's definitely not BPC.

I've never been able to track down a service manual, but it would be nice to have - just in case.

The tension in your touch controls may have weakened over the years, and that would make them touchy. They shouldn't get dirty - they are pretty well protected, but who knows. The face is not at all easy to remove - I tried once to get to the FM Mute & IF Band select buttons on mine (they are touchy on mine), and gave up.

As for the display going blank, the 3246, 3265, and 3285 all have displays that "blink" off and on after you make any adjustment to the settings. I think that is it's way of indicating that those new settings are now set in the memory to be recalled the next time you power it on.

These three models (plus a few others) have tuner sections that turn off when you listen to any other input, so not to worry when that display goes dark. :D
 
Nice to know about the display, thanks! My meter display switch is the really touchy one.
 
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