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question-who made the MCS 3260, and what year ?

T

tracker-x

Active Member
the guy I got this receiver from said it was a JC Penney, and I remember these being sold in Penneys back in the 1970's. Being a silver face I'm thinking mid-late 1970's, or very early 1980's- because by mid-1980's everything went to black front panels in racks. (yuck).

Anyway I understand it's 60 WPC. Just how good are they ? If it's a Sanyo or Panasonic, then no big deal- but if it really was made with Technics guts from teh 1960's, it would be a pretty good set.

opinions ?? facts ?? all welcome
 
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Looks like a Technics to me. The toggle switches on the 3260 look identical to those on a Technics receiver I had a few years ago (SA-101, I think). Probably very late 70s or early 80s.
 
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I owned a 3260. Certainly looked like it could have come from the Technics family. My understanding is that JCPenney had several companies including Technics and NEC oem their equipment.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It looked really pretty all lit up and sounded pretty decent. I'd pick up another in a heartbeat if it was reasonably priced.
 
I think the 3260 was made in two versions, and sold over a few years in the early 80's. One version had an analog tuning section, the later one had a digital tuner. It looks like a Technics to me, for sure. (UPDATE: The 3260 was made by NEC, as confirmed by the manufacturer codes on the circuit boards. It is a rebadge of the NEC AUR-9060E.)

If you want to know when it was manufactured, look on the back panel and find the sticker with the serial number. Right below it is the date code. The first digit is the last number in the year it was made. The last two digits are the month. So if it says 209, it was manufactured in September of 1982 - most likely to be a 1983 model by the time it made it's way to the stores.

Rob
 
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The 3260 was sold from 1982-1984 if I am not mistaken. It is a Matsushita made receiver. I'm pretty sure it is considered TOTL for that particular model line. My father bought a 3245 which was the model below and paid $400 for it new in 1984. In 1989, I bought my 3260 for $150 from a pawn shop.

A respectable 60WPC unit that gets little love.
 
Damage said:
The 3260 was sold from 1982-1984 if I am not mistaken. It is a Matsushita made receiver. I'm pretty sure it is considered TOTL for that particular model line. My father bought a 3245 which was the model below and paid $400 for it new in 1984. In 1989, I bought my 3260 for $150 from a pawn shop.

A respectable 60WPC unit that gets little love.
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I thought it was one of their best looking receivers - I'd love to run across one of the analog tuning ones! It was TOTL until the $699 3285 hit the stores in 1983. Now that's a model that gets NO love! :D

Rob
 
Damage said:
The 3260 was sold from 1982-1984 if I am not mistaken. It is a Matsushita made receiver. I'm pretty sure it is considered TOTL for that particular model line. My father bought a 3245 which was the model below and paid $400 for it new in 1984. In 1989, I bought my 3260 for $150 from a pawn shop.

A respectable 60WPC unit that gets little love.
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now we're getting somewhere- can you point me to the information, or how you know it's a Matsushita ? did you read the label inside, or ?

if it was a Matsushita made unit, that would explain why they are going for giveaway prices now. It's basically a replica knock-off lookalike of a Pioneer or Technics, but not a piece of junk either. For $400-$700 range new, these MCS units certainly were not cheap. Inside I saw a somewhat large heat sink and discrete transistors, not bs-pos IC's that burn out. For that price back in that day, you could buy a heavy hitter like a Pioneer, Marantz, Technics, Kenwood, Sansui- or at least most of one- so there must be some good components inside an MCS

they certainly have a lot of buttons and features on them, and lots of inputs on the back

when you say it's a Matsushita, I assume just made by Matsushita- not rebadged, because Matsushita to my knowledge, was a subassembly and component mfr.- I've never seen a receiver with the name Matsushita on it.

I don't think the 3260 is a Technics or JVC- typically those models have a heavier contruction, especially the JVC. Upon first glance, and handling it, this 3260 reminded me of a Sanyo, or a Panasonic, but a somewhat upscale one.
 
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The Technics SA-505 from 1980 is the closest receiver I can find that looks similar - but a little different in almost every way. The SA-505 was 63wpc with less than 0.04% THD, phono s/n ratio of 73dB. The 3260 had 60wpc with less than 0.02% THD, phono s/n ratio of 77dB. The tuner specs were different, too, so it's only similar. (08-25-2010 Update - the 3260 in the rebadge of the NEC AUR-9060E - so it wasn't Technics after all)

I have the later 3285, and poked around inside - even posted a thread asking who made it. Most agreed it was very unique looking, but most likely a NEC from the looks of the insides.

The last rebadge amp that I've seen is the 3850 integrated amp (and matching 3705 tuner) from 1980-82 - a rebadged NEC AUA-7300E and AUT-7300E. There may be others, and this doesn't include other 80's pieces like cassette decks, speakers, and turntables - many of which were Technics.

Rob
 
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tracker-x said:
if it was a Matsushita made unit, that would explain why they are going for giveaway prices now. It's basically a replica knock-off lookalike of a Pioneer or Technics, but not a piece of junk either.

when you say it's a Matsushita, I assume just made by Matsushita- not rebadged, because Matsushita to my knowledge, was a subassembly and component mfr.- I've never seen a receiver with the name Matsushita on it.

I don't think the 3260 is a Technics
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Hold on a second -- Matsushita was and is Panasonic, who made Technics... Calling it a Technics-made unit isn't too much of a stretch, I think, if it was Matsushita made.
 
titanstats said:
Hold on a second -- Matsushita was and is Panasonic, who made Technics... Calling it a Technics-made unit isn't too much of a stretch, I think, if it was Matsushita made.
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Correct. I have even had some old Matsushita branded car audio.
 
JCP goes for the gusto

Back in 1982, J.C. Penney decided that they were going to go after Sears in a big way. They decided they would be a "full line" department store. In addition to the MCS gear being discussed in this thread, they had a full line of "white goods", refrigerators, freezers, washers and dryers. They had a tool department as well. I have a Dremel Tool Set sold under the JCP name, but clearly a Dremel. They had "automotive centers" as well, remember the "lifetime guarantee" car battery? I still have a combo 5" B&W TV/AM/FM Radio that I bought at JCP. I guess it will be pretty worthless in another week or two.

I'm not sure when they decided to "throw in the towel", but at some point they did and went back to the pre-82 store model that they are today.
 
Only way to know who built it is to pull the cover and look for a chassis tag. I have, or have had, MCS built by NEC, Matsushita (Panasonic), Matsushita (Technics), and Itoh Radio of Japan. As far as I can tell, they are, or were, all nice units :)
 
A Technics is a step above a Panasonic or Matsushita.

that's the difference.

they are good amps for the price, but they are no Pioneer, Kenwood, Sansui, Sony, or Yamaha- those high end amps have much bigger power supplies, caps, heatsinks, and are much heavier- some can be had for the same prices or slightly more, than an MCS now.

I only paid $50 for a Pioneer SX-1250, it's all luck of the draw. I paid $10 for a really nice Kenwood- both are superior to an MCS. I paid only $100 for an original owner Marantz 2270, and $100 for a Fisher tube 500 C- both from the same original owner.

if it's made by Panasonic, I don't really seek it out, or want it.

there's really no reason to go on an MCS buying bender, they are not a diamond in the rough, they're just a decent, midpriced receiver, like an Emerson, Soundesign, Sanyo, Panasonic- made for JC Penney.

To be quite honest, there's nothing spectacular about a Panasonic or Sanyo, IMHO. Technics was a high end Panasonic, I have a vintage 1986 Technics 110 WPC rack system, bought it new- don't use it anymore. I use the speakers from it. I also have an old Soundesign receiver that would knock your socks off with fidelity, even though it's only about 10 WPC- paid $100 for it back in 1978 at Kmart, can't bring myself to sell it. It's a silver faced unit with really good transistors in it, and excellent tuner.

At one time, the front panels said "Techics by Panasonic" right on them. I had a quad 8-track recorder with that on it- it was a clunker. Looked impressive, but nothing like an Akai, Roberts, Telex. Heck, not even as good as a Sony or Pioneer.

To be honest, if I had to sell one, I'd sell the Technics. It has an IC amp in it, that burned out and had to be replaced, twice ! The vintage Technics from the 1970's are pretty nice, but being related to Panasonic, actually hurts their reputation. Panasonic never came across as high quality to me, something in that name just sounds cheap.
 
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Matsushita is the parent company of Panasonic (and in fact recently changed their legal corporate name to Panasonic) which is in turn the parent company of The Technics brand (which they have recently stopped marketing with exception of turntables). The Technics brand was not used universally as primarily it was for North America and Europe thus some of the same or similar products can be found under either the Technics or Panasonic brand names.
As to the MCS private label brand products were sourced from a number of primarily Japanese high quality Manufacturers including Matsushita, NEC, Toshiba and Mitsubishi and others. This information came to me from the original company that sourced these products for J C Penny.
Also (while I am not a fan of either brand) Sanyo and Panasonic being Manufacturers were definitely a cut above Emerson and Soundesign who purchased their products from a variety of sources. Their products were designed to look good and meet specific price points. How they sounded or spec'd out (most of their power ratings were taken at 10% THD) never factored into the equation and this same philosophy was applied at other similar companies such as Yorx and LLoyds. This I know to be factual as for a number of years I was the electronics Buyer for a major (and now defunt ) retailer.
 
I have a couple of MCS receivers and have had them forever. They've never gave me ANY trouble at all. They sound just fine; maybe not "high-end" but certainly nothing to turn your nose up at. The two models I have are 3246 and 3265 (later ones that are all digital). Both seem to have plenty of power for the average user. I won't hesitate to pickup another MCS at all in the future. Very reliable and sound plenty good enough.
 
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Mcs

I know this is an old thread, but I couldn't resist mentioning my thoughts on it(I am new to the site, so old thread is new to me :thmbsp:) To me it really looks more like a knock off of HH Scott reciever, around the models of 325R to like a 375R?
 
Just to put it to rest. That model was made by NEC.

Here is my 3260


Here is the NEC equivalent Authentic Series. Name under on/off switch
 
I think HTHMAN nailed it with those photos. A lot of MCS information out there is about Technics or Panasonic, but the MCS gear I've come across has been re-branded NEC stuff. In this case, hard to dispute.

I'll be pulling out my MCS-3253 for some listening over the holidays... decent but not great, but hey... nothing better than some old MCS gear from back in the day IMO.
 
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