Not a pretty sight: inside the Yamaha CT-610II

mhardy6647

Lunatic Member
If nothing else, we learn from the innards of the CT-610II tuner that the "modern" practice of putting teeny-weeny guts in a big box (like a 'Discman' inside a handsome box with a machined-aluminum face panel) isn't so modern... dating back to at least the later 1970's!

It's not a bad sounding tuner at all, but it sure isn't too impressive under the hood, is it?

CT610II.jpg
 
OMG! :yikes: Lookit the (lack of!) tuning gangs! Oh, the humanity! And they didn't even have the decency to put ballast weights in there to fake out owners!
I dunno 'bout you guys, but I'd feel cheated if I owned one and popped open the case and saw that.
Tom
 
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That is the most amazing thing I have seen today. Now I'm going to bed, I hope I don't have nightmares about empty stereo boxes I spent too much money for. :stupid:

Victor
 
The cabinet is the same size as its companion amp (CA-610II) which was much more fully packed! :)

Yes, plus it has an analog dial... a BIG EASY TO READ dial, not a small digital display. That takes real estate.

I understand it entirely, no criticism from me.
 
LOL - :D :D That's tea all over my keyboard now - thanks!

At least the wood cabinets ont he old yamaha's are silky smooth to the touch - bit of teak oil and they look and feel great!

happy listeing! :thmbsp:
 
That's what the Onkyo T-4 I had looked like when I popped it's hood. If these tuners were girls they would be blonds :D

Lefty
 
Simplicity is sometimes a good thing. Complexity for its own sake rarely is.

Doesn't take a lot of Voodoo to receive FM and AM radio signals, and only a little more to do so fairly well.
 
Hey,

1) I paid $30 for it.
2) It's cosmetically perfect.
3) It matches my CA-610II.
4) It looks and sounds good.

All of the above mitigated my astonished disappointment when I saw its innards.

PS. Even though I bought it to match my (purchased new) CA-610II, it ended up in my son's room, hooked to his KA-7100, and he almost never uses it! Actually it won't fit in the "media center" I have my CA-610II in, so it's still (slightly) mis-matched with my (also purchased new) T-550 tuner. The T-550 doesn't sound as good as the CT-610II. Never looked inside the T-550!
 
Looking at the circuit board I would say that it has the same tuner components as the CR620 and as has been noted a nice long readable analog dial scale. For what a tuner draws you don't need 12 pounds of power transformer, but the customer would want it to match the CA-610 amp in size - no big deal. Oh, and though it does not show well that is a three gang FM.

Rob
 
Yup, three gangs. The "back" FM gang is sort of obscured.

It does work well, and sounds good. Lots of empty space, though.
 
mhardy6647 said:
All of the above mitigated my astonished disappointment when I saw its innards.

Looks fine just like a really stacked female until the 'nude' proof reveals a water bra masking the real goods......... :D
 
mhardy6647 said:
Hey,

4) It looks and sounds good.



PS. The T-550 doesn't sound as good as the CT-610II. Never looked inside the T-550!

Well, isn't that all that really matters???????

FWIW, I can understand why they would make the box the same size as the matching amp; that's the way everybody else was doing it.

Heck, my Onkyo T-9 tuna IS the biggest electronic component in my system, TT and RTR aside.
 
mhardy6647 said:
If nothing else, we learn from the innards of the CT-610II tuner that the "modern" practice of putting teeny-weeny guts in a big box (like a 'Discman' inside a handsome box with a machined-aluminum face panel) isn't so modern... dating back to at least the later 1970's!

It's not a bad sounding tuner at all, but it sure isn't too impressive under the hood, is it?

CT610II.jpg

Not all that unusual for a tuner.
Here’s my Kenwood KT5500 tuner.
And this one also has an extra board that
was added in order to be able to connect it to
an balanced XLR input.
 

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mhardy6647 said:
If nothing else, we learn from the innards of the CT-610II tuner that the "modern" practice of putting teeny-weeny guts in a big box (like a 'Discman' inside a handsome box with a machined-aluminum face panel) isn't so modern... dating back to at least the later 1970's!

It's not a bad sounding tuner at all, but it sure isn't too impressive under the hood, is it?

CT610II.jpg

Looks like the CT600 has a bit more under the hood.
Have pics but too big to upload to AK. If you want I can email them to you.
 
HiFi News and Record Review used to comment on the amount of fresh air that your money bought you.
Actually the size makes sense -- whether they should or not, people are going to stack their components, and its less tippy if they all match, and while the domestic acceptance factor doesn't go up as components get bigger, it disappears pretty much entirely if the components are all mismatched.
 
Thanks to AK member archie2, here're the innards of the previous model "year" version of this tuner in Yamaha's lineup: the CT-600:
CT-600.jpg
 
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