Tandberg TR-2045

Blue Shadow

Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
Well I picked up one of these today and got an antenna amplifier with it. The Magnum Sleuth FM 95, a unit made about the time of the receiver. Well the Magnum works, the TR is getting a deoxit cleaning as the volume control did not want to have both channels show up simultaneously in the headphones. I'll try it tomorrow.

Nice wood veneer three-piece cabinet, nice extruded aluminum top rear 'screen' and lots of extruded aluminum chunks instead of stuff bolted to sheet metal. More on this later as I already know this post is worthless without pictures.

But I am a bit disappointed because the dial is black/white and not the blue I was hoping. Oh well.
 
Congratulations with your reciever.It's a very nice reciever,by the way.If you want a Tandberg reciever with the blue dial,you need to watch out for TR2025,TR2040,TR2055,TR2075 and TR2075MkII.These are Tandberg's early recievers in the TR2000-series.
What you got there(TR2045) is from the last TR2000-series.It is one of 4 recievers:TR2030,TR2045,TR2060 and TR2080.These recievers are all black/white in the dial.
In my opinion,the older blue recievers delivers quite a bit better sound......for some reason.My friends all agree with me.I still think they sound beautiful, though.
 
Oh so not only did I get a less beautiful unit, it doesn't sound as good. great. No problems there. Tandbergs are not so common so getting one is good. This is going to be an additional system so we'll see how it sounds when I compare it to the stuff laying around. The station presets are interesting for a unit this old and non-digital.
 
You got a great receiver. All the Tandbergs are nice.
I suspect you will be well pleased with the TR-2045.
 
I think I like this unit already. We recently had a station change formats from one I listened to one I won't. I thought I was going to lose that format, but they relocated on the dial to a weaker station that nothing in my house picks up, until this Tandberg showed up, without the Magnum Sleuth that I got with it, just the T-antenna laying on the table.

Tandberg was hard to find and expensive when new. I read that the TR-2075 was about $1000 in another thread. That was probably $200 more than the similarly powered Luxman (R-1070) which we know was at a premium price point. I can see the different construction may have caused this high price on Tandberg units.

There is no stamped sheet metal chassis with the boards mounted to it. This receiver's chassis is a framework of extruded aluminum pieces. There is a picture of the tops of the meters that shows the disconnects for the meter lights and the stereo indicator led. Simply unplugging these from the board and a couple screws releases the top half of the front panel, FM dial, meters and such. Other sections can be removed also. I have included a picture of the 40 wpc Onkyo TX-2500II for comparison, the Tandberg is 45 wpc. One obvious difference is the Onkyo has an enclosed transformer. I don't know if this makes a difference.

As far as the cabinets of these two, the Onkyo has a stamped sheet metal, wood-grained vinyl covered piece to cover the sides and top. The Tandberg has two rosewood veneer side panels and a top made up of a veneered piece and another extruded aluminum piece all of which interlock. The aluminum chunk is the piece with the cooling slots in it. All I can think is Ka-Ching $$$, even compared to the full wooden surrounds on many components from the era.

The Tandberg also has 5 presets for the FM (well it is FM only). This system of buttons and tuning knobs is interesting in a non-digital tuner. The tuning knobs below the buttons can be removed as a set which was good because three of the knobs were not right (split or broken where they attach) and needed to be glued back on to the adjustable resistor shafts, if that is what they are. The signal strength meter converts to a station indicator when using the presets, giving a total of 6, if you count the station tuned on the dial. Nice feature for a low end receiver.

This unit is a later unit from Tandberg with the black/white dial and not the blue dial I prefer, but for a later unit, why was Tandberg limiting the unit by providing only DIN connections for the two tape decks and phono? Earlier units have both. Saving the home market at the expense of more business in the rest of the world?, while cutting costs? I guess I see why they are no longer producing these types of units.

I picked up a Marantz Model 18 for Bolly a few months back and had it hooked up to my Magneplanars for a test drive. This 40-wpc Marantz was very impressive in sound quality and bass power with these power hungry speakers. I have not tried the Tandberg on these speakers yet, but that is next. The other units I have tried are a Pioneer SA 9500, SA-8800, Kenwood KR-710 and a Sansui AU-777. None of these could touch that Marantz. If the Tandberg is even close I will be very happy even though it will be driving other speakers.
 

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Blue Shadow, I maintain a database of Tandberg manuals here (also accessible fro my signature). I do not have the TR-2045 yet, but it might still be something useful for you in the database.

All the best,
 
They sure had a beautiful way with engineering. The layout is very pleasing to the eye. Nice find.
 
Blue Shadow said:
There is no stamped sheet metal chassis with the boards mounted to it. This receiver's chassis is a framework of extruded aluminum pieces.
Blue Shadow, how do you remove the top grille (seen in this photo of my TR-2080) from the rear panel? I would like to remove it for cleaning and some better topless shots.

Thank you!

Best regards,
 
On my unit the back top panel is held in with the wood top sliding into it about 2/3rds of an inch and as with a lot of these aluminum parts a tongue and groove. So once the wood was out of the way, it just lifted up to be removed.

On the 2080 there may be more holding it. I'd look for the 5mm hex head screws, any allen screws and the possible need to slide the top off to one side if the tongue and groove does not allow lifting.
 
Back together now.

So I'm listening to the tuner, now I have to figure out the single DIN connector I received with the unit that plugs into the tape loops. I'll be able to use a CDP with that.

I did not see the tuning dial indicator lit up, but in these dark pics the pointer is at 88.5 or so. I don't know if it should be brighter so if someone knows? Also what bulb goes there? It is a peanut bulb with two straight uninsulated wires. looks to be painted red.

I noticed that the TR-2080 has red plastic and mine is clear plastic for the pointer/bulb holder.

Thanks for all the comments. Makes my night and day of working on this seem well spent. I also am learning more about my new camera. It is a few months old but has gobs of features.
 

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Blue Shadow said:
On my unit the back top panel is held in with the wood top sliding into it about 2/3rds of an inch and as with a lot of these aluminum parts a tongue and groove. So once the wood was out of the way, it just lifted up to be removed.
Thank you. The top grille is definitely affixed to the rear panel on the 2080: It looks to be a tongue-and-groove joint, expect for that the pieces seem "stuck" together. I will have another look at it tomorrow.

Most importantly, yours seems to be an exceptionally well cared for specimen! Absolutely beautiful!:thmbsp:

All the best,
 
Blue Shadow: Your reciever is very beautiful.You have perfect light in the dial.If I was you,I would take off the lightbulb(solder it off?) and take it with me to any shop that sells electrical spareparts.
Once you have the new lightbulb,you solder it back on,and then you should give it some nice red nailpolish.....and then you have a bright red dial pointer: )
 
Thanks for the nail polish idea. that might be what is on the lamp in there now.

Listening to it last night, it is a nice sounding unit. Not a strong as the Marantz 18 but did a nice job at listening levels on the MG-IIIas. Stayed cool, 112°F across the heatsinks after an hour at near its maximum. Seeing it at night, the dimming of the dial lights is apparent when it is producing near full power, but the thing that was a bit troublesome was the brightness of the FM Stereo LED which remains on, unless the mono switch is pushed, in all modes. Reminds me of the super bright blue LED on the Monster Power HTS 3500II folks bought last year. So to balance the red LED out, I will have to replace the tuning indicator lamp, and paint it red.

So after spending maybe 5 hours cleaning the unit in (DeOxit) and out I'm pretty happy with this little Tandberg. I know Chris (vintagestereo) collects the TOTL receivers and for good reason they will appreciate in value, but this unit is a keeper to enjoy, even though it lacks some functionality, not an investment.

I have been more of a separates guy, my first system being the TA-2000, Stereo 120 and KT-7000 and my main system is still separates, but I see the benefits of receivers for smaller systems in other parts of the house. I feel like I have owned three of the best ~40-watters, this Tandberg, the Luxman R-1040 (wedding present to my brother, now my nephew's unit) and the Marantz 2238B (now my niece's unit). Wish I had em all at one time to compare them.
 
This Norwegian shop sells new and used spare parts for Tandberg.By browsing you'll find that they have three pages with lamps(bulbs).This way it may be possible to find out which bulb you need for exactly your model.

http://gpfweb.com/shop/index.php?cat_id=1&catname='Lamper/sikringer'
 
Rolf, thank you for that link. I have found the information I need and also a possible source for parts for Tnadberg specific items.
 
Yeah,sometimes the 'Tandberg-shop' is a good choice......and sometimes not so good.Tandberg-fans from Norway say that one should be a little careful,because it is (sometimetimes/often?) used spareparts.But this doesn't apply to lightbulb's.I have bought lightbulbs from him,and they were brandnew.But you can get lightbulbs in America.You don't have to buy them in Norway.I found out the hard way,myself: )
 
I had a Luxman 1040 and that is one I never should've parted with. That and the Luxman R-113. But, I'm not a receiver kind of guy either.
 
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