Classic audio - Pioneer, Sansui, Aiwa, Leak, Sony

This page maps some retro, mainly Japanese Hi-Fi. Since the 70's when these started being made, Hi-Fi has come a long way. However, quality has crossed over with cost - modern stuff is relatively much cheaper but not always better.

Some Schematics are also here - see descriptions below

They don't build them like they used to!

With modern hi-fi the creed is 'less is more'. In retro audio happily this philosophy is reversed, resulting in the rather more natural 'more is more' approach.

This means that the more aluminiun, knobs, switches, lamps, dials, power etc the better.
The look to go for is big, brutish, heavy and massively over-engineered. Usually the power of the big beasts is such that by sheer control and huge damping factors they can sound pretty good too. So that new Musical Fidelity might get a better write up in the Hi-Fi press which they advertize in - but the big 20year old Pioneer will show it whose boss.

Speakers is the area where expensive modern stuff can better 70s and 80s stuff, if the money is put into the product, but FM receivers and amplifiers haven't moved that far - except for remote controlled volume controls!