1970s Yamaha

[thetube0a3]

This isn't really the right forum for this question, but I felt its where i'm most likely to find the people to answer it.

I have a chance to grab two mid 1970s Yamaha receivers that need work, they are near mint cosmetically which is nice. I'm also told one of them maybe a black\euro receiver.

I've used late 70s yamaha integrated amps and one yamaha tuner and loved them. How were their vintage receivers? I'm waiting on model numbers but it sounds like they maybe either CR-800s or CR-820's. How do they compare to mid 70s Pioneer and Marantz?

I like projects to work on, but not sure if these are worth any time or effort?

[infinia]

Depends on what you want. Do your research, obtain service prints and photos of inside the units beforehand. That stuff tells me most of what I want to know. If the PCBs are charred or FUBAR and/or the Euro unit is only wired for 230/50Hz that would limit their usefulness. I like Kenwoods upper range myself. Pioneer and Marantz are usually priced higher than the rest. You may get better anecdotal info at AudioKarma.

[sakis]

most iof these ar low power but realy nice machines ... some of them also have some realy innovative ideas even with todays standards ...

some times its worth keeping the case and trush all the rest so you get a todays amp with yesterdays looks

if the amp is simply with symetrical rails and not single rail and capacitor coupled then really worth the idea upgrading it to something a lot better ...since this is cheap and possible

Importand to notice is that at the time Yamaha never used stk packs inside and most of the time the circuits where descret and that is very promessing and very open to upgrades and mods

here is some information regrading repair procedures vintage amplifier repair/upgrade manual

[thetube0a3]

sakis,

The situation i'm in is actually a bit odd. I used to restore fisher tubed stuff such as the 500C's. I had literally hundreds pass through my hands. I kind of got out of it around 10 years ago and have one amp left that I kept. a KX-200 which I kept in good shape, all re-capped.
A guy a work with has the two yamahas as well as possibly some other receivers I might be able to get from him in a deal. The KX-200 I know is worth a few bucks, but I don't know the value of the yamaha stuff.
I was always a Pioneer man honestly when it came to 1970s audio so I don't know too much about the Yamahas other then I love how they look.

I like to change equipment occasionally, get my hands on new and different things. The wife won't really let me spend money on my hobby (and I don't blame her).

What it comes down to is, If I trade the KX-200 for two near mint but broken (nothing burnt, everything in good shape) yamaha receivers such as the CR-800, is that a really poor trade, or fair?

My objective will be to restore the yamahas to working like new, not modifying them. The usual, replace all of the electrolytics and go through everything.

I should also add, I know the guy with the yamahas pretty good. If a transformers cooked or something we'd work out a deal in the end.

[sakis]

oki doki ...got the message ..CR 800 is 55+55 W rms that is quiet enough power for casual listening ....its not a quasi and its not capacitor coupled in a few words has everything it takes to be a very nice amplifier ....

there is a couple of negative things from restoring aspect one is that inside there is way too many small boards that include capacitors that need to be replaced and also all these boards are interwired with quiet many mixed cables that will have bad crosstalk issues ...

nice amp but will take a lot of work to restore and upgrade properly

If you like to have the schematics to study before getting in to the deal just e mail me

kind regards sakis