Vintage Audio Buyer’s Guide: Five Myths Busted.
A helpful guide to separate fact from fiction for vintage Marantz, Sansui, Pioneer and Luxman HiFi gear.
I’ve been collecting vintage audio for several years. I’ve purchased (and sold) virtually every 1970’s Marantz receiver model, and most Marantz integrated and separate model amps. I stumbled upon many of the rare classic monster receivers, including the Sansui 9090 and Marantz 2330B. I’ve restored the classic and much sought after Sansui AU-9500, purchased multiple classic vintage Pioneer amps; SA-9500 MKI and SA-9900 MKI. And luxuriated in vintage Luxmans. With this experience I’ve learned to separate fact from confounding fiction — hopefully busting these myths will help you on your vintage audio journey.
This article is focused on the Golden years of “Made in Japan” HiFi gear; 1970–1980.
Vintage Audio Myth 1: Vintage audio gear is rare and difficult to find.
Busted.
Demographics tell the story. The 1970s was the boom decade for stereo industry. By 1980 home HiFi / stereo sales had reached 32% penetration of the 80 Million American homes. Imagine for a moment, over 25 Million homes had HiFi equipment, and a large portion of that gear was purchased in the 1970s. These are not niche market numbers — this is wide scale sales of millions of stereos and related components, of which Pioneer, Marantz, Sansui, Kenwood Panasonic/Technics, Yamaha & Luxman we’re midmarket to upmarket leaders.
By the early 1980s the decline in sales was driven by multiple factors; a saturated market that was oversold in the 70’s, an economic downturn was impacting the purchase of all luxury goods and finally, there was no built-in obsolescence of the 1970s stere equipment. 1970’s stereo equipment was built to last, and could easily be repaired. Sadly, the 80’s market downturn also triggered a serious reduction in HiFi build quality.
The target demographic driving the 1970s stereo buying boom, was 18–24-year-old males. Simple math indicates that buyers in that demographic are now in downsizing years — and when home downsizing begins, the process of emptying their basements and attics of prize possessions, including their 70’s audio gear begins.
The two decades between 2010 to 2030 are clearly the prime vintage audio turnover years. In summary, there’s still a lot more vintage HiFi equipment coming into the market.
Source for 1970s market & demographics: New York Times, 1982 article “SALES OF STEREOS ARE LESS SOUND AS AUDIO INDUSTRY’S MARKETS SLIP”
Vintage Audio Myth 2: The Value will only go up!
Busted.
Prices are in decline for two key reasons:
Firstly, as per above, there will be a continued flow of vintage audio from original owners into the market for the next decade. There are plenty of attics and basements that have yet to been cleared. With an abundance of social media marketplace selling tools, and 46% of 65+ year old’s active on Facebook, this gear will be only become easier to find.
Secondly, and more importantly; the buyer market is shrinking and not backfilling. The leading profile for vintage audio buyers is ~50+ year old males. Buyer motivation is a mix of appreciation of sonics, mid-century design style and nostalgia for gear they grew up with. When I sell vintage audio gear, almost without exception, buyers are 50+ year old males — while my personal experiences are anecdotal, they represent a small snapshot of a global trend to all HiFi, not simply vintage audio.
I’ve spoken to several leaders in the HiFi world that corroborate even today, the focus market for high-end HiFi gear is male, over 50 years old. Even the contemporary high-end audiophile buyer market is shrinking precipitously. Supporting evidence, the Stereophile Magazine media kit that includes readership demographics, 99% male, average age, 47.
http://www.avtechmediausa.com/mediakit.stph.pdf
Nothing is impossible, maybe younger generations as they grow older will develop a yearning for vintage or high-end audio gear. But, considering the vast changes of how music is purchased and consumed by younger generations, plus the dynamics of smaller living spaces not friendly to multi-component systems, I believe there will not be enough buyers to sustain increasing vintage audio values.
So, with the exception of a select few “Top of the line” models, looking at you Sansui 9090, Marantz 2500, Pioneer SX-1980…. prices will inevitably continue to decline as the buyer market shrinks.
Vintage Audio Myth 3: 70’s solid state, vintage audio gear has a “warm tube-like sound”.
Partially busted.
Not all vintage audio has the same sound signature — each brand has unique sonics, and within each brand there are sound differences between models. This statement takes into consideration, of course, many other factors impact sound style; speakers, turntables/cartridges, tape decks, DACs. But testing a newly acquired vintage stereo with the same set-up every time helps you appreciate the unique sonic differences. Most importantly, sound interpretation is deeply personal — there is no right or wrong. Good sound is what you as a listener like. And there are lots of different sonic signatures to go around.
Many 1970’s stereo models do sound “warm, velvety, full and deep” but they do not truly replicate the unique sound of a tube amplifier. If you want tube sound, get a tube amp. I strongly urge all vintage audio fans to try it out to truly understand the “tube warm” sonics fans enjoy. In addition to vintage tube gear, today there’s lots of options, including Chinese HiFi tube amps. A few hundred dollars invested can help you better understand the sonic differences.
Are tubes better? It’s up to you the listener. Our experience with tubes is they smooth-out some of the harshness of some music, accentuate mids and vocals — but at the cost of not being as adaptable in more complex layered music where sometime the sound gets muddled and separation of instruments gets lost compared to solid-state audio. I like both. So try it out, please do experiment — that’s part of the fun.
Vintage Audio Myth 4: Any vintage audio problem can be fixed with DeoxIT contact cleaner.
Busted.
One of the most common issues vintage audio buyers come across is noisy stereo controls — adjusting the balance, volume or tone controls results in ugly scratchy interference noise. Additionally, dirty input selection switches, (phone, tape, aux, tuner…) interfere with the contact to one or both channels altogether. Contact cleaner can work miracles for cleaning and restoring non-functioning and scratchy potentiometers (pots) and nonfunctioning selector buttons and switches, bringing a vintage stereo back to life. Sound coming out of vintage gear isn’t always the final answer — it doesn’t mean it’s the sound the manufacturer intended you to hear.
If you’re are lucky enough to find vintage audio gear that simply needs a good cleaning of pots and switches to get the sweet sound you’ve been searching for, count yourself as very lucky. Of all the vintage audio equipment that I’ve purchased over the years, only 25% needed basic cleaning to sound pretty great. The remaining 75% of vintage audio gear required work from a seasoned vintage audio technician to bring them back to life.
Some advice for those at the earliest stages of your vintage audio journey — find a nearby vintage audio technician that you can trust. Second, if you’re planning on do-it-yourself tinkering and cleaning, read all safety instructions before opening any electronics and remember, even when unplugged electronics store enough electricity to seriously injure or kill you. Play it safe, understand your limits.
Vintage Audio Myth 5: Recapping vintage audio, (replacing original faulty capacitors) is bad and will kill the warm tube-like sound.
Busted.
First, there is no global cabal of vintage audio technicians who covertly harvest original capacitors from stereos and ship them to their top-secret central warehouse in Asia. While this is an entertaining, yet crazy conspiracy theory, it’s obviously not true. Do unscrupulous repair techs (and car mechanics) that take advantage of customers? Yes. This is why we advise finding a seasoned, reputable vintage service tech to help you on your journey.
Now, on to the science.
Capacitors fail. Fact.
Failing, or failed capacitors negatively impact vintage audio sound quality. Fact.
You can replace capacitors to restore vintage audio gear to its original spec and sound. Fact.
Forget all the voodoo and conspiracy theories — if the vintage audio gear you love is not sounding great — get it checked out. There are all levels of quality of capacitors — so work with an experienced technician who can advise you on the best approach for your unit, including identifying which capacitors need to be changed — recap doesn’t mean replace everything.
You will be amazed at the sonic improvements. Fact.
Here’s a great introductory level article summarizing replacing failing capacitors in vintage audio by Darren Myers, at PS Audio. https://www.psaudio.com/article/how-to-make-a-vintage-component-sing-again/
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We hope you enjoyed this article and it provided some new insights into vintage audio — we’re happy to hear from you and please do follow us on Twitter for vintage micro-reviews and shootouts. @HiFisetup
Copyright 2020 Mark Scott, HiFisetup
