Originally Posted by
bigbossman
That's the thing that drew me to the Pioneer "silver face" series of the '70's...... the clean look of machined aluminum faces, knobs, and switch covers, along with the wood or wood veneer cases.
I don't mind the black Sansui, though, and it sounds nice. I'd prefer silver like the Pioneer's and Kenwood's..... but the Sansui still has a nice vintage look, despite being black. It'll never be mistaken for the newer black plastic crap.
I won't own BPC, not even for garage duty. A nice vintage receiver is easy enough to find - and cheap, too. I've got a 50w Pioneer SX-838 in the garage, hooked up to some big Cerwin Vega's. The Pioneer cost me about $50 including parts to fix it, and the CV's were $20. Add another $12 for a 5 disc CD changer courtesy of the thrift sop, and I can cheaply irritate the neighbors for hours on end.
One of the Communist conspiracies of the 70's and early 80's was the color of the components. This I believe. The Marantz didn't quite match the Pioneer didn't quite match the Kenwood didn't quite match the Sansui. The mix and match drove me nuts, but it also caused many a man to buy matching components. Like bbm, I dug the silky smooth SX Pioneers, and the tape decks that matched, but Pioneer was smart and put the "matching" wood only on the upper level decks once they got their auto-reverse down pat.
None of my black gear is plastic. All Kenwood: C2, T2, 2xM1's, into the AT-200 timer/switching center. Though the speakers have devolved from dbx Soundfield 1's to Polk RT-12C's to Klipsch Forte II's, 99% of my listening at home is via my AR wireless phones.
Where the "other people" live in my home, the audio is the Bose 1-2-3 system, which sounds OK if you like your Dancing with the Stars to have decent sound.