 |
I am now 56 years old and finally found another of these wonderful Sansui 7070 receivers. When I said I got another of these, I bought one brand new from University Stereo in Hollywood, CA back in 1976 when I was in high school. It cost me nearly all the money I had saved at the age of 16. 2 years later in 1978 I had saved enough to buy a brand new pair of Altec Lansing Model 15 speakers from Now Sound Stereo in Buena Park, CA. These combined components provided the best sound I could have ever imagined. Back then I had a Technics direct drive strobe turntable for my old vinyl, a dual cassette deck, and later I got a Teac reel to reel tape deck. Music through the 7070, the reel to reel and the Altecs was incredible. Fast forward about 15 years and my brother-in-law and myself began a DJ business where we used the 7070 as our power supply amp. We were using a pair of Cerwin Vega V-15 monitor speakers for the business. The 7070 filled huge ballrooms with deep, pure, rich, clean sound at the highest volume levels without a problem. Well, in 2005 my brother-in-law passed and since then my sister lost track of my beloved Sansui 7070 as we kept it stored with all our old DJ gear in their garage. So I began searching again for this past year and finally found another one in excellent condition. I am listening to it now as I write this review, and yes, on those same original Altec Lansing Model 15s. For the past 10-15 years I had been driving my Altecs with newer AV type receivers rated at 100 watts per channel and more. They all made the speakers sound much less than spectacular. I am sure it was due to the crossovers in newer AV type units calling for a sub-woofer. Even an 800 watt Sony AV receiver couldn't drive my ultra efficient Altec speakers to reach their full potential. And these speakers are fantastic. At about 80 pounds each and the size of a good sized end table with walnut cabinets, they have awesome quality 12" woofers and the highly sought after Altec "tangerine" radial phase plug drivers for the horns mounted above the woofers. These high frequency drivers are huge, the size of a large heavy coffee mug, attached to a horn shaped driver body. I have had the foam rolled edges of the woofers replaced once back in the mid 90s. That was 20 years ago and they still sound great with no flutter or distortion. Just this afternoon, I had a chance to hook up my newly acquired Sansui 7070 to these speakers. I was completely blown away at the depth and clarity of sound. The 7070 completely woke up my Altec speakers after 20+ years of mediocre sound. This Sansui 7070 was the middle of the Sansui class back in the 1970s. The top dog was the 9090DB which featured Dolby FM and 125 watts per side. There was an 8080 as well. The 9090s I have seen are asking for big dollars in questionable condition. I picked up my 7070 for a great price in excellent condition. It took me a while to find a good one out there but it was well worth the wait. The 7070 puts out a highly under rated 60 watts per side. But that rating is pure gorgeous sound if you like power and deep full bass with room filling midrange and crisp clear highs. A great stereo receiver like this 7070 will only sound as good as the speakers you let it drive. I am listening now with volume at 2 out of 10 on the center volume dial, and it is perfect. I cranked it up to 6 earlier and the sound is incredible, clear and full of clean solid bass, with zero distortion at all. The highs are bright but not piercing. At volume level 3, my wife said she could feel the sound while she was in the master shower at the other end of our 2500sf house. This Sansui 7070 can really rock when cranked up. It sounds great at lower volume, but even better when you can afford to air it out and twist that big volume knob. It has all the features any stereo enthusiast could want. From left to right on the lower face, it has a speaker knob for off (headphones), "A", "B" and "A"+"B" & 1/4" headphone jack to the right. Then the awesome triple tone 3 knobs for superior sound control including bass, midrange & treble. The 3 tone control knobs have zero reading when straight up with positive stop detents for incremental gain or fade in increments of 2 up or down to 10. Next is the big volume knob which has markings for zero through 10. The balance control knob is a collar around the volume knob. Next there is an on/off push button for loudness for extra punch, and it really punches. Then there is a push button for mono or stereo. Next knob is the tape play knob. It has provisions for 2 tape decks (or other sources like CD players, etc.) and knob positions for source which is straight up. Straight up to source defeats any tape play functions. One click to left is deck one, another click is for dubbing from deck 1 to deck 2 while listening to deck one. One more click lets you listen to deck 2 during same dubbing. After back to straight up and on source, the knob clicks to the right for deck 2. Another click has you listening to deck 2 while copying to deck 1. One more click has you listening to deck 1 while copying from deck 2 to deck 1. I know it sounds confusing but I have used all these features and the Sansui 7070 has them all. Moving further to the right is a Microphone level knob with a 1/4" microphone jack just under it. While we had our DJ biz, these features were great. We had 2 CD players connected to the 2 tape deck inputs, and could switch from CD player 1 to 2 and vice versa while the next CD was cuing up on the other player. The microphone jack allowed us to talk over the music in typical DJ style. Still moving further to the right on the lower panel is the phonograph button for phono 1 or 2. That's right, this 7070 has provisions for 2 phonographs as well. Moving to the far right end is the large Selector knob. Just like the speaker selector knob on the far left, this knob has positive detent clicks for phono, FM Auto, Dolby FM adaptor (which is capable on rear of receiver), then AM and finally AUX, which is the one I am using now for my iPod. Now, along the center of the receiver just above the lower controls I just detailed, from left to right is the main power push button switch. Then there are a series of 3 push buttons for, low and high frequency filters and an audio muting button for a quick -20db if you need a brief reduction in volume like to take a phone call. Moving to the right, dead center above the volume knob are a pair of gorgeous analog needle sweep power meters, one for the left channel and one for the right channel. These sold me initially back in 1976. They react perfectly to the volume of the receiver's media source. To the right of the meters is a button for Dolby noise reduction / 4 channel adaptor. Moving further to the right are the MPX noise canceler and FM Muting Off buttons. Along the top face of the receiver from left to tight are the pair of gorgeous analog needle sweep FM tuning meters. On the left is the Signal strength indicator, and next to it is the Tune meter where the needle sets in center when station is tuned in properly. To the right of these meters is the classic horizontal analog tuning dial, FM on top, AM below yet smaller. Along the top of this tuner field are indicator lights to let you know which function you are in. Finally on the far right is the classic big tuning knob. And yes, it has that great vintage receiver feel, like when you spin it and let go, it keeps moving the tuning needle with the that slight resistance we all love. I could go on and on about all the connections on the rear panel of the Sansui 7070, but I think you get the idea from all the features on the front panel. When I was a teenager I used to crank the 7070 for all it was worth and it kept on putting out clean powerful sound. These days I still love my classic rock, but prefer old traditional jazz like Miles Davis, Count Basie, etc. I played some of that today as well and I have never heard jazz sound so clean and warm. Yes, there are lots of old vintage pure power receivers available if you look for them. If you perhaps get the chance to come across a Sansui 7070 stereo receiver, do yourself a huge favor and don't pass it up. You can spend a ton on a vintage power house receiver with 100+ watts per side, but you will rarely if ever need that kind of power. Find yourself a great quality condition Sansui 7070 and you will never need another power source for your music needs. This baby wants to rock! Thanks for reading. Phil
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
|
|
