Executive or Personal Stereos Are They Good or Not?

February 7, 2020

#354

Gentle reader,

Home entertainment is a large field, it not only means watching TV or movies, but also enjoying music, whether via headphones or massive speakers, or simply as background while doing something else.
 
Some may think of the "home theater" in their living room. Although sometimes theirs are "HTIAB" or "home theater in a box", comprised of a multi-channel receiver/DVD-player in one unit with five tiny speakers and a larger "subwoofer" speaker all with color coded plugs for the average person to figure out what speaker plugs where on the back of the unit.

In our case, we have a once $1,000, SONY 7.1 channel receiver I got for a bargain price with the manual from a thrift store marked, "As-Is". I found the speaker switch was turned off. I carry a test kit when I go thrifting, I never buy anything unless it works. It was the second best ten bucks I've ever spent on audio equipment.

Had I planned to make this photo for an article, I would have neatened up the place. 

The front left and right speakers are 1970's vintage Dynaco A25XL models. They were siting unused in the listening room, a disservice to their greatness.

So, I moved them to the living room. They are a little too efficient for the Cambridge Soundworks large center channel speaker, so I had to decrease their output. Plus, they match the wood decor and floors.

I originally found these white Cambridge Soundworks front channel speakers at a thrift store. I wish they were black, but the price was right, and I bought the same brand center channel speaker via eBay. They were in the living room, now they serve as rear channel speakers for quadraphonic music  in the listening room.

My point is, that one buys what they can afford. If a HTIAB is all one can manage financially, then it will do the job just fine.

I have owned HUNDREDS of components and pairs of speakers in my 40+ plus years in this hobby. Almost all bought previously enjoyed.

I am finally happy with the system in the listening room and quite pleased with the 1980's Yamaha stack next to this PC in this room we call "the office". (Seen at the very end of this article.)

But, the "Executive Stereo" or Personal Stereos that have been made for some time now have intrigued but escaped me. Perfect for a small room, home or even a real office or for a bedroom.

The ones I have come across while thrifting have been more money that I wanted to spend. Until yesterday.

These are not the same brand, and were sold separately. Onkyo CR-305TX CD Receiver, seen up close below.

And these truly lovely TEAC LS-MC90 speakers. Unlike SO many speakers, these have rubber, not the usual cheaper foam surrounds on their four inch woofers.

The Onkyo speakers which originally came with the silver unit are seen below, in the ONE photo I could find of the whole set.

I was able to download the owner's manual, but no mention of the components or anything else about the speakers above. I suspect the reason I can find no other photos of the speakers is that they probably had foam surrounds and the average person that finally realizes why the speakers sound like crap and pried off the grilles, having seen the rotted away foam just tossed the speakers.

Made in Malaysia in March, 2006, the unit is very solidly constructed.

Aside from the built in CD player and tuner, it has Tape Out (Record) and Tape In (Play) RCA terminals as well as the same for CDR recording and playing. So one can add two additional inputs, but not one for a phono (turntable) without an external preamplifier.
It also has Optical Digital output, you can see it glowing red and an RCA Subwoofer output for a powered subwoofer.

The person who donated it still had the black plastic frame AM and thin wire FM antennae attached as well as those speaker wires. No remote, but there are some on eBay for more than I paid for all three pieces.

I often take the cover off a new component to see what's inside, and this one is no exception.

It's been a very long time since I studied electronics to get my job repairing electric subway cars. 

So, I can't tell you what all of the things do you see here. The CD transport is a good one and functions flawlessly.
The black cylinders below, left and right are capacitors, they store electricity for sudden release when needed. 

The finned silver piece above is a heatsink. A transistor is attached to the other side of it with a paste between them to help transfer heat.
They get hot and would burn up were it not for aluminum heatsinks. 

Those copper coils are called chokes and are part of the power amplifier section.

Inside the black plastic cover with the date on it on the back hides this robust heatsink. Above, you see two of the four power transistors, screwed to it. A pair for the left channel are on the opposite side. They are the last in the sound circuitry prior to the speaker terminals.

The cover not only protects these fins from damage, but us from getting burned or cut by them.

NOW, to the sound of this combination. With only 20 watts per channel, one cannot expect much.
Which is why it pleasantly surprised me when I began to listen to it.
The bass those four inch "woofers" put out is way deeper than I thought possible. I have other much more expensive speakers with the same size drivers and by comparison, they sound weak.

NOTE: The following three paragraphs, show up smaller in the preview of the article. So, I set them in LARGEST and still the font is smaller! Still, blogger.com is free so I can't really complain.

It is fortunate I have the manual, because setting radio stations into memory, the clock and other things is not intuitive.  

I can find ZERO reviews for this unit. I suspect most media sources would not consider such sets beneath them.

If I had someplace, to use this, I would keep it. The unit is well made, functions perfectly and the speakers, also well made with above average components sound superb. So good in fact, I am going to try them with this Yamaha system next to me.

Realistically, the Onkyo CR-305TX could replace this whole stack and has inputs for the cassette deck and OPPO universal player. It won't but if it was all I had, I'd be very happy with the sound.

Thank you for taking the time to read my humble blog. It is your kind words that keep me writing.

Scott
February 7, 2020
#354