It is a nice feature, but it would be best applied on the bass with very little or no compensation on the treble. The Fletcher-Munson compensation curves bare this out as the curves are consistently ~20 dB apart in the high frequencies all the way down to the limits of hearing. Compare this to how the low frequency curves bunch up at lower volumes, and you see the need for low frequency compensation. Unfortunately, the loudness feature of this Yamaha receiver compensates heavily in the high frequencies where no compensation is needed.
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Yamaha CR-1020 Vintage Receiver Measurements and Features
- Thread starter MAB
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Mine is, if music is played through it.Was it "musical" thought?
Play static/white noise through it, and it sounds kind of noisy.
OP
MAB
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It applies little compensation to the treble compared to bass. Did you look at the measurement at the bottom? If so, did you compare to the difference in ISO phon curves? The difference is what is important.
The biggest difference from F-M is the midrange, missing the 1-2kHz bump due to our head, and the upper midrange valley. But it is really quite close to a 10dB reduction in volume in a range of 60-80 phon.
yo!
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Yes, for it's time the yamaha loudness function is pretty good and still much better than no correction at all for low listening levels. Only 3 bands with fixed fs/Q are used (given by the tone controls).
Sure, today it could be implemented more accurate and cheaper. But buying 'high end' with less oportunities for more money was succesfully indoctrinated to the people.
Sure, today it could be implemented more accurate and cheaper. But buying 'high end' with less oportunities for more money was succesfully indoctrinated to the people.
Yes,
That's true, some time after the CD's and the CD player were introduced, "us customers" suddenly didn't need any tone controls or other means of tuning the sound to our liking anymore, at least according to the manufacturers an writing Hi-Fi press, luckily i never "bought" it, and insisted that my amps had at least : balance, bass and treble control.
A good thing those made a comeback later on.
Well, moving coupler switch worked great for a little while! Left channel eventually dropped out on all speaker circuits, but headphone jack works fine. Time for a deep cleaning. Any favorite contact cleaner?Exactly what @mhardy6647 said!
As I mentioned in the review, I had to do lots of contact cleaning, and I actually replaced the exact same switch on this unit.
View attachment 464858
A quick test is to move the switch back and forth. You will need to take off the little keeper plate. Make sure and do it with the volume down.
Good luck!
Moving coupler switch worked for a short while. Any recommendations on contact cleaner?Are you sure it's a "hard" problem? The CR-1020, if memory serves, like the CR-2020 has a preamp/power amp 'coupler' switch on the rear panel that is notorious for causing all sorts of havoc when it gets dirty. Unless you're sure that's not the problem... it's well worth checking into.
And, as with all vintage audio hardware, any of the various switches and buttons/levers on the Yamahas can also cause dropouts in one channel (typically somewhat intermittently) when they get dirty (oxidized or otherwise 'gunked up' switch or potentiometer contacts). Again, these issues are almostalways straightforward to mitigate. I find the Yamaha hardware here (in northern New England) needs contact cleaning ca. every 5 years.
Contact cleaning is a pretty straightforward thing to do.
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If it's available where you are, CAIG DeOxit is better than average in the current era.
There's an excruciatingly extensive
primer on how to use it at audiokarma.org -- which I would recommend taking with a grain of salt, but it may be helpful if contact cleaning is completely new to one.The switch could be beyond rescue with contact cleaner.
AudioSceptic
Major Contributor
Another one I remember is Servisol, but I don't know the exact name.If it's available where you are, CAIG DeOxit is better than average in the current era.
There's an excruciatingly extensive
The switch could be beyond rescue with contact cleaner.
DSJR
Major Contributor
Oh Lord, you make me feel ancient, as I knew and sold all those speakers you mention (Well KEF Concertos anyway I have a huge soft spot for and the MA3sssss (
), the NM point5s belonged for a couple of years, to a customer who became a long standing friend)Ken Rockwell has tested my main amps (well, a slightly later version of the power amp but the basics didn't change apart from direct coupling at the input later on) and the results still show a clean and tidy performance, albeit some protection into (both channels well driven) four ohm loads as tested in the Hugh Ford 'Choice amp book of 1976 or so.
P.S. Aforementioned HiFi Choice book (worldradiohistory site in the UK section) rates the Yamaha CA810 and 1010 (interesting comments about the non-useful 'Class A' switch
) and also, the Sansui 1100, which many older stateside members here might remember with fondness 
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AudioSceptic
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I remember going to Audio-T in West Hampstead to listen to the Spendor BCI and KEF 104. Martin Colloms was doing the dems and introduced the Monitor Audio MA1, which I later found he had a hand in designing. Impressive, but a bit more than I wanted to spend.Oh Lord, you make me feel ancient, as I knew and sold all those speakers you mention (Well KEF Concertos anyway I have a huge soft spot for and the MA3sssss (
Ken Rockwell has tested my main amps (well, a slightly later version of the power amp but the basics didn't change apart from direct coupling at the input later on) and the results still show a clean and tidy performance, albeit some protection into (both channels well driven) four ohm loads as tested in the Hugh Ford 'Choice amp book of 1976 or so.
P.S. Aforementioned HiFi Choice book (worldradiohistory site in the UK section) rates the Yamaha CA810 and 1010 (interesting comments about the non-useful 'Class A' switch
DSJR
Major Contributor
Just caught the first pic - is that a Philips GA-308 turntable I espy there? I didn't know that one hugely well, but did know the 'electronic belt drive 212 version which I think wasn't too different apart from motor and auto-stop...Nope, just a collector
Long story short: When I caught the "stereo bug" (ca. 1976) I was very short on funds, so I window-shopped a lot. Listened to many different things (many, though not all, dealers were surprisingly tolerant in those days of scruffy but earnest college students). I bought a Yamaha CA-610II in 1978 (which, unsurprisingly is still here and still works well and sounds good to me).
Much, much later, after our own kids were grown & more or less on their own, I got interested again. One of those interests was along that line of "recapturing lost youth". I couldn't afford the better Yamaha stuff then, but -- informed by the notion which I like to call "Pasteur's Dictum"* -- I could "now".
The aforementioned CA-610II, when it was more or less new
... and in a more recent (but hardly current) photo:
____________
* i.e., "Chance favors the prepared mind", as it's often rendered in English.
Wow, how similar my first real quality system was, phillips 212 turntable, yamaha m-4 c-4 amp & pre (still have), Kef 104ab speakers and a big M&K sub that looked like an end table powered by a technics amp. I need to try some of the solutions on my noisy yamaha c-4 switches.
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Yes, my first "modern" tt, which I bought used ($50 USD) in as-new condition (pristine) from a small, venerable, and rather funky hifi store in midtown Baltimore ca. 1976. 10" platter, manual controls, and shorter arm, but similar to the 212. The GA-427 was, more or less, the next variant of it. Nice little tt; cute as heck.
That 308 had a long life in my family, but my father, to whom I had passed it when I got married, didn't take terribly good care of it, and I had to discard it when I cleaned out my parents' house in 2007 as it was beyond rehabilitation due to water damage.
I am sure no one will be surprised to know that there's a 212 in the basement even as I type this.
DSJR
Major Contributor
I was taking to an old pal of mine about the 212, as he owned one in the late 70s and knows its foibles. If a 212 or 312 has survived in playing condition this long, I suspect it'd still be a really serious deck as long as the pickup doesn't mind the steel platter (WHY FFS!) and as modern pickups track at the thick end of 2g these days (the tonearm wasn't the free-est in bearing drag/friction and bias-correction (anti-skate) was always higher than needed but easily backed off).Yes, my first "modern" tt, which I bought used ($50 USD) in as-new condition (pristine) from a small, venerable, and rather funky hifi store in midtown Baltimore ca. 1976. 10" platter, manual controls, and shorter arm, but similar to the 212. The GA-427 was, more or less, the next variant of it. Nice little tt; cute as heck.
That 308 had a long life in my family, but my father, to whom I had passed it when I got married, didn't take terribly good care of it, and I had to discard it when I cleaned out my parents' house in 2007 as it was beyond rehabilitation due to water damage.
I am sure no one will be surprised to know that there's a 212 in the basement even as I type this.
Please sir, get the 212 out and give it a spin. I think the bulbs on the touch sensors can be got with ease, belts too maybe and check the plinth is still properly taped together (oh yes indeedy, bloody Philips cheapskates
). I think the auto-stop is usually okay but can be fixed? (I've not looked into the VE forum 'room' for ages). The suspension saves these decks and my pal had one set close to a huge pair of loose-bass IMF transmission lines at the time with no rumbles or feedback (try doing that with a Rega/ProJect or whatever ).The GA212 deck and similar were often bought with a Yamaha receiver. Speakers that went well were the later traditional AR 2Ax (ours were UK made) and for the smaller ones, the AR6* and 7 were popular despite sounding a touch 'dry' in comparison with the Bextrene cone/dome tweetersssss that were coming through then.
I'm off again, back in the 70s - apologies folks. There really WAS some first rate gear back then which still has merit today as well as a lot of sub-standard dross with a shiny front panel and lots of knobs and switches. Yamaha wasn't one of these thankfully although I'm still (psychologically) attached more to the 400/600/800/1000 era than the ones that came after.
I could never understand the variable 'loudness' control at all back then in my late teenage years (playing quietly? Do leave off), but the AR6, despite its flatter response over others in their range, did seem to like careful use of such a control (CR600 and 800 I remember).
Also bought mine used in Bmore 1976, the rest of my stuff from folks living around U of MD. in college park. I used to be a manager at the record coop in the student union, great place to get albums, tapes and even cartridges.Yes, my first "modern" tt, which I bought used ($50 USD) in as-new condition (pristine) from a small, venerable, and rather funky hifi store in midtown Baltimore ca. 1976. 10" platter, manual controls, and shorter arm, but similar to the 212. The GA-427 was, more or less, the next variant of it. Nice little tt; cute as heck.
That 308 had a long life in my family, but my father, to whom I had passed it when I got married, didn't take terribly good care of it, and I had to discard it when I cleaned out my parents' house in 2007 as it was beyond rehabilitation due to water damage.
I am sure no one will be surprised to know that there's a 212 in the basement even as I type this.
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I remember visiting Myer-EMCO down in or near College Park one day in '76 or 77. Klipschorns and the venerable old (even then, but still available) Empire turntable made significant impressions on me at the time. The Empire tt of that day (I think the model number was 598?) had touch controls a la the GA-212 and its kin (and the h/k-Rabco ST-7, and some of the better Thorens decks of around the same time).
Ahh, memories...
Ahh, memories...
DSJR
Major Contributor
Was therer ever an Empire 698? We had one, which had been reviewed well (tonearm effective-mass apart) and the thing, in a golden hue and solid wooden plinth, was to me a joy to behold and, like the equally rre Sony 8650, it helped records to *sound* as good as possible. Not sure we sold any apart from that demo one sadly (the LP12 was beginning to make inroads by then). I set up plenty of Thorens 160s with a variety of tonearms (the [you'be been] Hadcock a popular meccano kit once unboxed, needing gluing back up usually) but the original 126 was awful (weak motor drive with lightened outer platter and sloppy main bearing, not seemingly being sorted to 125mk1 standards intil the 126III I seem to recall (it's all in the 'Choice books I keep on about).
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