My stereo receiver is giving up the ghost after 15 years. Probably a leaky capacitor, but I’d rather buy a new one than try to fix the old.
It turns out that when you walk into the big box stores, they all want to sell you a ‘home theater’ system with 8 channels, 3 DVD inputs, and oh, you can hook your turntable up thru the ‘aux’ port if you really must have one.
Online perusal of Sony/Pioneer/Marantz sites turns up a lot of home theater stuff, but no plain old stereo components for those who like music more than TV.
Do such things still exist? Who makes em?
Harman Kardon still make a 2 channel receiver. Actually they make 2.
HK 3385 http://harmankardon.com/product_detail.aspx?cat=REC&sType=C&prod=HK+3385
HK 3485 http://harmankardon.com/product_detail.aspx?cat=REC&sType=C&prod=HK+3485
Ran out of editing time…both have phono inputs.
Normal 2-channel receivers and amps are getting scarce.
Poking around some popular stores, I find that Sony still makes one - their STR-DE197 sells for about $150, but has no phono input.
The Sherwood RX4105 sells for about $100 - no mention of phono inputs though.
My pick of what’s readily available and with phono inputs would be the Onkyo TX-8222 - $180 at Crutchfield. You didn’t say what you were looking for in power, but this one is rated for 50 watts per channel. Knowing Onkyo, this is probably a rather conservative rating.
There are quite a few audiophile companies still making pure stereo stuff. Many are ridiculously expensive. But take a look at Rotel (nice integrated amplifier, and even a pure stereo receiver - Music Systems | Rotel) and NAD. Good quality stuff, not priced out of this world.
fear not! NAD Electronics makes the C315BEE, an honest to goodness integrated stereo amplifier. It has everything you need and probably nothing you would not:
http://nadelectronics.com/products/hifi-amplifiers/C315BEE-Stereo-Integrated-Amplifier/
no flashy lcd displays, no high definition HDMI inputs, no usb ports.
Radio Shack still sells a few products that might fit your bill, such as this Teac stereo receiver.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2558773&cp=2032057.2032180&parentPage=family
Ah, some excellent replies here. Thanks all!
That HK 3385 looks pretty sweet, but I haven’t had a chance to look through all the rest yet.
I’m still a little puzzled though. Is there some reason I would want a home theatre system just to play records, CD’s and MP3s?
I’ll probably end up dumping all this stuff to a hard drive over the next couple years, and then just Airport it into the amp, but that doesn’t require that I have USB ports, or 7.1 channels of movie soundtrack quality amplification. Movie soundtracks aren’t all that hi-fi. Why is everyone going with it?
While it’s getting harder to find equipment that is strictly audio, that doesn’t mean you have to use all the features that come with the amp. My home stereo (Denon) has surround capability, but I only use it for music. It can be set for stereo or surround or whatever you want it to do. In fact, here is a Denon integrated amp that is probably just what you need.
Any amount of Denon Stereo receivers. My son in law has one (UK model not listed here) and it is fine for his purposes.
You might also consider an integrated amp and a tuner, possibly second hand.
The reasoning behind this is that you will get a better quality sound from it but analogue audio looks like being phased out over the coming years and you can easily replace the tuner with a DAB tuner.
Also Marantz receivers.
Sony receivers.
Still plenty of them out there.
Well, there are methods to create surround sound from a 2-channel recording. Dolby Pro Logic 2 is supposed to be good for doing this with music, but I haven’t tried it.
If you have a subwoofer, a home-theater receiver will have a crossover to send the bass to it and cut it from the main speakers. The subwoofer or stereo receiver might have one, but it usually isn’t as good or as flexible as the digital one in a surround receiver.
Another thing is that a home-theater receiver can take a digital signal from a CD player. That way it shouldn’t matter how cheap the player is, because the sound quality should depend on the digital-to-analog converter in the receiver. You can also play CDs on a DVD player, so you’d have fewer things by putting it all together. You can even stream mp3s from your computer to your Tivo.