Realistic STA-2000 Stereo Receive

[greymalkin]

Hello All,

I have an old Realistic STA-2000 stereo AM/FM receiver/AMP I got from my father in law. He bought them along with his Realistic Mach One's many moons ago. Unfortunately, he says he believes the power amps blew on it and told me i could look at it if I wanted to. The reason I'm looking into it is no other amp we have ever connected properly pushes the mach one's.

So I started looking this amp over and i noticed right by where the power cord enters the unit there is a fuse terminal. I unscrew the terminal and the fuse in there is blown. I think to myself.."alright! that's all it was!"...so i dash out to radioshack and I get a 7A, 250V fast blow fuse (the back of the unit says 7A, 125V but we couldn't find any and a 250V is what was already in the unit..in past experiences the voltage didn't necessarily have to be exact if it was a little higher).

Anyways..i put the new fuse in, plug it in and power it on...the lights came on for a split second then went right out again. I unplugged the unit and the fuse had blown again! I'm not sure what would have caused that to happen???

I was looking around the back of it and there is a thumbscrew labeled "ground" on the back of it..but I'm not sure what to connect to it and what to connect it to....any suggestions and could this be causing the fuse to blow???

thanks..

[Geoffcin]

Hello All,
Anyways..i put the new fuse in, plug it in and power it on...the lights came on for a split second then went right out again. I unplugged the unit and the fuse had blown again! I'm not sure what would have caused that to happen???

I was looking around the back of it and there is a thumbscrew labeled "ground" on the back of it..but I'm not sure what to connect to it and what to connect it to....any suggestions and could this be causing the fuse to blow???

thanks..

You got yourself a toaster.

Don't waste another fuse on it. If you want to have a tech look at it that's fine, but it's going to cost you, and your better off saving your $$$ for something newer/working.

The ground is for hooking it up to a turntable. It's not going to help with your fuse problem.

[greymalkin]

..thanks..I was afraid of that..it's really depressing because the new "110wpc" surround sound amp doesn't push the speakers nearly as well as the 75wpc realistic amp did. The thing weighs a ton and has 2 capacitors in there as big as my fist :P.

ok...well I guess I need to find an amp that can really push these speakers if anyone has any good ideas. I was thinking of maybe something that would push a true 75-100wpc across all frequencies. I've looked at stereo power amps and they are insanely priced....I was wondering if I have any other options?

[Geoffcin]

..thanks..I was afraid of that..it's really depressing because the new "110wpc" surround sound amp doesn't push the speakers nearly as well as the 75wpc realistic amp did. The thing weighs a ton and has 2 capacitors in there as big as my fist :P.

ok...well I guess I need to find an amp that can really push these speakers if anyone has any good ideas. I was thinking of maybe something that would push a true 75-100wpc across all frequencies. I've looked at stereo power amps and they are insanely priced....I was wondering if I have any other options?

Adsom makes some good stuff that's a pretty good bet on the used market;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ADCOM-GFA555-AMP...QQcmdZViewItem

[greymalkin]

hmmm,

i think i might be able to find the STA-2000 or another "vintage" receiver that has a good amp in it for around $100. Theres one on e-bay right now for 59.99 and it's just missing the power button...since i have another one with a good power button that shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure shipping on the beast will top $30 but if i can get it all for 100 that would be fantastic.

i've been doing some reading and people have said to go from the pre-amp output of the ss receiver to the main input of the amp. The STA-2000 does have such an input but it has a loop connecting the pre-out and the in...i suppose i just take that little peice out and plug the rca's into the input? How is this different than just plugging them into say the "aux" input and setting the STA-2000 to aux?

Also, if anyone else knows any good "vintage" amps comparable to the STA-2000 please let me know so I can broaden my search. 75wpc of clean power supposedly drove them plenty back in the day so I'm really not interested in the sansui g9000 or some mega beast of an amp...ok maybe i would be interested in hearing it but not in paying for it :P

thanks,

[Geoffcin]

hmmm,

i think i might be able to find the STA-2000 or another "vintage" receiver that has a good amp in it for around $100. Theres one on e-bay right now for 59.99 and it's just missing the power button...since i have another one with a good power button that shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure shipping on the beast will top $30 but if i can get it all for 100 that would be fantastic.

i've been doing some reading and people have said to go from the pre-amp output of the ss receiver to the main input of the amp. The STA-2000 does have such an input but it has a loop connecting the pre-out and the in...i suppose i just take that little peice out and plug the rca's into the input? How is this different than just plugging them into say the "aux" input and setting the STA-2000 to aux?

Also, if anyone else knows any good "vintage" amps comparable to the STA-2000 please let me know so I can broaden my search. 75wpc of clean power supposedly drove them plenty back in the day so I'm really not interested in the sansui g9000 or some mega beast of an amp...ok maybe i would be interested in hearing it but not in paying for it :P

thanks,

If it fries your only out $59 + shipping. Before you mke up your mind you might want to consider this one;
http://cgi.ebay.com/REALISTIC-STEREO...QQcmdZViewItem
It's got a power button.

[greymalkin]

i just went and visited a guys shop that I remembered had an older stereo amp..i went by to see if perhaps he was interested in selling or had any others...when i looked this time i noticed he had the sansui 9090DB! I almost peed myself..of course he's not giving that baby up...He gave me the name of a local guy that still works on old receivers and may have some used ones in his shop. I think I'll go by there first and see if we can't work something out.

[Geoffcin]

i just went and visited a guys shop that I remembered had an older stereo amp..i went by to see if perhaps he was interested in selling or had any others...when i looked this time i noticed he had the sansui 9090DB! I almost peed myself..of course he's not giving that baby up...He gave me the name of a local guy that still works on old receivers and may have some used ones in his shop. I think I'll go by there first and see if we can't work something out.

Always good to keep the locals guys in business. Good luck!

[greymalkin]

well I ended up finding a guy who gave me his old Pioneer SX-680. It's one of the "good" old amps from 78-79, but it's only 30wpc. Does anyone think it would adequately push the mach one's at moderate volumes?