| The New (to me) 2270 |
[Sep. 2nd, 2017|10:51 pm]
Transitioning into liminal space
|
| [ | Tags | | | hi-fi | ] |
| [ | State of Being |
| |  satisfied | ] |
I got the 2270 connected up and tried it out. I knew the radio was good already, (I can listen to NPR without having to boot up the computer or listen on my phone!) but it's good to see that speakers on both channels work. I can run the balance and all *three* tone controls (bass, treble, and *mid* on this receiver!) all the way through their range with no static from dirty pots. There's a little static on the volume pot. This unit has fifty more watts per channel than my 2220 and I'm in a condo, so that volume knob is not going very high right now! Loudness, muting, low and hi filter buttons all work.
I have a copy of The Jimi Hendrix Experience on vinyl that I thrifted a while back but haven't listened to yet. Purple Haze was an appropriate first track to play, and the phono stage works just fine too. At least, one of them does; this unit has two!
The Indigo Girls sound on CD sound good through the aux input too. The only things I can find obviously wrong are burned out lamps. Unlike the 2220, the 2270 has light-up indicators to show which input channel is selected. Aux is burned out, which is probably the most likely one to be. It probably got a lot of use as an amp for CDs or something, like I'm doing. And the only lamp that was probably lit more often, the stereo indicator, is also dead. Those should be easily replaceable. Even the light diffusing velum behind the dial isn't too discolored. My 2220 lights up sea-green, but the 2270 is closer to the rich blue it ought to be. (I'll still probably replace it.) Everything is in better shape than I had any right to expect. I wonder how much someone loved it....
I just love electro-mechanical things like this. There's nothing digital in here. Instead of ICs sending signals to light up LEDs, the input selector is a real mechanical switch. And a damned complex one at that, to select between six input lines and light up the correct indicators for them. And I haven't looked inside it yet, but I know how gorgeous the radio tuning stage will be, with it's ganged variable disc capacitors all in a row. It's all done on a little chip now. It's amazing. And the tone knobs are dual function; there's an outer ring that modifies the right channel and an inner ring for the left. It's hard for me to imagine wanting to adjust them independently, but hey; I have the option now. *laughs* And all of it without a single integrated circuit, let alone any digital signal processing.
I can't quite figure out how the sound quality compares overall to the 2220. It sounds just slightly different, but it's hard to say how. It's also hard to set things up in a way that I can switch back and forth to compare. One of these days, maybe I'll be up to over the thing and tweaking it to factory spec. Or maybe (ha!) I'll have the financial means to pay someone to do it for me.
For now though, I'm so happy with the new gear! |
|
excited
awake
thoughtful
okay
tired