I bought this set in August 2015 at the Lisbon flea market, known locally as "feira da ladra". It cost me 20€!! I've had a lot of good deals in this market, unfortunately, due to urban pressure to reclaim what is now an expensive neighbourhood, and the covid pandemic, It's just a fraction of what it was some years ago. Unfortunately, I seem to have missed the photos of the original state - they were pretty beaten up, tobacco stains, dust, radio stations scribbled in graphite on the faceplate, and some dodgy repairs. As of today, they were cleaned to the core and are waiting for time and components to do further repairs. Sony TC-188SD Stereo Cassette Deck Sony ST-2950S FM Stereo/FM-AM Tuner Sony TA-1630 Integrated Stereo Amplifier With the heatsink removed. But the transistors still soldered. Original state. Pretty dodgy repairs, vias have torn apart, a mess. Transistor off. Second thorough bath. Used ammonia to degrease and clean. After cleaning. Rosin flux cleand off. Still thinking on what to do here, either bridge or maybe a clip-on connector for the transistors
Nice work, I'll admit I used to have the cheapest soldering iron and nice repairs were next to impossible plus we didn't have all of the internet videos to look at. I love the multi-band tuner, ultra-rare over here, they were just AM/FM but the extra bands make it look so much better. We had a member post a Sony CD Player that he transplanted into a 70's chassis which matched your equipment, find that thread, that was a cool system, I think it would have matched your equipment nicely.
What is Lisbon like for vintage audio? There used to be some ebay sellers with new-old-stock equipment from your area, I imagine the beach towns had a lot of portables and stereos.
Hi. My experience with vintage HiFi in Lisbon is quite narrow, I had the luck to find this set, as it was literally laid on my feet, at that moment, at the flea market. I don't see remarkable sets with great prices in the local online markets either, people seem to look at eBay prices and think Portuguese customers have the same GDP as North American or North European ones. Also, I think Portuguese buying power at this time of interest (70's and 80's) was very low, so you mostly find unremarkable setups.
This set, for instance, is a run-of-the-mill low-end setup. It was featured on the last pages of the sony catalogue, removed from the remarkable and innovative sets. I just love the retro design, the ingenuity of the solutions and the fact that it's repairable. This is a thing I like about old tech, they are easy to understand and eventually easy to maintain and repair. As you might have seen in another thread, I also like old computers. Something like a classic Macintosh is a really nice project to have.
I had an Apple II and learned programming on it and various other machines, sadly they're all gone but they took up a ton of space. I've got at least one old Sony Reciever, maybe the STR-7065? They don't get the love that the big three get but it's a hefty unit and it looks great when fully lit up, I wouldn't walk past any of the 70's equipment. I think Sony's Problem in the 80's and 90's is they had some many items with different price-points that it becomes much harder to figure out what's nice. Hopefully you have better luck finding equipment, unfortunately with a world-wide market prices are spiking everywhere. During my European Travels I've seen some cool stuff over there, I love going to antique stores, junk shops and flea markets.
