The reason your Mrs is not enthused is because your 1080s don't have enough meters! Only five meters? At least you have the cool 4/2 mode display.
The 980, OTOH, has more meters, more controls and it just looks.... bigger. ;-)
Just because you have 16 speakers up and running, I assume that means the 1080 also drives two sets of quad speakers (A and B), you still have an issue setting the remote balance.
Well, the Marantz 2325 and Sansui G-7500 came out from their full restorations... but that's stereo.
The Akai AS980 came off its full restoration as well, it sounds much warmer... I'd say the Sansui has the cleanest sound ( wide bandwidth and DC coupled ), the Marantz the strongest bass and best feeling controls and the Akai is offers the 747 look and a very warm sound. All three have enough power to drive efficient speakers like my old ADS L810's but they will not do Maggies.
Now I got the Marantz 4415 in for a complete restoration... That one has the SQ1 module, the RC-4 wired remote and the wood case.
The 980 puts out a bit more than 50 watts per channel on stereo... which is interesting. You see, the technician who's rebuilding these units noted that the 980 actually SHUTS down the rear amplifier when it goes into 2 channel mode. You can actually hear a soft "thump" when you switch in and out of quad "speaker" mode. The Marantz, OTOH, has the same power whether in 2 or 4 channel mode, that's because it's amplifiers are always turned on: you can control the preamp mode, not the amp mode.
I thought that is a neat trick that Akai pulled, however, it is complex as it involves logic circuitry and relays
Another thing that is interesting about the Akai is that the meters go off and on depending on mode and source setting. If you go on stereo, only two power meters turn on, if you go on FM, both tuning meters go on, if you on AM, only the signal strength lights up.
There's also a correlation between the audio mode, which I think controls the preamp only and the speaker selection ( 2ch, 4ch) which controls the amplifiers. I guess it might be possible to screw modes up, but I haven't played enough with it. The fellow who rebuilt it, noticed it too and demo'd it to me but it doesn't break anything. Weird but he says it was complicated work to do and figure out.
Of course, the nice thing is that the CD-4 controls are on the front panel, except neither one of us, tech or I, have a proper source to drive it. It would be interesting if a CD-4 encoder device were available. Something you feed four channels into and it outputs a 5mV signal to drive the phono preamp.
As an aside, I'd like to note that I don't understand the asking price of current vintage components. IMHO, a lot of sellers are lying through their teeth when they claim "refurbished" or the like. In my experience, the going price for a full restoration for one of these: taking all the boards out; replacing all capacitors and relays; replacing diodes, transistors, resistors out of spec; rebuilding the power supply, power amplifier and tuner; calibrating the FM tuner, decoders, Dolby, etc... all runs about 1000 bucks. So there is NO way that those units selling for 700 bucks have gone through a restoration. No Fr###ng way.
So, my question still stands... will I smoke something if I plug the Marantz RC-4 remote into the Akai?
