Gladding Mark200a Receiver

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Wolverine

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Nov 24, 2007
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I found this site while searching for info on this unit I just picked up. I am just getting into older gear after scoring a pair of RTR Series IV speakers. I was blown away by their sound and it was suggested I find a receiver from the same era to power them. Long story short I start searcing the local thrift shops and come up with this unit.

Surfing the net has yielded me pretty much nothing other than Orion Bluebook says these units were about $500 in their day and were manufactured between 77-82. The serial # 1171 would seem to me to indicate this unit would have been made fairly early on but since I can't find anything out on Gladding I have no baseline. Thought I post a few pictures here and see if this rings any bells with the Quad community.

I appreciate any help anyone can give. I will probably have more questions as I start using it but for now just learning a little about its bloodlines/specs would be very helpful.
 

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I used to work on HiFi gear during the quad era. I'm not familiar with that one. It appears from the pictures to be a nice unit, but it's hard to tell from a photo. Good luck finding a schematic for it.

The Quadfather
 
It looks very similar to a Realistic model. I'll check some of my old catalogs.
 
I had to go back to a 1973/74 catalog to find this one. It's from "Claricon", they probably used "Gladding" as their higher end. Yours may be an improved 'A' model. I am not sure. I could not find any entries on the 200A.

Does yours have the "optional" modules?

Not sure of the quality of the decoders, but these names were probably found in places like Wards and/or Penney's back then. I don't recall seeing them in Audio stores, however, I may be mistaken.
 

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Thank you all VERY MUCH!!
At least by the photo this looks exactly like the unit I have. I do not see Claricon anywhere on the unit but still think this it. This piece is totaly foreign to me as around this time my idea of audio was a clock radio. I know specs can be misleading especially those in an ad or catalog but from what you all can see in the photos, is it possible this does what the ad says it does?

Jon- I am not sure what you mean by control modules could you please describe. Also when I unscrewed the decoder plate in the back it appeared to have something in there but I did not know if I could/should pull on the handles to see/clean what was in there. Any advice you all could on restoring this unit would be appreciated. I have used dust cleaner on it only at this point. It sounds pretty could at this point and I am hesitant to ruin a good thing so to speak but if there are some tweaks a noob like me could do please share.

Thank you again!!
 
To keep the selling price of some receivers low to get sales (and to get things approved by disinterested wives :D) the "complex" decoder circuits of some amplifiers were optional, and were usually some sort of plug in module found either at the back of or the bottom of the receiver. In essence, they were just a plug in circuit board in a slide in enclosure.

From the description above, I see "Optional 4 Channel decoder adapter with SQ full wave matching logic and CD-4 demodulator circuitry ($80)". From YOUR description, you seem to have it, as you have "something" behind the decoder plate.

So you should be rocking! :D

Go find an SQ demo LP on eBay if you have a turntable and try it out. Don't be surprised if it's not "spectacular" (SQ never was even with the $1000+ decoders), but you should be able to hear some front to back action.
 
Actually, from looking at your picture above, it seems there is a place for TWO plug in adapters. One for CD-4, on for SQ/RM. That would make more sense. Having CD-4 and SQ on one $80 module would have been unusual.
 
Actually, from looking at your picture above, it seems there is a place for TWO plug in adapters. One for CD-4, on for SQ/RM. That would make more sense. Having CD-4 and SQ on one $80 module would have been unusual.

There are what appears to be two separate as you say "circuits behind that decoder plate. One is indeed a SQ/RM and the other is for a CD-4. It is my understandig from the brief reading I have done on this site ( a wonderful source-thanks to all) that SQ was vinyl decoder and CD-4 a reel to reel decoder. That may be a gross paraphrase. In any case from what I read I would need a special needle to make use of the SQ feature. Is this correct? Oddly enough I am also going to pick up a reel to reel player from my dad next week-he has some tapes so maybe they might make use of the CD-4.

There are a couple of switches I am not sure of on the back. For instances there is a read switch that has HI-LO-MAG. Usually a red switch indicates some sort of a cut-off or emergency switch so I have not touched it. Any ideas? Erhaps I can take a clearer picture of the back and you all can some ideas. Also I noticed the ad sent says something about a couple of meters. I do not see them on mine but perhaps they are burnt out. Anyway I could tell even the lights are burnt out?

I know these are very noob in nature but then again I am a noob....... :D
 
OK, here goes:

CD-4 is for CD-4 RECORDS!! Not reel to reels.

SQ is for SQ encoded records, and RM is for "Regular Matrix" records, or Sansui's QS system.

A quad tape does not need to be decoded.

Without spending a lot of time on this, check the member "obbop"s web pages at

http://www.geocities.com/quadaudio/sitemap.html

There you will find out about CD-4, SQ, etc. Start there and come back! :D

Oh yeah, I believe that the switch on the back that you spoke of is for the type of cartridge in your turntable. Someone else may have to jump in on this one, as my brain cells are failing rapidly!
 
OK, here goes:
Oh yeah, I believe that the switch on the back that you spoke of is for the type of cartridge in your turntable. Someone else may have to jump in on this one, as my brain cells are failing rapidly!

Okay Jon I will leave you alone....... :D

I have to go out of town this and may have some new toys when I get back.... :banana:
 
Well after reading the ad posted above I began to look for the two meters mentioned in the ad. The glass is dark but using a flashlight I found them. It would be sweet to light them up but I do not have a clue as to where/how I would replace the bulbs or if it is even possible. Any suggestions???
 
It is possible to replace the bulbs, and any serious electronic supply house ought to have the bulbs. Many units of that era used fuse type bulbs and those are hard to find. But there are many varieties of miniature bulbs at many different voltages. The bulb will usually be marked with a number stamped or printed on the metal base. If there's no metal base, and it just has wires on it, you'll have to measure the voltage with a volt meter. Be aware that it could be either AC or DC. The switch is a gain switch for different cartridge types. I don't know about what cartridge type HI and LO would be, but MAG refers to magnetic type and that's all you need. Get an Audio Technica AT440MLa and you should be ready to go. Oh, you'll need a CD-4 compatible turntable and make sure that CD-4 module is in the receiver. If it isn't, don't count on finding one on Ebay, just get an outboard unit, which are easy to find. I have a Claricon outboard demodulator, and it's a third rate demod at best. It could have been a good one except that Claricon decided to scrimp and not provide a carrier level control. They used someone else's board, but I'm not certain who's. The book says it's carrier level control is automatic, but it's really just fixed. I suspect that would also be the case with your plug in module. A JVC 4DD5 is a good demod, is easy to find, and can be bought rather inexpensively on Ebay. My Claricon demod has the red switch also, but just has HI and LO settings. Happy Listening!

The Quadfather
 
Thanks Quad for all the info.

I may sit down and open it up tomorrow to see what I can see. It did not look like there was easy access to the front where these things sit and being a complete noob I am hesitant to go poking around and break something.
 
Be aware that most old quad gear usually needs some work if it's been on the shelf in the closet for many years. So if it powers up and works without repair, consider yourself lucky. Lots of these folks have had to have their gear reconditioned by replacing all of the electrolytic capacitors, which tend to dry out over time. But if you do have problems, you can usually get by with having the bad ones replaced. That's all part of this madness.

The Quadfather
 
Well said Quadfather.....

As I spend more time on this site learning I do see that I was extremely fortunate to find a unit that I could in effect "plug and play". I may try to find something a little more common that does not cost too much to try and learn how to do what most here would consider a "basic" recon/repair job.

Although the Gladding only cost me $10 and I would gather is not a collector's piece it is something a little out of the ordinary and I would not want to use it as a guinea pig as I start out in this hobby.

Any suggestions out there in terms of reference manual/books that would be a good starting point for a complete noob like me who love to learn some of the "basics"??????????
 
Anybody still interested in this thing yet? i have one and I'm really digging it. A very pleasant surprise. If your running it as a 4 channel integrated amp, it's past not bad, into pretty decent. But the real surprise is in 2 channel, you turn that switch that says BTL (bridge the load) and with an pair of Advents in 2 channel it actually shines. Kinda freakin me out actually....
 
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