New to quad, help needed with non-working receiver

[Reed]

Hello. A few years ago I purchased a non-working quadraphonic receiver. I am now getting around to thikning about fixing it up and playing around with it, but the company that made it had been bought and sold and reorganized sevral times since the unit was built. I am looking for any sort of tech manuals, owners manuals, or any literatutre regarding my Teledyne Packard-Bell Model R-10401.

Thanks!

 

[Reed]

Wow, no hints?

 

[quadanasaziland]

Hello. A few years ago I purchased a non-working quadraphonic receiver. I am now getting around to thikning about fixing it up and playing around with it, but the company that made it had been bought and sold and reorganized sevral times since the unit was built. I am looking for any sort of tech manuals, owners manuals, or any literatutre regarding my Teledyne Packard-Bell Model R-10401.

Thanks!

Teledyne quad has been rarely mentioned in the forums (past or present). Sansui is the way to go for vintage gear.

 

[Reed]

Thanks for the reply. The reasons I am interested in fixing this unit are (a) I already have and don't have abunch of money to blow on new equipment, and (b) this unit has a selector switch for two channel stereo, four channel matrix, and four channel discrete decoding. This seems pretty versatile, if not the most optimal unit. I am just getting started in the quad area, and I only have one quad record- "Best of the Doors."

Who knows, I may never get it working and end up byuing a Sansui anyway.

 

[John Svensson]

Reed: What is not operating on it that you plan to fix?... and I'm assuming that you are an electronic technician of sorts? While I have no schematics I do recall seeing advertisements for the brand way back in the day... John

 

[jdmack]

I am just getting started in the quad area, and I only have one quad record- "Best of the Doors."

"Best Of The Doors" is a CD-4 album. I'm not familiar with your particular piece of equipment, but if it does not have a CD-4 demodulator built in, you'll need to buy one in order to play your album in quad.

J. D.

 

[Quadzilla]

"Best Of The Doors" is a CD-4 album. I'm not familiar with your particular piece of equipment, but if it does not have a CD-4 demodulator built in, you'll need to buy one in order to play your album in quad.

J. D.

If that is the case, then you might as well just buy two cheap stereo integrated amplifiers (or even a basic home theatre receiver with a 5.1-channel input) and connect your demodulator to them.

I seriously doubt that the receiver will have any decent sort of quad decoder, so you would likely be looking at one of them down the road if you got any matrix LPs. Don't waste your time and money on it.

Mike.

 

[Reed]

What is not operating on it that you plan to fix?... and I'm assuming that you are an electronic technician of sorts? While I have no schematics I do recall seeing advertisements for the brand way back in the day... John
**********************************

Actually, I am just a lawyer. I took some electronics classes bakc in high school and like to mess around with things. I figure it is already broken so I can't make it any worse. Whenever I hook it up and try to use it, I just get a hum out of one channel and nothing else. It could be that I am just hooking it up wrong.

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"Best Of The Doors" is a CD-4 album. I'm not familiar with your particular piece of equipment, but if it does not have a CD-4 demodulator built in, you'll need to buy one in order to play your album in quad.

J. D.


If that is the case, then you might as well just buy two cheap stereo integrated amplifiers (or even a basic home theatre receiver with a 5.1-channel input) and connect your demodulator to them.

I seriously doubt that the receiver will have any decent sort of quad decoder, so you would likely be looking at one of them down the road if you got any matrix LPs. Don't waste your time and money on it.

Mike.

*******************************

Excellent points. I might start just looking around for some inexpensive replacement units.

Thanks for helping out a quad newbie!

 

[quadanasaziland]

I believe there is a Sansui qrx 7001 and a qrx777 on ebay now. Both would do you well. The 777 is only the 8th one on the planet that I know of. The variomatrix 2 to 4 channel decoder is the best thing on the planet to synth quad from stereo. Then down the road, when your $ permits, have QuadBob do a resto and mod on it. Both have a decent cd-4 demod built in and it does haff logic on SQ ecoded material and of course full QS decoding.

 

[Reed]

Thanks! Unfortunately, a month ago some jerk hacked my eBay account and eBay froze it. I still can't access it. I am trying to get this sorted out but both those auctions end tomorrow. I don't think I will be able to bid on it in ime. Oh well. I will keep looking.

 

[The Quadfather]

Packard Bell/Teledyne, Hmmm... I seem to remember that wasn't particularly good quality gear hifi wise let alone quad wise. Not worth fussing with. It sounds like the output amplifiers are blown anyway. You will need a quadradisc (CD-4) demodulator for "The Best of the Doors", and they are relatively easy to find on Ebay. Though you can find a receiver with an inboard demodulator, I recommend an outboard unit. This will free you to choose a receiver for it's matrix decoder or just because it has a powerful amplifier. You can also do as I have done and use separate stereo amplifiers. A JVC 4DD5 is an excellent outboard unit and easy to find and usually fairly inexpensive. You will also need a turntable that is rated for quad. Most high quality turntables built in the era of quad will be capable. It needs low capacity wiring. I use a Marantz 6300. Next you will need a cartridge with a linear contact or microline stylus. The old Shibata type will work, but the linear contact stylus is an improvement on that design and will work better. CD-4 is finicky, very finicky. But it is worth it, for good CD-4 is sublime. If you want a receiver with an inboard CD-4 demodulator, I would recommend one of the high end Sansuis. They have a good CD-4 demod, a good matrix decoder, and powerful amplifiers. They usually have good metering also. Other good brands are: JVC, Marantz, Sony, Kenwood, Pioneer, Technics, and Akai. Note that in most of these, the SQ decoders are nothing to write home about, and the Pioneer's decoder was excellent for turning quad into monaural. But some of these could be found with demodulators for CD-4 built in, and the amplification and the FM radio sections were usually excellent. Watch out if you buy a Marantz, it's fine gear, but they had plug in SQ modules and many units were sold without the plug ins which are very hard to find. There were full logic plug ins and half logic plug ins. The idea was that when the technology improved, they would come out with better plug ins and you could upgrade. Many people bought them empty with the idea of adding the SQ module later when they could afford it. As a result, many more receivers were sold than modules. Audionics had planned a plug in for the Marantz receivers using their Tate System, but it never came to fruition. Pity, it would have been a good combination, and a definite improvement over the full wave module.

Happy Hunting! The Quadfather

 

[Reed]

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I have just about given up hope on the Teledyne. In the meantime i have been researching quad equipment and finding that prices on the good stuff are far beyond what I am willing to pay or could pay right now.

In the short term, I am piecing a system together from eBay. So far I have purchased a Pioneer QX-949A (yes I know, crappy decoders), I have a line on a It's a Panasonic SE-405C CD-4 demodulator, and I am going to be bidding on a Sansui RS-500 rear channel amplifier on eBay for the matrix decoding and quad sythesizing. I have an old Pioneer PL-518, turntable but I don't know if it is quad rated

My hope is to do all the decoding outboard and run the Pioneer basically as the amplifier. I think I have that right. This is my first foray into the world of home audio made up of more than one component. Someday I would love to get a Sansui QRX 6001 or 7001 or even a QSD-1 or 2, or a Marantz quadradial setup, but until then its low-buck quad for me.

I already made one mistake purchase of a JVC-5444 receiver. I thought it had decoders built-in but ti didn't. It does have front and rear channels and an equalizer for the front and one for the rear, but no decoding. It works perfectly and sounds great though. Maybe as I upgrade I can use it as the basis for a second quad setup.

Thanks for the pointers!

 

[The Quadfather]

The JVC will be fine if you are going to decode externally anyway and if the JVC has enough connections. The Pioneer has a built in demodulator and it may be OK. Most CD-4 demodulators were built around a phase lock loop chip that was popular as an experimenter's chip at the time. The Pioneer demodulators used these. So, If I were you, go ahead and try the demodulator in the Pioneer. If it doesn't work out, then go outboard. It's the SQ decoder that was so bad in the Pioneer. My first quad rig was a Pioneer. It was one of the smaller models and it had an SQ decoder, but no demodulator. It had a very fine FM radio and it sounded very sweet. But I remember my impression when I played my first SQ record through it. As I strained to hear any separation at all, it all seemed blended together. It was worthless as a quad decoder. Then I saw an ad in the back of an electronics magazine for something called a "Space and Image Composer" which promised to make my SQ records come alive! My boss, who ran a Hifi store, said that it was probably rubbed with snake oil, suggesting that my $750.00 would be wasted. In 1979 that was a lot of money to me. But the guy at Audionics said it works, and I ponied up for it, and WOW!!! the difference was like night and day! But you won't easily find an Audionics Space and Image Composer on Ebay. And if you do, you better have a couple of grand to bid on it. There were only about 200 of 'em made. The Fosgate 101 is a similar unit and uses the same "Tate" technology. It comes up a little more frequently and a little cheaper. Also Lafayette made a decent SQ decoder. And as I recall, there was one made by Columbia records that was supposed to be pretty good. But that one is rarer than the Tate units. The Lafayette might could be had cheaper, but it is rare also. If you buy an outboard SQ decoder, and it isn't one of these, make sure at least it has full logic. Happy Hunting!

The Quadfather

 

[Reed]

Thanks. The pioneer still hasn't shown up, but I will be keeping my eyes out for a QRX 6500 or 7500. The X001 series are out of my price range (unless I find one in a junk shop or yard sale).

 

[brashice]

Hey Reed,
I'm in the process of downsizing and came across my fathers Sansui QRX-7001 Receiver and four SP-2500X speakers. Are you still interestd in getting a QRX-7001?

I'm still looking for the rest of the equipment to test it out. It was working beautifully before it was boxed about 3 years ago.