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<<Angela Farley at the North Texas Irish Festival is President of the Clan Lindsay Association, USA.  

 

>>Realistic, a North Texas, Fort Worth headquartered Audio brand has a cult following.  Australian Coal Mining regions use Norwegian 12 inch coaxial or twin cone Seas drivers in 60cm high cabinets, Interdyn Dorset>>, pronounced 'Interden'.  Realistic STA-100L below, is a European version of the standard 2-band STA-100 tooled up to beat British, AMS Trading's Ex.222 receiver.  Wood Finishes

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Bigger RadioShack Receivers

 REALISTIC, an American consumer Hi-Fi brand born in the early 1960s after the mass-market recording industry sought increased profits making High Fidelity listening of records, radio and tapes widely available in the United States.  The line was born in Boston because New York was more prestige brand driven then it moved to Fort Worth, Texas because it had a better suited community, finally it reached Australia and a few other places about which nobody ever talked but the stuff was re-engineered Best Selling older products from top brands, Trio Kenwood, Bill Kasuga of Japan led, Lo-D Hitachi, SANYO-OTTO, and NEC. 

 

Left, Sanken output of the REALISTIC STA-2300 receiver comprises 2 x 2SA908 and 2 x Sanken 2SC1585, as a scaled down Sansui Au 20000 that has three of each and 170 watts RMS.  Radio Shack receivers copied a best seller amplifier sometimes run at higher power output or at lower output powers giving a similar sound quality, using a custom made matching loudspeaker, the STA-2300 with the Liquid (Ferrofluid) Cooled REALISTIC Mach One speaker, only 90dB SPLw/m and an edge-wound, not the old four layer of the 1976 launch year.

 Okay, so the first REALISTIC products were vacuum tubes, the 210 made by Acrosound, re-engineered by a team in Fort Worth that reckoned to equal any High End sound at any price with their 'tricked out' products, make a few changes and most important add a custom-made loudspeaker.

Left REALISTIC STA-2290, has two versions:  '82 year 100-watt plywood edge, 12000MFD smoothing capacity and '84 year 90-watt vinyl wood edge below with just 10000MFD.  6dB peak overloads iron in the STA-2290 twice the weight needed for rated output power.  STA-2290 often looks smaller in pictures but is too large for most who'd love to keep it,  Huge something like Carver MXR-130 and 150.  Enthusiast modification gives STA-2290 more power than Carver and better sound.

Left, closeup on a Realistic STA-790 power supply and output stage with black curly heat-sink, wire-wound resistors of the same year STA-2290 driver board below and TOSIN brand caps, a British influence from Trident Studios in London, who'd used them with Gelec in home brew mixing consoles, the 790 with just such a slider knob equalizer. 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

<<<Speaker for the STA-2300 and 2290, the 'Liquid-Cooled' REALISTIC MACH ONE (Mk.II) is very different from the old 4-layer woofer 1976 Mach One, so not knowing that people used it with the wrong amplifier and reckoned it 'the worst they ever heard', Radio Shack sales staff said you know, all the wrong stuff, it had an orange veneer, a 4-ohm Disco woofer and that was right, it's an 'edge-wound' like a Dynaudio or Tannoy Dual-Concentric of the later ... Gold sort, and only 90dB SPL to 94 of the old one, so it wasn't de-tuned, it needed more current, edge-wound magnets are lighter, smaller, they ship out better and like any other speaker they have to have a matching amplifier and no they won't sound as good with the wrong one but yes Radio Shack claimed no difference in shipping weight.

Right, the speaker before the old 1976 4-Layer Mach One had been the Optimus 9 used with the STA-225.  Three tweeters of Nova 8 sort are mounted on a plywood fillet above a chipboard baffle carrying tweeter and cast basket woofer on a bigger sounding board for than the later Mach One, a great speaker but in a number of versions that in subtle details look quite different over the years of the long production run, probably sound different, as made by different factories in different countries with different parts inside so Buyers need to know what one runs with what or least of, a better or worse one for your particular amplifier.

 

 Right and below, one of the first digital readout receivers, with 1977 Technics 8080 style dial in the pricey STA-240 of the 1980 year and similar to Technics SA 5360.  Hot rectifier board with small snap-in smoothing cans shares the control amplifier and tuner board.

Right, internal build of the STA-2080 below, one of the most popular Shack receivers.  In the center symmetrical stereo power output modules use  NEC  transistors, of popular brands like Sansui, sought after and that were the ones to beat in-store with listening tests.  The tuner board is similar to other Radio Shack dial-tuning models.  Click on image for full size.

 

 Left, REALISTIC STA-110 was downmarket of the STA-2080 above and like You Tuber Ptronix's first Pioneer SA-606 amplifier has a Speaker Off switch to avoid reducing the speaker Damping Factor with a speaker circuit protection relay.  These are cost-cutting albeit improved sound quality measures.  Add-on QED etc above left switches protect your speakers manually from switch-on or off thump. With some amplifier outputs, as in capacitor decoupling or germanium output transformers, we need a dummy load taking the switch-on (or off thump) in place of the speaker, power resistors are connected to the switch in place of one speaker pair then switched over to the speakers after a few seconds and vice versa. Right, the internal build of the REALISTIC STA-2000 below. 

 

Hitachi brand speakers below are the mid-1970s and expensive vintage, very conventional cone drivers with plastic domes and cloth edge woofer giving sensational 3D sound.  The speakers need to run for weeks to recover abilities.  Avoid any replacement but ensure gaskets are working and there's an airtight seal.  Use 1960s speaker wire.

Above, Radio Shack REALISTIC STA-75 FET, IC tuner present in Vietnam today,  its bookshelf speaker left has a paper edge pleated surround suggesting lower Damping Factor, and that today in the US at least probably thought dated but might be more useful with  EMI   loudspeakers.  Although a P.V.C. edge on the 319 or 350 may look faster it's only D.F. 11 compared to D.F. 5 on the paper-pleated edge and these are okay to be hooked with DF30 or lower 30 watt Solid State receivers of the late 1970s variety.

Right, motor magnet weight in the STA-75's custom manufactured Solo-3A bookshelf speaker is similar to a paper-edged EMI 150, or 450 of the 10 watt rating but perhaps more confusing is the upmarket custom-manufactured STA-75's 12 inch woofer in the Nova-8 below of rubberized cloth edge surround typical of 1960s KLH for Solid State and these will suit your 30 watt per channel receivers of D.F. 30 but probably ideal with an even lower D.F.

Left, Nova 8 of the year 1974 are the unique 12 inch woofer speaker matching the STA-75 and your listening pleasure depends on using similar speakers.  Cone tweeters in two or three clusters, a rubberized, cloth edge woofer but these being in a cast basket, you know is less important, it has appealed to buyers as higher quality but was really a mark of low volume production, the steel stamped baskets above many times more expensive to obtain and could only be justified with a mass-market product running more than a single year.  The  EMI  92390BP etc have a special thick steel basket stamping to the cheaper thin one above.  Output transistors in the STA-75 aren't F.E.T.s and SONY V-FET users will need Goodmans Mezzo below or Carbocon know-how.

Hitachi surplus receivers, red button based on harman/kardon.  OTL or 'Output Transformerless' developed by Electro-Voice in the US, afterwards capacitor then direct-coupled.  Main smoothing cans are expensive, a hundred dollars apiece for chassis-mount in a 75-watt receiver.  'Snap-in' printed circuit board type has to balance ESR against sound quality (leakage) and may reduce output power.  Don't increase can voltage, try to match old height and can diameter.  Blown panel bulbs suggest we need new power supply rectifiers, gap widens over time, voltage creeps up.  Below output irons in a Californian Concord STA-30B, most importantly with Ge germanium devices.

 

<<<REALISTIC Optimus-1, not a flagship speaker match with germanium STA-120 above, a 10 inch version of the 12 inch AlNiCo woofer in the flagship Optimus-4 loudspeaker, very sensitive making the most of high quality First Watt power, Hitachi Output Transformers above remarkably small and yet the STA-120 claims 70 watts of Ge germanium power.  Use the Optimus-4 with claimed 60 watts power and bigger Optimus-6, not appearing for sale often on internet auctions, back in the day First Watt power mattered, power meter was always well under half of one watt and about the awesome phantom tube sound of yore.  Here the cloth edge has been stained a darker color.

 

>>>Below, another receiver for the rare Optimus-7 right was the OTL STA-120B and the 120 above, germanium with blue output transformers, on the rear panel not big ... wow ... how many watts could these handle compared with tube amplifier types?  But these are Hitachi/ Lo-D brand stamped and spares for some good ol' best seller we don't know about.

<<<ARS-Fisher 11C for the STA-180 below, were Radio Shack catalog featured in the year 1972 and weren't a REALISTIC branded speaker because the STA-180 is a re-engineered and tricked out Hitachi HA 1000, meaning the team in Fort Worth pulled together some other spare part components to make it marketable.  The idea that you know Radio Shack are junk is partly true, they were made of parts being thrown away and paid to get rid of them which they did but ... how reliable are they?  Well ... more to the point perhaps is are we able to find spare semiconductors for all parts in the circuit?  harman/kardon had that boast, it could offer spares for all models at one time but RS?  If the receiver is working good, it's okay for a while. 

 

Right, the weird blue colored Lorenz plastic coned tweeter of which there are less zingy versions.  It was only 2.5 watts RMS but very loud and the EMI plastic cone tweeter was 10 watts and came in a number of versions between 13KHz top and 17KHz that have been identified but RCS of Croydon in England claimed one capable of 20KHz.   The British elite likely compared them on fine detail and the Lorenz was used in the British Dyna-Sonic 4T upon which Bernie Appel modeled his REALISTIC Opimux-X-200 left that hadn't been available in the USA but led to Matt Polk's SDA-1 of 1982, regional American market speakers excluded from Europe due to protectionism and a government agreed local product.  If Polk didn't make the X-200, who did?  They were for the STA-2100 receiver.  The Savard speakers in the Deep South of the United States used these piezo-electric horns left from the US Motorola company and hadn't been too popular with Hi-Fi people as having a certain tone that didn't suit all amplifiers. 

A 0.1uF x-over bipolar capacitor at 20KHz avoids the sound but retains the 3D effects.   Offered to electronic engineers as excellent for Hi-Fi, just what amplifiers Savard suited, nobody ever shared but best seller tube amplifiers from DYNACO and DYNA seem likely.  >> RS Twin-Piezo Driver Horn to work with the RS Radial Horn tweeter of 96dB SPL 1w/1m, 6-16KHz, Cat.no 40-1278 (Japan, 2 known editions blue and white print on rear) and 40-1278B (Taiwan).  The idea is to use RS 40-1286 of 93dB SPL and boost its whizzer cone's output but these are small room speakers for low power receivers.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pioneer SX-6000 below was one proven Savard match. 

 Savard may suit germanium output tone.  Bill Savard used old oak hospital doors for the cabinets.

 Left, the Boulder from Crisman speakers of Colorado, a working-class city where once there were many RadioShack stores.  These speakers are rare.  Motorola created a semiconductor factory in Austin, Texas during 1974 and the Motorola horn appeared nearer 1975.  Here the squawker is a cloth-edge but unlike Pioneer works with a pleated-edge woofer coupled to a back wave cavity device, suggesting low Damping Factor tubes.  A Mototola piezoelectric tweeter doesn't need a network but has a complicated connection.  6dB per octave x-over.  harman/kardon A300 15Hz-70KHz, F.R., 12 watts from the Beam 7408 tubes is a likely match for this type of woofer surround.  Below, the Olson SP-400-A is included as a model for constructors using the superior quality, vintage Motorola variant Piezoelectric tweeters with the REALISTIC STA-2100 series.

 Right, Rectilinear High Boys.  In the 1960s, US loudspeakers of some brands went by the name High Boy or Low Boy depending on whether the box was high or low in height.  Tweeters were spread out on the baffle to integrate the middle and lower frequency reproducers.  The port tube increases sensitivity for tube amplifiers and boosts the perceived low frequencies, although lifting a single tone.  A bare chipboard baffle prevents sound reflections.

Above REALISTIC STA-2200 was re-engineered by RadioShack from a mid-market Lo-D/ Hitachi MOSFET amplifier with a tuner, reckoned inferior to top flight Shack receivers and seen left the tuner has a few chips, one of them a SANYO, suggesting descent from older Fort Worth tricked-out receiver know-how and using ELNA caps.  The AKAI chassis may develop hum from loose screws as did the CARVER MXR-150.

 

>> Thin in cabinet depth is OPTIMUS 27 of the Hitachi Power MOSFET REALISTIC STA-2200 above, based on 1970s British Boothroyd Stuart Meridian M1 Active, the 2200 also suits a later edition of MACH ONE, named after the exclusive Ford car from the early 1970s, and the OPTIMUS T-100.  In 1995 Italian Simitel made a similar speaker called the Nightingale Concentus.  STA-2200 chassis is by AKAI, a leading seller in New York where the STA-2200 in grey trim would've reached out to harman/kardon buyers.  Use of clamps to hold the 27 drivers is reminiscent of European imported Peerless speakers of Bang & Olufsen.  Below, a rare closeup of the first REALISTIC 40-1281 dome squawker SONY tools up to rival Boothroyd-Stuart's M1 Active speaker and Optimus-27>> copies in a 2-way system also by SONY with similar acoustic lens tweeter.  

<<<M1 Active a Meridian speaker from England influenced the Optimus T-27 by SONY.  M1 came in the year 1978, designed by Boothroyd-Stuart, in 1980 SONY replies with 40-1283 dome tweeter below for the above 40-1281 dome squawker of RS enthusiast speaker builder's catalog, Optimus-27, a tongue-in-cheek Meridian M1, the tweeter has a SONY styled acoustic lens for 3D images.  RS follows its 40-1281 mid-range with RS 40-1281A of different F.R. aimed at later RS woofers,  RS receivers had 'pre/main divide' outputs for Home Built Active speakers.  Woofers used are 12 inch 40-1007 Active Woofer (78dB SPL) and rarest of all RS woofers, 15-inch 40-1008, both using Eminence baskets fitted with Utah cones and motors.

>>>Many R.S. custom speaker components are worth working with.  The Utah made woofer 40-1007 was published as low sensitivity with just 78dB SPL 1w/1m being hard to believe, a beautiful product with very long excursion but virtually needed an Active amplifier that maybe it had.  A 4-layer and very deep frame pushing more air, it was a dream woofer featuring in the Radio Shack kit builder's book 'Building Speaker Systems' by Gordon McComb, never seen built up.

 <<poly-cone 40-1025 appears identical in carton specifications but rated 89dB SPL against 78 in the 40-1007, REALISTIC Optimus T-110 with a 5 watt, 'low efficiency' mid-woofer drives an A.B.R. as a truly awesome product.

>>SONY SS G7 has a 15-inch woofer, reflex port tube and bass box strengthened then covered over preventing reflections adherent to Thiele/Small conventions, REALISTIC speakers in essence Japanese, follow regional design preferences, their squawker a 4-inch just like the Ferrofluid-cooled Cat no. 40-1282 whilst motor ring magnets differ.
 

<<Year of 1999, 15 inch poly cone 40-1035 illustrates the much older system mid-range squawker, a jagged F.R. albeit 98db SPL but peaky to the tune of +/- 2dB, Ferrofluid cooled Cat No. 40-1282  coming in different versions, 40-1282B and 40-1282C, thirteen hundred series woofers, using one of them, and Radio Shack with ready made metal box and adjustable x-overs below, to wire up your drivers and kept inside the cabinet resisting pressures caused inside by moving speaker cones. SONY G5 or G7 have much bigger ring magnets for similar power, SONY G Series built as copies of 1974 year JBL L100 Century to a lower price using similar function but SONY, AlNiCo motor woofers competing with JBL and equivalent ceramic motor squawker and tweeter, but aimed at SONY V-FET, and not sounding so great with other amplifiers.

<<Above REALISTIC x-over Cat. no. 40-1339 based on Lafayette LN-5 below, uses an awesome, low distortion, inductive coil with taps in an olden days show of quality, these components only available today on internet auction sites where they appear with other RS crossover networks.  Speaker Builders now have a huge selection of used components and equipment to choose from and back in the day, people don't know RS was about getting Japanese speakers in places excluded from their import, not at all available in many markets, RS stores or Tandy, were widespread sources of these ... kit speaker parts though few could afford RS ready made equipment, it was very good stuff.

>>Stud diodes for sound quality in the high end Soviet Корвет 048 power amplifier thought a world best for components, interesting the much older British Empire RT-VC Viscount III for the EMI 13 x 8: 92390CR has them.  Soviet round transformer shielding ring, the STA-2100 below with a potted can.  Metal stud diodes cost 25x the plastic bodied equivalent but standard, asbestos resin Bakelite boards are seen.

<<Over the Radio Shack catalog years many Speaker Builder components like 40-1370 went unlisted, a strange aspect of the company's followers, an electronics 'elite' of the peasantry.  Radio Shack's peasant social class buyers do attract a lot of contempt from more affluent society groups but soldiered on like the Soviet High-Fidelity community of yore.  The 'poly-tron' tweeter suits the thirteen hundred series 15 inch woofers, 40-1301 and 40-1305.

>>40-1301 15 inch custom woofer, a Utah cone and motor in deep Eminence steel baskets, US company Eminence, a musical instrument speaker maker, hailing E.A. Heppner Manufacturing Co. of Illinois of the recovered electronic organ steel baskets reused in Radio Shack's fabulous NOVA 9 speaker of the early 1970s, continued to the early 1980s by the old Texas, Fort Worth design concepts, and 40-1301 steel baskets, possibly recycled from warranty returns.

<<91db SPL Cat No. 40-1035 with 25Hz lowest note from 1999 year isn't up to standards of early 1980s RS woofers above but custom made for receivers sold in the later catalogs and enhancing their different tonal character, buyers need to choose items designed to be used together in the first place.

 

<<RS universal 3-way speakers system x-over, in case it disappears from Google (also in a 2-way model) sold in RS stores, some survived unopened because building a speaker is a load of work to get through ... but would these, you'll wonder, compete with SONY G?  Well ... they each need the right amplifier and audio source and are analog not digital source speakers suited 1970s (before Compact Disc) sources giving best for the speaker system run with them, vinyl records, FM stereo radio, reel to reel and cassette.  In RS there were very fine sounding items despite possibly dubious appearances, in later years after the crush on the US dollar when RS went downmarket but still tried to give a good Home Built Audio Speaker System using the very best enthusiast components at a lowest price and all things considered.

 

 RS SCT-30 Cassette Deck

REALISTIC STA-2100D right, was a conventional laminated transformer version of the  NEC  A-820E's round transformer STA-2100 giving the 1974 year TRIO KA-8006 sound a claimed extra fifty more watts per channel.  Dolby FM sought to cancel hiss better than SANYO LA2100 noise canceller chips becoming a failed program that Dolby Labs had abandoned before launch.

Right, Radio Shack's mass-market take on the 1960 year EMI DLS 529 Tone Burst and Spatial Imaging know-how, the REALISTIC Mach One (named from a popular Ford model of car) used a 4-cell squawker horn instead of the secrets EMI boasted of and below is the Shack's scaled down OPTIMUS X-100.  Despite the continued popularity of these models, including EMI, they are rightly viewed as so old as to be described as 'ancient'.  EMI and Radio Shack both need careful partnering amplifiers and the EMI 319 had been used with the first Technics tube amplifiers in the late 1960s, whilst Technics amplifiers of the 70s and 80s work with Mach One speakers.

 Left, OPTIMUS X-100 designed to run with the STA-95 below as flagship and with the STA-2000 as second best over the Optimus T-200.  The X-100 appears to be at least partly a Hitachi Lo-D made speaker similar to the late 1970s Lo-D HS-55.  The Mach One sectional horn is by Marantz but the maker of its special spiral ribbed woofer hasn't been established in so many decades. X-100 sound has a huge low frequency sound and surround sound effects from only two speakers in front of the listening position.  The baffle is covered with vinyl leather to prevent reflections and the wood as American Walnut veneer has a high quality finish.  In the United States the loudspeaker being sold with the R.S. STA-95 was the Optimus 10 and in Europe, that name given to an even... 

 

...smaller loudspeaker, the cold climate there needing affluent buyers with easier to heat small listening rooms.  Struggling American market used Audio buyers later felt something like envy at speakers like the X-15, X-30 or X-100 not being imported into the US market, the Mach One available to only extremely affluent American house owners, with the space to accommodate it, size of the average American listening room in Ohio or Chicago, isn't not at all bigger than in the United Kingdom but R.S. were aiming at a certain zipcode or earner and the goods meant to look extremely good value for money which they were but with the choice in internet auctions today maybe it's less so, R.S. still seem have their loyal cult following.

<<<, early version STA-95, below a late version with blue Metal Film resistors replacing the older green wire-wound seen left, Metal-Film much cheaper and only slightly higher in audible distortion, the green-colored wire-wound will sound best if retrofitted.  R.S. expected enthusiasts to replace parts in their stock sets.  Below, late version STA-95, the heat-sink reminiscent of the amplifier/ ...

 ...tuner R.S. sets known as the SA-1001 amplifier and TM-1001 tuner that were just awesome in sound quality and using SANYO output devices rescued from the Marantz 4100 factory spare parts stocks.  Chad McGraw once said that 'a Hot Dog meant a smile on a child's face' so that owning something made from Marantz 4100 parts might have meant a smile on adult's face.

 

<<<REALISTIC Mach One for the STA-2100 resembles the late 1960s EMI and Peerless cored, IMF Compact MK.1 above.

Right, in England and European markets, the Goodmans Magnum and Mezzo speakers had been available at a low price.  The woofer had poor insulation between the magnet and steel chassis so they leaked flux and gradually lost sensitivity but had been very impressive using the ONKYO A-22 and A-33 amplifiers (rare in the US) using the Shure M75EJII phonograph cartridge. 

 

 

Above uses a hot rectifier that many old REALISTIC sets don't but the early Japanese STA-2000 had.  Feature sustained high power output but burns boards.  Different circuit board versions, early STA-2500 puts out awesome current but quickly replaced by different circuit board versions of the above.  Right original 1980s REALISTIC Mach Two for the STA-2500, STA-2600 and STA-2270 available for many years, in 1991 the OPTIMUS Mach Two for the STA-2280 receiver suits a different mains transformer.  Dropped for a rare twin duct Mach Three and finally the Mach Three below.  To enjoy at their best, match up the same model year receiver and MACH TWO, substantial build revisions affect the sound.

<<<R.S. custom builders' tweeter creates a 'Live' phantom listening experience in your listening space and below lucky internet auction find in a Radio Shack Leaf ribbon tweeter based around the Mitsubishi DF-05 as from 1980 year Technics SB-10 honeycomb speakers, you know very pricey and a wide dispersion horn hid among catalog enthusiast components available only on internet auction sites.  Not many who even bought custom drivers ever used them in any projects, never had the time despite all the tools, and easy access to board cutting services we rarely see any R.S. custom built loudspeakers either for sale nor in internet auctions, though they...

 

...might be out there, seems the world has moved on and these parts are just crying out to be bought by people that know their value.  We need to be looking for these spares in the catalogs of the Radio Shack old catalogs site then finding them for sale and we can get Techhnics x-overs and Honeycomb drivers if we're using Technics amplifiers from the early 1980s.

Above STA-2500 rarely appear on eBay at the same time as STA-2600.  What is best and compare the lower power STA-2270 and STA-2280.  On eBay, there's not many lids off photos today, a decade ago a usual sight.  Visually similar on the outside, interior boards differ greatly not only in materials but one type of board won't fit another set of the same model

number and outward appearance.  Right REALISTIC Mach Three is a US market version of the Mach One, probably made by Panasonic and based on the award-winning MACH TWO that was in most markets.  They all sell well.  MACH THREE suits a later version of receiver, the crossover aimed at lower running power with finer wire in the coils.  The later receivers are less powerful and 2280 use a closed transformer that may well better open ones last used in 2270.  Mach three aren't great crossovers and sound might improve with Klipsch-style large components but then why not buy a whole speaker.  Below the STA-2280 compared to the earlier STA-2270.

Above STA-2270 differ from 2280 in the IMX expander position, the dancing LED power meter is an electron digital tube or fluorescent in 2280.  Sources are lit up in 2280 as part of the dial wherein 2270 they're less clear.  Below 1973 in the US, different from in the United Kingdom.

 

 

Left, 1973 year REALISTIC QTA-750 quadrasound receiver for AlNiCo motor Optimus 1, better finished than later years, meant to last a lifetime, used a German Miracord 80 turntable, 4-channel Hitachi silicon transistor output and tidy inside layout as seen below.

Left, mid/woofer of the REALISTIC Optimus-1 below, importantly an AlNiCo magnet motor that's sounded for silicon output devices, is long excursion, high sensitivity and housed in an aluminum cast basket for low flux leakage and long service life.  Take care that many AlNiCo motors are aimed at tubes and others at Solid State.  Some are aimed at germanium, others at silicon, some suit an Output Transfomer, of Class A type, others are Class B only.  Some are 2-stage amplifier matched and others are 3-stage amplifier matched.  With Radio Shack we know what runs with what from the catalog matches.

Right the Optimus-1 differs from the later ring-magnet Optimus 1B, motor, each has its factory matched receiver or amplifier giving the best sound.  The double tweeters here produce solid imaging with wide-dispersion, meaning we can move around and enjoy great sound whereas single cone tweeter versions often need us to sit in single a position to appreciate 'the sweet spot'.  In both Radio Shack and AMSTRAD equipment, optimum sound quality depends on being hooked to factory matched equipment.  Of course we hook up other aftermarket speakers but we won't know how good the factory made ones were unless we try them along the way.  Note the bare chipboard baffle must not be painted absorbing reflections improving imaging.

Left, estate sale REALISTIC STA-64B, very expensive in 1979 with Snap-In circuit board mounted power cans like the Waltham below.  Seen in the gloomy backdrop, the owner's large ornamental shouldered vacuum tube, a helicopter gunship model and sailing ship in a bottle.

 

 

Left, the REALISTIC Optimus-7 had been Radio Shack's most expensive ever but matched with few receivers besides the STA-150 above with its  NEC  2SD180 silicon germanium epitaxial devices.  SiGe was accidentally discovered by IBM researcher Dr. Bernard Meyerson to become popular in the industry today.

 

 

Right, SiGe 2SD180 output devices in an old 1974 year REALISTIC STA-150, used with the Realistic Optimus-7 speakers.  Radio Shack always sold stuff made from cobbled together Best Seller spares - a few years old, we need speakers for a 3-stage amplifier, SiGe and OCL.  Many buyers didn't use a catalog match and got poor results mistakenly put down to an inferior brand and poor product ability. 

Left, REALISTIC Lab-400 is a best selling record player made from Hitachi/ Lo-D spare parts, after the 7 year shelf life trashed them.  Internet reviewers say that Hitachi's players are better buys from internet auctions, and R.S. you know had a team in Fort Worth that took the old parts and made some new ones to help create a profitable product years after its kind was long gone.  So 400 sell well with the R.S. cult following as bargains.

Left, R.S. Lab-500 record player was Radio Shack's best ever player and rated high end by audiophiles.  Made of some old quality components cobbled together by some not very prestigious manufacturer it's given a REALISTIC brand to tell us this is all we need and will give the sound of the golden age of Audio, even although it came into being as a player ... a lot later than most of the parts it's made from.  A certain kind of buyer follows R.S., it's all about getting value for our money and the American Pareto Principle of 80/20, nobody was ever sorry for buying the best, even it was a 'Best of R.S'.  Custom speaker components above, are all bargains.

>>>British KMAL (Keith Monks) uses an EMI 14A/1000 woofer and squawker with an Isophon hard dome tweeter, <<< in an Italian Nightingale suggest using German driving amplifiers.

Right, in West Germany and England the REALISTIC STA-2000 used the X-10, 20 and 30 speakers with Isophon KK10-8 high end tweeters and followers of Radio Shack in the United States thought the 2000 and 2100 receiver were made by Pioneer>>> that as a brand has other drivers here a guide for the constructor.  EMI 14A/1000 right above, is an elite woofer less known than KEF's B139 above, Pioneer speakers highly regarded but expensive, most often hooked with Pioneer receivers.  The REALISTIC Mach One was based on a little known Japan Only Marantz L.S.10, and nobody saw these wherever they were hiding, they were invisible but remarkable and bass-reflex ported as is rare 1970s US studios market, RS Mach One Studio Monitor, a Mach One it is, only with a port hole on the left-hand-side near the middle of the baffle.

<<US market only, RS Special Products Mach One Studio Monitor, is a bass reflex ported Mach One reckoned in their day to outperform British ... Tannoy, Dual Concentric, because nobody knew that Tannoy, like Cerwin Vega made their own amplifiers and needed them to make their speakers tick the way they should.  Today's Tannoy is owned by a Chinese company and run with Chinese amplifiers but old British Tannoy were matched to Manley Snapper tube amplifiers from the American deep south state of Georgia, a super-tweeter had to be added to increase brilliance, or the high frequencies giving leading edge bite and so lifelike reproduction.  Many one-time followers of Tannoy gave up trying to get their best sound, they'd needed quick rewards.

<<Marantz LS10 looks like an RS Mach One but only found in Japan, a Home Market only model, no adverts in the US suggest it was ever a local product and it's huge, much bigger than an RS Mach One that was nevertheless designed by Marantz and the 4-cell sectional horn mid-range squawker delivers a true spatial image, despite some claims that it sounded bad, they need run-in a few months and only work with amplifiers engineered to work with them.  Some 'separates' market speakers are surprisingly good with a great many separates market amplifiers but system amplifiers and speakers are a different kettle of fish and Mach One an awesome old-style American solution to a need.  Custom manufactured speaker for the REALISTIC STA-90 is the Nova 8B and US reviewers give their opinions on the STA-90 being 'a watered...

...down version of the STA-225', didn't try the custom mfd speaker just a few they'd lying around, decided as cheaper than a STA-225 must be a watered down version of the higher price tag, tuning dial flywheel they'd found lightweight compared to the STA-225, it made a scratching noise, turning slowly, well ...  doesn't look below to have a lighter flywheel, all of the RS sets cobbled together from stocks of spares from ... out of production bestseller receivers, their spare parts, waiting on shelves until past the warranty service storage term when bought by RS to make new, Realistic branded receivers with some parts added in and a speaker custom made to give best.  So home brewed reviews give some guidance on what to expect but aren't the last word.

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