Sanyo Model 688 Stereo Rack System
 

Hello everyone today at goodwill I bought off of the salvage pile a nice Sanyo Model 688 Rack System (the tuner is model JT-688, the Graphic Equalizer is model HG-688, the Integrated Amp is model JA-688, and the Tape Deck was a Model RD-W688 and it has a place/hookups for a turntable model TP-688 which didn't come with it because I'm assuming that it did come with it originally but then it must of died and was tossed out years ago and was replaced with a Sony CD Player model CDP-190 from 1990 whereas the rest of the unit dates back to 1986 according to the date code on the unit.)
It came with a set of large Sanyo speakers model SS-900 which seem to be fairly high end 3-way speakers. Pics are posted below.

I remember seeing these at Kmart and the catalog stores back then.They were great for the kids and a starter set.I think Fisher has a model like that.How is this powered .I remember some of these have ribbon type cables from the cassette,tuner and turntable that plugs into the amp unit.I have a tuner for a similar system here..Inside the amp unit there's probably a beefy STKxxxx chip amp.I be surprised if it has discrete transistors in the power section. The speakers look nice.They are not those common 4 to 6 inch all range speakers in the compact sets.

If I had a choice of these type of sets.I'll take this Sanyo over then any current stereo set similar to this set at Walmart.

This unit has ribbon cables powering the 14 Band Graphic Equalizer, the tape deck and the tuner off the amp, it also has a hookup for a turntable as well, but the turntable that went with this setup is long gone and was at some point replaced with a Sony CD player from 1990. I have a picture of the amplifier insides below and as you can see Sanyo wasn't messing around when they built this unit, it has a huge beefy power transformer for powering this unit (its a cold chassis not hot) and it appears that it does use discrete transistors instead of STK chips for the audio circuits.

Wow .Thanks for the photos .That looks nice.Easy to repair.Before they went to STK and the crappy SMPS PS setup.OK I figure this has the ribbon cable setup.

Which is what I just said in my previous post, that it uses the ribbon cables. But anyways I think it might of been Sanyo's highest end unit by the looks of it and by the fact that they had the huge 120 watt rated speakers that came with it. :yes: :thmbsp:
By the way, do you know if the tuner LCD panel was backlit? I'm wondering because it has a monochrome LCD Panel for the tuner dial and it has what appears to be a scorch mark next to the tuner dial display where there might of been a bulb of some sort to backlight the display that must of gotten too hot and scorched the plastic.

I cant remember off hand what the dial light was in the tuner here which is the basement .Hum .I dont understand why the bulb got so hot and burned the unit.What I understand .Looks like the bulb burned out in back and somebody use a cig lighter to see and tuned the radio to different stations and accidentally burned the unit. I know some of those did use a bulb in back of the LCD screen.I had some that were burned out and I held a flash light on the LCD and see the freq numbers on it.I suppose you can replace the bulb with a LED with a voltage dropping resistor hook to the PS.

I have to fix my late mothers same era Sears set with a blown dial light later sometime with a LED.

Wow 120watts.Don't wake up you neighbors.LOL.

The scorch mark is inside the plastic bezel which is why I was thinking it might of been from the bulb that was in there getting too hot. anyways I just use it for my LCD Projector for watching movies, and to listen to music when I'm working on something in the basement like a TV or a Radio, so I don't do anything too serious listening wise with it, although I know if I'm downstairs working and my housemate is home I would try and keep it down so he won't complain about my music being too loud (the basement is directly under his room where he has his gaming rig) although his gaming rig has a set of Yamaha 2.1 Surround Sound Speakers that I had sold him for his computer which he cranks pretty loud and I can hear it from my side of the house pretty easily sometimes. So I would just say we'd be even, in any case. :yes: :D :thmbsp:

I used to get the Fisher "Studio Standard" component returns from the local Navy Exchange - useless without the amp because of the power arrangement, so I'd traipse over to Radio Shack and get a cheapo power tranny and install them inside the tape deck or equalizer along with a power cord to make them stand-alone units.

JVC had a similar arrangement with some of their 80's stereos.

Well yeah, that's kind of the point of a rack system, you're supposed to keep the unit together as one... I think that's why they used the ribbon cable method to power everything off the amp, so that people wouldn't go and spend $500 or more on the system and try and mate it with a competitors equipment and void the warrantee if something were to happen with the competitors unit that would result in the rest of the original unit getting fried, that way they would only have to honor their warrantee and if damage resulted from use with equipment other than their own then they wouldn't have to honor the warrantee, more or less a way of saying "if you don't use our parts or equipment with our units then you've just voided your warrantee", just like how car companies wouldn't honor repairs to a car's sound system if the original head unit was replaced with an aftermarket unit but left the rest of the original sound system in place, that's because you've more or less voided your car's warrantee by messing with the original sound system, this was especially true with GM and Chrysler, who used Bose and Infinity respectively in their cars.

I was able to get into my tuner and found the bulb which it uses, although I'm wondering if I can find a replacement bulb for it or even modify for LED, because its a really small rectangular shaped PC Board that uses a blue elongated axial leaded incandecent bulb like pictured below, and as far as I know they don't back blue LEDs yet, let alone whether or not this system's light board for the tuner's backlight can be modified for an LED or not, because it seems to be a pretty specific design.

Duplicate post.