blaupunkt - en
Blaupunkt HIFI Steuergerät 23450 – en
- 4th September 20174th September 2017
- by giovanni
BLAUPUNKT HIFI STEUERGERÄT 23450
BLAUPUNKT HIFI STEUERGERÄT 23450
BLAUPUNKT HIFI STEUERGERÄT 23450 is the device ever produced by Blaupunkt, that most of all gets close to my “phonic” taste.
Steuergerät means Control Electronic Unit.
The unit encloses the tuner and the amplifier, both stereophonics. You can connect to it a turntable, a CD/DVD player or any other source of sound.
What fascinated me about this device is not its power (4W produced by a single-ended ECL86) but its depth, its silkiness and the precision of the riproduced sound.
The ECL86 musicality is out of question.
Its a fact that in the “esoteric” websites, there are loads of ECL86 vs EL84 threads still today.
I matched this machine with a couple of wonderful Goodmans X, big sisters of the very-well-known Maxim.
The efficiency of these boxes its enough to make the Blaupunkt sound well. Very well.
I tried to match it to another couple of boxes among the ones I prefere: the box 450 from Grundig. But the result has not been likewise satisfying.
The Blaupunkt product line gets close to the one from other producers of that time: Graetz, Nordmende. One of the last wood/glass devices.
The japanese little monsters with anodized alluminium face and retroaction rate of 85% are about to appear in the market.
Again a couple of words about the Goodmans X that would deserve a page of the website for themselves.
Among the best english creations, produced for the very demanding german market, they mount speakers made of fusion-obtained Alnico, the best kind of Alnico.
The membranes are in very high quality rubber, and indeed they kept in perfect condition until today.
The loudspeakers choice is very important to add value to this and other similar machine of that time.
With the wrong loudspeakers, single-ended finals will just make you yawn. Match them with a couple of loudspeakers of this class, with this efficiency and this super-high quality.
The Rogers are probably among the best vintage speakers you can imagine for his levels of power.
The best website about the Goodmans Maxim is this "click here".
BLUETOOTH
Bluetooth receiver embed
MULTI PLATFORM CONNECTION
Each radio is equipped with a cable for connection to any digital device.
TUBESOUND IMPROVEMENT
- Bluetooth receiver embed - The unit is equipped with a BLUETOOTH receiver powered directly by the receiver power supply. This makes it possible to control the amplifier from any external digital device as an IPAD, a Smartphone, or a sophisticated multimedia station. So you can hear your preferred web station or your lossesless file without cables on the room. Wireless Receiver can be equipped upon requests.
– Multi Platform Connection – A customized adaptation cable to connect any digital device as Iphone, Smartphone, Laptop, CD Player etc. will be provided with this radio. This special cable suits the different impedances between the modern equipment and the receiver. Furthermore the two stereo channels flow into one without increasing the load to the input unit.
MAIN FEATURES
Year of production: 1963-64
Superheterodyne IF: 472/10700
8 AM Circuits 11 FM Circuits
Wavebands: LW, MW, SW, FM
Voltage (CA): 110; 125; 160; 220 Volt
External loudspeakers
Dimensions (LHD): : 615 x 210 x 245 mm / 24.2 x 8.3 x 9.6 inch
Net weight: 10.1 kg / 22 lb 3.9 oz (22.247 lb)
6 Tubes: ECC85 ECH81 EAF801 EM87 ECL86 ECL86
Rotating ferrite aerial for AM bands
EXTERNAL LOUDSPEAKERS
As any modern sinto-amplifier, the unit is not provided with speakers in the inside of the cabinet: it would be impossible to obtain something that could call itself “Hi-Fi”.
I already described the pleasure that these beautiful and rare speakers give, but I can't show the huge magnets and the accurate made-in-england manufacturing because they are sealed, on the front and on the back, almost impossible to disassemble.
But we don't need to. They're perfect.
STEREO MPX DECODER
The radio is equipped with a tube Stereo-Decoder, that means it is a real stereo, not like most other vintage radio that used to be mono in the radio FM and stereo sections only because of the double final section. To be clear, the record player could be played in stereo, but the radio only in mono.
AERIALS
Inside the cabinet there is a dipole for FM and an orientable ferrite antenna for AM reception.
The receiving sensitivity with internal antennas is very good.
FM SECTION
The FM section is made of the super-tested ECC85 with the configuration Amplifier RF/Ocillator-mixer.
This sections is not yet hit by the problems that characterized the devices of that time, in particular the Stereomeister 3000 by Grundig, that is, the instability to maintain the tune.
The FM section is controlled by a dedicated knob, separated from the AM section.
The mechanical complexity of this solution is minimal, increasing hugely the system reliability.
TUNING INDICATOR
The tuning indicator has of course been replaced.
TONE CONTROL
The tone control system is very efficient. Above the large tone control knobs there is a band that lights up gradually indicating the emphasis on the band on which it acts.
CONTROL PANEL
On the left end the magic eye that indicates the perfect tuning of every station.
The first knob on the top left is the volume control, with incorporated loudness.
Axially from this we find at a first level the L-R channels balance knob.
Again axially from the volume knobs but on a second level of depth we find the knob that permits the rotation of the antenna made of ferrite, for the AM bands.
Below we see the knob for the bass regulation.
The upper scale is the one of the the AM bands, say, short, medium and long waves.
The lower scale is the one of the FM band.
At the right of the scale we find the coaxial knobs of the AM and FM tuning.
Below we see the treble regulation knob.
The buttons, starting from the left, are respectively:
Solo - HI-FI - On/Off - Turntable/CD - Ferrite Antenna- Long Waves - Medium Waves - Short Waves - FM - Mono/Stereo - Muting
REAR SIDE
Output for external speakers.
Socket for recorder (tonbandgerat).
Turntable input (Tonabnehmer)
AM and FM aerial inputs and ground socket.
LISTENING IMPRESSIONS
I premise that I am not an audiophile expert and so these impressions have only the value of personal opinions.
The Radio Section is perfect, stable, with a perfect selectivity even today and with an easy tuning of the radio stations, due to the long scale.
Other competitor devices Graetz Stereo Unit 250 or Grundig Stereomeister 3000 had 5/6 pre-selectable and savable stations. On the Stereomeister this preciosity was a big source of problems.
My test benches since time are two, always the same ones: Hosianna Mantra, the masterpiece by Popol Vuh and the 6 Unaccompained Cello Suites by Bach, played, or better interpreded by Yo-Yo Ma.
The CD reader is a Grundig CD35, a good machine.
Describing in writing how these pieces are reproduced by this system requires a big effort of imagination, even by who's reading.
Roundness, sweetness, contained basses, trebles never straining.
The listening struggle is the most distant sensation from the match Blaupunkt/Goodmans. It never comes.
The only unpleasant sensation is...when it's late and you have to interrupt the listening, because tomorrow is another working day.
For further information I have to say that this Blaupunkt is not the ideal machine to listen to the Nirvana... but at that time they weren't there!
RESTORING WORKS
THE USUAL AMAZING LAST IMAGE
