Identification of Audio Sonic Tuner & Amplifier

J

Jose Valerio

Audiophyte
20210519_195854B.jpg

Hello

I recently bought an Audio Sonic (Japan?) Tuner & Amplifier with labels in german and I would like to identify the model and obtain the schematics to have it serviced.

Best regards
Jose Valerio
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
There is no identification of model on the rear panel of the receiver? Personally I've never heard of this brand at all....and my google fu brings up nada as well.....
 
J

Jose Valerio

Audiophyte
On the back panel there a logo resembling a screw with the words "ISO" and "Made in Japan".
There was a brand called AudioSonic, an importer in Amsterdam (AudioSonic, Amsterdam manufacturer in NL, Model types from (radiomuseum.org) ). But I believe the brand name is common and widely used until recently because there are many electronic consumer goods still available and even a Pong Videogame Vintage AudioSonic PP-920 ! Maybe at the repair shop they will know...
 

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lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
On the back panel there a logo resembling a screw with the words "ISO" and "Made in Japan".
There was a brand called AudioSonic, an importer in Amsterdam (AudioSonic, Amsterdam manufacturer in NL, Model types from (radiomuseum.org) ). But I believe the brand name is common and widely used until recently because there are many electronic consumer goods still available and even a Pong Videogame Vintage AudioSonic PP-920 ! Maybe at the repair shop they will know...
Is Audio Sonic the same as Audiosonic, tho? Good luck, keep us posted. Could well be just a generic piece that was available to many brands on ordering sufficient quantities, too. Doesn't look very special in any case.....why the great interest in this unit particularly?
 
J

Jose Valerio

Audiophyte
It looks neat and brings back warm memories. Plus it was a bargain and sounds well. :)
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
View attachment 47818
Hello

I recently bought an Audio Sonic (Japan?) Tuner & Amplifier with labels in german and I would like to identify the model and obtain the schematics to have it serviced.

Best regards
Jose Valerio
This took some chasing down. Audiosonic is a junk brand of Kmart. Originally Audiosonic was a brand of Telefunken of Germany. Telefunken sold the rights to Kmart Australia in 2003. I know for a fact some of this was also sold by Kmart US. Clearly your unit is prior to the sale in 2003. So the unit is around 20 years old, or older.
I would think the chance of finding spares, or being able to service it would be virtually nil.

It is interesting that it has long wave. That standard is now only in the odd parts of Eastern Europe and the UK. The Russians no longer broadcast it.

The UK history is interesting. It now carries BBC radio 4. The station is located in a funny little town of Droitwich in Worcestershire on the Herefordshire border. I have driven past it on a number of occasions. The station was built by no lesser person than Marconi. It is a very powerful station, that covers the UK and reaches Holland and Germany. Apparently it was popular in both countries. There are a couple of repeaters in Scotland. The signal does on occasions reach the US. The radiating power is 168KW.

This transmitter has it frequency linked to the atomic clock that keeps the world's time, as a reference point. The UK astronomer Royal is still the world's time keeper, and has been for hundreds of years, certainly since the time of Hooke and Newton.

Now the transmitter is extremely powerful, and uses water cooled valves (tubes) that are a meter high.







The radio valves are no longer manufactured. The BBC bought up all the remaining valves in 2011 I believe. These last 1 to 12 years. So the station will soon be off air.

This is the mercury arc rectifier.



This is the control desk.



Anyhow that gives us a chance to talk about a living piece of audio history soon to pass, and I suspect forgotten.
 
J

Jose Valerio

Audiophyte
This took some chasing down. Audiosonic is a junk brand of Kmart. Originally Audiosonic was a brand of Telefunken of Germany. Telefunken sold the rights to Kmart Australia in 2003. I know for a fact some of this was also sold by Kmart US. Clearly your unit is prior to the sale in 2003. So the unit is around 20 years old, or older.
I would think the chance of finding spares, or being able to service it would be virtually nil.

It is interesting that it has long wave. That standard is now only in the odd parts of Eastern Europe and the UK. The Russians no longer broadcast it.

The UK history is interesting. It now carries BBC radio 4. The station is located in a funny little town of Droitwich in Worcestershire on the Herefordshire border. I have driven past it on a number of occasions. The station was built by no lesser person than Marconi. It is a very powerful station, that covers the UK and reaches Holland and Germany. Apparently it was popular in both countries. There are a couple of repeaters in Scotland. The signal does on occasions reach the US. The radiating power is 168KW.

This transmitter has it frequency linked to the atomic clock that keeps the world's time, as a reference point. The UK astronomer Royal is still the world's time keeper, and has been for hundreds of years, certainly since the time of Hooke and Newton.

Now the transmitter is extremely powerful, and uses water cooled valves (tubes) that are a meter high.







The radio valves are no longer manufactured. The BBC bought up all the remaining valves in 2011 I believe. These last 1 to 12 years. So the station will soon be off air.

This is the mercury arc rectifier.



This is the control desk.



Anyhow that gives us a chance to talk about a living piece of audio history soon to pass, and I suspect forgotten.
Hello
Thank you so much. Although being a "a junk brand of Kmart", it looks nice.
I am not a veteran audiophyle, so any information is very useful.
Jose
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Hello
Thank you so much. Although being a "a junk brand of Kmart", it looks nice.
I am not a veteran audiophyle, so any information is very useful.
Jose
You did not read what I said, did you? That unit is German, so was designed by the German firm Telefunken. It must have been produced in Japan prior to 2003, as that was the date Telefunken sold the name to Kmart, Australia. That is were the junk would start to roll. It was at this time that, thee famous Telefunken founded in 1903 went into decline. They specialized in microphones, radio and TV manufacture. In 2000 Roger Fishman in the USA, bought the rights to the famous Telefunken logo, and manufactures and restores their famous, and renowned condenser studio microphones.

Basically the curtain came down on Telefunken in 2006 when Telefunken was acquired by Profilo Telra of Turkey. So the descent of another great electronics firm into the pit of Hell was complete.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
also some Telefunken unit may be similar and you could find service manuals and/or some of schematics here:
Audiosonic is not on the list. The amp that guy was servicing was made by Pioneer it seems. Its style is similar to the OP's unit. So it is a reasonable guess his unit was made by Pioneer under contract to Telefunken. I think that is about as far as we can go with this search. The thing that I found interesting was that it had the long and medium AM wave bands catered for.
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Is Audio Sonic the same as Audiosonic, tho? Good luck, keep us posted. Could well be just a generic piece that was available to many brands on ordering sufficient quantities, too. Doesn't look very special in any case.....why the great interest in this unit particularly?
It has a Sender Knob....whatever the heck that is!?
 
P

PhillyKnaus

Audiophyte
I have an Audiosonic SK-2020 and I am pretty sure it was produced by Nikko. I do not have any official documents to support this idea, but I researched the appearance of the smaller amplifiers of Nikko and the similarities are striking. In particular the TRM-500 shares many parts such as the flip switches at the front and the aluminum capped selector button array (the 5 bottons are in the same orientation on both models). On the inside my SK-2020 has its main pcb with the capacitors hanging upside down which was also common among Nikkos smaller amplifiers TRM-210 or TRM-230. The latter two amplifiers also share the exact same din connector ports and din speaker ports as my SK-2020. So my best bet is that Audiosonic was a brand of a German import company that marketed cheaper HiFi products in Central Europe that were sistuated below the own-brand Nikko products. My Sk-2020 would then have been built in the second half of the 1970s, at the earliest 1974 or 75. Let me know if that's helpful.
 
P

PhillyKnaus

Audiophyte
Correction! I just found another company that made even more similar products. It's name Hakkoh. So that is probably the true producer. They also liked to use sliders like you have in your reciever. So Audiosonic was one of the brands that sold Hakkoh's products in the Central European market. This site provides more detailed info:
 
P

PhillyKnaus

Audiophyte
According to that website the models of Hakkoh were also sold under other brands such as A.M., Dominion, Palm, Miranda and in Germany also Weltklang.
 
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