Amstrad 5050 "quad" reciever

[ekjdm14]

Hi all, just looking for some information on the output impedance for this unit.

Picked it up at auction for cheap last week & just got around to checking it over and powered it up for the first time. It seems to work well enough and sounds pretty good through some old Sony speakers in the dining room. I used these as they're 8 ohm and so likely safe enough, and noted that it performs pretty well with good volume & the outputs are not even getting warm after 15-20 minutes of Radio 2 so wondering if it'd be safe to connect an extra pair to the quad din sockets. The only other DIN speakers to hand though are Bush Arena ones that are nominally 4 ohms (test around 6 though).

Does anybody have information on this receiver and what speakers would have been suited to it originally? If it helps at all, the outputs are 4x RCA 17300A (quick search I can't find a definite cross-reference though)

Cheers,

[paulsherwin]

The speakers should be fine if you don't crank the volume up to 11.

This is apparently a good Japanese built receiver and much better than later Amstrad stuff. You may have found a bargain.

[RojDW48]

I had one of those briefly - likewise cheapo cheapo at auction. Sounded a lot better than I expected based upon reputation.

[david freeman]

The 5050 was a British made Amstrad, introduced in 1977. It was quite well reviewed in the HiFi press at the time.
The 5050 was rated at 25 watts per channel, and like many receivers of that era featured a pseudo 4 channel feature which allowed the use of 4 speakers in what was known as a Hafler arrangement, which sent out of phase information to the extra pair of speakers giving some rather strange effects!
Amstrad put every feature possible into this receiver and the style was long and low, inspired by the Goodmans range of receivers which had been very well reviewed in the 70’s.
It was often paired with popular models from the Wharfedale, Celestion and Goodmans speaker ranges.
Its predecessor, the 5000, was very successfully paired with the Videotone Minimax speakers in a system put together by HiFi Answers.

[paulsherwin]

Are you sure it was British made David? I was sure it was Japanese. The transistor types should be a giveaway one way or the other.

[david freeman]

The 5050 was definitely made in the UK, Paul.
I have the original adverts for it in HiFi Answers.
Amstrad also made the ‘Executive’ range of silver faced amplifiers which emulated the Japanese style, but these were also made in the UK, apart from the cassette deck.

[ekjdm14]

Yes, this system is made in England as given away on the backplate. I'd guess this is a fairly early example if they were introduced in 1977 as I believe date of mfg. to be 4/77. It isn't a bad little performer at all, certainly better than I expected from Amstrad (mainly bought it as it looks cool with potential ideas of it becoming the basis of a garage sound system, was pleasantly surprised at the weight when I collected it!) and it may yet find a place in our front room paired (aptly, given the info in post #4) with my Goodmans Magnum K2s and maybe the Sony from the dining room on the "faux-quad" outputs, to go behind the sofa...

Makes sense that they're fed signals out of phase with the main outputs, I noticed that the volume appeared to drop significantly when the Bush speakers were plugged in (they're sat directly underneath the main Sonys) but not if I swapped left & right channels so definitely some interesting effects there! I wonder what Dark side of the Moon would sound like with 4 speakers equidistant around my chair?

Paul, as noted above the outputs at least are RCA branded TO220 items with a number I don't recognise.

Along with this, I also got a 7060 tape deck although haven't looked at/tested that yet. (plus a DVD recorder, 2 DVB HDD recorders and 2 semi-modern VCRs that I may offer on here if they power up)