Eico Cortina

With the Eico Cortina line, the advertising outlived the documentation. What survives in the period record is mostly marketing, and enthusiastic marketing at that. Eico's own ads in late 1967 and early 1968 called Cortina "the most exciting innovation in solid state stereo history," a line repeated across multiple issues of HiFI-Stereo (October 1967, p.139; November 1967, p.57; December 1967, p.13). The same ads claimed "nothing has been sacrificed - except high price." That positioned Cortina as a budget-priced, all-silicon solid-state lineup.

The name "Cortina" appears to have covered a family of components, not a single model. A High Fidelity piece from December 1968 (p.142) mentions a "Cortina" 150-watt silicon solid-state stereo amplifier with less than 0.1% harmonic distortion and IM distortion under 0.6%. It also mentions a "Cortina" solid-state 70-watt AM/FM stereo receiver kit. The same issue gives the model number 3150 for the amplifier. The 70-watt receiver shows up in ads as the Cortina 3070. One period ad even praises it as representing "a wholesome trend away from 'overblown' amplifiers which are much larger than need be" (HiFI-Stereo, October 1967, p.139).

The reception claims were strong. Eico's advertising quoted Popular Science calling the Cortina series "low-cost audio components that look and sound like high cost components," Hirsch-Houck Labs saying "We can't think of a better value in High Fidelity Amplifiers," and High Fidelity stating "EICO has come up with a real winner" (HiFI-Stereo, January 1968, p.19). Kit prices in those ads ran from $89.95 to $99.95, depending on the issue.

Beyond that, the record is thin. No service manual, no detailed specifications sheet and no independent lab measurements from the period have surfaced in the archive. The exact production years, the full lineup and the relationship between the various "Cortina" model numbers remain undocumented. Eico pushed this line hard as a value-oriented solid-state alternative in the late 1960s, and at least some reviewers agreed.

Known facts, such as they are:

- All-silicon solid-state construction

- At least one amplifier model (3150) rated at 150 watts, with THD under 0.1% and IM under 0.6%

- At least one AM/FM stereo receiver kit (3070) rated at 70 watts

- Kit prices advertised between $89.95 and $99.95

- Marketed aggressively in late 1967 through 1968