Lafayette LT-700 Criterion FM Stereo Multiplex Tuner
A self-contained stereo multiplex tuner from Lafayette's Criterion line, sold as a wired unit for $124.50. It was aimed at the listener who wanted stereo FM without a bolt-on adapter.
Overview
The LT-700 is a Criterion-series FM stereo multiplex tuner. Its big selling point was what it didn't need: an outboard multiplex adapter. Lafayette's catalog copy says the tuner is "entirely self contained with its own built-in multiplex facilities," "Ready for Stereo and no Adapter Needed." A buyer in the early 1960s was looking at the cost of a mono tuner plus a separate decoder box. Skipping the box was the whole sales pitch.
The front panel is cream and brushed brass set into a beige vinyl enclosure, according to Audio (March 1962, p.64), which also listed the LT-700 at $124.50. Lafayette's own catalog pages from the period are inconsistent on price. Several advertising excerpts show what appears to be $450 or $129.50, and those values look like OCR damage or mis-set type rather than real prices. The $124.50 in the Audio listing is the cleanest single figure available, and it lines up with where a self-contained multiplex tuner sat in the Lafayette hierarchy at the time. Treat any other number as suspect until a clean catalog page surfaces.
Lafayette's marketing claimed the tuner could achieve "the highest Laboratory Standards," with selectivity and sensitivity good enough to pull "even the weakest multiplex or monaural FM signals." It also stressed drift-free AFC performance - the automatic frequency control that keeps a station from wandering off tuning as the set warms up. Whether the LT-700 delivered on that, the surviving documentation doesn't say directly. The period press was more measured. HiFi-Stereo (January 1963, p.46) grouped the LT-700 into a tuner test report alongside the Knight KN-250A. The surrounding discussion makes the case that a tuner with built-in stereo circuitry is preferable to converting a mono unit with an external adapter, which is more or less Lafayette's own argument stated by an independent party.
Based on the available material, the LT-700 does not appear to have been a kit. The Criterion line as a whole was sold both ways. The KT-250A integrated amplifier, for instance, was offered at $74.50 in kit form and $99.50 wired. The LT-700 listings describe it as "Completely Tested and Wired." Buyers who wanted to save money with a soldering iron had plenty of other Lafayette options.
The tuner was made in the U.S.A., per the catalog copy. Lafayette's broader catalog of the period sold it as part of a full component lineup - tuners, integrated amplifiers, control centers, basic power amps - under the "Engineered To Professional Standards … Designed for the Home … Dedicated To Music" banner. The LT-700 sat at the front of that chain, pulling stereo FM out of the air and handing it off.
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