Scott LR-88 (1968–1969)
Thirty hours with a soldering iron buys a hot FET front end, a gold-anodized faceplate, and a receiver that measured better than its own spec sheet.
Overview
The LR-88 was H. H. Scott's try at making kit building respectable. Scott's own advertising said it was the receiver kit that "changed all that" about the old image of kit assembly as a basement chore unsuitable for polite company. The pitch ran in High Fidelity (October 1968, p.43) and again in High Fidelity (November 1968, p.49), and it leaned hard on the instruction manual and the company's Kit-Pak compartment system. The claim was that roughly thirty painless hours separated a box of parts from a working receiver. What arrived was a genuine Scott design. The silver-plated FET front end came fully wired and aligned from the factory, and the critical sections were pre-wired and pre-tested on printed circuit boards. The builder's job came down to mechanical assembly and interconnecting cables. The completed chassis carries 34 silicon transistors, 24 diodes, 4 integrated circuits, and 2 stabistors.
The price was the point. At $334.95, the LR-88 undercut an equivalent factory-wired unit by a good margin. Scott's own copy claimed the savings ran over a hundred dollars versus letting the factory do the assembling, though the same advertising material elsewhere listed the kit at $299.95, so treat the exact figure as period-dependent. Audio (May 1969, p.71) concluded the LR-88 offered "a most competent design at a price well below that for an equivalent factory-assembled unit."
The front panel is two-tone. The top is black, and the well-lighted dial scale only shows once the unit is powered. The bottom is anodized gold, and that's where the controls live. Two tuning meters sit at the left, one for center-of-channel FM tuning and one for peak signal. The expanded FM scale is marked for every MHz, with accuracy that deviates less than a pointer width across the dial. A small red stereo indicator lamp sits to the right of the scale, next to a nicely balanced flywheel tuning mechanism. The lower panel has a pair of microphone jacks, a five-position selector (mic, phono, FM, AM, Extra), balance, clutch-type dual bass and treble controls that let each channel be adjusted independently, and a loudness control that doubles as the power switch in its counterclockwise position. Audio (May 1969, p.71) complained about that last choice and wished on/off had been handled by one of the seven pushbuttons at the lower right. Those buttons cover loudness on/off, tape monitor, mono/stereo, the high-frequency noise filter, FM muting, remote speakers, and main speakers. A stereo headphone jack finishes the layout.
The tuner section is the strong half. IHF usable sensitivity is rated at 2.5 µV, signal-to-noise at 65 dB, capture ratio at 2.5 dB, and IHF selectivity at 45 dB, with cross-modulation rejection of 80 dB. Mono THD is quoted at 0.6%, and FM stereo separation at 35 dB at 400 Hz. The AM section is rated at 200 µV on the built-in antenna and 9 µV on an external one. Audio (May 1969, p.71) tested the tuner and found mono distortion better than claimed at 0.4%, signal-to-noise right on at 65 dB, and full limiting at just 3 µV of input. Stereo distortion, for which Scott published no figure, measured 1.0%. The multiplex decoder got particular praise. Separation held at 25 dB or better from 50 Hz to 10,000 Hz, with a full 35 dB measured at midband, and the mono-to-stereo switching threshold landed at about 4 µV. At that marginal signal level stereo is noisy, as you'd expect. The mono/stereo pushbutton lets the user defeat automatic switching and pull a weak station in mono, and the stereo lamp goes out when it does.
The amplifier section is rated at 30 watts per channel RMS into 8 ohms, with 80 watts total dynamic (IHF) power at 8 ohms. THD is 0.6% at rated output and 0.4% at 15 watts per channel. IM distortion is 0.8% at rated output and 0.6% at 15 watts. Tape and Extra inputs run 20 to 20,000 Hz ±1.5 dB with an 80 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Phono manages 65 dB, and the tone controls offer ±10 dB at 50 Hz and ±10 dB at 10 kHz. Damping factor is 30, and power bandwidth is quoted at 20 to 20,000 Hz. Audio (May 1969, p.71) found the manufacturer's amplifier specs easily met or exceeded. Rated distortion arrived at 32 watts RMS per channel against the 30 claimed, and measured power bandwidth stretched from 18 to 23,000 Hz. The high-frequency filter took a hit. Its 6 dB-per-octave slope is gentle enough that it behaves like little more than an auxiliary treble control with a shifted crossover point.
The completed unit measures 17½ inches wide, 15 inches deep, and 5½ inches high. High Fidelity (July 1969, p.65) ran the LR-88 through its equipment reports under the heading "Stereo Receiver for Kit Enthusiasts," noting distortion that remained under 1 percent across most of the audio band.
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