Sony STR-6040 (1969–1970)

The Sony STR-6040 was the company's pitch to the budget-conscious audiophile in the late 1960s. It was an FM stereo/FM-AM receiver that broke the $200 price barrier without, as the Audio (November 1969, p.43) advertising copy put it, "putting the slightest dent in quality." The strategy was simple. Strip away the unessentials, dial back the power to a modest but honest 30 watts continuous per channel (both channels driven, measured the hard way), and put the engineering savings into a tuner section that didn't cut corners.

The tuner used a completely passive front end, with no amplification of the incoming signal. It was coupled with solid-state i.f. filters that delivered 70 dB of alternate-channel selectivity and never needed realignment, according to HiFi-Stereo (October 1969, p.47). The receiver was not a powerhouse, but it could drive "even" (as the ads liked to say) a reasonable pair of speakers to satisfying volume without distortion.

The STR-6040 had no multiple tape loops, no elaborate tone controls and no high power ratings. Sony kept the essentials: a noisy-program filter, a tuning meter, a headphone jack, and a single tape-monitor circuit with output. By late 1969, that was enough to make it a serious entry-level component for someone building a first stereo system on a budget.

The handful of known specs:

- Power: 30 watts continuous per channel, both channels driven

- Tuner: FM stereo/FM-AM, passive front end, solid-state i.f. filters

- Alternate-channel selectivity: 70 dB

- Features: noise filter, tuning meter, headphone jack, one tape monitor loop

- Original price: under $200