Tandberg TR-1020 (early 1970s)

Tandberg built tape recorders first, then its first receiver, and the front panel alone was worth the price.

Overview

Tandberg spent years earning a reputation for tape recorders before it ever built a receiver. The TR-1020 was the company's first entry into the purely electronic component category. The story goes that Tandberg had startled the audio industry by proving a reel-to-reel deck could deliver full frequency response at 3½ inches per second through careful engineering and quality control rather than tricks. The TR-1020 was the attempt to carry that same discipline into a receiver. Audio (February 1973, p.56) opened its Equipment Profile by noting the company's tape heritage, then got straight to the point: this was "an outstandingly designed receiver."

The styling is what people notice first. With the power off, the front panel reads as three floating strips of anodized aluminum. The blacked-out upper section only shows a well-illuminated FM and AM dial scale once the unit is switched on, and the red pointer segment lights only for the band you've selected. Nomenclature is printed large enough to read without squinting, which sounds like faint praise until you've squinted at enough 1970s panels. Two meters sit to the right: a signal-strength meter that works on both AM and FM, and a center-of-channel meter for FM tuning. The tuning knob is coupled to a heavy flywheel. Audio (February 1973, p.56) reckoned the TR-1020 wasn't actually much smaller or lower-profile than its competition. It just looked that way, thanks to the human engineering.

The control layout is well thought out. Major functions run in a single row of ten push-push buttons: on/off, FM muting, AFC, FM, AM, Phono, Tape 1, Tape 2, and Tape Monitor. Rotary controls cover master volume, balance, dual concentric clutch-operated bass and treble, and a speaker selector with main, remote, main-plus-remote, and an off position for headphone listening. A stereo headphone jack sits at the left end of the row. At the far right is a phone jack labeled "Tape 3," which matters to anyone who records.

The Tape 3 output is taken through the tone and filter controls. That is useful for the tape enthusiast, since it lets you tailor the signal going to the deck rather than bypassing the receiver's voicing. There are input and output sockets for two tape recorders on the rear panel, plus the front-panel Tape 3 outlet. HiFi-Stereo (January 1973, p.42) tested the controls, found them smooth, and concluded the TR-1020 would be "a natural part of the audio system of any serious tape hobbyist," calling it well worth every cent of its price.

Inside, the engineering is more serious than the price suggests. The FM front end uses dual-gate MOSFETs for both the RF and mixer stages and is electronically tuned. There is no variable capacitor at all, just varactor diodes. The AM section gets its own FET mixer. There are multi-pole FM-IF filters and a stereo multiplex circuit with positive automatic mono-to-stereo switching. The power amplifier is a true complementary symmetry design fed by two separate power supplies, one per channel, to minimize interaction between them. The rear panel carries preamp-main jumpers so the two sections can be split, a switched and unswitched convenience AC receptacle, and antenna connections with color-coded plugs so the FM antenna can't be accidentally plugged into the AM holes. Three input-sensitivity controls live on the bottom of the chassis, for phono, Tape 1, and Tape 2. They let you balance levels between sources, a refinement Audio (February 1973, p.56) noted is hardly ever found on all-in-one receivers.

The enclosure is unusual. The "cabinet" is two side wood panels plus an interlocking top panel. Four side screws come out and everything slides apart for service. Fully assembled, it reads as a piece of furniture. Audio (February 1973, p.56) called it one of the cleverest enclosures the magazine had seen, and praised the internal layout for keeping almost every part accessible without disassembling the whole receiver.

On paper, Tandberg rated the amplifier at 40 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 52 watts into 4 ohms, continuous, both channels driven, at 1 kHz. It also rated it at 38 watts per channel into 8 ohms across the full 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz band. THD and IM distortion were both quoted at 0.2% at rated output, damping factor at 48 into 8 ohms at 1 kHz, and frequency response at 12 Hz to 70,000 Hz, -1.5 dB. Power bandwidth was listed as 7 Hz to 30,000 Hz.

Those numbers turned out to be conservative. Audio (February 1973, p.57) measured 0.2% THD at 45 watts per channel into 8 ohms with both channels driven, against the 40 watts claimed, and 50 watts per channel if you accept 0.5% THD. At power levels below 30 watts per channel, the reviewer was reading the residual distortion of the test equipment itself, about 0.04%, with no sign of the crossover distortion that plagued class-B designs. Power bandwidth measured 5 Hz to 50 kHz at 0.5% THD, and still 7 Hz to 35 kHz at Tandberg's own 0.2% reference, wider than advertised. The magazine's summary of Tandberg's power ratings was that the company was about as thorough and conservative as anyone could be.

The tuner section held up too. IHF sensitivity was rated at 2.0 µV, with signal-to-noise of 68 dB in mono and 66 dB in stereo, and THD of 0.3% mono and 0.4% stereo. Selectivity was quoted at 68 dB carrier-down, capture ratio at 1.8 dB, image rejection at 70 dB, IF rejection at 100 dB, and stereo separation at 35 dB at 1 kHz. In measurement, Audio (February 1973, p.57) found S/N already at a usable 51 dB with only 3 µV applied, crossing 65 dB at 10 µV, and the figure was the same in mono and stereo. Ultimate S/N reached 70 dB in mono (higher than claimed) and 67 dB in stereo. Separation met published claims, falling from 36 dB mid-band to 33 dB at 50 Hz and 25 dB at 10 kHz. The AM section was rated at 50 µV IHF sensitivity with an external antenna.

The low-frequency (rumble) filter slopes at 12 dB per octave, which makes it effective rather than decorative. The two high-frequency filters can be used singly or together for different roll-off characteristics. The front-panel flip-down cover hides the secondary controls: mono/stereo selector, mono-left, mono-right, rumble filter, loudness contour, the high-frequency filters, and the Tape 3 preamp button.

Original retail was $429.90, cabinet included. Tandberg's own advertising pitched it as delivering about $600 worth of performance for the money. Dimensions are 17 inches wide by 4¾ high by 12¾ deep including knobs, and the receiver weighs 20 lbs.

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