An Old School Stereo for Less than $30

Are you looking to get a stereo cheap?  A few weeks ago, I came across a couple of interesting stereo components that could have led me to the construction of a pretty nice sub-$30 old school stereo.

First, in a Goodwill in the far flung suburbs of Atlanta, I found two stereo receivers for $24.99 each.  The first component  was a Sherwood RX-4100 receiver.  It's a 105 watt 2-channel stereo unit with 0.05 THD distortion.  The Sherwood RX-4100 Stereo Receiver received mixed reviews on Amazon.com due primarily to the lack of tone controls.  If you need a manual for this stereo receiver it can be found on manualslib.com. 

Sherwood RX-4100 Stereo Receiver

The second component was an Insignia 200 watt stereo reciever.  Insignia is well known as the house brand of Best Buy.

Finally, a solitary Lxi brand single-disc CD player was selling just down the aisle for just under $4.  Of course, the $20,000 question remains:  will a $4 CD player work?  It did power on and off.  The door also opened and closed.  A simple CD player from Goodwill just might work.  It's the multi-disc CD players that get clunky.

 

That's a lot of stereo for $29.  Of course, speakers are another matter.  However, I've often seen mondo speakers for as low as $20 a pair.  Small bookshelf speakers could go for as little as $10.  As long as you can see that there are no tears in a speaker cone and that the foam surrounds around a speaker are intact, you almost can't go wrong with speakers from a thrift store.  However, there are also some great speaker deals on the Internet.

We live in an era when any resourceful kid can put together a great stereo.  We are lucky to be living in the twilight of a golden age of stereo technology.