I traded a car for a concept 16.5 in 1980 when I worked at pacific stereo. I still have it and it is in excellent shape. It is the best reciever made. I ran 4) 250 watt speakers. I used a PIoneer pre amp and a reverberation amp, thru the main amp in on the back of the reciever.. This reciever needed some Bose 901's which I never could get. I replaced the outputs and the power switch around 1985. It has been retierment since 2000 and I am hooking it up in my new shop. The only thing that I didn't see about the 16.5 here is the ability of the amps to peak 800 watts of bass. the protection circuit will kick around 250. The ability to handle the 800 watts means it is well built

I have only one word to say about the Concept 16.5, it flat performs better than any other receiver made to man !! I've been around these since the mid 80's, and have loved them since. I couple mine with two Harmon Kardon Citation II amps bridged for mono, run the mid and high through the valve's, and the bass through my Concept 16.5 and baby it flat outright busts the windows ( had to replace one ) in our 2500 sq ft home with Klipsh La Scala monitors and a floor bass driver, dual 14" drivers..... mama,,,, it flat cranks !!! Valves don't clip and go into thermal run away.and smoke on ya remember with the pedal to the metal, and love mid thru hi freq's. Then, being it's so easy to switch the buttons, and just run the La Scalas with the Concept stand alone, which also will almost bust the windows. I use no crossover at all with the dual Harmon Kardon Cit II's, there's a trick method of sending the low end to the floor drivers and the mid and high through the Citation's, each in bridge mono mode, triode mode on the KT99's, pushing an easy 170w's of raw tube power per chan..... it's sweet !! The Concept 16.5 is the absolute perfect mate to run with a pair of the Citation II's, if you know what you're doing with your sound system :) Trust me, it's breath taking !! You can do a LOT with the Concept 16.5, and go way out of bounds you'll never regret. It's pretty hard to beat the quality bass the Concept has, and I've tried a lot of solid state apmps with my Citations. A very warm sounding system indeed ! I can't keep the volume up too high, all my wife's little ceramic collectables vibrate off the shelves ! She don't like that to much :) I have the little brother Concept 5.5 also I use for an alarm clock in our bedroom with Bose drivers :) heheheheeeee Great alarm clock ! Bottom line, if you can snag a decent Comcept 16.5 for a reasonable price, U better grab it !! U will love it !!

IN ONE WORD...


AWESOME!

Mammoth receiver. There are many good posts on these on audiokarma.org. I don't need to get into details, just that this is an amazing, well built piece of equipment. It's not going to win any awards for appearance but we're in this for the sound right? If you find one for relatively cheap (I found mine for $300, spent $200 on maintenance) buy it and hold on. Know that you own a piece of history with a great story behind it. Use it and bask in the glory of sonic pureness!

Solid build
Awesome Power
Decent FM Tuner

Bland styling
Vinyl-clad case

The 1978 Concept 16.5 Receiver, retailed for $950.00 and has the distinction of being, at 165 WPC RMS, the most powerful receiver ever fielded by a "house brand", in this case, "Pacific Stereo", a subsidiary of CBS. In fact, many vintage receiver collectors, like me, regard the 16.5 as one of the best Stereo Receivers ever made by anyone. The circuitry was engineered by Dick Schram, who went on to greater glory as the founder of Parasound. The Concept 16.5 was manufactured by TCE (Tandy Corporation Electronics) in Japan.

The 16.5's dominant feature was a "dual mono" amplifier design, similar to Harman/Kardon 930, 730 and 630, but "taken to the next level" with huge twin power transformers. The end result is that the 16.5 had a damping factor of 450, much higher than any other contemporary receiver, or, to my knowledge any other receiver EVER. In non-technical terms the damping factor describes the ability of an amplifier to control the piston motion of a speaker. It is a "spec" you can really feel. And with a damping factor of 450 the bass output on the 16.5 is simply stunning.

A few years ago, I found a great new application for this old Monster. I plugged the output from my computer's Audigy LS audio card into the Tape 1 input on the 16.5 and now stream digital audio from the Internet into the 16.5 which pumps it to some RBH Tower Speakers. The 16.5 gives the ordinarily limp and lifeless streamed music an AWESOME punch and clarity that it simply did not have being played over my "high-end computer speakers". If you're interested in trying this, I highly recommend www.listen.com's Rhapsody service which has 1,000,000 recordings.

I also run a Concept 2QD Quartz Lock Direct Drive Turntable with my 16.5 and they make a sweet looking pair. To check them out together and get all the specs on the 16.5 go here:

http://www.electricalhobby.com/monsterreceiversite/unit_pages/ConceptReceiver.htm

-- Chris Opfell

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