Schneider Team 200 R

The Team 200 R (also known as Team 200R), was a tuner/amplifier receiver manufactured by the Schneider Corporation of Germany. During the 1980s, the Schneider Corporation made many hi-fi systems as a part of their Schneider Hi-Fi Concept range, and they all looked similar with a dark brown plastic case, yellowish text, and silver knobs. The Team 300R looked almost the same, but had two VU meters.

If you are looking to buy one in the pre-used market, then some common problems to look out for are cracks in the plastic casing, as the plastic will have become brittle over the years. Apart from that, it had a very rugged build quality and the electronic engineering was reliable enough that they continue to work today in many conditions. Many audiophiles replace the back half of the plastic case with a wooden one consisting of pine or birch panels, which looks extremely high-end and impressive. If woodworking is your speciality, then perhaps this may be a project for you.

Review

Historically, Germans have never done anything small, and consequently this is a lovely huge beast of a vintage amplifier measuring 53 cm × 38.5 cm × 11.5 cm, with integrated slots in its plastic case so that it could slide into its special hi-fi rack. It usually accompanies an equally large tape deck and record player in the same style of case slotting into the same rack. One can tell straight away that this was a high quality high-end amplifier with DIN 45500 rating.

The function switch allows the selection between AM radio, FM radio, phono, tape 1, and tapes 2 inputs. The amplifier had bass, treble, and balance controls with stepped graduations. The FM radio had stereo/mono switch, and an automatic frequency control (AFC) switch. If you selected AM radio, then there was a further switch to select between medium wave (MW) band and long wave (LW) band. The large illuminated meter provided signal strength information and is impressive looking. You will also be interested to know that this amplifier has an RIAA phono preamplifier for a record player/turntable, which sounds excellent.

The power amplifier uses a pair (one for each channel) of SI-1020H hybrid power amplifier modules manufactured by the Sanken Corporation of Japan in 1974. During that time, there were many modules in the SI-10xx series. The SI-1010 was a 10-watt module, whilst SI-1020 was 20-watts; SI-1030 was 30-watts, and SI-1050 50-watts. These modules consisted of flip-chip transistors, and passivated power transistors. In terms of sound quality, these are very similar to the Sanyo STK range of hybrid modules that later became very popular. These modules can operate on single rail and split rail making them very versatile.

Providing you have a good pair of loudspeakers, the sound quality of this amplifier is excellent, and very unusual compared to that produced by modern amplifiers today. It has that lovely sharp treble and low bass and sounds very smooth and creamy in low volumes.

Price/eBay

These are not very commonly available in the UK, and it is rare to find the complete hi-fi rack with the matching tape deck and turntable for sale on eBay. Just the amplifier on its own in full working condition can cost around seventy pounds or more if it is mint condition. A burnt amplifier that requires new power amplifier modules is usually worthless as these modules are hard to find and what limited old stock there is will be expensive making repairs prohibitive.

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