A friend had a Wintec receiver with a TV tuner built in to facilitate TV sound through one’s stereo — I remember it being uglier than a mud fence, absolutely enormous, and slightly chintzy feeling.

First and foremost, I can find NO proof that these were made by, or have anything to do with Luxman. Nothing.

Second. Wintec gear was built well, but it seems like in low volumes. I’m reading a forum post from 2006 from someone who says they were a stereo salesperson in the 70’s who sold the stuff when the company went out of business in 1979.

Says that the MSRP was $900 but sold for half that and still retained good margin, which leads me to believe these weren’t exactly heirloom pieces, but still seem to be decent quality.

I don’t want to get into a war about what’s better than what, but I would like for the speculating about Wintec to be put to rest: sounds like they were an audio start up looking to do big value pieces to compete with the established brands, they did some good but unconventional stuff, and they couldn’t sustain. Think, maybe, Outlaw Audio?