Telefunken TRX-3000

Here is a receiver that you’ve probably never seen before. Most vintage audio enthusiasts know of Telefunken for their tubes but many don’t know they also made receivers. I posted in the past on the Telefunken Concerto 105 which most wouldn’t call a great looking receiver (it’s ugly). This is the Telefunken TRX-3000, and, in contrast to the Concerto line, it is actually a very interesting looking receiver. I might even call it appealing. It was made during the late 70’s so it was a little ahead of its time with the black face, LED meters and digital tuner display. The case is metal and not plastic.

The TRX-3000 is a quadraphonic receiver and has some power with 160 watts per channel into two channels and 90 WPC into four channels. It also has some interesting features that were ahead of it’s time such as soft touch buttons, relay-activated inputs and PLL tuner. It even has a cooling fan for the heatsink! The TRX-3000 is compatible with Discrete/SQ/CD-4 decoding. Another sign that this receiver hit the market during the transition from analog to digital is the fact that it has a digital tuning readout but analog tuning strength meter.

You’ll notice that where the Telefunken name and model are located on the front panel near the lower left corner is actually a flip down panel that covers two DIN headphone jacks. The other plug I believe is for a clock/timer or perhaps an Aux. It also has a 6.3 mm headphone jack on the side of the unit.

The TRX-3000 also apparently has built in electronics to control a rotating antenna. Most older people in the US remember the large rotating Yagi antennas that used to sit on the roof and you could rotate them from a controller next to the TV. I have to admit that being able to control a huge antenna on the roof of your house with your receiver would be pretty cool.

Obviously Telefunken designed these for the European market so there are not that many in the US. The top of the line TRX-3000 very rarely comes up for sale here. While the demand may not be that high for them here they still sell for a good amount. But, good luck finding one. The Opus and Concerto models can be found but the TRX are very rare here. So, if you see a TRX-3000 at a good price. Get it!