rootboy 

I am very impressed BIGBOSSMAN. That looks like a ton of work, and the results are amazing.
I don't own much vintage gear but picked up a Pioneer SA-9500 a while ago. Great amp. But the on/off button is now kaput.
Bummer. Finding a replacement has proven impossible.

Grand Bois

Have you seen this?

https://www.audiokarma.org/forums/arc...p/t-67619.html

Grand Bois

I recently added this system to the living room.

Onkyo A-5 amp
Onkyo TA-2500 cassette deck
TEAC 2300SX reel to reel
There's a Samsung Blu Ray player on top of the cassette deck. I got it for free because it refuses to play Blu-Ray discs. I use it as a CD player and I added a WI-FI adapter so we can listen to Pandora One.



My ELAC Miracord 770H that I bought in 1970. It has developed a rumble, so it's just for looks for now.



Technics SL J33 with an awesome ADC PSX-40 induced magnet cartridge. Audiophiles turn their noses up at these linear tracking tables, but it sounds great to me!

The speakers are Boston acoustics A70s and modern BA 10" subwoofer.



The Sansui 5000 build date 01/68 is as good as new after recapping, some pots and a couple of transistors. Fortunately, my genius tech friend works for the price of parts, beer money and the joy of working on vintage equipment.



The inputs are that old school horizontal Marantz cassette deck, a TEAC A-4070G on the sewing machine table to the right and Ipod.

Grand Bois

This is my latest audio project. It's my daughter's mint condition 1998 Yukon. I'm working on it with her boyfriend who has done a bit of car audio installation. So far we have a Kenwood head unit with HD radio and 4 volt outputs, a couple of Old school (made in Arizona) Rockford Fosgate amps and four JL Audio 12" subs. It's essentially the same system that I have in my truck, but I only have room for a single 10" sub because it's a standard cab. My kind of music doesn't require that kind of base anyway.

treal512

Ooh, I didn't expect to find an audio thread here.

Here is my current setup minus the LCD-2 (old pic). I've since replaced the headphones with vintage Pioneer HPM-100 speakers.



320/FLAC audio → Musical Fidelity V-Link → Audio-GD DAC19 DSP1 → Marantz 2275 → Pioneer HPM-100

Grand Bois

I'm a big fan of vintage Marantz receivers. I have three.

treal512

Nice, I'm a fan as well. I have a few vintage receivers I don't use anymore because the 2275 displaced them

Which model is that or models do you have?

Grand Bois

That's a 2285. They're fairly rare because they were only made for a year before they replaced it with the 2285B because it was cheaper to build. I also have a 2230 in the garage and 2215B "baby Marantz" in a nightstand. Their lower powered receivers have surprisingly good sound with the right speakers.

thinktubes 

I'm putting together a system with a 2215 and Dynaco A25 speakers. Haven't hooked it up yet, but on paper it looks good.

bikemig 

Great thread. I own old bikes but no vintage audio gear, . I've digitized my entire music collection and have no wish to deal with either vinyl or CDs for that matter (other than to rip the music from the CD). My sig line has a pic of my desktop system. I recently put up a really simple system in my work room with a pair of powered monitors (audioengine A-5 plus speakers), an ipod, and a radio used as a tuner (the monitors have two rca inputs). The audioengine A-5s sound pretty good and they're relatively inexpensive. Plus they have a usb power charge port for an ipod. Here is a pic of one my recent bike builds and the speakers (although I need to modify this set up so the tuner is better placed):

The Golden Boy 

Grand Bois- your house must sound AMAZING!

I'm putting together my stereo and it's in a corner of the basement, it's relatively uncomfortable down there- It's not really for listening pleasure, it's for learning songs... it looks like your house is surrounded my music. I wish I could have something like that set up in my living room, but my wife doesn't like that idea.

I love the way you have stuff into that built in. My grandparents had the built in stereo in a big drawer that pulled out. They built it into the house when they built it in 1955. I don't know what happened to it- I remember that it didn't work and they removed it sometime in the 80s and just turned it into a cabinet.

I have a Kenwood linear tracking turntable. I think it's awful. I make no comment about it's sound quality- I bought it because 'that's how discs are cut' according to the advertising. It's just far too difficult to queue up tracks using the buttons versus setting the needle down with your hand. So, for me, "turning my nose" at it is because it's a pain in the azz to use. Just yesterday my brother in law loaned me his cool huge ass wood Technics turn table. I have to clean it up and find a place to put it.

This one-





One of the "antique" pieces my parents are trying to figure out what to do with is my great grandmother's pedal sewing machine table. Now that you're mentioning it- that might be a nice turntable stand, and family heirloom.

Grand Bois

Those tables my turntables are on were my grandmother's.

You don't cue songs with that Technics table. It's programmable. It scans the record first to find the breaks between songs and then you use the buttons on the front to tell it which song(s) you want it to play. It actually works! I'm looking for an SL-10 high end model that clamps the record when you close the lid so it can be stood on end and played vertically. I've read that only Technics perfected linear tracking. I don't know, I've only tried that one. CDs came out when they finally got it right and nobody wanted to bother with vinyl anymore. That's why mine is in new condition. I packed it away when I got my first CD player. Now I'm back to vinyl. I just finished cleaning and re-sleeving 156 records from the 60s, 70s and 80s that my wife and I had in storage.

I'm also looking for an affordable Thorens to restore.

rat fink

Picked up a set of Technics SL-1200 MkIIs with cases, a mixer, and a few crates of vinyl for a pretty good deal.

PolishGuy

Wow.....interesting thread. Haven't read through all the posts yet but just enough to add my $0.02 worth. Hard for me to believe that some of you folks are discovering the "been there, done that" phase of my audio life. I remember the wonder of the first Phase Linear 700's when they were new.....the thunder of Crown DC300s and BGW's [remember the movie Earthquake?]....the magic of a Revox A77 doing it's thing.....the beauty of a Thorens TD125 turntable with SME tone-arm and Shure V15 cartridge....until I was captivated by the warm glow of tubes. That was it. I got so hooked on tubed audio equipment that I went through a progression of Dynaco PAS3s, stereo 70's, MK IIIs, found out about Audio Research and bought a used D51 from Jonas Miller Sound in Beverly Hills [this was before Ken Kreisel and he got M&K officially going] until I wound up with the single ended triode struff in the late 90's to early 2000's. Built up most of my equipment from schematics from Sound Practices and Glass Audio magazines and telephone conversations with J. C. Morrison and a few of their authors [this was before e-mail etc]. Through it all I was always into vinyl. Reel to reel tape was great but vinyl just had the "magic" for me. Today all my gear is boxed up and in storage. Mostly I listen to live acoustic music when possible. Have my remaining turntable, a Technics belt drive whose model number I don't remember, wired to a 10 year old book shelf system, I think it's an RCA brand, that I listen to occasionally. It's good to see the interest in older audio gear. Been thinking of getting a KLH compact system and using it in my den/home office. Guess I'll have to check E-bay or Craigslist. Thx, PG.

a77impala

My latest find is a Janice Joplin L.P. Pearl, cost me one thin dime at salvation Army. I already had it
but for a dime?
I love to put an album on the turntable or a tape I made in 1968 on my Tandberg reel to reel and go back 40
years.

The Golden Boy 

I've always been more attracted to SS stuff. If I had found a SS guitar amp that broke up nicely, I probably wouldn't have the guitar rigs I have now. Don't get me wrong- if I stumbled across a nice McIntosh system, I'd certainly give it a go.

due ruote 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Bost...item2a3023947e

Anyone in socal need a pr. of speakers? I have a set of these and they're pretty excellent imo. Folks on audio karma tend to agree. If the description is accurate they don't even appear to need foam.

curbtender

My friends wife wanted put out an old stereo for electronics pick-up day...Pioneer TX 9500 II, SA-9500 and two large speakers. I told her she better check Ebay first.

Grand Bois

"My stuff is better than your stuff."

I understand, I'm a recovering ex-southern Californian myself.

rekmeyata

Those speakers were just OK, not bad, but not good either, but for $100 and if the foam is good what the heck, however foams are only good for about 20 years give or take 5 years depending on atmospheric conditions of where they were, so if the foams were never replaced than bet you're sweet booty they will need to be replaced. They do sound better though if you put them on speaker stands and not on the floor, and in smaller rooms because they will get lost in larger rooms. They're not rock or metal speakers, their most comfortable with Jazz, Classical, soft rock type of stuff. I would buy them if the foams were replaced within the last 5 years and if I was going to put them in a small room like a bedroom, a small office etc.

I forgot, the cabinets were not well braced thus they had a tendency to vibrate with heavier bass sounds, this is why they didn't do well with rock and the such. The designers and owner originally came from KLH and Advent, and if you ever seen and heard those they come close to same type of sound you would hear from the B.A.'s.

Cougrrcj

My mother finally(!) sold my dad's old Klipschorn-type standing floor speaker from the early '60s. 18" ElectroVoice speaker with 25 pound(!) magnet, and the horn-type midrange and tweeters with separate controllers on the side... I think it went for $50.

Dad had designed the cabinet and had it and the stereo cabinet custom-built by a cabinetmaker. Inside the component cabinet was his HH Scott tube-type tuner and amplifier pair. Under the lid was the Teac 7" reel-to-reel tape deck (with echo effect) and the AR XA 33/45 rpm only belt drive turntable (you had lift he heave billet platter to manually switch the drive belt on the dual-size drive pulley to change turntable speed.) Under the tuner/amp was storage for up to 100 7" tape reel boxes! Mom still has the stereo cabinet, but I have the matching 3-speaker auxiliary speaker/LP storage cabinet.

These components, but built-in:

Grand Bois

The cabinets are also a bit thin. Use them with a powered subwoofer with a built in crossover so they don't have to try to produce deep base. Once you get them dialed in, they're great. That's what I did with my BAs. The sub is also a BA. "Dark Side of the Moon" on vinyl sounds awesome on that system!

Refoaming is no big deal at all. I've done a number of them and I enjoy it. It doesn't require much skill. You just have to work very carefully, especially if you have to remove the dustcaps on woofers to shim the voice coils. People don't realize that, so buying speakers that need refoaming is a good way to get them cheap.

due ruote 

I'm curious about your point of comparison. You seem to be saying they compare with large Advents; I think most people would say those are nice speakers. OK, not top end audiophile stuff but very good for their price point. In fact, in the reading I've done about the A150's on Audio Karma, several people said they preferred these to their Advents.

In the end I only care about how they sound to me, and they blow away my old bookshelf speakers. I have them paired with a Technics SA600 (70wpc iirc) and enjoy listening to everything from old rock (I'm not a metal guy) to classical. I will concede that they are perhaps best with jazz. Anyway I still think they're a deal for $100 even if they need a re-foam, which yes, is easy to do.

rekmeyata

No, I didn't say larger advents, but the medium advents. And yes the Advents were decent speakers but they too were no room filling and lacked in some areas. The larger advents were better but they too were never known to be top flight stuff found in average consumer stores not boutique stores...big difference.

Keep in mine when someone says they prefer the sound of one speaker over another, including me, that everyone hears things a bit different, while you may love the sound of speaker A but not speaker B, I may be vice a versa! So take anything that someone says about a particular sound of a speaker with a grain of salt, and that goes for what I said! I remember those speakers from years ago I didn't really think they were great, they were good, and I did say that. But I also remember Schwinn Varsity, Continental, Suburban, etc and I remember people having huge problems with them, I thought they sucked and I still think they do and wouldn't pay the gas to go get one, so did others that owned them, but I get into problems a lot from people who say otherwise...mostly from people who never lived back then when they were new and were riding them.

So bicycles, like speakers, is a huge part personal preferences as is a lot of things we use in life even including philosophies of religion, politics, etc.

obrentharris 

Finally something to share here. I just got my old Grace F9E stylus back from Soundsmith, all nicely rebuilt! 10 week backlog.



This has always been my favorite cartridge (that I could afford) but I had to quit using it about 20 years ago when replacement styli were no longer available. I recently learned about soundsmith's rebuilding services and am thrilled to have it back on the turntable.



I bought the turntable and tone arm used in 1979: I guess I hold on to things for a while.

Brent