Any Audiophiles, Home Theater aficioinados?

[TheGrumpyGuy]

If only we had k own and bought 4 or 5 for later....

PIONEER SX-1980 VINTAGE STEREO RECEIVER - 270 WPC - SERVICED - CLEANED - TESTED | eBay

WE REPLACED ALL DEFECTIVE CAPACITORS AND ANY OTHER DEFECTIVE COMPONENTS AND REPAIRED ALL POOR SOLDER CONNECTIONS THROUGH OUT ALL P.C BOARDS. ALIGNED THE FM CIRCUIT.

www.ebay.com

There's a local guy, down in Fountain Square area(?), that refurbs and sells vintage 60's & 70's Hi-Fi equipment. Can't recall the company name or find it quickly in my FB feeds...

 

[snapping turtle]

I have a audiophile taste and a Sony boombox budget. I am old and still have some gems in the attic. A couple old wood pioneer tape deck/record player. A technic's turntable. A carver tube amp and pre amp.

Current system is pretty old also dennon and KLIPSCH with the old pioneer bs-22lr bookshelves running on a b channel in the front room.

I am looking at going streaming 2.1 for the main room if I can find the right combo streamer/DAC/AMP combo. I don't need lossless audio but I can hear the difference between acc and 24-bit/96kHz but I don't think anyone else in the family can or cares.

The only reason that the main TV sound system is that they currently have to get off the couch to turn up or down the volume. After nearly 27 years of use and abuse the dennon remote seemed to not survive the such a hostile environment.

 

[Colt556]

One of my older brothers passed away almost exactly two years ago. My other older brother and I went down to Georgia to clean out his house. When they both came home from Vietnam they had some pretty nice stereo equipment including Akai and Teac reel to reels. Sansui receivers, Dual turntables and the like. They also bought brand new muscle cars, 68 GTO and Chevelle.
Anyway Eddie always had nice stereo equipment and cars. I brought home a Nakamichi receiver, a pair of Klipsch 64 speakers and a Sony CD and Dual cassette deck. I already had a nice Sony receiver, some Polk Audio speakers and a pair of Bose bookshelf speakers.
Not sure what all in that collection works but someday I’d like to try to get something going down in my man cave.
A friend told me about a place over near the Naval Armory and old riverside park that can test and repair audio equipment but I haven’t looked into it that much yet. I really don’t know much about audio equipment anymore but would like to use this old stuff if possible.

 

[TheGrumpyGuy]

There's a local guy, down in Fountain Square area(?), that refurbs and sells vintage 60's & 70's Hi-Fi equipment. Can't recall the company name or find it quickly in my FB feeds...

I was mistaken, he's in Brownsburg.

Home | Getchell Amps

www.getchellamps.com

 

[Colt556]

I was mistaken, he's in Brownsburg.

Home | Getchell Amps

www.getchellamps.com

That’s pretty close to me. Might have to check into it.

 

[Thor]

That's a very large woofer at 18". Was able to look up the receiver but couldn't find the speakers, so.......

Pardon my finger fart...SB G-500

Stereo on...


Stereo off...

 

[Thor]

 

[Thor]

The theory was the vanes on the horns would blow the higher frequencies down into the bass so the sound would arrive at the listener at the same time.

I bought into the whole more watts bigger speakers buying syndrome and ended up here. I couldn't afford what I wanted at the time (Warfdale E-90's) but these are "pretty good"

I had to convince myself to stop reading about the next best thing and just enjoy what I have. It's worked since the '70's.

 

[Thor]

IIRC they were rated at 100 db at 1M with 1 watt of power max 500 watts.

They will literally drive people from the room and move furniture, blow out candles break dishes and what not.

And they sound really good and rich at low levels too.

 

[snapping turtle]

As an audio installer. Spend money on the speakers. That piece is what you hear and mediocre speakers with the best amp made is mediocre sound. Great speakers with an average amp still sounds great.

Outside of a few older amps from the hey day of audio amps are one items that has not really improved but has come up in quality of dollar per watt of power. Sure tube amps sound warmer. All amps have a signature sound profile. Matching that amp with your speakers is key to good sound.

Sub's have come a long long way to round out the sound of your listening room. They also eliminate the need for huge 12's in the main cabinet like the classic 1970's. Dropping the lows off your mains open up many speakers overall range. Have an empty room you can drop the lows decibels a bit and the sharpness is good. Have a room now filled with people and you can knock up the bass 2 DB and you still have the same signature in the room as when it was empty.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

I have a couple of "70s era set ups.

Pioneer SX1080 with Technics (1080 Edit) SB - G500 speakers. 120 high current amps with 18" woofers and 3 way 7speakers. Concert level sound if you need it...I don't know why I can't hear anymore.

The other a Pioneer 450 with Acoustic Research AR-7 bookshelf speakers that can fill the whole house with sound.

If they don't stop working I can't imagine why I would replace them...nothing new can compare. My SX1080 weighs over 50lbs...no solid state amp can match the driving power. I tried one tied to my smaller AR-7's and the whole system browned out any time a beat hit. They don't have the balls to drive big magnet speakers and the sound will never be the same.

My old HPM 1100s I got in Germany (WEST Germany back in 1982) had 16" woofers. I had 4 of them...
I NEVER lost a barracks stereo battle.

 

[tim87tr]

Since starting the thread, I was able to complete the setup with a walnut West coast mid century small low credenza by John Keal, designer for Brown-Saltman.

Supposed to be what they call the Brutalist period, prior to more curves in the 60s Danish furniture. Can hold 300 records in it and was also able to pick up another walnut custom record cabinet out of Chicago.

 

[JamesV]

@tim87tr those are very cool, nice additions

 

[indyblue]

These Roland self-amplified monitors really boom for their size, they're my PC speakers (10" tall). The lab I worked at left them as junk, so I grabbed them.


We were at a Lawson & Co auction in Danville a few weeks ago and saw this absolutely flawless console. Not a scratch or ding on it anywhere and still in working condition. If I only had the room to take it home.
Someone got a nice piece of history. It could probably be updated with newer electronics somehow.

 

[tim87tr]

@tim87tr those are very cool, nice additions

Thanks James. The low credenza was a decent price for what it is. It's a survivor. Only saw one other one online like it. Most are large items that wouldn't work.

The walnut record storage unit is solid wood with nice veneer fronts and dovetailed pine record storage with quality soft close drawer slides. Actually bought two of them for $500 total, a great deal.

A Chicago cabinet maker was moving out of the Country and no one had bought them in 2 months, started at $1500, which was even a fair price. I'd bought some yellow popular to build record shelves and then saw these. I don't think people realize the cost of materials and time that went into those two cabinets. I really appreciate them from being around woodworking.

Here's a picture of the other cabinet beside a red oak dry sink my Dad made and I finished in the early 90s. Top isn't on it but it was used as a diaper changing table for my kids

 

[daddyusmaximus]

These Roland self-amplified monitors really boom for their size, they're my PC speakers (10" tall). The lab I worked at left them as junk, so I grabbed them.
View attachment 329126

We were at a Lawson & Co auction in Danville a few weeks ago and saw this absolutely flawless console. Not a scratch or ding on it anywhere and still in working condition. If I only had the room to take it home.
Someone got a nice piece of history. It could probably be updated with newer electronics somehow.
View attachment 329130
View attachment 329132

View attachment 329134

I'd love that console.
I did one similar to that (no TV) for the big dining room at the VFW. It's now modern bluetooth stereo.

 

[Thor]

My old HPM 1100s I got in Germany (WEST Germany back in 1982) had 16" woofers. I had 4 of them...
I NEVER lost a barracks stereo battle.

View attachment 329102

I was back in the world by then, but in '79 HQ was 3 blocks away from my barracks and they sent a runner over to tell us turn it down...we never heard them pounding on the door. I was running quads too (still am). There were two other guys in the room with somewhat smaller but respectable setups and one day there was a ZZ Top concert on the radio that we all tuned to...much chaos ensued and hearing was impaired but you could feel the music reverberating in your internal organs.

Oh, yes, bought mine in Wiesbaden.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

I was back in the world by then, but in '79 HQ was 3 blocks away from my barracks and they sent a runner over to tell us turn it down...we never heard them pounding on the door. I was running quads too (still am). There were two other guys in the room with somewhat smaller but respectable setups and one day there was a ZZ Top concert on the radio that we all tuned to...much chaos ensued and hearing was impaired but you could feel the music reverberating in your internal organs.

Oh, yes, bought mine in Wiesbaden.

Got my set up at the PX at Graf. Took it all back to Amberg on the shuttle one or pieces at a time each trip.

I remember the first time I played "Psychobabble" from Alan Parsons Project... (yeah, it was cranked up) when the siren in the song came on, it fooled a lot of people (myself included) that there was an alert. I killed the stereo, grabbed my gear... and the siren died. WTF? Lol. Woke up half the damn squadron. Nobody gave a crap about loud music, but that siren caught EVERYBODY'S attention.

 

[Thor]

Got my set up at the PX at Graf. Took it all back to Amberg on the shuttle one or pieces at a time each trip.

I remember the first time I played "Psychobabble" from Alan Parsons Project... (yeah, it was cranked up) when the siren in the song came on, it fooled a lot of people (myself included) that there was an alert. I killed the stereo, grabbed my gear... and the siren died. WTF? Lol. Woke up half the damn squadron. Nobody gave a crap about loud music, but that siren caught EVERYBODY'S attention.

We also did a lot of shopping at Mainz-Kastel. Great selection there.

Most of the time I was at Graf I wasn't shopping.