RP posted:

quote:

Yesterday and today I put together some vintage stereo components a relative gave me when he downsized. I had found a TV stand at a yard sale for $10, and it seems to be fine for this.

That looks like a really nice receiver - JVC?

When I got my first real job the first thing I did was go to a stereo shop (there used to be several chains, all gone now) and bought a stereo setup. It was a Pioneer SX-535 and two bookshelf speakers labeled CJD. I later bought a turntable at a swap meet; Dual, I believe.

It was a big purchase for me and I ended up getting a loan from a consumer finance outfit. Morris Plan -remember them? I think they all went under credit cards took over. I remember the interest rate being in the 18% range. Payment was $35/month.

That receiver lasted a very long time with one repair - something you could do with the vintage stuff. I still have the speakers and use them for my garage system. It’s hard to believe they’re 50 years old.

But that Pioneer was never really what I wanted, even though it sounded fine to me. What I really wanted was what some of my friends had - exotic sounding brands like Sansui and Marantz, or maybe even a (cue angel choir) Denon or a MacIntosh with big floor speakers. I never did get a system like that but I’ve been looking at them used on eBay and FB marketplace and they don’t cost much more now than they did back then. Right now I listen to music mostly through the soundbar on the TV and while that works fine I like the idea of a vintage system in the basement. The cost doesn’t seem so high any more.

There are any number of systems for sale that have been in storage for decades, usually at a good price. I’ve been warned, however, that if they haven’t been left plugged in for all that time you must have all of the capacitors replaced before you turn it on or the unit may be ruined. My friend in Tucson offered to do that work for me and I like the idea of owning something with his personal stamp on it but shipping back and forth probably isn’t worth it. Those old units were heavy.

Ron actually had (still has?) a MacIntosh setup with (wonder of wonders!) a Teac reel to reel tape deck. Very cool but I have no idea where I’d get tapes for one anymore. Everything is streaming these days. Might be cool to have one as a curiosity.

So Joe, how does your system sound?

I have been building my system over the past 6 years or more. I decided to not go vintage for various reasons the most important of which is sound quality. I listened to many vintage receivers (who listens to the radio? Not me.), amps, pre-amps, etc. Leaving a piece of gear plugged in does nothing to preserve the capacitors. Capacitors go bad over time, used or not. If a piece of gear is over 20 years old, it will need to be recapped for the long haul.

I bought a vintage pair of Klipsch RF-7 tower speakers and built my own pre-amp, amp and phono pre-amp. I used them for most of the past 5 years or more. I soldered every component to the circuit boards, etc.







They still work great but I have replaced everything over the past 7 months. I sold the Klipsch towers for more than I paid for them and replaced them with a pair of James Loudspeakers, stand mount speakers that are 20 years old but sound so much better than the Klipsch. I did a lot of modifications to the Klipsch to try to tame their harshness in the high frequencies but never obtained the clarity, detail, and natural sound in the mid-frequencies that I wanted. The speakers I have now are pure bliss in that department and even produce a surprising amount of bass extension without smearing the mids into oblivion. I do use a sub-woofer for a few recordings that I feel require extension into the mid 20Hz range and will ultimately replace the speakers for some that do that without the need for a separate sub-woofer.



I recently found a great deal on a lightly used integrated tube amplifier that is made in Austria to replace the solid state stuff that I built. It is made by a company called Ayon and is a 93 pound beast that is built to a standard that the vintage consumer level equipment can only dream about.



I went through 3 different turntables since 2017, and thought I was done searching out and buying them when a deal came my way that was too good to pass up. I found a very well cared for VPI Classic turntable that is made in the USA for pennies on the dollar and sold my Technics SL-1200 MKVI and Schiit Audio SOL turntables to fund the purchase of the entire transition away from consumer level components and walked head-long into the world of high-end audiophile equipment.

My new/used VPI Classic:



Current layout which is in flux right now. I am looking for a new rack and turntable stand and other pieces of furniture, etc.



My system has never sounded better. I also met a person that is in a league that I will never be able to attain unless I win an 8 figure lottery. His system cost around half a million dollars and to say it is the best sounding system I have or will probably ever hear, is the understatement of the century.

Chad’s system:



The speakers are from Italy. Sonus Faber Aida. $140,000.00 per pair.
The amplifies are US built Dan D’Agostino Momentum 800WPC mono blocks at $44,000.00 each.
The Turntable is from Germany built by AMG at $34,000.00
The Pre-amp is from the USA built bny Audio Research in MN runs $35,000.00

Etc… lol

Vintage equipment is overrated IMO. You can find new or slightly used newer equipment that does not require rebuilding, might still have warranty available, etc that sounds so much better than the solid state systems from the 70’s etc. Vintage tube amps will always sound good but they also have capacitors that will require replacement, etc.

Japanese companies like Yamaha, and Technics offer brand new components that are much better than vintage and may include modern conveniences like steaming, DACs, BlueTooth, WiFi, Ethernet, etc.

Then there is the ChiFi market which also has some pretty impressive and inexpensive options but you tend to take your chances in that market. Some of the stuff out of China is very good however, but you still end up paying a premium for the better components. It’s a mine-field IMO.

I love talking about this stuff and I’m more than willing to discuss this at length with you. I have helped many people assemble great sounding, reliable systems that fall within their budget. I have even started a consulting service to do just that.

Good to know that people are still putting great sound systems together.
I use mine to listen to the the Berlin Philharmoniker and cds, but not often enough.
What are other good sources of music?
Replaced the amp and pre amp with a high end Sony unit over 10 years ago.
I am in Tucson and don't recall the names of the other components.

Steve, thanks for sharing your story of your first stereo system. I hear that Pioneer is still considered a good brand. Likewise, I was a kid in college and entranced by the world of good audio. With my parents' money I got a basic good-sounding system with AR turntable, HH Scott receiver and Altec Lansing bookshelf speakers. Now all gone.

The system I have now, as I mentioned, is a hand-me-down from my brother-in-law who was moving. So yes, vintage (except for newer speakers).

His system was designed for four speakers (2 main, 2 remote). I have no need for 4 speakers so I'm just using two of them. The JVC receiver is designed for 4 channels, I think even 8, so there are tons of potential speaker outputs in the back. Good thing too, because some of them don't sound so good. It is a monster, weighing in at 42 pounds.

The Sony CD player sounds great. The FM tuner sounds OK for speech but bad for music...but that's because it needs an external antenna, which I have but haven't set up yet. There's a Dual turntable that's connected but I haven't tried it yet. There's a cassette player I'm not going to bother connecting. The speakers are by Jamo (floor speakers, about waist-high).

So yes, there are issues with some settings/controls on the receiver, but there are lots of options so that, on one setting or another, everything will work well.

What I want is a bluetooth receiver so that I can listen to online music through the system. I hear they are about $100 to $200, quite affordable.

And I reiterate, the system was FREE. Also, since my hearing is shot highly compromised, anything new or fancier would be wasted on me.

Whoa! That’s some fine audio equipment right there!

Brings up a question. How good is the audio feed on a YouTube video cast from a phone? Is there a point where higher quality audio equipment won’t make much difference?

Amazon Music. Same question?

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What I want is a bluetooth receiver so that I can listen to online music through the system. I hear they are about $100 to $200, quite affordable.

I have one I got on Amazon. Connects via the CD input. “Esinkin” is the brand. I think I paid about $25.

It works reliably but maybe a higher quality adapter would produce better results.

Oooh! One of my favorite topics.

Back in 1974 or 75, a huge package arrived at the group house I was living in while I was in my junior year of college. It was a gift from my Dad--a new Marantz 2230 stereo receiver/amp, a pair of Marantz floor speakers (huge), and a Lenco L78 turntable (Swiss made). It's been my only sound system ever since.

In the early 90s I had the speakers reconed by a local technician. But since then the amp's signals had been going in and out, until it reached the point that I only had one channel working, and that one would go out too.

Opera Tenor referred me to a shop in San Diego for a full rebuild of the tuner/amp, but there were some red flags with the owner, and I didn't like the terms of the deal (I no longer remember all the specifics). Also the cost of having this done kept escalating at that shop until it was no longer worth it to me with the insane costs of shipping there and back as well.

So I started haunting audiophile online communities, trying to find someone else to work on it, trying to find out if there was anything comparable I could buy new, checking with audiophiles I know personally (including Grotriman) for their input on what I should do. It seemed like no matter what I did, if I was going to satisfy my ear it would cost big bucks.

After I sold my Missoula house I decided I would take some of that cash and have the 2230 rebuilt. I landed on a guy in Colorado who sounded fair and honest and has a good reputation. But he was familiar with my book, and said he didn't feel he was the right person to work on my amp. He was afraid he couldn't make me happy.

It was then that I learned that amplifiers, not unlike pianos, have different qualities depending on who works on them, and which parts and capacitors they use. And just like some piano technicians, some amp rebuilders believe there is only one correct way to rebuild an amp. And if your ear doesn't like the way they rebuild, too bad. Not to mention that anyone who is any good at this is backed up with work for a couple of years.

People on the audiophile forums kept mentioning the same name--an amateur rebuilder in New Jersey. He was an experimenter--he would try different capacitors to see which were best for certain kinds of music and the tastes of the owner. (Kind of like Marc putting the Schubert concert tuning on my piano.)

I called the guy, we had a lively conversation on the phone, and then several more conversations as he tried to get a sense of the experience I hoped to have with my rebuilt amp. He himself did not listen to the same kind of music I listen to, and that gave me pause. He also warned me that he could do his very best effort, and it still might not turn out how I had hoped. Of course, I simply wanted the same warm, rich, right-there-in-the-room-with-you musical experience I had had when the amp was new. But NJ explained that it wasn't going to sound like that at first, that it had to be played for some 30 or so hours before you would even know how it was going to turn out. He said he would do that for me before he shipped the amp back to me, but it still was going to need even more breaking in time, and I might not be happy with what I heard for a while.

I liked him on the phone, so I decided to trust him. After all, the amp was pretty much useless as it was. Take a chance. Just shipping the amp to him and back was nearly $400 IIRR.

He does these amps in his spare time. I think all he charged me for his labor was around $300 (IIRR). So it did take a while. I found out after I got it back that he had sent to Germany for special capacitors that were known to be excellent for piano tone (and didn't charge me extra). I also found out that he was convinced I would hate what he had done and fully expected a critique and complaints from me.

So it was a leap of faith on both our parts.

When I got the system set up, the very first thing I played was a recording of my father performing the Mozart Clarinet quintet in a 2003 live concert. Tears. It was like he was right in the room with me. (He died in 2009.)

The amp did have a cooler tone than I remembered, but just as NJ had promised, the more I played it the warmer it got, and the more I fell in love with its qualities all over again. I thanked NJ profusely and sent him a copy of Grand Obsession inscribed to him. It was only then that he expressed his surprise, and told me he had expected I would hate the results.

I have since listened to a lot of top flight modern systems. I don't think any of them even come close to my rebuilt system. If you have an old Marantz amp lying around, and you have a few hundred bucks to spend, I think a rebuild is well worth it. PM me for NJ's contact info.

RP,
My dad was a sound designer for Scott and may have had a hand in the design of your Scott receiver. He went on to run a division of Scott called Ravenswood, where he designed stereo component systems.

Piqué, I love your story about the search for the right audio rebuilder and the care and finesse he exercised. It so much aligns with your piano search. It's so rewarding when all that effort eventually pays off.

Interesting about Scott! I think mine was one of the first solid state models. Solid state was the new thing at the time.

Wonky pushbutton controls though, IIRC.

the wonky push buttons were very typical for the era. First thing to go on my amp. I held the power button in the "on" position with a toothpick stuffed in there and turned it on and off from a power strip.

We typically fall in love with the system we have. It's best not to walk into high end audio stores and listen to their systems - can cost you a lot of money - but if you never enter the store, you won't know what you're missing.

It's like premium ice cream. If you never try it, you won't miss it.

The one new thing I've added recently is a nice DAC/Headphone amplifier that I have connected to a nice set of headphones. I can listen to streaming music - and it's gorgeous.

Still, much of the music I listen to is when I'm walking or running - and that's just through my iPHone and bone conduction headphones - not the best of sound.

"We typically fall in love with the system we have."

Not true for a trained ear. Especially if they have the opportunity to hear something better.

I think it's more that most people don't trust their own ears. They look at specs, or audio reviews, or the name on the equipment. They don't just close their eyes and listen. If it says Harmon Kardon on the speakers then it must have good sound.

--daughter of a stereo salesman here

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Originally posted by piqué:
Especially if they have the opportunity to hear something better.

That’s essentially my point. Don’t walk into the high end store. It gets expensive.