Misc small scores, rambling...

Did a listening session with my newly acquired toys tonight. Hooked the Yams up to the Marantz PM350 amp and took out the Wharfedale Denton 1s, a couple of tapes and CDs and spent a couple of hours listening. Everything works as advertised indeed. and it sounds great! I was especially impressed by the Pioneer tape deck (which looks to be mid-late '70s)- very clean sound with little noise and an amazingly solid construction. It sounds even better with my old tapes than the Yamaha which is apparently hardly used, it's ultra clean.

About the Wharfedales- I'd played them after I bought them, on my T-amp. Wasn't too impressed then, they sounded somewhat muddy and lacked bass. Turned out that all they needed was the Marantz amp and a little equalization to sound lovely! Nice, warm-sounding speakers with more than decent imaging, good bass response and a surprising amount of power if not really efficient. Played around with speaker cables and found two one-metre bits of nicely thick cable which improved the sound over my longer and slightly lower-gauge 'experimentation' cables. This combo just sings, perfectly matched!
 
Another day, another thrift...

Bought a couple of '80s albums and a Nakamichi 480 cassette deck for a song. Nice deck, sounds great and I love Nak build quality. There was a nice vintage Luxman receiver but vintage stuff is generally expensive at said store, and there was no price tag. All personnel were busy hiding, nobody to ask.

Guess I have enough cassette decks now. :D

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Did some LP-searching at the thrift in the next town over. Scored an impressive stack, mostly EUR 1 and some in as-new condition.

They had a nice-looking Pioneer TT without headshell and no pricing or test sticker, but their hifi is usually pretty expensive (like EUR 19 for a '70s BOTL Akai cassette deck). The only remotely interesting item was a set of Eltax Moviemaxx speakers (just the front speakers, rear and mid were missing with one cover missing, the dustcaps pushed in and childrens' pencil scribbling all over the cabinets) for EUR 35. I passed. :) Also saw a Garrard TT that looked to be a '60s item, with built-in amp but defective (TT didn't turn and another defect I've forgotten about) for EUR 20. Joking, I hope.
I'm still thinking about a Kenwood Dolby Surround amp, nice and weighty and in decent condition for EUR 55.
 
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I feel good about myself...

Bought an '80s Technics TT (T4P, nothing special) a while ago at the thrift. Sticker said 'hobby' so I knew something was wrong but the platter turned and it only cost 2.50. I decided it would be nice to take apart to see what was wrong and try to fix it. It'd been standing in the corner for a couple of months so I hooked it up to the test gear today. Worked fine, fully automatic (my first auto TT, nice!) and it sounded quite nice... that was: the left channel. The right gave only crackling and noise. Looked at the RCAs on the back, hmmmm... two minutes with a pencil eraser and those looked a lot less dirty. Hooked it up, voilà- stereo! It sounded pretty nice too, not spectacular but considering I was playing dirty thrift LPs I was pleasantly surprised.

Second 'project' was another thrift find, a '90s Sony AV receiver. Sticker said 'phono and tuner presets defective'. The preset buttons on the faceplate all felt fine but the tuner and phono buttons didn't 'click'. The casing was dirty and scratched up, but it was cheap and I needed a cheap receiver to replace the too-nice Yamaha in the workshop, which was already starting to suffer from too many greasy fingers. I figured I could always hook up an external tuner if I couldn't fix it. Anyway, took the faceplate off and discovered that all controls were on a PCB clipped to the faceplate with plastic barbs (I admit, the last amp I'd opened for repairs was a mid-'70s unit, so I was expecting pots and switches bolted to a metal frame... this is why it's called BPC I guess). Carefully took off the PCB by bending back the barbs and felt the microswitches, which all felt the same, operating with a soft click. I figured someone had been messing with it and didn't clip the PCB back properly, so I took some care to reseat it and was rewarded with fully working presets! Put the entire thing back together after a little compressed air to get rid of the dust inside, cleaned the entire outside (which made the scratches look a lot less conspicuous) and hooked it up to my trusty Wharfedale Denton test speakers and aforementioned Technics TT and enjoyed the music... it works great, sounds pretty nice and makes a good amp for the intended purpose. I wouldn't want it in my living room but when I'm working on my car the only thing I want is music, and it has to be loud. The Sony works great for that and it makes a nice set with the Sony CD player and cassette deck I had there already.

Both simple fixes atmittedly, but great for the confidence and you gotta start somewhere!
 
A couple of pics of last week's work. One is the current workshop system (on top of the bent metal shelving) with the Yamaha receiver and the Sony CD/cassette deck. The other pics are of my test system, with the Sony receiver intended as a replacement of the Yamaha and a Yamaha cassette deck and CD player, turntable is the aforementioned '80s Technics. Speakers are 1975 Wharfedale Denton I.

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Pic quality leaves a bit to be desired, fluo strip lighting is not ideal but I can't use flash...
 
Thrilling monologue, this...

Anyway, felt a little under the weather today but it was sunny so I took a short walk in the afternoon- which led me past the local thrift. I wasn't planning to buy anything, just to check if they had any new LPs in. By the door there was a sign that said 'All hifi 50% off, today only'. Hmmm, there was the Tandberg TR-220 receiver I was considering a while ago. It wasn't bad value then, for half it was a steal. So the receiver followed me home today... tried it with two B&O Beovox S35.2 speakers (the only ones I could find that sound halfway decent and have the DIN connectors) and it sounds very nice! I could only test it with the tuner, but I'm pleasantly surprised. Now to find some DIN interconnects so I can actually hook something up to it...

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I helped a friend out by working on his car and was given a Dual 1019 TT. It looks to be in great shape, with a green body Realistic cartridge. I need to test it, had no time so far.

From what I found on the internet it has a 'Breadbox base'. Pic was a google find but mine looks exactly the same

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Stuff just keeps following me home... case in point: a set of Wharfedale 505.2s and a Yamaha AX-570 integrated that stands a decent chance of becoming my new pre-amp.
 
The Yamaha had been outside for an unknown period of time. It's been dry here, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't plugging in a moist unit so I let it dry out for a couple of days and opened it up last night. Used compressed air to blow out dust, cobwebs and a dead wasp and put it back together. Looks fine, so I plugged it in and it works great!

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(pics are stock)

It's a very well-constructed unit, heavy (11 kgs/24+ Lbs!) with some nice features ('pure direct' tone control bypass, subsonic filter, MM/MC switchable phono input, pre-out). I'll see if I can find a working remote for it somewhere and hook it up to the -equally new to me- Wharfedales.
 
Tested the amp yesterday, works great. Nice combo with the Wharfedales, which are in very nice shape BTW. The amp requires some soldering(?) on the CD input which has a crackly right channel, otherwise it's all good.

I did however notice that I lack a convenient test source, as the Philips CD player and Philips DVD player had unfortunately died on me and the nice tuner I had lying around can't find a station without its antenna. Guess I'll be shopping for a cheap CD player.
 
Continuing the monologue...

I've been listening to my DM110is for some 14 years with the speakers on the floor. I know, way too low. They sounded pretty good, though. A couple of months ago, I came across a set of adjustable speaker stands marked 'Dual' in a nearby thrift. The dimensions seemed to fit the 110s well and they were pretty heavy (.25" thick plastic, dropped one on my foot and that hurt for a week) so I gave them a try. The speakers are now positioned nearly perfectly (tweeters are 6" below ear level, the stands are about 10" high) and they sound... well, different. Less pronounced bass, more highs (as expected). I've considered filling the speaker stands with something like fine sand or lead pellets but there seems to be no resonance or vibrations whatsoever. I'll try the Wharfedales in their place next- I like those, quite different but pretty nice. I wouldn't call either speaker neutral, though.

As soon as I get them redone and I have the cash to buy a decent power amp (Quad 303) I intend to install my Solosound electrostatics. I won't destroy my current amp driving them (doesn't sound too good anyway) and I only plan to install them when they look good, because I'm sure I'll never take the trouble to fix them up properly if I start using them now.

There will be two systems in my living room by then- one for HT and one for stereo. My Sony amp will probably remain in service for the HT system, and as I like the Canton 2.1 speakers I found last year I might buy two more satellites for use as rear speakers.

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I don't think they'll remain white, though.

As my system has outgrown its confines (three '80s Akai cube racks) I'm considering replacing those too. That might take some serious DIY as I need something cheap and well-made so it can take two hefty systems, a CRT TV and most of my CD collection. Shame the Expedits are too narrow for regular-width equipment, because I like the looks and would like to combine my modest but growing vinyl collection too.

Kinda weird- I've had this main rig up since the early '90s and was quite satisfied with most of it. I guess all the thrift-scrounging and browsing AK has spiked my interest in new audio adventures. Oh, and finding those Solosounds didn't help either.
 
Still stacking 'em up. I was given an Akai GX-215D RtR which I collected (on my bike, mind) yesterday. Luckily it was only a couple of kms away. Testing it is scheduled for later this afternoon, I need to dig out an amp to hook it up.
The pic is stock, will post pics of mine later.

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And this was not free, but so cheap I decided I wanted it anyway. It's an HGS Altus P-100, a Polish-built belt drive turntable. The entire housing including the bottom is metal, which makes it incredibly heavy and solid-feeling. It had an interesting arm, too. Seems to work fine but I need a DIN-to-RCA adapter.

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It looks really good, with only minor scratches on the dust cover. I'd never seen one before.
 
I wanted to bring the Sony ES CD player from the workshop system home, so I needed another cheap Sony CD player to replace it. Couldn't find one at the thrift, but this looked interesting so I took it home. It's a Pioneer CLD-700, a CD/CDV/LD player. I've never had an LD player and with the upcoming Koninginnedag jumble sales I might be able to score some discs.

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There's no remote, so I need to experiment with a universal remote...
 
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So..do you shut the stereo equipment tractor beam off so you can get a good nights sleep? Seriously though..nice stuff just gravitates towards you.
I havent been in to peek for awhile...nice on the 1019..and that HGS is over the top, love the look of that deck..very old school industrial..like it was built between a run of tractors and irrigation pumps. I run across bizarre according to North American standards, but theres no comparison. Hurry up and make an adaptor..Im dying to know how the old girl sounds.
 
It sounds OK... a little flat, but I guess the stylus is somewhat worn. Also, there's a ground issue with the adapter. I guess I'd better fix a DIN amp and hook it up to that, the adapter will probably work well with everything except for a turntable because that's too picky WRT grounding issues. It's a really nice TT, the only plastic is in the dust cover. The rest is metal, even the painted cover. It's really heavy as a consequence.

BTW, thanks for replying! I thought I was the only one here...
 
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I would seriously go DIY with an adaptor for DIN to rcas plus a ground wire just for tts.
That way you know there are enough conductors and its all good wire, therefore must work. I fooled around and bought what i thought was a DIN cable..certainly had 5 pins on either end..tried hooking up my Dual tuner to its int amp. No sound out of 1 channel. Tried it with a tape deck..nothing. Decided to cut an end off to see what was happening..3 wires, numbers 1,3, and 5 on the din. From that point forward I just construct my own as needed.
Looks like you were kind of the only one here, or more succinctly the only one typing. Im sure there are plenty others perusing, but maybe since its ongoing, its thought of more like a newspaper column now. Certainly not alone in this, as there are actually quite a few continuing threads around here.
 
Thanks guys. Nothing much high end here, just oddities I can't resist and a couple of nice machines. It pales in comparison to what some people manage to find.

bobaloniny: I might just do that. I need to make a run to the city next week for some resistors anyway, so I'll get a female DIN and two RCAs, and I'll add the ground wire. It's been about 30 years since I soldered my last DIN connector, let's see if I've still got it. :)
This time I won't forget to put the cover on before I solder it, I hope.
 
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