Personal stereo, and perhaps Hi-Fi, journey.

[barbersurgeon]

Thread for my newly acquired vinyl journey. Grew up with CD’s and cassettes, but mostly FM radio because minimum wage was enough to keep the Subaru rolling down the road and a few other necessities. Never owned much of a collection until late nineties, and that was of course CD’s.

Had a hand me down receiver and cd changer. Changer was a top load carousel, and I still have it in storage here in the garage. Invested in a set of larger Yamaha speakers around 2000. Think they were about $200 then. Got by with some older speaker cables a RCA cords I collected when my parents moved out of the house I grew up in and they moved to Florida.

This setup got me through more than a decade. Around 2014 the speakers were going down hill fast. Brother had a smaller set of infinity bookshelves that got me couple of more years. Life went sideways for a while; divorce then a few years solo, followed by a second wife. Combined houses and we just got by on a Bluetooth speaker till this year.

As you can see, I never spent much on expensive equipment. Mostly out of necessity. We were both tired of pandora and whatever algorithm always devolved to after a few songs.

So I had picked up a Lafayette receiver vintage my birth year, 1973, at auction a little over ten years ago. Likely built by Trio (Kenwood) at 35 watts per channel. Vaguely remember the Lafayette store when I grew up in Fredericksburg. Later became a bicycle store iirc.

Brother found me a Technics SL-q200 in his journeys. Traded him a nice bottle of bourbon for it.

…to be continued

 

[JeffKeryk]

2 channel stuff for the win! Be careful with your wallet; this stuff can spin up quickly! But have fun with it!

 

[barbersurgeon]

…

So the Lafayette 1000B develops a low hum in the left change once it’s parlayed for a while and warms up. At fifty years, I’m sure it has exceeded its capacitors lifespan. Mean while managed to accumulate 100+ vinyl LP’s. Actually more to arrive in a day or two.

Under the assumption that two is one and one is none, decided to acquire another intergrated amp. Marantz 1060 arrived last week and got it in place over the weekend. Don’t need a huge headroom of power for my listening, so hopefully it’s a good fit. Cleaner than the Lafayette, but has few quirks of its own. Have to clock the balance knob to even out the two channels. Works for now. Soundstage is on the flat end of the spectrum, actually the Lafayette is a bit better in this respect.

The Marantz 1060 is good enough quality to warrant a recap and have it gone through. All the controls function as they should now and it’s in very nice condition externally for its age.

Looked at few other options before jumping adjacently down the vintage route. Advance Paris A75 was on sale at the time, but just didn’t stir me enough. Had an order in with Schiit for a Saga2 + a pair of Ghorns. Amps backordered, then when projected wait was over the pre amp was out of stock. Frustrating. The pre amp was in stock when I ordered. Need to be present to take delivery and holidays mess that up. So I had them cancel the order. May revisit their offerings in the future.

 

[1lieutenant]

Not sure what your budget is, but I’ve seen good reviews of Fosi equipment. Relatively low cost. I believe @Pablo has one and quite happy. My old stuff, 40 years on the amp, preamp, turntable and speakers are working fine and never cease to amaze. My concession to modern equipment is a WiiM pro plus streamer and a Panasonic Blu-ray player I use for CDs, DVD audio discs (at lower resolution of course) through the WiiM via optical input and Blu-ray Discs.

Best of luck on your audio journey. Don’t succumb to the search for perfection! It can be a costly exercise in futility.

 

[Pablo]

I wish I had the old stuff, but didn't want to pay big $ for the vintage stuff.

I did take a flyer on Fosi, and honestly it's great. I'm sure it may not be perfect for a large hall, but for any reasonable room, the Fosi mono block amps, pre-amp and phono stage are just as good, OK better sounding, than the up to 100W amps we had in the 1970's. I had a Marantz that gave me some trouble - the sound is different, true maybe if I was to write anything, maybe not as warm, less mids perhaps. I bought an EQ and that changed everything. Anyway I'm lucky I got these Klispch speakers and the powered RSL sub seems to pair well. I now drive the sub through the EQ, bypassing the pre-amp. All that took some trials and tuning.

Lastly if I really want to spend some dough, I will always be hooked to mono block amps now.

 

[1lieutenant]

I wish I had the old stuff, but didn't want to pay big $ for the vintage stuff.

I did take a flyer on Fosi, and honestly it's great. I'm sure it may not be perfect for a large hall, but for any reasonable room, the Fosi mono block amps, pre-amp and phono stage are just as good, OK better sounding, than the up to 100W amps we had in the 1970's. I had a Marantz that gave me some trouble - the sound is different, true maybe if I was to write anything, maybe not as warm, less mids perhaps. I bought an EQ and that changed everything. Anyway I'm lucky I got these Klispch speakers and the powered RSL sub seems to pair well. I now drive the sub through the EQ, bypassing the pre-amp. All that took some trials and tuning.

Lastly if I really want to spend some dough, I will always be hooked to mono block amps now.

Vintage stereo equipment isn’t expensive…. If you bought it new!! lol

 

[Arc]

Boss audio for the win as long as you don't plan on actually listening to music in your car. The Carver audio stuff is really good for home use but it is pricey when you find it.

 

[barbersurgeon]

A little more back ground. My music listening is pretty relaxed these days. Late 50’s and up jazz sometimes, other times prog rock. I mix in some other random things too. Summer porch days can cross over into adult contemporary/ yacht rock. Also like a smattering of Leo kottke/chet Atkins/Les Paul/Roy Clark at times.

Luckily I can find pretty decent deals on some of these older LP’s. Has allowed me to fill out a small collection of vinyl pretty quickly. I’ve paid up for some nice copies of Steely Dan and Dire Staits, but for the most part I bargain shop and will wait.

 

[1lieutenant]

A little more back ground. My music listening is pretty relaxed these days. Late 50’s and up jazz sometimes, other times prog rock. I mix in some other random things too. Summer porch days can cross over into adult contemporary/ yacht rock. Also like a smattering of Leo kottke/chet Atkins/Les Paul/Roy Clark at times.

Luckily I can find pretty decent deals on some of these older LP’s. Has allowed me to fill out a small collection of vinyl pretty quickly. I’ve paid up for some nice copies of Steely Dan and Dire Staits, but for the most part I bargain shop and will wait.

So what are you using for a system to listen to all that “new” vinyl?

 

[barbersurgeon]

So what are you using for a system to listen to all that “new” vinyl?

ATM:

Technics Sl q200
Fosi phono stage
Marantz 1060
Polk se20 bookshelf speakers

 

[1lieutenant]

ATM:

Technics Sl q200
Fosi phono stage
Marantz 1060
Polk se20 bookshelf speakers

Sounds like an elegant mix of vintage and modern. What cartridge?

 

[barbersurgeon]

AT85EP.

Got this one for a couple of reasons. First, didn’t know much about my turn table at the time. So didn’t want to invest too much up front till I was confident all systems on the deck were functioning reasonably.

Second, as a casual listener I felt this was a good place to start. Then if I upgrade later I’d likely appreciate it more.

Third, I tend to be a bit of a cheapskate.

 

[1lieutenant]

AT85EP.

Got this one for a couple of reasons. First, didn’t know much about my turn table at the time. So didn’t want to invest too much up front till I was confident all systems on the deck were functioning reasonably.

Second, as a casual listener I felt this was a good place to start. Then if I upgrade later I’d likely appreciate it more.

Third, I tend to be a bit of a cheapskate.

If it’s new, give it 20-50 hours to break in. The suspension that holds the stylus needs to “relax”. Depending upon how critically you listen I suspect more expensive cartridges fall under the law of diminishing returns (IMHO). Just enjoy the music. Took me a long time , and a fair amount of money, to understand this.

 

[barbersurgeon]

Have been deck browsing. My technics is a P-mount, and there are no mono options for this type that I know of. So just a bit of seeing what options are, not close to any additions at this point. Having a standard mount table with removable headshell seems like it would be nice.

Waiting on a Pioneer SA-6700 40wt per channel integrated amp to be shipped from a recent auction. It doesn’t have the main in/out like the Marantz 1060, but it doesn’t have a pair of lighted power needle type gauges. Silver face, same vintage as the Marantz. I may have a habit of collecting several versions of essentially the same thing.

Cat meets Chick Columbia Six Eye spinning now. 1956.