There is absolutely no question you can purchase perfection today. It is out of my reach though.
My point about the 1980's stuff was simply that college kids could afford it and it really rocked. Not that it was "the best".
Stereo stuff...
- Thread starter JeffKeryk
- Start date
My point about the 1980's stuff was simply that college kids could afford it and it really rocked. Not that it was "the best".
It still can be done just as easy
At one point in the early 80's I got tired of chasing foo-foo HIFI and put together a rockin' system. I actually picked out the Cerwin-Vega D9's in a blind listening test. Suprised me. I could get smooth "club sound" in my apartment that would rattle your ankles and ribcage. Somewhere I found a big power n.o.s Sansui amp. That worked well and I spun a clean sounding NEC cd player I got at Tech HIFI for the source.
I would stack up my little Creek Audio integrated, Onkyo CD player, Monitor Audio speakers and Velodyne sub up against a lotta far more expensive gear. It all starts with the amp and then component matching is key.
The English take their music listening seriously. Their gear can have the smoothness of a tube without transistor spikiness; their speakers reproduce the human voice very well. Of course the Velodyne subs can easily overpower things; they were born here in Silicon Valley!
But play on!
The English take their music listening seriously. Their gear can have the smoothness of a tube without transistor spikiness; their speakers reproduce the human voice very well. Of course the Velodyne subs can easily overpower things; they were born here in Silicon Valley!
But play on!
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This might do it nicely, but near 6g's is a bit steep.
@#18FAN What would you put together for a system to rock out clean smooth and punchy?
Rega Elicit
Zu DW6 (company from Utah)
I had a Marantz 2270 with the walnut case and a set of speakers I can’t remember the brand, but they were among the neatest I’ve ever owned.
They were stuffed transmission line enclosures (about 39” transmission line, front exit) with a 9”x12” KEF B139 oval woofer with a cast aluminum frame and inverted surround, a 5” soft dome midrange, and a 1” horn-loaded tweeter, but it was a company called Atlantic Research IIRC. They appear to have been made in the mid-70s based on when KEF produced that woofer, and no idea when the company went belly-up, but they produced 23Hz-20kHz +0/-3 dB and were just neat, and while not ear-bleeding loud, had great space and presentation. Unfortunately, the Marantz and speakers got stolen not long after I got out of the Navy. Sad times.
The speakers were functionally equivalent to these: https://www.falconacoustics.co.uk/k...mf-200-completeathome-loudspeaker-system.html
They were stuffed transmission line enclosures (about 39” transmission line, front exit) with a 9”x12” KEF B139 oval woofer with a cast aluminum frame and inverted surround, a 5” soft dome midrange, and a 1” horn-loaded tweeter, but it was a company called Atlantic Research IIRC. They appear to have been made in the mid-70s based on when KEF produced that woofer, and no idea when the company went belly-up, but they produced 23Hz-20kHz +0/-3 dB and were just neat, and while not ear-bleeding loud, had great space and presentation. Unfortunately, the Marantz and speakers got stolen not long after I got out of the Navy. Sad times.
The speakers were functionally equivalent to these: https://www.falconacoustics.co.uk/k...mf-200-completeathome-loudspeaker-system.html
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I think physics says you just need more woofer driver area. But also your room may be prone to creating some resonance at those frequencies, and so you've adjusted the equalizer down for volume, but then response is slow.
At university residence we all had the same dimension concrete walled box of a room, and the best sounding system was a guys 15" driver in a huge unvented box maybe 3'x4'x16" he designed to slide under the bed driven with a plain jane 80's heavyish amp of some sort, and another nearly free amp driving some decent speakers, with well tuned crossovers.
Some rich kids had all sorts of smaller ported sub systems, but they all lacked the real punch of a drummer hitting on the bass drum pedal compared to that thing.
He joked that the whole wooden bed frame was actually pretty close to the ideal size for 2 or 3 15" subs and he should've just boxed it in... But our rez floor supervisor would only let him run what he had for a couple minutes at time anyways...
Timely piece in this weekend's Washington Post about a dude who spent $1M on his home music system. Not really about the system itself but more about what this sort of endeavor does to a person and the people around him.
Rocking a set of Boston Acoustics VR2s and a VRC (for peanuts via FB Marketplace) with an SVS PB2000 and the Onkyo from Costco at our place. Mostly TV/movies/video games. Nothing crazy but I don't have any friends with crazier setups so everyone is blown away lol
jeff
Rocking a set of Boston Acoustics VR2s and a VRC (for peanuts via FB Marketplace) with an SVS PB2000 and the Onkyo from Costco at our place. Mostly TV/movies/video games. Nothing crazy but I don't have any friends with crazier setups so everyone is blown away lol
jeff
Still have my Sansui G8700DB receiver that I bought overseas, been in storage for the last 30yrs.
This is worth $1500 easy today in good working order. You have a good tech?Still have my Sansui G8700DB receiver that I bought overseas, been in storage for the last 30yrs.
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Looks like there’s modern boards available to swap in if worried about damaging the original:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/126108614633
I’m using Hoppe’s boards for one of the GFA-555’s I have laying around.
Only thing in use is Mitsubishi DA series rack & a newer Wyred 4 Sound pair of monoblocks.
There was an article in the paper about a guy who spent a $1M on his stereo. Including building an addition to his house specifically for his stereo with 12" thick concrete walls. He got ALS at some point and had to have others play the music. He died and the house was sold and the components auctioned off for less than $200K.
That’s not at all uncommon for the auction to be low. The late Bob Gross, founder of Speaker Art & designer of several filter designs, passed a couple years ago. His Super Clef speakers msrp for $3k & up with the transmission line version being over $7k. The “mini” versions with 7” woofers were to be in the $2.5k & $5k range but he passed prior to their release. His inventory was sold at a fraction of the prices. He had numerous old stock raw drivers from many brands as well (Dynaudio, Focal, B&W, Scanspeak, Vifa, Accuton, etc) that were selling as low as $50/ea.
I still have my old pair of Super Clefs (with spare woofers & tweeters) as well as the “mini” 7” transmission line speakers. They’re seriously underrated.
Why not purchase used equipment that’s already taken the depreciation hit?
The small setup in my enclosed patio/bar area is just that (except the speakers). Hell, CD’s are played through a Sony dvd player that’s just under the small stack. Do stereo amps instead of monoblock to save a few extra bucks
I actually found a great set-up at a goodwill in Phoenix a few years back but it wouldn't fit in my luggage. I have three stereo receivers as apparently people in apartments don't take those with. My boss gave me his Pioneer surround setup as he purchased an all new wireless surround system.
There is a modern board available as shown, but the Sanken devices he uses for the power transistors are obsolete themselves. There is no long term solution.
AudioKarma
There is a 500w class D amp board from several suppliers in China that has been used with success too. Guaranteed that will alter sonic quality of the receiver with that method.
Amazon link
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How much was that when new?Still have my Sansui G8700DB receiver that I bought overseas, been in storage for the last 30yrs.
View attachment 198648
Gotcha.
I traded away 6 monolithic sound car audio amps a while back. 4 of them had FETs that were unobtanium as well. I babied them never running below 4ohms & usually not below 300Hz as they were used for mid/tweeter duty. Still working great when they went to the new owner, who was well informed of rebuilding status.
Here’s the 6. The gold was a bnib Class A 804 (20x4) and the blue was a PA2000M (240x1). The 4 black were PA1600 (80x2).
I love seeing all the gear, especially the old stuff.
