I can relate to this so much... Three years ago, a friend's mother had to move to a retirement home and since I was the only one available to heilp move her stuff, she decided that I should have her late husband's beloved stereo system that had sat there unused since his passing except for the occasional Time Life CD box set listening until the Philips CD102 had died. So a day's work got me a Revox B285 tuner/amplifier, fully optioned (yes this is actually a unit that came with card slots for feature upgrades), a Revox B77 MkII (late model 2-speed )tape machine, an Alpine AL-90 cassette player (31 kilos...) plus a Nakamichi BX300 and an Onkyo A65 amp plus matching cassette deck and tuner (sold the latter three). The cones of the speakers were rotten and the speakers were too huge to fit my place so I didn't consider them worth reconing. I ended up getting a pair of Consequence Audios and I too had never been happier since after my switch to "new and improved". Too bad, some time later I suffered partial loss of hearing on my left ear and now I am in pain at the thought of selling all that stuff again that I dreamed of when I was still in school... I remember drooling over Revox in the local HiFi shop... well it was fun for the year or so that it lasted... that is more than I would have ever expected to get in terms of that... so I guess it is all good... Cheers Ecke
2009/11/12 Tom C <[email protected]>: > OMG!... sorry for, the OT... > > I know my observations, forthcoming, are not scientific and subjective > to the extreme... BUT... > > Like many, I got a CD player in the mid '80's and never looked back. > The apparent 0 background noise, no clicking, pops, dust, made me love > CD's. > > My son told me two months ago that he was interested in vinyl records. > That's all it took to make me start looking around at vintage gear. > I've kind of stagnated on a mid 90's Technics all-purpose AV receiver, > quite well spec'd and all, with either Bose Acoustimass speakers > and/or whatever is installed in the ceiling of our home. > > I started out planning on giving him my early '80's Kenwood > 30W/channel system, amp, tuner, EQ, and getting a mint Technics TT and > a better than average cartridge. He would choose the loudspeakers. > > Well I went a small bit crazy. He also was interested in > reel-to-reel, something I always wanted, but I opted for cassette back > in earlier years for $ reason and because I could make a tape and play > it in the car. So I bought him a mint TEAC 3340S 4-track. My Kenwood > system, quite nice, but all I could afford at 21 yrs. old, does not > accomodate the necessary tape inputs/outputs, dubbing, etc., and has > no speaker A/B for a possible sub-woofer. So onto look at more amps. > > I bought him a nice used Denon 50W/channel receiver & perfect Pioneer > CD changer for $150. Then I saw a Kenwood KA-3500 40W/channel > integrated amp and got it for $31. I subsequently saw a 65W/channel > late '70's Pioneer integrated amp & tuner in mint condition with the > silver fronts, wood sides, Blue Fluoro meters, and analog tuning for > $260 + shipping. He liked it the best out of the bunch, and we got it. > > He had picked out some PSB (Canadian-made) speakers which are quite > good (also my pick of the affordable ones we demo'd) and which are due > to arrive. Meanwhile I found a pair of mid '80's B&W English-made > speakers for $100 and bought them undemo'd on a whim. > > I've sat here most of the day listening to some vintage LP'S (OK, 99% > Beatles with a little Nat King Cole, Chicago, Heart, Macca, and > classical thrown in). This is with a $31 amp, a vintage turntable and > a cheap Audio-Technica cartridge, and a 25 year old pair of speakers. > > I may never buy another CD again. The amount of musical detail I can > hear and the dynamics of the music (can't describe it any better) are > just superb. It sounds like real music and real voices. > > Likely the Pioneer turntable/cartridge and JBL tower speakers I could > afford when I was much younger were not as good as what I'm listening > to at the moment. Just the musicality of what I'm hearing on 20-30 > year old gear and on equally old vinyl LP's is astounding (I purchased > 214, played only once LP's + a 50w/ch Technics receiver, cassette > deck, a 2nd pretty good TT, and speakers (worthless), for $250). It > was worth 2x-3x more than that for the LP's alone. What I'm hearing > is really better than what I hear on CD or iPod. > > Simply amazed... not over-imbibed, just astounded. I got my hearing back. > > In between all that I found a '80's Pioneer 100W/channel amp, tuner, > EQ, and timer for $95 in like new condition, which I got solely for > the EQ & timer. > > (I'm not going to tell you this led to me getting a mint Denon amp & > mint B&W speakers for myself... now looking for the right TT & tuner). > > It's not bad, living vicariously through your children. > > Tom > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
