Show Your Old School Stereo Stuff

[Universal Elements]

Reviving this old thread. I’ve had this unit for about 10 years now give or take. It was my dads before he gave it to me. In the 10 years I’ve had it, I’ve never used it. To be honest, I don’t even know if it works as I have no speakers to hook up to it. I know when I plug it in, I hear it click on and when I move between settings I can here the internal parts click or make noise so I assume it works (but the indicator light does not light up).

I have absolutely no use for this. Is there a market for this stuff and if so, where do I post it?
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It’s worth $700 to $1000. Good amp. It’s a 80 watt unit, which is pretty decent.

 

[clarence]

Miss these two systems (pics not mine).

SAE

Carver

 

[Universal Elements]

Miss these two systems (pics not mine).

SAE

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Carver

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I forgot all about SAE. Sounded great!

 

[Big B Hova]

Still love my cerwins over my last house in ceiling speakers and sub.

 

[nameisbond]

I still have one of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/144182350165?hash=item2191f01155:g:PYUAAOSwoRphMONp Got it for my birthday back in 88.

 

[Paradox]

Yep, have to say I love analog systems for playing vinyl. The newest pieces in my system is the Marantz turntable (about 8 years old) and the Mirage speakers which come in at 15 years old or so. Turner and amp are more than 25 years old but have been re-capped / rebuilt.

 

[dread Pirate]

Carver amps and pre amp, Yamaha cd, Nacamichi tape, Technics 1200, Klipsh speakers

 

[spectras only]

Hard to see it but, it's a Motorola stereo casette with recording microphone, on the console of my 72 Challenger. Stereo casette players were rare [ it was an option only in the car ] most cars still had 8 trk's like my buddy's 70 Chevelle. Car came with two 6X9's in the rear and single speaker on top of the dash. I was rocking it .

 

[clarence]

Sold my Klipsch LaScala natural birch speakers (I bought new in Oakland,CA around 1986) before I moved to AZ. Incredible speakers and super efficient

Love this review.

 

[shunter2005]

Finally found another set of Marantz Imperial 6 speakers (circa 1970's) that are fairly close to my original set. They were in decent shape, but once I got them home, I couldn't stand the scratches and water spot on the speakers. What kind of idiot would set a glass on any wood and not expect a water ring. Here are a couple of pics of them before and after sanded, ready for stain/finish. I sure hope they come out ok. First time to try and refinish speakers.

Bottom of one speaker. Previous owner must have had them on the garage floor. They are beat up as hell on the bottom. The one I have sanded was not quite as bad as this one, but it came out very nice. Pictures of the finished product to follow (if they turn out ok).

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Here are a few pics of one speaker sanded and ready to stain.

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Going to stain/finish them this week with Watco Danish Oil (Dark Walnut) and hopefully, they will come out fine in the end. Can't wait to fire them up and match them with my current Imperial 6 speakers. It should be awesome!!!!

Here are a few of the speakers with the finish. Changed my mind and finished them with Gunstock color stain, followed by two coats of Amber varnish. These are before I used some 4X steel wool to knock down the shine. Came out much better than expected.

 

[hman442]

JVC turntable, bought it, along with a Pioneer Receiver & Cassette Player with my first paycheck after graduating in 1978. I'm powering the turntable with that little amp next to it from Amazon. I'm using my "new" Paradigm speakers purchased in 2004 or so. I went to my Mom's house and claimed the old vinyl. I've got The Monkees and The Cowsills in that stack, as well as Herb Albert, Al Hirt & of course some Sinatra.

 

[C-2]

I fired up the mid 1980's Onkyo stack system I bought when I was 19-years old.

I wanted to start mixing/beat matching vinyl again, so I put a Boos butcher block table in my office. The block is 2.5 inches thick, super heavy and stable, and is supported by stainless steel legs.

My turntables sit on top of the block, and other equipment sits on the bottom rack.

Onkyo 150w/channel amp
Onkyo pre-amp
Onkyo EQ
Onkyo tuner (not in the pic)

I put everything behind a Tripp Lite power conditioner/surge protector, and I also added an "AC Infiniti" fan between the pre-amp and amp. Onkyo stuff is known for running hot and the fan draws air out of the amp, thus keeping it decently cool.

I found a pair of passive Event 20/20 monitors originally purchased from Roger Sound Labs in year 2000. These things put out incredible sound and handle 150W@4 ohms. For bass I'm running older Energy subs, but they are home theater subs and I'm looking for an upgrade to a true stereo subwoofer.

For mixing/DJ stuff I started with Stanton turntables, but later I learned their short tonearms chews up records...so I found a used/new in the box Pioneer DJ PLX1000 turntable. It's a direct drive tt and solid as a rock (it weighs 32 lbs). Despite being a "DJ" table, and like the Technics 1200's, the table is considered entry level audiophile quality.

Since it's a DJ table and I want the flexibility of beat matching records, I found a new old stock late 70's Stanton 500 cartridge and new old stock stylus, both made by Stanton but branded for Radio Shack. They are a broadcast (radio station) quality combo.

And recently I got into streaming audio. I run a Raspberry Pi mini computer into a Helm Bolt DAC that converts digital sound into analog sound that is fed into the Onkyo pre-amp via RCA cables (into VCR inputs lol). I use Tidal and Linux-based Volumio operating system on the Raspberry Pi.

Tidal uses "lossless" quality streaming, which means it's pulling down CD quality music instead of compressed MP3 music.

Tidal offers "MSQ" quality too, which is supposed to be the equivalent of Master Tapes...as in, better than CD quality. Think: hearing singers taking breaths between lyrics.

Still working on it though, mainly trying to get the streaming stuff hammered out, Volumio is buggy and it's a lot easier to use the computer to control Tidal. The Helm Bolt costs only $100 and it decodes "HiFi" (CD quality) and MSQ quality streams. It uses a standard USB from computer to 3.5mm audio out (to your stereo) and makes Spotify or Tidal, YouTube etc sound 100X better than simply running an audio out to your stereo. It's an incredible gadget, especially for its price point. Just plug it in and let it rip!

In summary, my 80's Onkyo stack rings my ears and I love it!

 

[SummitKarl]

If you need your old school speakers repaired, "speaker repair pros" is highly recommended by myself and JBB (RIP), Brian and I (were/are) Cerwin Vega nuts/collectors.

 

[Badchoices03]

This is my Kenwood set from 1992, it was the first thing I ever bought out of high school on credit, on my very first credit card, which was from Circuit City...it just recently got the boot from the house to the garage by the wife, but it still sounds great with the original tower speakers. I seemed to have lost track of where the dual cassette deck went, my brother used to DJ back then, I am guessing it got lost in the shuffle with his equipment at some point.

 

[Uncle Dave]

 

[C-2]

Stereo equipment UD, not arc welding stuff, lol I never realized just how big the McIntosh pieces are, dang.

That's some power! What are the other pieces? details, details

 

[C-2]

If you need your old school speakers repaired, "speaker repair pros" is highly recommended by myself and JBB (RIP), Brian and I (were/are) Cerwin Vega nuts/collectors.
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Yeah I have a pair of CV's that need to be re-foamed. But I'm in a small listening space and don't have room for any floor standing speakers.

What is it with the CV speakers, mine are only about 25-years old and were rarely used.

 

[C-2]

JVC turntable, bought it, along with a Pioneer Receiver & Cassette Player with my first paycheck after graduating in 1978. I'm powering the turntable with that little amp next to it from Amazon. I'm using my "new" Paradigm speakers purchased in 2004 or so. I went to my Mom's house and claimed the old vinyl. I've got The Monkees and The Cowsills in that stack, as well as Herb Albert, Al Hirt & of course some Sinatra.

A little pre-amp for the tt and then a little tube amp? How they sound together?

My uncle is giving me his vinyl from the same era as yours, woot woot. My daughter and I have already collected many o fthe Herb Alpert records.

Discogs is your best friend for vinyl...it's awesome.

 

[RVR_RCN]

JBL Radiance Series

I bought this pair of speakers new in 1979, I have re-foamed the woofers 3 times and they still sound amazing in the garage!

 

[Uncle Dave]

Stereo equipment UD, not arc welding stuff, lol I never realized just how big the McIntosh pieces are, dang.

That's some power! What are the other pieces? details, details

Mcinstosh Tuner
A basic parasound preamp
bottom row is a lexicon CP3 surround sound processor which was the king of its day
Speakers are Bowers and Wilkins 603;s (I think)


Amp can annihilate these speakers, but when paired up with some that can take it it can put out a frightening amount of power its about 140LB amp.

Corner light is an exceptionally cool piece from Neamo Italiana Luce

 

[Paradox]

Mcinstosh Tuner
A basic parasound preamp
bottom row is a lexicon CP3 surround sound processor which was the king of its day
Speakers are Bowers and Wilkins 603;s (I think)


Amp can annihilate these speakers, but when paired up with some that can take it it can put out a frightening amount of power its about 140LB amp.

Corner light is an exceptionally cool piece from Neamo Italiana Luce

My Mirage speakers are good to 500w at 8 ohm. Coupled with your Mcinstosh amp, I bet they would be capable of breaking windows..

 

[BoatCop]

I was never a major stereophile, although music has always been my life. I've had this set-up for years. The old school Pioneer Speakers are probably 40 years old. I bought them from my neighbor in Hawaii for $50 bucks in 1985. Even today, they'll take anything I can throw at them with no distortion. Nothing special about the Panasonic Tuner/Equalizer and JVC 5 Disc changer. But I can still rattle the neighbor's windows and still have room to really crank it up. And those CDs are 3 deep on both sides, so you could say that I can keep myself entertained for a few days in case of nuclear winter.

 

[spectras only]

Friend of mine had a complete McIntosh system back in the 70' hooked up to Magneplanar speakers. Commercial electronics of Vancouver were the choice to buy very high end units. They came to your house to set up and position the speakers to accomodate for best acoustics.
Those magneplanars you could run max volume without the hint of distortion. He ended up trading it to a friend who had a souped up Chevy Nova with dual vlocity stacks. Never heard anything so clear since the Magneplanar experience.

 

[HOOTER SLED-]

If you need your old school speakers repaired, "speaker repair pros" is highly recommended by myself and JBB (RIP), Brian and I (were/are) Cerwin Vega nuts/collectors.
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Is that the place you can get kits to rebuild woofers from? I remember waaaay back a thread of someone mentioning a place. I think the place was local to So Cal.

 

[SoCalDave]

Just found this in the garage. I'll have to hook it up to the RSL towers and see how it performs.

 

[bonesfab]

Old school car audio. Hifonics w1034. Have had these for 30 years. 10” and 20 lbs

 

[C-2]

So today I found a pair of RSL "Magnificent" model bookshelf speakers. 8" woofer, 1" adjustable frequency dome tweeters, 8 ohms, 100W, original foam in outstanding shape (circa 1989) for $45 on OfferUp. Got lucky and snapped them up quick, the sellers realized they underpriced them but sold them as advertised (a set on eBay is selling for $350)

Earlier this summer I found a pair of Event 20/20 passive monitors, circa 1999, 8" woofer, 1" dome tweeter, 4 ohms, 200W, also in impeccable shape, for $80. I guess since they aren't Klipsch or JBL's people thought they were some oddball brand...they didn't sell at $250, then $200, then $100, and finally $80.

Ironically, both sets came from RSL in Torrance

Guess who the winner is, which set sounds better?