Home Audio/Stereo Systems

Had a Denon amp, receiver, and cassette deck, with a Bang and Olufsen turntable which my son still has and uses. While I miss the full sound, I'm not sure I'd trade if for my current setup of four Sonos speakers throughout the house and Spotify. Any song you can imagine, any time, and playlists built for any mood.
 
In the early 70s I had a Sansui receiver and turntable and speakers I built from a kit from Speakerlab. Current system is over 10 years old now, a Denon receiver, Sony disc player and sound bar coupled with some really nice speakers I built into the ceiling, maybe Sonos, can't remember for sure. And a sub-woofer hiding in the corner.
 
SpeakerLab has been mentioned a number of times already.

The house we currently live in was owned by a SpeakerLab speaker builder (owner?), When we first came to preview the house, walked into the living room and, to my surprise, there was a SpeakerLab Corner Horn speaker in each corner.. Looked around and saw a lot of green lights in a cabinet and thought to myself "rack of Mac". Yuppers along with a reel-to-reel. Asked him to play something - Dang! what a treat...

He built all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, desks, doors and window frames to speaker-quality standards in the basement workshop.
 
Brian in OR. said:
Still have my Nikko NR615 receiver.......
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When people came over, they saw my closet full of albums. They would 'ask what do you have?'.

I always responded 'what do you want to listen to?', and then go pull it out. It became a game of sorts, they would ask for something off the wall or obscure. On only a couple of occasions did I not have it...
 
Russell said:
Grew up with a NIKKO reciever, Tanberg reel to reel, Dual Turntable and some pretty good size speaker labs.
Dragged that turntable all over the country with me as well as a pretty good vinyl collection. Still have over 1K, maybe closer to 2, albums on vinyl and listen to music all over the house on different systems.
The most modern thing I have going is I recorded all of my CD's, 2k+, onto flac files and stream them from a network hard drive to any of several DAC's in system in the house. no need to have the CD's loaded into a player anymore.
Running currently
Quicksilver Audio tube Mono blocks, and tube preamp, Black Ice/Jolida tube DAC and Tube phono preamp a VPI Scout limited edition turntable and a Technics SP-15 with an EPA-100 tonearm. I'm streaming from the hard drive into it with a sonos connect. These are driving Klipsch Cornwalls.
In other systems in the house I have a Fisher 400 driving some AR 4a's and a 200wpc Dennon amp driving some JBL 100t3's
Kind of nerd out with the audio stuff and really enjoy sitting down and listening to vinyl.
Here is a link to a local to me shop selling vintage gear. fly hifi You can get a taste of vintage prices. I remember going to Magnolia hi fi and bringing CD's to try out the high end gear I could'nt afford as well as Hawthorns and speakerlab down in the U district and wishing I could afford some of the macintosh gear.
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As I sold my albums, I transferred the music/songs to CD's since many of the songs were not available any more.

I too spent a lot of time at Magnolia. Like you, I always brought my own music. I bought my Arcam equipment from a small stereo shop in the U district on 45th. He also specialized in tube amps. To this day I like the sound of vintage equipment. It is so much softer, well-rounded, greater depth and fuller than current stuff.

Now I just wish my hearing was like it was back in the day...
 
Tube sound is great, and a true single ended Class A amp is a thing of beauty...spendy too.

Mine is a Class A preamp, Class D amp intergrated...pretty good with my hearing these days.
The newer Class D with high switching have gotten pretty good these days, if your budget isn't McIntosh level.
:)
 
goinoregon said:
hey, my receiver seems to be dying. a 1996 NAD 701 . i need a new receiver for my workshop. any recommendations? i just have a cd player, and some small speakers.
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Black Friday is coming up. Go check out some brands now and listen to determine what you like. It will not sound like your NAD, but for a workshop with bookshelf speakers ---> should be good enough IMHO.

Edited to add: There are Black Friday deals already available. Two and 5.1 channel receivers by Onkyo, Yamaha, Sony, etc. in the $200 range. Go to Best Buy online to see the choices.
 
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Russell said:
I if you have Wi-Fi in your workshop I would look at the Sonos amps. The new one is very expensive but the older models can be had on eBay for $150. Make sure it’s gen 2 compatible, I can explain that or more in detail.
Will let you play your cd player and stream music services free or paid and stream radio.
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Great input about Wi-Fi and streaming. Being old-school, never thought of that. That now has me thinking....
 
RCF said:
Great input about Wi-Fi and streaming. Being old-school, never thought of that. That now has me thinking....
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It's the way to go, whether you use a paid service or a free one, low res or flac/lossless, you'll never have the music selection offered by streaming. While there is a lot of stuff not offered from streaming services, there's still way more available than you'll ever have in cd's, tapes or vinyl.
:)
 
Mossback said:
It's the way to go, whether you use a paid service or a free one, low res or flac/lossless, you'll never have the music selection offered by streaming. While there is a lot of stuff not offered from streaming services, there's still way more available than you'll ever have in cd's, tapes or vinyl.
:)
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Speaking of flac/lossless, Spotify is starting to roll out lossless. Not sure If I'd be able to tell the difference but pretty cool. I think Apple Music has lossless as well.
 
Yeah, if your hearing isn't great, or your system isn't great, hi res/ lossless may not be an appreciable upgrade...
I have it through my service, and like it, but can't really say if I am getting all the sound in my ear.
My younger friends say it sounds really good...
🤣🤣🤣
 
RCF said:
SpeakerLab has been mentioned a number of times already.
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Yeah I was a big SpeakerLab guy, spent a lot of time at the South center store. Eventually wound up with a walnut set of the 3's and same in the smaller 1's. Also had a set of the tiny point 1 on the back deck of my GTO.

For components still have the mighty Yamaha CR1000 receiver with a BIC Beambox FM antenna and a Connoisseur turntable, I just sold that table last year. Had some kind of a CD & tape deck combo that gave up the ghost, think BSR?

Also recently picked up a solid state Yamaha receiver @ 45 watts off eBay for the SpeakerLab 1's that live in my man cave.

Need a decent CD player thou....


41
 
I grew up an Air Force brat, and my family was stationed on a large base in Germany when I was a teenager in the mid 70's. I used to bag groceries in the base commissary for tips only. If you hustled, you could make some good coin (literally). My mom made me save half my earnings, but all the rest I spent on stereo gear. The stereo stores (part of the post/base exchanges) in Germany were a magical place in the 70's and I spent many many hours drooling over stereo gear and buying quite a bit of it, including:

A Kenwood KR-6060 60-WPC receiver,
a pair of Sansui speakers,
a Technics SL-1610 turntable,
a Pioneer RT-707 reel to reel,
a Pioneer CTF-1000 cassette deck, and
a cool rack to house it all.

Except for the speakers and the rack, I still have all of it, plus more. Currently, I have a 2-channel and 5.1 surround sound system that has Infinity and Ohm tower speakers with a Carver power amp and Integra A/V receiver, plus a lot of pioneer gear my wife had when we got married. It's fun tinkering with newer and older up components. It's also a joy to listen to.

in regard to equipment I wish I had, there's way too much to list.

I love vintage gear as well as the newer stuff. It's all great. Keep in mind, though, that vintage receivers, tape decks and turntables are kind of like classic, complicated cars. They're expensive, temperamental, parts can be hard to come by, and you'll need to know a good mechanic. Speakers are kind of the exception, but they still require some care and feeding.

Whatever your preferences in gear and music, enjoy the experience -- preferably with the lights down and maybe a glass of your favorite libation.
 
Its always the same way dealin with these types. Dealing with these types!!!! In these stores!!!!! Its always making you PAY BIG for the medium level deals. I DEMAND high end at zero cost!! GIVE me the product!!! Give them a HARD NEGOTIATE!!!!!!! And demand to walk out the store with high end products without paying!!
 
RCF said:
When people came over, they saw my closet full of albums. They would 'ask what do you have?'.

I always responded 'what do you want to listen to?', and then go pull it out. It became a game of sorts, they would ask for something off the wall or obscure. On only a couple of occasions did I not have it...
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I'm kinda the same, but with CDs. Although, I can't stand 98% of rap/hip hop, so I'm pretty limited on that genre. And although I enjoy a lot of country music, that pop country garbage gets no play in my house/car.
 
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RCF said:
Black Friday is coming up. Go check out some brands now and listen to determine what you like. It will not sound like your NAD, but for a workshop with bookshelf speakers ---> should be good enough IMHO.

Edited to add: There are Black Friday deals already available. Two and 5.1 channel receivers by Onkyo, Yamaha, Sony, etc. in the $200 range. Go to Best Buy online to see the choices.
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thx rcf. its for my workshop, so not high fidelity. will check out best buy
 
This guy has quite a few videos of restoration work he does on vintage equipment. He is located in Bellingham. It’s cool seeing younger people doing this and getting psyched about bringing old equipment back to life.
SF

IMG_4091.jpeg
 
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