1970s Hifi gear inherited.

1970s Hifi gear inherited.

Author
Discussion

TinyCappo

Original Poster:

2,106 posts

152 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
quotequote all
Odd situation this. More an emotional vent and request for info so I don't royally fk this up. frown

After about 6 years my Nan has asked me to go through my Grandfathers Hifi equipment and clear out the loft for her. Its a pretty weird situation and I'm sure I'm not alone in experiencing this....Well I hope I'm not.

First was the Garage and that felt like I was trespassing on his tomb. We weren't banned from there but it was always his place not ours. Everything was as he had left it 8 years before falling ill and becoming house bound and dying 2 years later. Tools all neatly put away in their boxes just a small layer of dust on it all. A beautiful Valve amp stereo receiver powering two old speakers on a shelf and a click of a button it all slowly hummed into life.....Turned it all off and decided I needed to do that another day when im not so emotional about it. The receiver was made by a company called Fisher if that means anything to anyone?

Now onto the loft. My Nan said he had put a load of bits and pieces into the loft and If i wanted any of it to just take it and put the rest to one side if its no good and she would get it taken away and dumped.

I remember their loft from when I was about 6. I think I was getting told to get down it was dangerous yaddah yaddah yaddah from them. it was a just a big old loft exposed floor beams and plaster ceilings that you could fall through if you put a foot wrong.....

Well fast forward 24 years. I turn the light on as im climbing the stairs and No word of a lie there is flooring CARPET plastered walls and a full on LOUNGE with a recliner in the loft. And a nice book case with a huge set of hifi separates all wired in to some old speakers.

They lived in Norfolk and Grandad used to work for an electrical rentals company called HUGHES. Sort of company you would hire the TV and washing machine from for a few pound a month in the 70-80s. They also sold Hifi separates too.

In the unit there was a SANYO DCX8000K, a Trio KR-750, Sony PS-T1 record deck?, Sansui SE graphic equalizer, a phillips top loading cassette recorder player deck, some OMAR floor standing speakers. and some Dynatron LS-200 floor standers too. all 4 speakers were wired up to the DCX8000k which had selectable outputs pair a pair b and both.


Im currently having an Extension built and this would look great in the conservatory but I know nothing about hifi separates or how to use them. If I post up some pics and the model numbers of things that are up their can anyone tell me if its worth keeping, how to transport and handle it all. I just really don't want to break something that my grandfather spent a long time putting in and getting right.

Edited by TinyCappo on Wednesday 21st May 15:09 for speels and model info.



Edited by TinyCappo on Friday 5th December 22:40

spitfire4v8

3,990 posts

180 months

Wednesday 21st May 2014
quotequote all
sounds fab. proper step back in time and old hifi gear sounds gorgeous .
i am recreating the 1970s hifi stuff i had as a teenager.
if you find some wharfedale teesdale sp2s in there that you want to sell let me know! I've been looking for years ..

nagsheadwarrior

2,779 posts

178 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
That sounds awesome.

I've just bought a 70's Gec record player/radio powering 2 old festival series speakers from eBay, it sounds awesome.

Best thing is it has a 5 pin din line in, I bought a 3.5mm adapter for this and a bluetooth receiver for a total of £8 on ebay and now I can stream music and radio to my 70's Hifi!

telecat

8,528 posts

240 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
There is a retro hifi thread already on here. Might be worth looking at. As for Valve kit there is always a market for good working Valve Amps and receivers. You will need to find out a bit more though to see if the Amp/receiver or the valves themselves are more valuable.

TinyCappo

Original Poster:

2,106 posts

152 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
nagsheadwarrior said:
That sounds awesome.

I've just bought a 70's Gec record player/radio powering 2 old festival series speakers from eBay, it sounds awesome.

Best thing is it has a 5 pin din line in, I bought a 3.5mm adapter for this and a bluetooth receiver for a total of £8 on ebay and now I can stream music and radio to my 70's Hifi!
The DCX8000K has a 5pin Din for one of the tape inputs But I also have a few spare phono style inputs 5 in all I think with one channel being shared by the Din input. is there any benefit in using the 5pin Din over a phono or was it just what you had available?

kenny.R400

1,211 posts

239 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
Buy a little Behringer DAC for 20 quid or so and junk the 3.5 jack earpiece connection.............and listen to the difference.

TinyCappo

Original Poster:

2,106 posts

152 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
Sorry what is a DAC?

TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
Wow, those Sony turntables had the strobe and everything, very nice. Just looked up an image of the Sansui graphic equalizer, how cool is that?

Bungleaio

6,324 posts

201 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
Sounds fantastic!

Is there a good selection of music too?

Some photos would be great but I understand if it's not something you want to put up on the net.

nagsheadwarrior

2,779 posts

178 months

Thursday 22nd May 2014
quotequote all
TinyCappo said:
The DCX8000K has a 5pin Din for one of the tape inputs But I also have a few spare phono style inputs 5 in all I think with one channel being shared by the Din input. is there any benefit in using the 5pin Din over a phono or was it just what you had available?
Better to use the phono then, I only had the din input so had no choice.

telecat

8,528 posts

240 months

Friday 23rd May 2014
quotequote all
If it was a three pin DIN then I would say you had a "balanced" output/input. That does give you superior sound quality. With it being a five it sounds like a deck that can be used in a studio or DJ system so I would go with the Phono's

Crackie

6,386 posts

241 months

Friday 23rd May 2014
quotequote all
5 pin connectors ( LR in, LR out + earth ) are fine; Naim, DNM, Resolution Audio claim DINs are superior to RCAs/phonos.

TinyCappo

Original Poster:

2,106 posts

152 months

Friday 23rd May 2014
quotequote all
Bungleaio said:
Sounds fantastic!

Is there a good selection of music too?

Some photos would be great but I understand if it's not something you want to put up on the net.
There was actually not a huge amount up there. These 4 were next to the unit. I think these were the last 4 albums he took up to listen up there which is a little morbid in some ways, good choices though if that was the case. I took them downstairs to photograph as I wanted to put them with the others in a box in a cupboard.



I didn't take any of the garage, still feels like I am trespassing. but I will next time Im up there

Pic of the Trio unit. and the DCX8000K.

Mad he wallpapered the roof!

and one of the child friendly speakers that cant have its cones pushed in biggrin


No idea what the random teddies on sofa are about theres a brick in each one as far as I can tell!

I just have pics of the serial numbers and model labels for the rest of it. but when i return up to collect it all Ill post some more pics.


I managed to get a copy of a the Schematic diagram for the DCX8000k from the internet (just incase it ever needs a repair). One thing I noticed on the schematic is that it has a completely separate pre-amp stage with pre-amp out which is what the Sansui is connected to before returning via phono back into the amp. Seems overkill to me but I don't know the first thing about quality enough to warrant fiddling with it :P

Edited by TinyCappo on Friday 23 May 16:50

mad4amanda

2,410 posts

163 months

Friday 23rd May 2014
quotequote all
That sanyo receiver is really interesting as we had one identical apart from the badge : Pioneer , I wonder if they had an agreement to share units and badge engineer? I will try and find a picture it was from about 1971 ish.

Mark.

11,104 posts

275 months

Friday 23rd May 2014
quotequote all
mad4amanda said:
That sanyo receiver is really interesting as we had one identical apart from the badge : Pioneer , I wonder if they had an agreement to share units and badge engineer? I will try and find a picture it was from about 1971 ish.
It does look remarkably like the Pioneer my Father in Law still uses!

TinyCappo

Original Poster:

2,106 posts

152 months

Friday 23rd May 2014
quotequote all
Maybe from the reading I have done so far SANYO bought FISHER USA. I don't know if Fisher had anything to do with Pioneer.


nagsheadwarrior

2,779 posts

178 months

Sunday 25th May 2014
quotequote all
That looks like a lovely set up and he obviously had great musical taste, love all of those albums.

As the o.p asked what is a dac and how do you use it/integrate it?

telecat

8,528 posts

240 months

Monday 26th May 2014
quotequote all
DAC = Digital to Audio Convertor. Usually Stereo. Essentially any device that has a Digital Output Coaxial or Fibre Optic, can be connected to the DAC via one cable (usually), and that DAC then outputs an Analogue signal via left and right RCA sockets and cables. Same as a AV amp where the DVD player sends the Signal via one cable. I have a Meridian 200 CD Transport that "feeds" a Chord DAC64 that then sends the analogue signal to my Amplifier,

Cupramax

10,469 posts

251 months

Tuesday 27th May 2014
quotequote all
telecat said:
DAC = Digital to Audio Convertor.
Digital to analogue...

telecat

8,528 posts

240 months

Tuesday 27th May 2014
quotequote all
Cupramax said:
telecat said:
DAC = Digital to Audio Convertor.
Digital to analogue...
True but you tend to get "blank" looks until you switch to "Audio" or spend a few minutes explaining.

I tend to like Rob Watts designs having had a DPA PDM1 in Mark 1, Mark 2 and Mark 3 two box forms. I then moved on to the SX128 which uses the same tech as the DAC64 I currently use.