Vintage hifi

[bodhi]

brownspeed said:

another who's just found this thread. lovely stuff.
I am the bloke who treated himself to the Yamaha dolby A, B and S tape deck (apologies; forgot what model it was but it was £300 back then), predominantly so I could play decent music in the car. About 3 months after this acquisition; the recordable CD became available..
I still have my Technics SUV-303 class A amp (purchased new in 19080ish on my apprentice wages)- soon to be my garage amp.
I sourced some nice kit from the bay in recent times, by way of upgrading, including a pair of Tannoy sixes, a Marantz CD63 mk2 SE and a Nad C320Bee which is my main listen nowadays.

I've got a curio in the loft which is a Pioneer Tape Deck I bought in the late 90s that came with Digital NR, so it converted the signal to Digital, applied NR then converted it back to analogue to put on the tape. It had a coax socket so you could take the digital feed direct from the CD Player as well. Sounded great on the deck itself, couldn't tell a huge amount of difference in the car though.

I shall dig it out when I get round to getting my old Marantz separates fixed (CD Player skips a lot and the amp has gone on one channel).

[heisthegaffer]

brownspeed said:

another who's just found this thread. lovely stuff.
I am the bloke who treated himself to the Yamaha dolby A, B and S tape deck (apologies; forgot what model it was but it was £300 back then), predominantly so I could play decent music in the car. About 3 months after this acquisition; the recordable CD became available..
I still have my Technics SUV-303 class A amp (purchased new in 19080ish on my apprentice wages)- soon to be my garage amp.
I sourced some nice kit from the bay in recent times, by way of upgrading, including a pair of Tannoy sixes, a Marantz CD63 mk2 SE and a Nad C320Bee which is my main listen nowadays.

Yamaha KX580 will be the tape deck. My ma has one along with an Arcam Delta 290 amp, cd player and tuner. Mission 780SE speakers (I think)

[Mark-insert old BMW]

conkerman said:

I have a Funk Firm Gett! in the loft I don't use. It has a Goldring E3 on it.

That sounds just about perfect for my needs but sadly I imagine it'll be way out of my budget.

I've rediscovered some classical music over the past week and the Mordaunt Short floor speakers sound lovely using my Pioneer A400 amp. A turntable and vinyl will be the final piece of the puzzle, although I don't have much vinyl yet.

[nigelpugh7]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I have a Yamaha CRX-M170 amp/DAB/CD player. It's about 20 years old I guess and it's brilliant.

I’ve got one too, I’m sure it’s about the same age. Sadly it got fire damaged in our recent garage fire, and I thought it was a goner.

However a bit of work to clean it up inside and out and it’s working again so I’ve put it back on the new garage cabinets in the now restored to former glory garage.



The remote was in a bad way from the fire too, but a bit of isopropanol alcohol cleaner and it’s as good as new.

Before :

[nigelpugh7]

nigelpugh7 said:

I’ve got one too, I’m sure it’s about the same age. Sadly it got fire damaged in our recent garage fire, and I thought it was a goner.

However a bit of work to clean it up inside and out and it’s working again so I’ve put it back on the new garage cabinets in the now restored to former glory garage.



The remote was in a bad way from the fire too, but a bit of isopropanol alcohol cleaner and it’s as good as new.

Before :

I have also repurposed the old Technics Speakers from a Technics MIDI system that I bought for my mum and dads house, which also must be over 25 years old, as I bought it for them when we lived at our other house, and we moved here 22 years ago!

They sound really good with the little Yamaha stereo, lots of bass and very nice stereo separation too, more than good enough for my double garage!

[GTO-3R]

Hi all, I’m not too knowledgable on turntables but I’ve gone down a rabbit hole after a mate posted a picture of a vintage Braun wall mounted system on Instagram. My wife and I have recently finished an extension at our house and we have a place for a record player and the Braun one suits the style that we’re going for. Sadly my wallet doesn’t stretch to one of those but I came across some old Mitsubishi vertical players that we really like. The models are MC-8000 and LT-5V. It seems the MC-8000 was available over here but all the LT-5V’s are abroad, does anyone know if that’s the case? If anyone could point me in a good direction for more info on U.K. sellers that might have them I would appreciate it

LT-5V



MC-8000

[psi310398]

GTO-3R said:

Hi all, I’m not too knowledgable on turntables but I’ve gone down a rabbit hole after a mate posted a picture of a vintage Braun wall mounted system on Instagram. My wife and I have recently finished an extension at our house and we have a place for a record player and the Braun one suits the style that we’re going for. Sadly my wallet doesn’t stretch to one of those but I came across some old Mitsubishi vertical players that we really like. The models are MC-8000 and LT-5V. It seems the MC-8000 was available over here but all the LT-5V’s are abroad, does anyone know if that’s the case? If anyone could point me in a good direction for more info on U.K. sellers that might have them I would appreciate it

LT-5V



MC-8000

It might be worth putting down a query with Audio Gold in London N8. If they don’t have one for their props business they might know where to track one down.

There’s a vintage Hifi dealer in either Cleveland or Sunderland who often carries this kind of stock (I can’t remember the name but Google should yield them) and HiFi Hangar down in Hampshire might be worth a try.

Putting a Wanted thread in HiFi Wigwam or Pinkfish might be a good move, too.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

ProJect make a vertical wall mount turntable currently, the VT-E. Under £500.

[Deranged Rover]

The LT-5V was available in the UK - in fact you missed one on eBay only a week or two back that went for around £400 IIRC.

Also do remember the LT-5V and MC-8000 are a little different. The MC-8000 is a complete music centre and only needs speakers added, whereas the LT-5V is just a turntable and so needs an amplifier and speakers.

[Mark-ri571]

I bought the MC8000 new in 1980. I can’t even remember what I did with it. Seeing the above pics makes me wish I had kept it.

Edited by Mark-ri571 on Tuesday 12th December 23:05

[nuyorican]

I remember seeing a vertical record player for n a night-club in Ibiza in the early 90’s. I thought I’d imagined it. Clearly not.

[Deranged Rover]

nuyorican said:

I remember seeing a vertical record player for n a night-club in Ibiza in the early 90’s. I thought I’d imagined it. Clearly not.

Vestax did a pivoting version of their DJ decks, called the PVT-E2, that could be pivoted at up to 65 degrees from horizontal.

I have one and it really is an answer to a question that nobody has ever asked!

[Boom78]

Deranged Rover said:

Vestax did a pivoting version of their DJ decks, called the PVT-E2, that could be pivoted at up to 65 degrees from horizontal.

I have one and it really is an answer to a question that nobody has ever asked!

As someone who’s been into mixing for the best part of 30 years, I just can’t see how that in reality would work?? Queuing would be awkward as would minor fettling to get ‘on time’. It’s like a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist? They did great mixers but failed at decks

Edited by Boom78 on Tuesday 12th December 18:27

[nuyorican]

Would be good for DJ’ing in bed.

[Deranged Rover]

Boom78 said:

They did great mixers but failed at decks

Edited by Boom78 on Tuesday 12th December 18:27

I wouldn't go that far - their standard decks were very good. Hey, even the PVT-E2 is good, just pointless!

[rodericb]

Boom78 said:

Deranged Rover said:

Vestax did a pivoting version of their DJ decks, called the PVT-E2, that could be pivoted at up to 65 degrees from horizontal.

I have one and it really is an answer to a question that nobody has ever asked!

As someone who’s been into mixing for the best part of 30 years, I just can’t see how that in reality would work?? Queuing would be awkward as would minor fettling to get ‘on time’. It’s like a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist? They did great mixers but failed at decks

Edited by Boom78 on Tuesday 12th December 18:27

Cueing and pushing/dragging would be okay after a little while. When CDJ's came in they'd often be up above and behind the mixer at like a 45 degree angle. with that Vestax I'm wondering how the angle of it impacts the tonearm....

[GTO-3R]

psi310398 said:

It might be worth putting down a query with Audio Gold in London N8. If they don’t have one for their props business they might know where to track one down.

There’s a vintage Hifi dealer in either Cleveland or Sunderland who often carries this kind of stock (I can’t remember the name but Google should yield them) and HiFi Hangar down in Hampshire might be worth a try.

Putting a Wanted thread in HiFi Wigwam or Pinkfish might be a good move, too.

Thanks for the pointers

[GTO-3R]

Deranged Rover said:

The LT-5V was available in the UK - in fact you missed one on eBay only a week or two back that went for around £400 IIRC.

Also do remember the LT-5V and MC-8000 are a little different. The MC-8000 is a complete music centre and only needs speakers added, whereas the LT-5V is just a turntable and so needs an amplifier and speakers.

I'll keep my eyes out for one in the UK then. Don't fancy one arriving from abroad in one piece really!

[Deranged Rover]

rodericb said:

with that Vestax I'm wondering how the angle of it impacts the tonearm....

To be fair, any deck where the tracking angle is applied dynamically by a spring will play at funky angles. Both B&O and Dual used to show this sort of thing off by standing their decks on their fronts at shows. Heck, if you visited Garrard in the 1960s, they allegedly had autochangers screwed upside down to the ceiling in reception, playing away happily!

The odd thing is, that the PVT-E2 first has its tracking force set normally with the rear weight and the deck level. Then you tilt it and apply the same tracking force figure on a side spring when you want to play it angled. The trouble is, for the life of me, I can't see what effect this spring has and, actually, unless you really wind the tracking force up, it isn't really very happy playing a record at much over about 40 degrees (maximum tilt is 65) and will occasionally skip back a groove or two when playing.

Ironically, after they'd discontinued this deck and moved onto the likes of the PDX-2000, the Mk2 PRO variant of this had its tracking force applied by a spring. I suspect if they'd just implemented this simpler system on the PVT-E2, it would have worked better.

My PVT-E2 is absolutely mint and original so I'm leaving it as is. If i ever found another, though, I'd be tempted to transplant a later Vestax dynamically balanced arm onto it, to see if it works better.

[Itsallicanafford]

Love my Sony TC-177SD. It’s over 50 years old and we are about the same age, but with its build quality I am sure it will outlast me. From one of those times when Sony decided to have a go at high end, when it was released it was about half the price of a new mini.

Edited by Itsallicanafford on Sunday 17th December 20:05