Retro Hifi..

[spitfire4v8]

I'm putting together / recreating of ebay my old system that I used to have when i was a teenager .. garrard dd130/1 turntable, marantz sd1030 cassette deck, sansui a60 amp and wharfedale teesdale sp2 speakers .. of the lot the speakers are waaay overspecced for the rest of the system .. would love some dovedale SP2s but they are even rarer than non foam rotted teesdales sadly.

Anyway that's just for nostalgia's sake .. in the meantime my system is the one I've had for some 25 years or so .. Dual cs 505/2 deluxe turntable, Kenwood dp1510 cd player, trio kx54 cassette player and rotel rc and rb 850 pre/power amp combo. I've got a technics sh-e66 graphic equaliser in there too bit only because it looks pretty at night ! I'm thinking of selling it because it's always set "flat" and is only there as I say to look nice in the dark. The speakers are Gale Gold Monitors which are a recent addition off ebay to replace the homemade speakers I made at school from a kit out of HiFi Choice I think about 28 years ago (SEAS drivers though which sounded pretty good, beautiful tweeters) .. I still have the tweeters and crossovers but not the SEAS woofers any more..
a couple of low res pics off my rubbish cameraphone

[gpo746]

I sold a graphic I believe £65 e bay around 6 months ago looked similar to your but was full size.
Love your amps I have the next one up RB/ RC 870 - fantastic sound
Love simplicity of your arrangement - coffee table over wood panel. Had the Dual years back it was ok but the Linn I got after it was miles better _ Linn Axis ??? I think

Edited by gpo746 on Friday 9th August 17:03

[Mouse1903]

Last month I gave my Pioneer SA-8800 a good dusting out, removed the facias and cleaned them and used contact cleaners on all the pots. Still getting humming at low volume. Believe it or not, there is no one in Aberdeenshire who repairs vintage equipment, so the amp is now well packaging and going to PR Audio in Manchester for a full service / repair. Estimate at £120 which isn't too bad and £30 return courier, it will be worth it

[mikey77]

Last week I was at a car boot sale here in SW France and came across a pair of Wharfedale Linton XP3s in good nick. They were a few euros but it was too far to carry them back to the car and too hot to hang around for the end of the sale. Took me back though - I have owned many Wharfedales.
There's a secondhand shop man near here who provides music for customers though a nice pair of Kef Concertos! I have tried several times to buy them but he won't have it. He does make nice comments about British speakers though. I once had a lovely pair of Kef Calindas.
In the attic, to my shame, I have Quad ELS57s, 33-303-FM3 and 34-405, all gathering dust. I bought the 33-303 from a retired BBC engineer 33 years ago!
In everyday use I have a Fons CQ30/SME 3009/Shure V153HE(M75EJ for 78s), an Aiwa 7600 tuner/amp, an early NAD CD player and an Aiwa ADF850 3-head cassette machine, all working well.
When I was a youngster I used to laugh at my guvnor who was still using a Leak Point One valve amp with a Troughline tuner, a Garrard 401 with a Decca arm and cartridge and a (single) large Goodmans speaker. Now I realise I am the old fogey who is being laughed at - but who cares?

[andy_s]

Great stuff there Mike.

Mine hasn't change for ages...

Sony 1000 CD player
Musical-Fidelity X-series; X-A1 amp, X-50 power amp, X-PSU power supply, X-Cans headphone amp and X-LP2 phono stage
Michelle Gyrodec with a Well Tempered arm and Clearaudio Aurum beta
Ruark Prelude speakers
and you'll just see the Grado 325i headphones.

[brickwall]

Jaguar steve said:

Early 80s? Apart from the CD player that's where most of my system comes from

Edited by Jaguar steve on Monday 8th July 11:17

Linn Sondek and some Naim amps? That's some serious kit you've got there.

[Riff Raff]

Retro Garrard 401 that someone lent to me while my 301 is being re-built.

[TonyRPH]

Riff Raff said:

Retro Garrard 401 that someone lent to me while my 301 is being re-built.

I remember seeing one of these in the Sweeney back in the 70's when I was too young to realise what it was (I knew it was a turntable - but didn't know precisely which make / model).

Having watched a few repeats of the Sweeney in recent months, I now know what I'm seeing and think ooh...

They are lovely turntables, but I'm not sure I could switch back to vinyl now, despite still having a good few LPs and singles in storage.

[Busa mav]

still using daily an old Aiwa tuner amp , driving my Kef Concord speakers , both purchased in 1979 / 80

[Esseesse]

TonyRPH said:

And this is the later CD63 (which was also came in SE and Ki editions).

And also MK2 version. I think the one to have is the CD63 MK2 KI Sig.

[Riff Raff]

The 301 is back. And sounding mighty fine, for something that is only a few years younger than me. And I'm ancient.

[Max M4X WW]

Hi all, I've liked hi-fi for a while but I'm probably a bit out of my depth here! My first post anyway.

I got these about three years ago, a client of my uncles had them ready for the skip. B&W DM-620i..


(ebay pic)

I have them hooked up to a Sony TA-FE570 amp that I have had years and a 19" Rack mount Numark EQ which is nearly dead. Can anyone suggest a replacement? I'm not sure if I should get another 'DJ' type EQ or a hi-fi one.

[Umberway]

andy_s said:

Great stuff there Mike.

Mine hasn't change for ages...

Sony 1000 CD player
Musical-Fidelity X-series; X-A1 amp, X-50 power amp, X-PSU power supply, X-Cans headphone amp and X-LP2 phono stage
Michelle Gyrodec with a Well Tempered arm and Clearaudio Aurum beta
Ruark Prelude speakers
and you'll just see the Grado 325i headphones.

I love the Musical Fidelity kit. Bought my Dad kit based around it many years ago now (he gave me a blank cheque and sent me from Yeovil to London to get him "something that sounds good my lad"), and it still blows my socks off when I visit and he puts some music on.
Look on Ebay occasionally for kit, but still goes for proper money. Looking for a nice pair of power amps.

[outnumbered]

Max M4X WW said:

I have them hooked up to a Sony TA-FE570 amp that I have had years and a 19" Rack mount Numark EQ which is nearly dead. Can anyone suggest a replacement? I'm not sure if I should get another 'DJ' type EQ or a hi-fi one. I have a Marantz graphic EQ but it never seemed to have as bigger range as the Numark.

Obvious question I suppose is why do you need an Eq ? They're not a feature of many hifi installations.

[Max M4X WW]

outnumbered said:

Max M4X WW said:

I have them hooked up to a Sony TA-FE570 amp that I have had years and a 19" Rack mount Numark EQ which is nearly dead. Can anyone suggest a replacement? I'm not sure if I should get another 'DJ' type EQ or a hi-fi one. I have a Marantz graphic EQ but it never seemed to have as bigger range as the Numark.

Obvious question I suppose is why do you need an Eq ? They're not a feature of many hifi installations.

All I can say is that I have had one since I was about 15 and its stuck. Sounds awful without IMO! Are you supposed to just use Bass and Treble?

[curlyks2]

My old Monitor Audio R352s. SWMBO thinks that they're too retro in a bad way and wants them to go, but over many years of owning them I've got used to their excellent sound and haven't yet found anything to replace them at an acceptable cost, so they're staying.

[Spanna]

Mouse1903 said:

Last month I gave my Pioneer SA-8800 a good dusting out, removed the facias and cleaned them and used contact cleaners on all the pots. Still getting humming at low volume. Believe it or not, there is no one in Aberdeenshire who repairs vintage equipment, so the amp is now well packaging and going to PR Audio in Manchester for a full service / repair. Estimate at £120 which isn't too bad and £30 return courier, it will be worth it

We sold our one last year, with tuner:

[outnumbered]

Max M4X WW said:

All I can say is that I have had one since I was about 15 and its stuck. Sounds awful without IMO! Are you supposed to just use Bass and Treble?

A lot of HiFi installations don't have bass and treble controls either The theory is that messing about with the signal with tone controls of any sort (assuming you have a half-decent source, amp and speakers) has bad effects on the overall sound quality. I can't imagine those speakers are short of bass ?

If you're playing back music via a computer, look at something like Jriver that has a built-in digital EQ that would probably be a better way of doing it than with an analogue one. Or just buy another analogue EQ if you prefer it.

[900T-R]

Max M4X WW said:

All I can say is that I have had one since I was about 15 and its stuck. Sounds awful without IMO! Are you supposed to just use Bass and Treble?

If you need an EQ to make things sound less than awful, either something is very wrong with the balance of your system/room acoustics or you have a very er, individual take on what music is supposed to sound like that doesn't have a lot in common with what it sounds like in its 'natural' state anymore.

Your consumer-grade EQ is a box full of cheap op-amps and potentiometer (one decent volume pot costs about the same to make as that entire equalizer ) that does terrible things to the delicate music signal. Just throw it away and start again.

I don't think I used tone controls for the past 25 years or so. In a well balanced system there's no need unless there's something very obviously wrong with a recording in terms of tonal balance (extremely rare IME, lots goes wrong within the recording/mastering process but never as simple as 'too much bass' or 'rolled off treble').

[Max M4X WW]

Thanks for the advice guys, I guess I'm just so used to having one.

I will try it without, admittedly its usually just listening to the TV or music through my media PC. I never listen to CD's any more.