Hauled a very heavy component 80's vintage HiFi stereo system out of my sometimes damp basement into the garage. Hooked it up and all the dial knobs were hit or miss. The heavy duty Onkyo components outlasted every one of my 80's college roommates big name systems under extremely hard usage. Opened up the case tonight and all of the rotary knob switches had exposed contacts, sprayed some electronic contact cleaner on them and cycled the knobs. It's now kicking ass and taking names like it was new. May last another 40 years. The expensive 87 vintage Yamaha cd player was DOA, good news was it had my long lost dark side of the moon cd in it.
I have an old kenwood amp hooked up to a dab radio with nad speakers. I can also plug in my ipod . Works a treat and a great excuse not to hear the missus calling me in from the garage LOL
Vintage amps kick a**! I repaired a 50 year old Trio a few weeks ago, after all those years it just needed a new smoothing cap and once I fired it up it blew my more modern Hi-Fi away!
Trio was an excellent brand. Basically the "Hi-Fi" arm of Kenwood and they produced some truly top end gear. Their L-07D turntable is still considered one of the finest ever made. My first ever proper hi-fi system was built around Trio kit, but not their high end gear.
Much the same, albeit not in the mancave. Late 70's/ Earl 80's Kit as well, opened up and given a liberal treatment of IPA/GT85 and it's kicking! Added some modern floor standing speakers, DAB tuner & a bluetooth adaptor so i can stream from phone/mac. Buying new vinyl has made me realise how different it is now with all of the streaming services. If i'm spending £25 on an album, i've started to read reviews again, and actually think about what i'm buying.
Very true. Records are my primary source, backed up by a decent CD player. Streaming just leaves me cold. If there's something I'm not sure about I usually have a listen on Spotify, (free), before committing to the hard stuff.
I feel sorry for kids with their Mp3s, using their phones as a hi-fi, they have no idea how the music is supposed to sound. There are services that allow you to stream at cd quality which I'm thinking of signing up to but then you're not really owning the music. I still think if you want to hear the music as intended you have to have vinyl
to be honest, i don't mind it for casual listening, or when i'm too lazy(stoned!) to bother with changing LP's, but there's something very special about listening to good quality vinyl, it's just a more involving experience. A lad i work with runs events for the uk dub scene, and has just started releasing some of their own stuff, initially exclusively on vinyl. The care they put in to the quality of mastering and then production onto proper heavyweight vinyl gives me faith that the turntable has got a few years of life left in it yet.
Oh, the turntable will be around for a very long time yet. If they stopped producing vinyl tomorrow there's a 60 year back-catalogue out there, 90% of which I've probably never heard of, to explore. Quality is vinyl's Achilles heel, it has to be done right with no corners cut in recording, mastering and definitely production. Recording studios are also losing the old school technicians who understand things like headroom and dynamics which is why so many newer recordings, in any format, sound so flat and lifeless.
I've had my old Technics set up in the garage for some time now, the only casualty seems to be the CD player which is knackered.
With luck my mancave will be done soon. I'm going to set up my Onkyo amplifier with a pair of B&W speakers. I'm still to get a record player for all the old vinyl...
@johne better snap up a good cd player as the choices are rapidly dying out. Mine had a belt in it that somehow turned into a sticky tar like substance after 33 years. Rubber eating microbe, who knows.
I am still using a 36 years old JVC amp that was Part of my 18th birthday present that my dear old mum and I went out and bought. It holds a lot of memories for me as she is no longer around. It is now linked up to some amazing Bose speakers and I have to admit to linking it up to my Sonos bridge. I Stream all the time now and it sounds pretty good in this set up. But.... my mother in laws old Sony music centre with a turntable has made it to our house as she is no longer here either and we tried it out recently. Whilst the sound is only so-so, there is something quite special about putting a record on and listening, rather than just clicking away on your phone.
It takes a lot of time, effort and money to get the very best out of a record. I love the engineering of it, all designed to let that tiny chip of diamond track the millions of tiny little lumps and bumps in the groove. I'm still gobsmacked now how it's able to produce the amazing sound it does. Here's mine: Definitely NOT in the garage though!
Love the idea of putting my old Nad amp and B&W speakers in the bike shed, but then there'd be no room for my bike!!
Fun thread. Back in the 80s, I had some nice Technics gear. College in the 90s, moved on to Pioneer Elite and JVC. The I grabbed some serious components, including a Theta Digital processor and a Classe amp. There was a Colorado based speaker company called Dunlavy Audio Lab. It was a cool setup. Then marriage and kids, work, almost never had time. I have always been a 2 channel audio guy. A few years ago, I acquired a Musical Fidelity NuVista 800 (you UK guys might know the brand). It is a wonderfully warm integrated amplifier, and I enjoy my CD collection more than ever before. The B&W CM10s are really good for hard rock, fast percussion stuff. Here are some shots of my old man cave, the location is revised but the gear is the same.
Ha so there are some old audiophiles still living in exile. I still rock my NAD 7100 Receiver circa 1988 in the garage, but my Snell JII bookshelf speakers died years ago. What the hell happened to music? Now digital files you cannot touch played on throwaway equipment after 2 years.
