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Peacebone posted:What should the next upgrade in my setup be? Your speakers. By a huge margin to everything else. Your turntable/cart are gold compared to those speakers. Get something decently 3-way (or a sub if you must) if you're after a more "complete" listening experience. Or get some nice headphones And tubes will do a lot of things when you put them in the circuit but "increase fidelity" is like the complete opposite of what they do.
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May 30, 2015 04:22
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The biggest sources of distortion in your chain are your speakers and cartridge/stylus. Given those speakers are like $200/pair (and the cartridge is ~$100) I would look into getting new speakers.
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May 30, 2015 04:23
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Peacebone posted:What should the next upgrade in my setup be? subwoofer or better speakers
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May 30, 2015 05:36
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Sold for $320, can't complain when it was FREE, and I spent $40 on a preamp and two records.
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May 30, 2015 16:36
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Dogen posted:Oh yeah I don't think there's any way to fix that without just replacing the tone arm unfortunately. Probably not worth it. Oh well, thanks anyway. It was a freebie. Google doesn't even help me find a replacement tone arm.
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May 30, 2015 20:27
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Turntables can run through computers right? Have limited space right now at school and I was thinking of picking up a used or cheap one for my dorm.
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May 31, 2015 19:56
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Yes but you'll need a phono pre amp if your turntable doesn't have one built in, and an RCA to 3.5mm adapter so you can plug it into your line-in jack. If your turntable has USB then you don't need any of that.
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May 31, 2015 20:06
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SuperSix posted:Turntables can run through computers right? Have limited space right now at school and I was thinking of picking up a used or cheap one for my dorm. Not to be an rear end but saying you have limited space but want a turntable (and presumably records) is like saying you're on a diet but want a lifetime supply of Carvel cakes. The receiver isn't really the biggest part of a stereo, and if you stack them it takes up the same footprint as a turntable.
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May 31, 2015 20:16
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BigFactory posted:Not to be an rear end but saying you have limited space but want a turntable (and presumably records) is like saying you're on a diet but want a lifetime supply of Carvel cakes. The receiver isn't really the biggest part of a stereo, and if you stack them it takes up the same footprint as a turntable. No, that's fair. My parents just have a whole boat load of records at home that they never use and I though I could start going through them to see what I like. BANME.sh posted:Yes but you'll need a phono pre amp if your turntable doesn't have one built in, and an RCA to 3.5mm adapter so you can plug it into your line-in jack. If your turntable has USB then you don't need any of that. thanks!
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May 31, 2015 20:24
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If anyone's looking for a really excellent little solid state amp, someone's selling a Sansui AU-222 on eBay from Canada and it's about to end: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Sansui-solid-state-amplifier-model-AU-222-/271880220332 I fell in love with this thing when I had to test it to sell it, and it was what got me into vintage audio gear. It's only 18wpc, but it powered my dad's huge Pioneer speakers just fine, and it sounded great through headphones too. I'd buy it for myself since it's only $80 right now but I just don't need another amplifier 
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May 31, 2015 22:14
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I got handed-me-down a Dual 701(with a nice old Shure cartridge) and Sony STR V35 receiver, and I want to build a nice listening setup out of them, so I need some speakers and stands (plus whatever else). Both appear to be from the 70s or 80s. The Dual needs a repair, but I had an expert look at it, and it should be in great shape after that. The Sony, I'm not sure. Just planning on plugging it in and finding out... I'd like to put it in my practice space/office next to my desk, and also run my computer through the same speakers. I'm saving up for a decent recording setup, as well, and I'd love to be able to use the same speakers as "monitors" and for the hi-fi system. a.) I'm definitely on a budget, so the less I spend on speakers and stands, the better. At the same time, I'd love a setup that would work for some nice home listening and home recording for a good while, so I'm willing to consider slightly more expensive stuff if the quality is head-and-shoulders better. b.) Is this practical? I.e. Is it a terrible mistake to try to use the same bookshelf speakers as stereo speakers for a hi-fi and as monitors for a home recording setup? I'm not TOO terribly concerned about the BEST POSSIBLE MONITORS for recording, just something usable. Any recommendations for cheaper speakers and stands? From what THE INTERNET tells me, the Dayton B652s are insane for the price, and people like the Pioneer SP-BS22-LR Andrew Jones speakers. Are the Pioneers worth $80 more than the Daytons? How about stands - it would be on carpet, and I'd be sitting in a computer chair. firebad57 fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Jun 4, 2015 |
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Jun 4, 2015 21:39
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firebad57 posted:b.) Is this practical? I.e. Is it a terrible mistake to try to use the same bookshelf speakers as stereo speakers for a hi-fi and as monitors for a home recording setup? I'm not TOO terribly concerned about the BEST POSSIBLE MONITORS for recording, just something usable. It depends a bit on how tight your budget really is. There are some studio monitors out there with a price comparable to the Pioneers, but I couldn't tell you how good or bad they are. But you could read up on those. If you can stretch up to, say, $300, you're going to find stuff that is leaps and bounds better for home recording. Like, decent enough.
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Jun 4, 2015 22:40
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Flipperwaldt posted:I would go the other way round and buy affordable studio monitors and use them for hi-fi as well. Mixing on speakers tuned for a pleasing sound is an excercise in futility. I hadn't thought about how colored stereo speakers might be. Interesting - this seems like good advice. Any thoughts on whether listening to vinyl on studio monitors would negatively impact the experience? Seems like it would be fine - I've listened to plenty of non-monitoring playback on studio monitors in the past, and it's always fine for me.
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Jun 4, 2015 23:13
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firebad57 posted:Any thoughts on whether listening to vinyl on studio monitors would negatively impact the experience? Whether you think something like that is a negative impact depends on your expectations. I like it. Other than that, it won't be a lot different. When mixing though. If everything comes out as roughly having the same amount of bass added by the speakers, you're going to have no idea what's happening on that front in the actual mix. You're not going to add bass where it's needed, sending out tinny mixes, or just not notice other problems in that frequency band. And that's maybe not even the only frequency band that might be -intentionally- colored in some way on bookshelf speakers. I really don't know if all this is as true in the price bracket you are looking into (ie if the monitors at that price are actually really a lot more accurate), but as a general principle it is fair.
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Jun 4, 2015 23:58
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So after waiting more than a month for the seller to actually ship them to the correct address, today I finally received some replacement LED lamps for my Marantz 2226B. Before with two dead lamps in the radio dial:  After:  They're nowhere near as bright as that would have you believe because my phone's camera sucks but it's a definite improvement. The receiver isn't half as hot as it used to be, too. I really should replace the diffuser paper as well.
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Jun 9, 2015 18:24
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Looks nice! But I am not a fan of the ultra blue LED look personally. Yesterday I re-lamped a 2250B with the traditional incandescent bulbs. When I took the unit apart, I found that the original owner had them replaced previously using 300mA lamps instead of the recommended 200mA. As a result, the plastic light housing was all warped, yellowed, and melted in some places. I replaced the diffuser paper with a double layer of parchment paper, the kind you use for baking. It's pure white and infused with silicone, so it withstands high heat and won't yellow. Two layers because only one was not diffused enough.
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Jun 9, 2015 18:36
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BANME.sh posted:Looks nice! But I am not a fan of the ultra blue LED look personally. Thanks! I'm not really too much of a fan either (it's a little too purple for me) but like I said, it's an improvement, it puts out way less heat, and it's nice that I won't have to replace them for 300 years or so. It's funny that you mention using wax paper because that's exactly what I used. I almost wonder if I shouldn't go three or four layers thick with it, because even with two layers there's that much bleed through.
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Jun 9, 2015 18:51
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Wax paper isn't parchment paper and won't stand up to high heat the same way.
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Jun 9, 2015 18:55
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Whoops, I meant parchment paper. I don't know why I said wax paper.
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Jun 9, 2015 19:04
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Did you replace the paper behind the signal strength meters? Mine are a lot more difficult to access and look significantly more turquoise than blue compared to the tuner dial, now. I think I am going to have to remove the tuner string and desolder a bunch of stuff to gain access, which is going to be a major pain in the rear end.
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Jun 9, 2015 19:21
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I actually didn't for exactly that reason. Too much of a pain in the rear end. It looks to me like the housings have to come off to replace the paper, and that plastic is way too yellowed, old and brittle for me to feel comfortable working on it. I replaced the paper before the "before" picture and you can see in that picture how much whiter those are than the tuner dial.
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Jun 9, 2015 19:41
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I couldn't live knowing I never replaced the paper behind the signal strength meters. Tonight I desoldered everything, removed the entire plastic housing which also meant removing the tuner dial string. Now the entire faceplate is the same uniform aqua blue. Putting it back together wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought. Just take a photo of the wires before you desolder anything. I also ended up snapping the dial pointer somehow. That thing is fragile as heck. Should be simple to crazy glue back in place though.
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Jun 10, 2015 06:15
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Good luck recalibrating it e: oh you snapped the pointer and not the string. In any case, don't snap the string if you can help it. 
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Jun 11, 2015 00:17
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I'm a total noob. I just picked up a record player that I think needs a new needle (It's a Luxor, some Swedish brand, very little info on the internet). My scrub question is, if I can't find a needle that was made for this particular model, am I hosed? Would there be other needles that would be compatible with it and how do I find it?
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Jun 12, 2015 13:24
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ravenkult posted:I'm a total noob. I just picked up a record player that I think needs a new needle (It's a Luxor, some Swedish brand, very little info on the internet). My scrub question is, if I can't find a needle that was made for this particular model, am I hosed? Would there be other needles that would be compatible with it and how do I find it? Can you post a couple of pictures of the old needle and the head of the tone arm? If it's a standard fitting with two screws and four wires or a standard headshell plug, all standard cartridges should fit just fine. E: I recommend the Ortofon OM-5E cartridge. It's high quality, inexpensive and widely available. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 14:04 on Jun 12, 2015 |
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Jun 12, 2015 13:59
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KozmoNaut posted:Can you post a couple of pictures of the old needle and the head of the tone arm?    Hope this helps!
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Jun 12, 2015 14:40
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Those are very helpful The pickup you have right now is a universal type, which can play both normal LPs (and single), as well as older 78 RPM records. The white lever can be flipped around to change between the two stylus types. Unless you have a specific need to play really old records, an ordinary cartridge will be fine. You can change it by unscrewing the flathead screws on either side of the cartridge. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but there should be four wires connecting to the cartridge, and they should be color coded in some way, either on the wires themselves or on the cartridge. If the wires themselves are not marked, make sure to do so with little bits of tape or something! White/blue is the left channel (blue is ground) and red/green is the right channel (green is ground). When you connect a new cartridge, it will be color coded for the correct connections, and the plugs should slip right on. I can't tell from the tonearm, but is there any method for adjusting the tracking weight, some kind of counterweight on the rear of the tonearm or a dial or something? I would assume there is one, as regular LPs and 78s require different tracking weights. When you've got your new cartridge mounted, you get to the fun part of aligning it, which is a bit fiddly. We can handle that when you get there 
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Jun 12, 2015 14:59
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Cool. Great news, because it's a cool little machine. Came with speakers and everything. Yeah, it has 4 color coded wires. I'm sure google will help me with a guide for changing the needle.   Any recs for a cheapish cartridge? I think it also has some speed issues so I don't want to sink too much money into it before I can figure out how to fix it.
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Jun 12, 2015 15:13
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Spent some time on craigslist this week and picked up a new living room setup. Need to find a stand for the receiver and turntable, once I do the sources will be a Debut III and first-gen Airport Express.
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Jun 12, 2015 16:48
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FancyMike posted:Spent some time on craigslist this week and picked up a new living room setup. Need to find a stand for the receiver and turntable, once I do the sources will be a Debut III and first-gen Airport Express. I've always wanted a Pioneer SX-1010 (or one of those variations). I think they're some of the best-looking receivers out there.
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Jun 12, 2015 16:54
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wa27 posted:I've always wanted a Pioneer SX-1010 (or one of those variations). I think they're some of the best-looking receivers out there. This one's an 828 and I agree it's a great look. It'd be nice to find a matching tape deck at some point.
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Jun 12, 2015 17:16
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ravenkult posted:Cool. Great news, because it's a cool little machine. Came with speakers and everything. Yeah, it's not really that super hard to change a cartridge, but it is a little fiddly getting everything aligned properly. This guide is pretty good: http://gizmodo.com/5216965/how-to-calibrate-your-turntable-for-the-best-possible-sound As for decent, but affordable cartridges, the Ortofon OM-5E is pretty much the gold standard. It comes as standard equipment on a bunch of well-regarded turntables. Replacement styluses are cheap and come in all price ranges from standard to high-end, and it's compatible with just about any tonearm out there. The only caveat is that it may be a little too light for some tonearms, but you can buy cheap add-on weights for next to nothing if that turns out to be a problem. I'm using one on my Technics SL-1210MK2, and it's doing a wonderful job. You can usually find it for ~$50, sometimes as low as $30 on sale.
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Jun 12, 2015 17:42
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ravenkult posted:Cool. Great news, because it's a cool little machine. Came with speakers and everything. Kozmonaut's OM-5 recommendation is a good one. I'd also throw in a plug for the Audio Technica AT95e. It's probably the most recommended cart in the scene today and I'd say that it's about as much cartridge as 99% of vinyl owners need. I myself have one on my TT and I couldn't be happier with it. That's a really pretty looking table, btw. When you say that it came with speakers...I'm assuming that you'll still need to get a receiver/amp, right?
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Jun 12, 2015 18:52
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the amp looks built into the table
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Jun 12, 2015 18:53
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Yeah, it's an integrated turntable+amp+radio unit, very oldschool
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Jun 12, 2015 18:55
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Yeah, it's built in. Radio works too! Here's how it looks. Has some weird gunk on some of the dials, I probably need to buy some cleaning stuff to get it out. 
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Jun 12, 2015 19:08
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Golly that's so dope. How many WPC is it? Is it quadrophonic (you mentioned 4 speakers)?
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Jun 12, 2015 19:22
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ravenkult posted:Yeah, it's built in. Radio works too! What am I even looking at with those tuner dials?
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Jun 12, 2015 19:23
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I think they turn to set the frequency, and then push to select that preset.
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Jun 12, 2015 19:54
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Just the 2 speakers. I haven't looked into it a lot but yeah, those on the right are presets for stations. I think it also hooks up to a tape deck?
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Jun 12, 2015 20:38
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