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Ron Burgundy posted:Sort of... Nice! Does it work? I've been considering picking up an old TV from craigslist (I see free ones fairly regularly) and turning it into an oscilloscope to hook into my turntable. dik-dik fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 21:04
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BANME.sh posted:There's probably a dozen vintage cabinets up for sale on craigslist/kijiji at any given time, usually for cheap. I bought a vintage cabinet for $20 and resurfaced it. Not in the American Northeast (unless, maybe, you live north of Vermont or something). Almost everything that's worth buying and could be sold under the "vintage/midcentury/vinyl" monikers gets a healthy markup. If you're willing to spend in the hundreds on used finds then it's also worth looking at the credenza options from CB2 and other similar companies, IMO.
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Oct 7, 2014 01:00
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Electric Bugaloo posted:Not in the American Northeast (unless, maybe, you live north of Vermont or something). Almost everything that's worth buying and could be sold under the "vintage/midcentury/vinyl" monikers gets a healthy markup. That's not really true at all. Yard sales, estate sales, thrift stores and goodwill are all sources for bargains. If you watch Craigslist every single day and throw a wide net you'll find something you want for the right price. Maybe free.
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Oct 7, 2014 01:13
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dik-dik posted:Nice! Does it work? I've been considering picking up an old TV from craigslist (I see free ones fairly regularly) and turning it into an oscilloscope to hook into my turntable. Unfortunately not. Someone let the magic smoke out before I got it. Main picture tube looks alright, will be getting it checked out soon.
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Oct 7, 2014 09:36
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dik-dik posted:turning it into an oscilloscope to hook into my turntable. That is awesome. I have several old larger console tv's that would look great on. The bad news is that I don't know much of anything about electricity and am kind-of scared of it. How are you liking it? I have a similar model and it sounds great
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Oct 8, 2014 11:57
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Yeah, I loving love Yamahas. They often get ignored by vintage-heads but I think they have the most timeless and classy design out of the whole '70s lot. Their sound is totally clean (which I think contributes to their being sidelined by Pioneer and Marantz stuff in the resale game)- like high quality modern amps- but with gobs of power behind it. I have a CR-2040 (one generation newer from the ones we've been talking about) that's my pride and joy but I've been lusting over something from the CR-xx20 line for some time now. They're functionally almost the same but they look different enough to warrant a desire for both.
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Oct 8, 2014 18:03
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Yeah I like the sound, but still prefer my Denon or Sansui over it, so I will be selling them soon.
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Oct 8, 2014 18:41
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TooLShack posted:Yeah I like the sound, but still prefer my Denon or Sansui over it, so I will be selling them soon. Ooh. Keep me in mind? The CR-2020 might be a bit rich for me, but the 1020 might be just what I'm looking for if the price is good.
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Oct 8, 2014 18:55
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I have the following carts to use between my two turntables (Sanyo TP825D & Marantz 6200). Shure M97XE (Currently on the Sanyo) Audio Technica AT95E (Currently on the Marantz) Signet TK3EA w/ 7EA stylus (came with Marantz, probably last used in the 80's, tested on some of my cheaper records) Shure R25XT (not in use) I am interested in at least one stylus upgrade (to start at least). What would be my best bet? I like the sound of all 3. I'm guessing the Shure and the Signet would benefit the most from an upgrade. Any experience with upgrading these carts?
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Oct 9, 2014 03:41
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I put a jico sas stylus on my m97xe and I've been pretty happy with the result
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Oct 9, 2014 05:02
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I've never been able to get rid of the IGD on the m97, would be interested to know if this is a result of lovely QC and third party styli overcome this issue.
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Oct 9, 2014 06:27
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I would think that's a stylus and table setup issue more than the cart itself, but I'm not an engineer, so I dunno.
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Oct 9, 2014 18:56
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Not too sure, I didn't give up without a fight... with an alignment protractor. Table is SL-1200. I've read elsewhere that this particular arm and cart aren't a great match.
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Oct 10, 2014 03:54
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Huh, that's my setup. I just used the technics overhang adjustment dealie and it sounds fine to me. I have the tracking force set to 1ish, anti-skate about the same What I am saying is, it's all sorcery
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Oct 10, 2014 04:52
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Just bought a pair of Dali 2A speakers at a flea market, and man do they ever sound nice. i guess my next upgrade is a better stereo for them, since the cheap hitachi i'm using right now may not exactly be the best quality. They're replacing my other pair of Dali speakers that i also found at a flea market   both speakers hooked up. ran a bass test from spotify and everything came out crisp. please ignore my other decorations, i'm a shameless nerd.EDIT: a quick bit of research revealed that they're from about 86. they're older than me :v Frobbe fucked around with this message at 14:19 on Oct 11, 2014 |
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Oct 11, 2014 14:15
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I'm looking to upgrade the cart on my AT-LP120. Currently the Shure M97XE, which can be found for about $70, and the Ortofon 2M Red, which can be found for about $100. Any thoughts on this? It seems most people recommend the Ortofon over the Shure, and for only $30 more it seems like a great deal, assuming that I would be able to hear an improvement between the two. Or is my turntable so cheap that that extra $30 would basically be a waste?
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Oct 11, 2014 19:23
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Frobbe posted:
drat kids! 
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Oct 11, 2014 20:08
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CannedMacabre posted:drat kids! Only by one year!!! EDIT: might as well use this post for something. the current stereo i use is a hitachi micro stereo, and it's all very nice, but i could probably get nicer sound out of nicer gear. who makes a good micro stereo amp or similar? the only feature i use a lot in the current one is the DAB radio, and i could probably do all this much easier via spotify or my own NAS played via that netbook i've got. so should i look for a micro stereo amp or something more "exotic" like a dedicated amp with usb input and nothing else? Frobbe fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Oct 12, 2014 |
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Oct 11, 2014 20:19
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I have a Technics SL-D3 with a Audio Technica CN5625AL .7 mil Conical Half-inch cartridge on it. A few weeks ago I came home to find my turntable spinning with the needle on the bare platter. Either I must have accidentally hit the auto-start before I left for work, or my dog must have somehow hit it while I was gone. Probably the first one. Which means my needle was dragging on a bare platter for like 8-10 hours. Enough to make a circular mark on the platter. That was easy enough to clean off, but it's not the platter I'm worried about. I took the headshell off to try and inspect the needle, and it looked surprisingly ok. Not bent left or right or anything, which is really the only thing I could think of to look for. I tried playing one of my old crappy records, and it sounded fine, or at least no crappier than that record normally sounds. What's the likelihood that I hosed up my needle here? I did try playing one of my better records, and it also sounded fine. But I'm worried that I did something like blunted the tip of the needle and I'm doing irreparable damage to my records by continuing to use it. I looked up a replacement needle for my cartridge, and it's nearly the same price I paid for the cartridge itself in the first place. So I figure maybe this is a good excuse to upgrade my cartridge. In a lot of reviews for my table, I keep seeing mention of making sure that the cartridge you pick is a good fit for the type of table/tonearm you have. Is there any merit to this? People keep recommending the Shure M97XE (out of my price range) and the AT95E. The 95E seems like a fine cartridge and is in my price range, but I was leaning towards the Ortofon Omega. It's a bit cheaper than the AT, and I like the look of it better than the AT. How can I find out if this cartridge is a good "match" for my table, if that's even a thing and not just audiophile mumbo jumbo?
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Oct 13, 2014 18:30
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It's mostly audiophile mumbo jumbo. Realistically the only concern you need to have is that the cartridge weight is correct for your tonearm specs, but any common cartridge will be anyway. You only run into incompatibilities once you get into more exotic carts. The AT95E will be fine.
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Oct 13, 2014 18:43
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So should I assume my old needle is hosed?
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Oct 13, 2014 19:05
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OldSenileGuy posted:So should I assume my old needle is hosed? There are a lot of threads on AudioKarma about this (google around using phrases like "when should I replace my stylus" and the like), and the general concensus from what I've read is that the best way to check your needle is to play a record and see how it sounds. Since you've done that and it sounded fine I would guess that it probably is fine.
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Oct 13, 2014 19:35
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OldSenileGuy posted:So should I assume my old needle is hosed? If it plays fine and sounds fine, then it's probably fine. A lot of people recommend swapping the needle on a used turntable even if it sounds good, but that has more to do with not knowing what its care/environment/oxidation situation has been and wanting to protect your LPs from damage than for sound quality issues (though I guess it can also be worth doing if you've never heard a particular cart before and want to make sure you're hearing it "at its best"). Generally it's pretty noticeable when your stylus has failed. All of that said- in my purely anecdotal experience, I had the very same cartridge you do and replaced it with an AT95e after the needle broke. To my ears there was a notable upgrade in sound quality, particularly in the separation between the left and right channels. It's been my "daily driver" for almost two years at this point. I think it's a fantastic cartridge and haven't seen any reason to upgrade. Couldn't tell you about the Ortofon, but I've heard that the M97XE has had quality control issues. As an aside, I'd argue that switching from a basement-level cart with a conical stylus to an inexpensive one with an elliptical stylus for an extra $20 is going to give you way more ROI than switching from an AT95e to something costing several times as much.
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Oct 14, 2014 02:19
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While we're on the topic of damaged styluses (styli?), is it possible for a damaged stylus to cause sibilance? I accidentally caused my cartridge (AT95E) to drag across the felt mat (don't ask  ), and now I get a really annoying fuzziness whenever the music has any loud s sounds, which I think is sibilance? Anyway, I re-aligned my cart using the free protractor from vinylengine.com, and the sibilance didn't seem to change much, if at all.Should I just get a new needle? E: Wtf why are complete AT95E cartridges cheaper than the stylus on its own???? I actually have a new—different—cartridge coming in in a few days so I'll probably just wait until that gets here, swap it out, and see if it helps, but I also want to know what's happening. dik-dik fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Oct 16, 2014 |
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Oct 16, 2014 05:40
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On old stereo receivers: Are TAPE REC and TAPE MON basically like AUX out ports?
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Oct 20, 2014 01:31
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dik-dik posted:On old stereo receivers: Are TAPE REC and TAPE MON basically like AUX out ports? You can use them like that, yeah.
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Oct 20, 2014 01:33
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Sweet. Thanks! I found a cheap old receiver on craigslist and I wanted to see if I can use it with my current powered speakers while I shop around for some bookshelf speakers. (not that I would let the inability to use it with my powered monitors stop me—I just wanted to make sure I could before I potentially drove myself crazy trying to do something impossible) E: GODDAMMIT Don't loving post in the craigslist for a city over an hour away from you 
dik-dik fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Oct 20, 2014 |
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Oct 20, 2014 01:39
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I've been hunting for a vintage system for about a year and I just pulled the trigger on a Sansui 8080DB. It's a great unit, I'm really happy with it so far.   The Dolby noise reduction feature is really great for cleaning up lovely recordings that are mixed with lots of background noise / hiss. I find myself using it a lot more than I was expecting to.
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Oct 20, 2014 02:21
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Looks sweet. What speakers are you running. B&Ws?
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Oct 20, 2014 02:25
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dik-dik posted:On old stereo receivers: Are TAPE REC and TAPE MON basically like AUX out ports? TAPE REC is line out TAPE MON is line in All together known as the tape loop.
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Oct 20, 2014 02:28
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BigFactory posted:Looks sweet. What speakers are you running. B&Ws? They are PSB Image T5s. Picked them up used on CanuckAudioMart last year and they've been treating me pretty well.
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Oct 20, 2014 02:39
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Frobbe posted:Just bought a pair of Dali 2A speakers at a flea market, and man do they ever sound nice. i guess my next upgrade is a better stereo for them, since the cheap hitachi i'm using right now may not exactly be the best quality. They're replacing my other pair of Dali speakers that i also found at a flea market Zoinks! I sold those back in the 80's. The Dali IV was a great setup - those look like the III's; I guess they changed the model #'s around at some point. Any pictures with the grilles off?
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Oct 20, 2014 17:25
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Okay, I'm on the hunt again for a vintage stereo receiver and probably some vintage speakers to pair with it for setting up my turntable in our living room. Ideally I'm looking at refurbished 1970's Sansui, or Marantz, Pioneer, etc. Budget is less than $200 but if I can find a bargain deal on craigslist and have it restored w/out paying an arm and a leg then that'd be good too. I'm willing to pay a bit of a premium for aesthetics but I don't need a top of the line quad receiver or something high-powered as it just needs to be loud enough to power some smaller speakers for our living room. My priorities are: 1) sounds good 2) looks good My questions are... can anybody tell me what the minimum wattage I should be looking for is? What are some good classic speakers I should be keeping an eye out for? Is there an easy explanation somewhere of model numbers for Marantz, Sansui, etc, so I know what to keep an eye out for? Also looking for a good record player stand/console if anybody has seen any online.
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Oct 21, 2014 00:48
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MMD3 posted:Okay, I'm on the hunt again for a vintage stereo receiver and probably some vintage speakers to pair with it for setting up my turntable in our living room. Ideally I'm looking at refurbished 1970's Sansui, or Marantz, Pioneer, etc. Hopefully you're posting from 2007, otherwise $200 seems like a really short budget for Marantz, Sansui or Pioneer and speakers, refurbished or not.
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Oct 21, 2014 01:08
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BigFactory posted:Hopefully you're posting from 2007, otherwise $200 seems like a really short budget for Marantz, Sansui or Pioneer and speakers, refurbished or not. hmmm... http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/ele/4713078436.html http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/ele/4723446901.html There's a record shop in town that actually has a side business refurbing old home stereo equipment and they regularly have them in that price range. Unfortunately their current stock is high end models and quad channel stuff so it's more in the ~$300 range. If I knew what i was looking at and found the right thing my budget could go up, I just don't feel like I need a flagship model.
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Oct 21, 2014 01:32
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You can always get lucky. I got my pioneer for 20 bucks in a thrift store and it's pretty perfect
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Oct 21, 2014 01:33
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Ah, you're in Portland. I have no idea why, but that place has huge amounts of vintage gear floating around. You should be able to get better than average prices.
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Oct 21, 2014 01:39
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You've got a shot. Especially if you're willing to go low-wattage. I have a Pioneer SX-690 that I got cleaned and serviced for $80. The 30 WPC rating sounds dinky on paper but it gets just as loud as my 120 WPC Yamaha from the same era (at least within the tolerances I'm willing to test them at) and totally has the same Pioneer sound coloration that the bigger ones do. With this clade of receivers, WPC has a more noticeable effect on dynamic range than loudness. Most low-wattage vintage amps will provide more than enough power to sound good in a room through most decent speakers and those are often priced to sell when compared to their monster brethren. Also, you should be open to other, less sought-after manufacturers. I know that all I ever do is talk about Yamaha, but they're a great example of a top-notch brand that's a little off the beaten path and usually less pricey used than the Pioneers/Marantz/etc, though Yamaha's design language and sound profile are admittedly quite a bit different. There are plenty of other companies like Sony and Technics that made good gear and should be considered if the option arises and the price is right. The same (sorta) goes for speakers too, though you might have an easier time getting some half-decent modern speakers. My recommendation is to browse Craigslist and google anything of interest to see what the reviews are like. Anything worth thinking about should have an AudioKarma thread.
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Oct 21, 2014 01:54
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MMD3 posted:hmmm... If you want to add a pair of $15 speakers to those, knock yourself out. I'd rather spend $150 on speakers and find a bargain receiver like a Nikko or something. Search audiokarma with every model you come across. You'll see some patterns soon enough.
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Oct 21, 2014 01:58
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You can also look into getting an integrated amp instead of a receiver if you don't care about radio (or if your phone has a radio tuner  ). You could probably get something like the Philips SA 5200 for about $20.
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Oct 21, 2014 02:04
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