Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
andretti
Jun 28, 2008

This is the thread for anyone interested turntables, cheap (but good) speakers, 2-channel stereos, or vintage equipment. Basically, if you want a decent music-listening/TV-watching setup for $200 or a setup with a turntable for $300, this thread is for you. I'm adding some other stuff about higher-end turntables too, since there seems to be interest.

I assume that you can scrounge up cables from somewhere, so that's not listed.

  • Speakers
    Insignia 6 1/2" Bookshelf Speaker - about $90 at Best Buy, and you can pick 'em up from the store. I haven't pushed them to their limit yet, but they sound great to me.

  • Receivers
    Anything Pioneer SX-XXX from the 70's (626, 650, 525, etc etc). Some other good brands are Sony, Marantz (a little pricier), Harman Kardon, Kenwood, and Yamaha. They go for anywhere from :20bux: to $200ish. See section on vintage receivers further down. If want a new receiver that's 2 channel, you can get a Outlaw 2150, which is about $700.

  • Turntables
    • El Cheapo (less than $100 new)
      • Audio Technica AT-PL50 - has phono and line-level outputs, but you'll probably need to buy an RCA extension cable. Aside from the short cable, I love mine. It's fully automatic so I just have to put the LP on the mat and hit play.
      • Sony PSLX250H - basically the same as the AT-PL50
    • El Guapo
    • El Camino
      • Technics SL-1200 - this is the classic turntable, in production since 1972. These are always in demand by DJs even though it's an audiophile table, expect to pay $500 for a new one, or $250 used. You can also mod the poo poo out of these if you want.
      • There are a bunch of good Thorens tables out there (maybe $150 used)
      • Sanyo TP1012 - Another 70's TT. This one sounds good too, if the cartridge is decent. About $50 on your local craigslist.

--Turntables--
Why buy a turntable?
It is PHIZzy as hell! Seriously though, listening to vinyl is a different experience than listening to a CD or MP3. I'm not exactly sure why, but vinyl draws the listener in moreso than other media. Also, it's fun to go buy LPs.

A lot of turntable info is available here.

Buying Vintage Turntables
I didn't do this, it seemed like a crapshoot. There are some great turntables out there, but they're around $40 to ship. Flea markets, thrift shops, craigslist, and local-pickup EBay are your friends. If you want to go nuts, you can get a something like a PL-630 and rebuild it.

Avoid non-functional turntables unless you know what you're doing, or you don't mind spending hours and hours trying to fix it. Also, make sure you get a dust cover.

Buying New/Modern Turntables
I used the following criteria: fully automatic, replaceable cartridge and/or stylus, smallish footprint, no USB output, and phono-level outputs. I didn't care about super-high audio fidelity, I'd listen to a CD if I wanted that. I also didn't have a preference between direct drive and belt drive. Note about DJ turntables: There's nothing wrong with a DJ turntable, except that you may be paying for features you won't use (fancy speed controls, playing records backwards, etc). Also it may look out of place in your living room, if you care about that.

helpful turntable nuggets
An SL1200 FAQ (read this even if you don't have a 1200, it has general advice).

Cartridges and Needles
Most stock carts and styli sound like rear end, especially on entry-level turntables. Some good ones are the Shure m97xe, Denon DL-110 (this one is rated :dong:), and Ortofon 2M Red (which is miles ahead of the OM-5 and OM-10). I'm using a ATN-3600DLX, which is leaps and bounds better than the stock stylus.

Where to get LPs
I usually get them at a local music store, the used book store, and Amazon. In the past few weeks, my local music store really went nuts, and basically tripled their new LP inventory. I'm able to pick up new pressings of classics for $13, and new music for $20ish. Double-albums go for about $27.

Here are some other places you can buy from:

http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?format=Vinyl
http://www.musicstack.com/
http://www.gemm.com/
http://www.turntablelab.com/vinyl/
http://www.insound.com/
http://store.acousticsounds.com/category.cfm?section=vinyl&id=5
http://www.musicdirect.com/category/11
http://www.auralexploits.com/


--Receivers--
Buying Vintage Receivers
Vintage (70's) receivers are frikkin sweet. They have great looks (blue glow :mmmhmm:), they're repairable, sound awesome, have phono inputs, and great radio reception. Also they're about :20bux: and there are large communities online that collect/repair them, such as audiokarma. Pioneer and Marantz seem to have the best "community support". Don't be dismayed by a 70's receiver without lots of wattage, watts were measured differently back then. From the Marantz FAQ:

quote:

35 watts/channel as specified by Marantz in the 1970's meant "The unit can deliver 35 watts into 8 ohms for one hour, from all channels at the same time, with no significant change in distortion, or other specifications, at any time during, or after, the test hour."

..while 100 watts/channel today (for instance, in my JVC surround system) means "The unit can deliver 100 watts for a fraction of a second, in one channel only, if the other channels aren't running and nothing else high energy has happened to drain the power supply of stored energy in the last few seconds."

I think the most telling thing here is that the FAQ's author bought a new 500 RMS watt receiver, but the receiver's power supply was rated for 320 watts:flaccid:. I have a 17 watt system, and I never have to turn the volume control more than a third of the way up from zero. The price/performance sweet spot for 70's receivers is around 70-80 watts, but around 20 watts is just fine for a normal-size room.

Here are some tips for checking out a vintage receiver at a thrift store:

Willeh posted:

If you want to check if a receiver is OK, you could carry some headphones with you when you go to the fleamarket. If they let you turn it on, you can plug those in and mess around with the knobs (input select, volume).

If you get a crackling sound as you turn them, you could have issues with channels dropping out when hooked up to some speakers. You could fix it yourself, but that would require some electronics skills. It's fun though if you know what you're doing, not to mention the savings.

I've replaced all the capacitors in my 525, it wasn't bad at all. I spent about $40 on new caps, and $10 for a soldering iron. I think it made the bass response better, but that could just be in my head. In any event, I did it because I like the receiver and because it was fun, not to save money.

The problem with buying vintage equipment is that you have to do a little searching. I spent about two weeks finding my receiver. They're heavy, and thus expensive to ship ($20-$30). Flea markets, thrift shops and craigslist are your best friends here. Ebay is good too, but make sure you can either pick up locally, or you're comfortable paying for shipping.

Buying New/Modern Recievers
For the price range, I have no idea here:ughh:. Advice would be welcome. One thing to note is that if you're using an old turntable with a new receiver (without phono inputs), you'll need a pre-amp of some sort (BEST: NAD PP3, GOOD: TC750PP, OK: Pyle PP-999, or just DIY).

--Speakers--
The Insignias are decent enough for new speakers, but there are usually great deals on craigslist. If you're adventurous, you can refoam a pair of older speakers.

If you have any info you'd like to see in this post, just post underneath and I'll incorporate it.

andretti fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Jun 30, 2013

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Opioid
Jul 3, 2008

<3 Blood Type ARRRRR
Is it a bad idea to put your turntable on top of your receiver? I'm planning on stacking them (on the top of a thigh high bookcase) but wasn't sure if the heat generated by the receiver would be bad news for the turntable/records.

Also, when buying a 2 speaker system, is the low range of the audio covered well? I'm worried about buying a decent set of bookshelf speakers then finding out that my lovely logitech 5.1 system with a real sub sounds better than a legit audio system.

I was looking at these infinity primus p152 speakers but am open to suggestions for a pair in the $200 range.

Bensa
Aug 21, 2007

Loyal 'til the end.

Opioid posted:

Is it a bad idea to put your turntable on top of your receiver? I'm planning on stacking them (on the top of a thigh high bookcase) but wasn't sure if the heat generated by the receiver would be bad news for the turntable/records.

Also, when buying a 2 speaker system, is the low range of the audio covered well? I'm worried about buying a decent set of bookshelf speakers then finding out that my lovely logitech 5.1 system with a real sub sounds better than a legit audio system.

I was looking at these infinity primus p152 speakers but am open to suggestions for a pair in the $200 range.
I try to avoid having my turntable ontop of the receiver just because it heats up quite a lot and you really want a stable platform that will not react to the sound being played back. If you had your turntable on a piece of sheet metal for example it would vibrate with the music and then induce that vibration on the needle. This creates a loop and can cause howling noises.

Your Logitech is not a real sub and proper bookshelf speakers can match it fine, I can make my windows rattle with speakers which have a a less than 10cm element.

andretti
Jun 28, 2008

Bensa posted:

I try to avoid having my turntable ontop of the receiver just because it heats up quite a lot and you really want a stable platform that will not react to the sound being played back. If you had your turntable on a piece of sheet metal for example it would vibrate with the music and then induce that vibration on the needle. This creates a loop and can cause howling noises.

Agreed. I saw this, which might be another option. You could mount a shelf somewhere for pretty cheap, and put the turntable on that. I'd forego the granite platform and Sorbothane hemispheres:psyduck:, something from Home Depot will be more than sufficient. If you're worried about vibration, get a nice looking $2 paving stone to put underneath the TT (just don't exceed the shelf's load).

EDIT: This guy swears by using bouncy superballs for isolation, maybe you could glue some to the bottom of a paving stone or piece of plexiglass if you're having vibration problems with the shelf.

andretti fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Nov 30, 2008

Sir Tonk
Apr 18, 2006
Young Orc
Wow, perfect timing. I just picked up an old Technics/Panasonic Quad receiver. Straight out of 1974, the SA-6000X.



Specs

It's got everything I want out of a classic receiver: blue lights, big knobs, silver front, and wood paneling. And, as is typical, it's really heavy.

I recently got an old El Camino with an 8 track player and found out that they made quad 8 tracks back in the day, so I'm going to get an old home 8 track player that outputs quad next. I've got a late 70's Pioneer stereo receiver, the SX-780, currently powering my 360, TV, and DVD player with some full-range floor speakers. Sounds killer, but I want some analog surround as well.

Of course, this can't do Dolby digital and all that, so it's not like I'm going to get surround out of the newer technology. I'll get a modern receiver for that someday in the future.

So anyway, anyone have suggestions for some speakers that'd match this receiver? I'd happily buy some older stuff and have it re-coned if need be, just would like the four to match. This doesn't put out a ton of wattage, 35 each channel in stereo and 14 each in quad, but as has been said these are numbers from a different time in hi-fi.

andretti
Jun 28, 2008

Sir Tonk posted:


Awesome buy, that thing looks minty. Where did you find it?

Prince Turveydrop
May 12, 2001

He was a veray parfit gentil knight.
here's my current stereo.

a Marantz 2245 receiver


paired to Axiom M22 V2 speakers


i bought the receiver for a little over $300. it was recently restored and it sounds great. i love the metal front and the FM tuner sounds fantastic when i care to use it. recommended to anyone looking for a classy 2-channel system with knobs and dials instead of a light show every time you turn it on.

looking to complement it with a pro-ject debut iii turntable to round out the set.

dj_pain
Mar 28, 2005

if your in the market for a new pre-amp, get the TC-750. It actually sounds so much better than the cheapo pre-amp i got from jayar radio. If you dont believe me check out the amazon reviews.

dj_pain
Mar 28, 2005

ok ive been inspired by this thread and want to get a vintage amp. Im looking at a pioneer SX-408 or a Technics SU-Z25 which one should i get ?

andretti
Jun 28, 2008

dj_pain posted:

ok ive been inspired by this thread and want to get a vintage amp. Im looking at a pioneer SX-408 or a Technics SU-Z25 which one should i get ?

I can't find specs on the 408, but it might be a little underpowered. What speakers are you planning on using it with?

Sir Tonk
Apr 18, 2006
Young Orc

andretti posted:

Awesome buy, that thing looks minty. Where did you find it?
Ebay, got it for I think $40. I'll probably go through it in a few weeks and refresh all the components that need it.

Chaucer posted:

here's my current stereo.

a Marantz 2245 receiver

Those Marantz receivers have such great designs. I'll probably get one eventually, but it's out of my price range for now.

dj_pain posted:

ok ive been inspired by this thread and want to get a vintage amp. Im looking at a pioneer SX-408 or a Technics SU-Z25 which one should i get ?
If you just want an amp, then the Technics is more practical. Do you want your setup to have a design theme, or not? I'm trying to stick with all Panasonic/Technics equipment since I've already got some Technics turntables and the receiver as well as an 8 track recorder. When buying older equipment, I'd suggest finding a brand you like and then researching which model they put out during the 70's (or whenever) that fits your wattage/aesthetics/features needs.

Sites like this are a great resource as far as a listing of models and their specs.

Swap_File
Nov 24, 2004
WIN386.SWP
Unfortunately all of my equipment is in storage while we remodel the house, so none of the pictures have the units turned on.

First off I have my fathers equipment:

Sansui 2000 amp


Akai X1800-SD Reel to Reel with 8-Track player


Sansui 5 way speakers. One sub, two mids, two tweeters.

He got this when he was in Vietnam, and had it shipped home. It still works great, and is usually set up in the living room hooked up to our TV.

Here is my equipment:


I picked up the Sansui 1000X at a garage sale for $5. It came with a tape deck (Broken), and two speakers (one was blown). I had to use some cleaner on the input selector, but now it works great.

The Sansui AU7900 was actually free from a neighbor. They were throwing it out because it was "too heavy".



The SE-7 is was $10 at a garage sale. It works, but I need to clean up some of the sliders.

I just usually keep mine hooked up to my computer for music playback.

Swap_File fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Dec 7, 2008

Toebone
Jul 1, 2002

Start remembering what you hear.
I've been wanting to get a turntable, anyone have any opinions on the Sony PSLX250H? Amazon reviews seem decent aside from the occasional audiophile rant and it's not too pricey. Other than that, what other units should I be looking at?

andretti
Jun 28, 2008

Toebone posted:

I've been wanting to get a turntable, anyone have any opinions on the Sony PSLX250H? Amazon reviews seem decent aside from the occasional audiophile rant and it's not too pricey. Other than that, what other units should I be looking at?

The PS-LX250H is pretty similar to the AT-PL50. They both are fully automatic, have a switch for the preamp, use the same cartridge, etc. I really like my AT-PL50, so I don't think you'll go wrong.

andretti
Jun 28, 2008

Swap_File posted:


Akai X1800-SD Reel to Reel with 8-Track player

Do you ever use this? How does reel tape and 8-track sound?

dj_pain
Mar 28, 2005

well i got jensen dx-80 (there 180 watts and 6 ohms) as speakers. I did a bit more looking around on ebay and i found a seller who repairs amps. So now im tempted on the SA-6300 which will underpower the speakers according to this site. Im not really worried about the look of the amp, i just want to be able to listen to vinyls without having my wife buging me to watch tv.

andretti
Jun 28, 2008

dj_pain posted:

well i got jensen dx-80 (there 180 watts and 6 ohms) as speakers. I did a bit more looking around on ebay and i found a seller who repairs amps. So now im tempted on the SA-6300 which will underpower the speakers according to this site. Im not really worried about the look of the amp, i just want to be able to listen to vinyls without having my wife buging me to watch tv.

Those speakers are great:australia:. Honestly, if you want to use them to their full potential, you'll need a pretty beefy amp. The SA-6300 is 25W at 8 ohm, I'm not sure if that's going to cut it, even for low-volume listening. I'm not an expert by any means though.

How loud are you interested in getting?

dj_pain
Mar 28, 2005

andretti posted:

How loud are you interested in getting?

not that loud as i got a yamaha RX-V461 in the living room.

Odoyle
Sep 9, 2003
Odoyle Rules!
Our Sony LX250H has a bad cartridge so we'll be replacing that as I short-term fix. My old Onkyo turntable was a ton better than this Sony but it had a short that kept the platter from starting reliably when the arm was moved over it. I gave it away at a yard sale for $15. So...

Like I said the new $30 cart is a short term fix. I'm eyeballing a Rega P1 for a replacement since it's gotten great reviews and it's a bit more reasonably priced compared to the better P2 ($350 vs. $550). Any experience with this player or suggestions why I shouldn't get the P1?

muckswirler
Oct 22, 2008

If you are looking for speakers to match with ~70's era amps, find some old infinity's. They made and still make some really nice poo poo at some price points. If you can find some with a dome midrange driver, snag those suckers if they work. They are pretty much awesome.

Anybody know a good place to have tube amps recapped? I'm not really interested in doing it myself. What can one expect to pay for this service? (Also, I'm not worried about crazy expensive caps, just decent poly or whatever.)

Bonus pic of my golden yard sale find. ($100 w/ dustcover and 13 reels featuring various artists + 2 virgin.)

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Pibborando San
Dec 11, 2004

oh yes. two kinds... of dances

Odoyle posted:

Any experience with this player or suggestions why I shouldn't get the P1?

This article explains why you should get a Pro-ject Debut III over the P1. The Debut is what I've heard recommended again and again and the Ferrari red version will be my first "nice" TT.

Pibborando San fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Dec 8, 2008

pim01
Oct 22, 2002

dj_pain posted:

not that loud as i got a yamaha RX-V461 in the living room.

25 watt should be more than enough if those jensen speakers have a decent sensitivity. The watt number on speakers is pretty useless, dB/W/m is the interesting measure (number of decibels produced by one watt when measured at one meter distance). Proper tower models will be > 90 dB, bookshelves will be between 80 and 90 dB (doubling your output wattage will add 3dB, so you can go from there to see how loud 25 watt - or 16, to have a nice power of 2 and some headroom left - will get your speakers).

Odoyle
Sep 9, 2003
Odoyle Rules!

Pibborando San posted:

This article explains why you should get a Pro-ject Debut III over the P1. The Debut is what I've heard recommended again and again and the Ferrari red version will be my first "nice" TT.

Hrm, never heard of that one. Will give it some consideration. I like the Debut's metal platter over the Rega's MDF platter but I wonder about the tone arm. That article is a little light on quantitative data, but then again most audiophile reviews are. Wouldn't the Rega's lighter tonearm be better than the Debut's "more substantial" one? I can only infer that that means the Debut tonearm is heavier.

The Human Cow
May 24, 2004

hurry up


I found a Sony STR-7065A at Goodwill a year or so ago for $13. It sounds pretty awesome. I've used it as-is for a while, but I'm thinking about giving it a good cleaning and fixing it up however else I can after I graduate in a couple weeks.

More receivers need to have a shiny metal frontplate with lots of knobs and levers.

andretti
Jun 28, 2008

The Human Cow posted:



I found a Sony STR-7065A at Goodwill a year or so ago for $13. It sounds pretty awesome. I've used it as-is for a while, but I'm thinking about giving it a good cleaning and fixing it up however else I can after I graduate in a couple weeks.

More receivers need to have a shiny metal frontplate with lots of knobs and levers.

That thing is awesome, looks great and I'm sure it sounds great too:3: Are you thinking about recapping it? When I recapped my SX-525, it wasn't that bad of a job at all.

andretti
Jun 28, 2008

muckswirler posted:

Anybody know a good place to have tube amps recapped? I'm not really interested in doing it myself. What can one expect to pay for this service? (Also, I'm not worried about crazy expensive caps, just decent poly or whatever.)

it's really not that bad to recap an amp. My understanding is a tube amp has fewer caps than a solid-state amp.

Basically, you just make a list of all your caps, go on digikey.com, buy, and replace 'em. Anything over 1uf can be electrolytic, poly is for <1uf. A tube amp has some high-voltage mofos, but I'd be surprised if it cost you more than $40 in parts ($50 if you have to buy a soldering iron).

I can't really give an estimate for having a pro re-cap it, but I've heard that a pro can do 10 caps in an hour. All shops are different, but I've seen places online that charge up to $100/h.

Like I said though, there's really nothing magic about doing a recap. Can you post pics of the inside of your amp? That would help assess how much effort a recap would be.

CuddleChunks
Sep 18, 2004

andretti posted:

Do you ever use this? How does reel tape and 8-track sound?
Sssssssssssssssssssssss warble warble ssssssssssss warble ssssssssssssssssss.

If you love the rich full sound of a pack of snakes living in your stereo, there's nothing like the awesome sound from old school reel-to-reel and 8-track tapes.

I miss the reel-to-reel unit I got to use when doing radio stuff in college. Cutting tape and making weird little mixes and such was a lot of fun. I've still got a bag of my dad's old reel-to-reel tapes but they're pretty well dust at this point. I don't know if I could bake them or if they would even have anything worth saving. He had some live shows and tapes of albums and such. It was running way too slow to work on the unit we had at the station though or I'd have dubbed them then.

There's certainly some nostalgia about threading a tape so you can move it forward and listen to Simon and Garfunkel that your dad recorded all by himself. :unsmith:

Sir Tonk
Apr 18, 2006
Young Orc

CuddleChunks posted:

I miss the reel-to-reel unit I got to use when doing radio stuff in college. Cutting tape and making weird little mixes and such was a lot of fun.
This is exactly why a person should want to own a reel-to-reel setup. Splicing audio provides years of enjoyment, especially if you get a show on the local college radio station.

muckswirler
Oct 22, 2008

andretti posted:

words

In this pic, you can identify about 12 caps. Underneath there are probably another dozen or so.

I've got a list of all the capacitors required for a full recap, but they tend to get expensive or hard to source if you're only buying a few/one of each. (And you want pretty nice ones.)

The main thing that's keeping me from doing this myself is the other smaller, less complicated tube amp that I tried. It threw a tube shortly after surgery.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

The Human Cow
May 24, 2004

hurry up

andretti posted:

That thing is awesome, looks great and I'm sure it sounds great too:3: Are you thinking about recapping it? When I recapped my SX-525, it wasn't that bad of a job at all.

Yeah, I think a recapping is definitely on the horizon. I'm graduating in Computer Engineering, and I got a nice soldering iron for my birthday a couple months back, so I feel like that's a pretty good combination for a little project when I move back home. Any suggested reading material?

pim01
Oct 22, 2002

^^ The only thing worth reading up on should be the different properties for the different types of capacitor. The actual soldering is simple. A few rules of thumb: always replace caps by same or higher voltage. Keep capacitance the same unless you have a good reason to change it (more capacitance for rail caps, for instance). Remember where the negative side goes when removing polarized caps, the marking on the board may have faded or have never been there. Taking a few good photo's where you can see the orientation of all caps will be a good precaution. That's about it.

muckswirler posted:

The main thing that's keeping me from doing this myself is the other smaller, less complicated tube amp that I tried. It threw a tube shortly after surgery.
That's most likely another problem (bad tube, replacing caps allow full power again, tube blows). I dunno, it feels like such a waste to pay for something that's as simple as recapping.

I source my caps from either my local audiophile/high-end hifi shop (for Black Gate and their ilk) or my local electronics shop (for simple generic caps or spiffy Panasonic FM/FC caps etc), that's the easiest and fastest way I've found.

pim01 fucked around with this message at 09:35 on Dec 10, 2008

andretti
Jun 28, 2008

pim01 posted:

^^ The only thing worth reading up on should be the different properties for the different types of capacitor. The actual soldering is simple. A few rules of thumb: always replace caps by same or higher voltage. Keep capacitance the same unless you have a good reason to change it (more capacitance for rail caps, for instance). Remember where the negative side goes when removing polarized caps, the marking on the board may have faded or have never been there. Taking a few good photo's where you can see the orientation of all caps will be a good precaution. That's about it.

That's most likely another problem (bad tube, replacing caps allow full power again, tube blows). I dunno, it feels like such a waste to pay for something that's as simple as recapping.


Agreed. It helps too if you just do a few caps in a sitting and then listen to the amp for awhile. That way if you screw up, you know where you went wrong and can fix it. Also, I've noticed that I only do stuff like pull out caps with a pair of pliers after I've been working for too long and getting frustrated :downsbravo: I noticed that there are two caps sticking out of the mounting board, I'm guessing they have big fat terminals on them. You can't buy caps with big terminals like that anymore, you can solder on a wire terminal to the cap's post, and get a nice area like that.

Here's the biggest tip though: never remove/replace more than 1 cap at a time, otherwise you will get mixed up.

I sourced all my caps from digikey. Their web interface isn't so hot, but they have pretty much every cap you can imagine. I used Panasonic electrolytic caps for everything over 1uf, and poly film for smaller values. I only had to not use original spec for a single cap, and it was only to use a 35V in place of a 25V.

It's really up to you though, if you feel like you're going to bust your amp, then don't try a recap and send it out instead.

Swap_File
Nov 24, 2004
WIN386.SWP

andretti posted:

Do you ever use this? How does reel tape and 8-track sound?

Like CuddleChunks said, lots and lots of hissing. 8-tracks are bad, but the reel to reel can be acceptable if you record at a fast enough speed and tweak the hiss filter on the amp.

Once I converted my fathers old reels to CDs I kinda stopped using it. I only occasionally hook it up to record my own 8-tracks for use in our old truck.

bacon!
Dec 10, 2003

The fierce urgency of now
I have a really old motor driven Sanyo TP1012. Here are a couple pics of my setup:


I have this guy attached through a pretty cheap preamp (http://www.phonopreamps.com/ "good" model) and to my pretty cheap, modern yamaha receiver, to a pair of B&W floorstanding speakers. Pictures of that stuff would be boring, but heres the turntable:

Only registered members can see post attachments!

andretti
Jun 28, 2008

bacon! posted:

I have a really old motor driven Sanyo TP1012.

awesome wood panelling. What cartridge is on there?

Pibborando San
Dec 11, 2004

oh yes. two kinds... of dances
Oh man I'm so pumped! I just bought this, the venerable Technics SL-1200MK2, for less than $300 shipped (after Live.com cashback).

I thought I was set on getting an entry-level "audiophile" deck from either Pro-ject, Music Hall or Rega but the more I read the more I learned just how much better the 1200 is than all those fancy pants tables, both in construction and sound quality. For the price, I couldn't pass it up.

The modding and upgrade potential for the 1200 is also enormous so I'm sure this deck is going to be with me for a LONG time.

Owsla
Aug 31, 2003

Where are my bitches?

Pibborando San posted:

The modding and upgrade potential for the 1200 is also enormous so I'm sure this deck is going to be with me for a LONG time.

Nice choice. I'm beyond pleased with my 1200/Shure m97xe cart for listening duty and I'm just trying to stop buying records long enough to afford some mods for it.

I'll probably pick up the KAB tonearm fluid damper eventually, it seems like a really great idea and I've read nothing but great reviews.

Pibborando San
Dec 11, 2004

oh yes. two kinds... of dances

Owsla posted:

I'll probably pick up the KAB tonearm fluid damper eventually, it seems like a really great idea and I've read nothing but great reviews.

Same here. First purchase though will be a Denon DL-110 which I've heard nothing but praise for and is often recommended with the 1200.

I will be attaching that to an LP Gear Zupreme headshell for added mass and stiffness (and the ability to adjust azimuth).

Then I'll get the cardas wire upgrade for the tonearm and THEN the fluid dampener. Might also experiment with different mats. Oh man the tweaker in me is so excited!

My wallet is not!

e: and this beautiful and inexpensive record clamp as well

Pibborando San fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Dec 15, 2008

Owsla
Aug 31, 2003

Where are my bitches?
Wow that's a great deal on the clamp and it's great looking too :)

I'm pretty sure I have to buy that, thanks for the link.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Pibborando San
Dec 11, 2004

oh yes. two kinds... of dances
No prob. I just ordered mine from their eBay site. You can submit your own offer. Seems $22.50 is the lowest they'll go on the TTWeight. +$15 shipping comes to $37.50. Good deal considering lesser quality items are going for $50 or more, before shipping.

e: Check out this polished silver faceplate! I don't think my thirst for mods will ever cease... and the deck hasn't even arrived yet!

Oh and here's some links for DIY rewires and other mods:

Modified Technics SL-1200MK2

How to Rewire a Technics Tonearm Part I

How to Rewire a Technics Tonearm Part II

How To Rewire a Technics SL-1200 Tonearm

Pibborando San fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Dec 16, 2008

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply