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What to do with some vintage quad equipment from the basement?

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NC3

New member
Joined
Nov 1, 2020
Messages
7
Location
Carbondale, IL
Hi, just joined after I was cleaning out back of basement storage and came across some vintage quad units:
(1) Audionics Space and Image Composer (I recall making down payment and waiting, waiting, waiting, so original unit)
(2) Sansui QSD-1
(3) Marantz 4400 quad receiver (w/oscilloscope), including wood case and SQ decoder (have to locate that)

Have not used any of this gear since switching to high-end stuff in mid 1980's. The decoders light up now and were working last I knew.
I recall the Marantz had an issue with one amplification channel, so that would need repair.

Anyway, was about to put the stuff into the trash ;), but decided to first look online to see if anyone has interest in this type of gear still. Appears that might be the case!

So I am mainly on here today asking for member suggestions about what to do with these pieces. Frankly, I am not too interested in hassle of shipping them and then making a couple of hundred $'s. So partly this is a question of whether it is worth the effort to do anything other than trash honestly.

Thanks for helpful suggestions!
 
Pretty good, I took a few photos. Wood case needs oiling, unit needs some cleaning (e.g., spot on left from came right off--did not see until looked at photo):
PXL_20201101_204135432.half.jpg
PXL_20201101_204142877.half.jpg
PXL_20201101_204217387.half.jpg
 
I live in southern Illinois. Closest to St Louis. Normally go to Chicago periodically, but not these days.
 
Put an ad in the local paper or put them on Craig's List saying they are free or, better yet, I'm sure somebody on here lives nearby and will gladly come and get them. It doesn't sound like you care too much about the money. being you are willing to throw them away.

Doug
 
Hi, just joined after I was cleaning out back of basement storage and came across some vintage quad units:
(1) Audionics Space and Image Composer (I recall making down payment and waiting, waiting, waiting, so original unit)
(2) Sansui QSD-1
(3) Marantz 4400 quad receiver (w/oscilloscope), including wood case and SQ decoder (have to locate that)

Have not used any of this gear since switching to high-end stuff in mid 1980's. The decoders light up now and were working last I knew.
I recall the Marantz had an issue with one amplification channel, so that would need repair.

Anyway, was about to put the stuff into the trash ;), but decided to first look online to see if anyone has interest in this type of gear still. Appears that might be the case!

So I am mainly on here today asking for member suggestions about what to do with these pieces. Frankly, I am not too interested in hassle of shipping them and then making a couple of hundred $'s. So partly this is a question of whether it is worth the effort to do anything other than trash honestly.

Thanks for helpful suggestions!
Don't put any of it in the trash. IMHO the vintage stuff is much better than any so called high end stuff from the 80's. Better than most of that DSP junk of today as well!
 
I used to be more sentimental about hifi gear (and other *things*), but keeping everything you value at some point in your life just doesn't turn out to be practical as you get older and older.

Nobody contacted me with any purchase offers. So, I guess I won't do anything with the two decoders for now. Will have more time in spring and may try to hook them up, and get together with the other member who lives in Carbondale to check them out. The Marantz receiver, however, is enormous and heavy, so a big pain to keep storing. Also, since it needs some repair but nobody can know how much that might cost, not clear that anyone would be interested. Loved that oscilloscope though!

Thanks all for the input. I guess the decoders have won a reprieve for now. :)
 
Thanks all for the input. I guess the decoders have won a reprieve for now. :)

For now? You mean you would still trash them? Please please don't do that :)

If I didn't already own an Audionics S&IC and QSD1, I would be contacting you on these. I don't know if they would still command this value, but I've got close to $1000 in the Audionics incl restoration, and about $1500 in the QSD1 incl restoration to re-cap and replace some defective chips. They are both rare as hell plus 2 of the top SQ & QS decoders respectively.

Hope you find a deserving home for them other than a trash can. They do not deserve that fate!
 
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I would be interested to have people suggest how to go about testing them, because it is obvious that nobody is going to pay like $1k without some guarantees they work. What are people going to be looking to know? E.g., I am sure the pots and switches are going to be noisy after all these years. Is that an issue? Or is it just that sounds still comes from all four channels when fed some random stereo input? I suppose I could easily check that with some headphones. Just what would somebody need to know to pay more than a couple hundred for these decoders?

Also, I don't know of any SQ/QS digital sources that I have access to. Are there some obvious ones that I might have and not know were quad? I have ~1000 CDs spanning rock and classical, going back to the beginning of CDs. I Do still own many SQ and QS LPs, but don't have a turntable setup--all digital streaming now. Perhaps after retirement I will get around to digitzing. Right after I digitize all the film photos of my daughter, etc., etc. :D

Again, thanks for the input. I remember being passionate about quad back in the 70's. I see many people still are. I remember that I have a couple of Steely Dan LPs where the quad versions had alternative takes--alternative takes that I thought were much better than the standard stereo versions. That was very cool. Would love to have those to listen to now.
 
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