Taking Vintage as pre wife (10 years with 8 years of married bliss 
and two children ) then mainly vintage with modern DVD-A player !
and two children ) then mainly vintage with modern DVD-A player !
Do you like vintage or modern audio gear?
- Thread starter Cai Campbell
- Start date
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My gear is a mix of vintage and new.
My setup in the living room: Toshiba SA-504 Reciever, Thorens TD 166 turntable, B&W 602s2 speakers, Philips DVD 640 and a Denon DRM 640 cassette recorder.
My hobby room: Toshiba SA-304, Toshiba SA-504, Philips 212 turntable, Fonica turntable, Garrard AT 60 (with stereo tube amp), Samsung (begin 80's type?) speakers.
The Tosh-Thorens-B&W is a great match. Jazz, rock, techno, it all sounds clear, detailed with a warm and defined bass. I selled the Cyrus III amp, the Toshiba SA-504 sounds much better.
My setup in the living room: Toshiba SA-504 Reciever, Thorens TD 166 turntable, B&W 602s2 speakers, Philips DVD 640 and a Denon DRM 640 cassette recorder.
My hobby room: Toshiba SA-304, Toshiba SA-504, Philips 212 turntable, Fonica turntable, Garrard AT 60 (with stereo tube amp), Samsung (begin 80's type?) speakers.
The Tosh-Thorens-B&W is a great match. Jazz, rock, techno, it all sounds clear, detailed with a warm and defined bass. I selled the Cyrus III amp, the Toshiba SA-504 sounds much better.
I have all vintage speakers and all new electronics. By vintage speakers I mean 1975 to 1980: Celestion Ditton 60s, Gales, Acoustat Monitor 3s, Philips 22RH532 (servo), Grundig Audioramas, Dahlquist 10s...Here is my reasoning:
Since 1980 speaker design has become very streamlined thanks to widespread use of Thiele-Small parameters. A very good speaker can now be designed literally on a desk top with "voicing" adjustments to be finalized over a relatively narrow range.
I think the problem with this approach is that speaker design is at least partly an art and starting with Thiele-Small shoehorns the designer into a range where happy accidents, which make art the uplifting discipline that it is, are eliminated from the start.
Clearly most pre-Thiele/Small speakers sound awful, even compared to the cheap boxes bundled into today's mini systems. Yet, there are amongst them some miracles that would not pass Thiele/Small but sound more realistic than most anything sold today. I think a musical person designing a speaker with just his ears over perhaps years creates something more special than where a recipe book is involved.
Since 1980 speaker design has become very streamlined thanks to widespread use of Thiele-Small parameters. A very good speaker can now be designed literally on a desk top with "voicing" adjustments to be finalized over a relatively narrow range.
I think the problem with this approach is that speaker design is at least partly an art and starting with Thiele-Small shoehorns the designer into a range where happy accidents, which make art the uplifting discipline that it is, are eliminated from the start.
Clearly most pre-Thiele/Small speakers sound awful, even compared to the cheap boxes bundled into today's mini systems. Yet, there are amongst them some miracles that would not pass Thiele/Small but sound more realistic than most anything sold today. I think a musical person designing a speaker with just his ears over perhaps years creates something more special than where a recipe book is involved.
Steve
Member
I remembered how I held on to my old Pioneer 828 as it sounded so much better than my new digital surround sound stuff. Eventually surround won out, but it always lacked something.
I thought my hearing was aging as audio equipment just didn't have it like it did in the 70s. Then on a lark I ebayed some quad equipment, including a turntable, stuff that no family working man could afford back then.
Wow, my ears still could hear the difference. My ears may be older but CD's and the supposed quality digital amp I had were the problem not my ears. The lp's have clarity, definition, and presence that no CD I have heard could match. I am going retro, and loving it. I am enjoying audio again like I did in the early 70's.
The only concession I make to modern sound is I have a Pioneer DVD player that can handle SACD and DVA-a. On the DVD player I turned off the center channel and the sub woofer in the set up, so the output is in the old quad format. It works great.
I thought about a 4 channel quad reel to reel. Ebay has many for about 100 to 150. Getting tape for it is the issue, when you do find the tape it is very expensive. I didn't remember a quad cassette, but on ebay I did find a Yamaha 4 track cassette recorder intended as a home recording studio. It will record or play all 4 tracks in one pass. So now I have a 4 channel cassette recorder, complete with DBX.
Lovin' music again. It has been a long time.
Steve
I thought my hearing was aging as audio equipment just didn't have it like it did in the 70s. Then on a lark I ebayed some quad equipment, including a turntable, stuff that no family working man could afford back then.
Wow, my ears still could hear the difference. My ears may be older but CD's and the supposed quality digital amp I had were the problem not my ears. The lp's have clarity, definition, and presence that no CD I have heard could match. I am going retro, and loving it. I am enjoying audio again like I did in the early 70's.
The only concession I make to modern sound is I have a Pioneer DVD player that can handle SACD and DVA-a. On the DVD player I turned off the center channel and the sub woofer in the set up, so the output is in the old quad format. It works great.
I thought about a 4 channel quad reel to reel. Ebay has many for about 100 to 150. Getting tape for it is the issue, when you do find the tape it is very expensive. I didn't remember a quad cassette, but on ebay I did find a Yamaha 4 track cassette recorder intended as a home recording studio. It will record or play all 4 tracks in one pass. So now I have a 4 channel cassette recorder, complete with DBX.
Lovin' music again. It has been a long time.
Steve
Dylan Berichon
701 Club - QQ All-Star
I'm a fan of whatever works well, and sounds good.
Depending on the equipment, sometimes the older stuff sounds better, sometimes the new stuff does.
I've found that with radios, specifically AM radios, the older units sound MUCH better then the new ones.
As for CD players, for me it seems that the newer they are, the better they work. I had a very old "professional" CD player (top of the line in the mid 80's, has balanced outputs), but it doesn't hold up to my cheaper consumer grade player that is much newer. Part of the problem is it's total lack of any kind of anti-skip/buffering technology.
As for turntables, I've got a SL-1200. Mine isn't brand new, but it's not a 70's era model. I've compared it to the brand new SL-1200 that we have at the radio station I work at, and it works just the same. (I use the same pre-amp and cartridge/stylus that the station uses.)
I've got an AKAI 1730-SS Quadraphonic reel to reel player that doesn't see much action because I haven't been able to find any tapes for it, and the record head isn't working right now (I'll have it fixed soon.)
I'm presently using an old school AKAI receiver to drive everything at home, just because I can't afford anything newer (and the newer stuff I've sampled doesn't sound quite as rich to my ears.)
So like I said above... I'm a fan of whatever works and sounds good, whether or not it is new or old.
Depending on the equipment, sometimes the older stuff sounds better, sometimes the new stuff does.
I've found that with radios, specifically AM radios, the older units sound MUCH better then the new ones.
As for CD players, for me it seems that the newer they are, the better they work. I had a very old "professional" CD player (top of the line in the mid 80's, has balanced outputs), but it doesn't hold up to my cheaper consumer grade player that is much newer. Part of the problem is it's total lack of any kind of anti-skip/buffering technology.
As for turntables, I've got a SL-1200. Mine isn't brand new, but it's not a 70's era model. I've compared it to the brand new SL-1200 that we have at the radio station I work at, and it works just the same. (I use the same pre-amp and cartridge/stylus that the station uses.)
I've got an AKAI 1730-SS Quadraphonic reel to reel player that doesn't see much action because I haven't been able to find any tapes for it, and the record head isn't working right now (I'll have it fixed soon.)
I'm presently using an old school AKAI receiver to drive everything at home, just because I can't afford anything newer (and the newer stuff I've sampled doesn't sound quite as rich to my ears.)
So like I said above... I'm a fan of whatever works and sounds good, whether or not it is new or old.
ceedoubleyou
Member
Mine has gotta be all vintage, I've said all this before in another thread: JVC 4VR 5456X, even my "new" Sony TT is 20 yrs old, original TT is a JVC VL-5 minus belt and stylus and 4 Sony SS 7330 speakers.
I prefer my B&K 5.1 preamp & 2 B&K amps (2ch & 3ch) to any Quad gear I've owned or sold to clients. Ditto for my Denon AVR-3801, though it isn't the quality of the B&K. With SQ decoders and CD-4 demodulators connected, this stuff is the best of both worlds. I'll put the sound & build quality of this stuff against the best old stuff. Certainly not typical of most modern gear. The old stuff was built like a tank!
Linda
Linda
Doug G.
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
I can't believe I never saw this poll!
It's all vintage.
I like:
Vintage stereo equipment
Vintage cars
Vintage wine
Vintage music
Vintage women
Doug
It's all vintage.
I like:
Vintage stereo equipment
Vintage cars
Vintage wine
Vintage music
Vintage women
Doug
Yep, vintage has dug deeper into my system. just added an Akai GX 635D a couple months back. Although not surround, I am having fun using different processing modes on the modern AVR. So much fun to WORK with the old stuff! 
i do have in house setup with 3 systems 2 of which (one plain stereo, second quad) vintage and 3rd
is an hybrid which beside the modern gears consist relatively vintage (mid 80th) Technics turntable
and Mirage (early 80th by K.Voek) and Wharfedale (custom, 2 components 4-way each side 1979) speakers.
depending on what i listen, found that vynil performed better on the vintage gear, particularly Sansui AU 4900 amp.
than if used modern Yamaha.
digital stuff such like DVDA/SACD have much better sound thru the modern amplification.
is an hybrid which beside the modern gears consist relatively vintage (mid 80th) Technics turntable
and Mirage (early 80th by K.Voek) and Wharfedale (custom, 2 components 4-way each side 1979) speakers.
depending on what i listen, found that vynil performed better on the vintage gear, particularly Sansui AU 4900 amp.
than if used modern Yamaha.
digital stuff such like DVDA/SACD have much better sound thru the modern amplification.
I run my Sansui QRX-7001 through my Sony DA3000ES because I cannot deal with trying to adjust 4 speaker balance and tone on the Sony alone. I'm not about to go through a half dozen menus to make a simple level adjustment. I make all adjustments in the Sansui and send a finished signal to the Sony using the Sansui's quad headphone outs. The modern stuff just isn't user friendly. Also, the Sony seems to have a volume governor. If I run a phono straight into the Sony the volume level is pathetic. I have to watch how much volume level I use with the Sansui. A bit too much and the Sony will produce snapping sounds. Already blew a tweeter out that way. But with careful balancing of the two, they work well together. I think I would go nuts using the Sony by itself.
Rick
Rick
Vintage rules! at the moment I run a technics sl 1200, Onkyo Dv 502 Universal Player (exception here great player though), Akai cr 80-ss and Sansui sc 5100 deck through my Sansui QRX-6500 which is untouched and sounds awesomely fantastic.Nothing has come close to the variomatrix I'd buy a reel-to-reel but tapes are very hard to find and too expensive when compared to dvd-a/ sacd . Have bought a few modern receivers ( Denon/ Marantz/ Sony)over the years and really disliked them - will never buy a modern receiver again gladly give up a remote for good sound . Searching for a nice 001 series now. Modern Life is Rubbish (IMO) long live the 70's !!
I'd buy a reel-to-reel but tapes are very hard to find and too expensive when compared to dvd-a/ sacd . Have bought a few modern receivers ( Denon/ Marantz/ Sony)over the years and really disliked them - will never buy a modern receiver again gladly give up a remote for good sound . Searching for a nice 001 series now. Modern Life is Rubbish (IMO) long live the 70's !!Similar threads
