I'm late on this . Hope you find it interesting.
I had a Harmon Kardon receiver, technics turntable & Klipsh Cornwall speakers , Nakamichi cassette player. A Dokorder 4 track reel to reel. This was the last bunch of gear I remember. Late 70's into 80's. Cannot remember the earlier gear ( drugs). Then I started touring non stop in the early 80's. While on the Bowie tour (87) I told my then wife that I won't be coming home. She then proceeded to throw out my almost 3000 lps and gave away my stereo equipment. Lesson learned. Get your gear out before leaving. Best as always, Alan Childs
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My Advent 201 cassette deck---the first Dolby deck---with enough balls to STAND with only one VU meter. As if another was necessary to anyone with an ear.
Cheers, Bob, you've gone and done it again!
Dennis Brent
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Long time fan, first time writer. Your piece on audio prompted me to share a short quest I made the summer of my high school graduation, 1979, to learn how to build the best stereo system. My late father followed and worked with Henry Kloss through three of his, among the top, US audio companies (AR, KLH, Advent) and, as a result, I often found myself in the homes of his peers who could literally have the best gear in the world, and probably for free. They all had either the KLH or Advent speakers, various turntables, the Advent cassette recorder that was the first with Dolby and, to a man, they all had Saul Marantz's pre-amp, the Model 7, I think. It was old even then, but it was the only component that all of them had in common.
While I appreciate that even the best of gear then can't approach the fidelity and efficiency of modern sound equipment, there was a warmth in that sound not often heard anymore.
Thanks for the memory.
Adam Pressman
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There are many good and great loudspeakers available but theres a not so "new"-comer from Finland who's slowly but steady making its way to the top: Amphion Loudspeakers.
If you ever have a chance (or just "organize" the chance) to listen to their products, do it. You will not pick anything else afterwards and its worth the time you may have to put into it to find them.
Best
Alexandra Winkler
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Ahh the struggles in the early 60's before Cal Stereo and pacific Stereo...we bought our equipment at a high end shop on Sepulveda blvd in Culver City called Bar-Shels near my dad's tire shop by the studio drive in
Not a lot of choice but good honest sales and service by the owners..and a discount for my dad since he took care of the two owners
Once the big guys came prices went down and sales people went on commissions, everything changed regarding service and good advice..and stores like bar-shels suffered
Marantz receiver
Dual turntable
TEAC reel to reel..still have
JBL speakers..still have
Now? I love my Bose companion 5 speakers with my iMac....fills my office with sound
Lawrence Clayman
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Hi Bob, what a trip,reliving those days when Hi Fi ruled. I had a consumer electronics manufacturer's rep company in those days and our territory was Northern California. Besides the audio brands mentioned and the model numbers fading into the past I think about the retailers and the many cool sales people who were like rock stars in their knowledge and sales pitches for high end audio, as opposed to Sony and Sanyo which dominated mass market audio sales. Now they are all gone, like waking from a dream, Pacific Stereo, Crazy Eddies, Circut City, The Good Guys, Soundworks, and so many more all put out of business by Steve Jobs and his I -pods. thanks for the memories, best,alan segal San Diego
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I had the JBL 4311 studio monitors since 1977
robzz
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Living room - Technics 1200mk2 turntable (also Chromecast and aux jack) into Kenwood KA-5700 receiver powering Sansui SP-2500x speakers. I do have an ADC Sound Shaper Two mkII EQ but it's been buzzing lately so it's not hooked up. All inherited except for the turntable, which I bought used after restoring and passing on two other freebies.
Kitchen - Sansui 331 receiver powering Pioneer speakers (the only surviving pieces of my 3-CD changer bookshelf unit I bought in college) - it's got an AM/FM radio and takes audio via aux cord and a Philips 920 CD player I diverted from the trash heap when an old employer was getting rid of it.
Also have a giant Audio Reflex AGS-152 receiver recently moved from my wife's aunt's attic. Not sure what I'm going to do with it. Lots of dials and switches, needs a cleaning.
I'm just on the tail end of this era (born in '82) but have been drawn to this stuff since I was a kid. 100% agree that we get the music our systems can handle. Much harder to have an immersive experience when you're listening to, say, an MP3 off your phone connected by 3.5mm jack to a flatscreen TV with tiny crappy speakers................
Ryan Brown
P.S. Also - maybe so obvious it gets overlooked - artists consciously create for the platform where their stuff will be experienced. Great ones play with the form itself.
People used to optimize for sitting home and listening, now they optimize for streaming. Not necessarily good or bad, but does affect the end product.
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I could have been Jack Tempchin's roomate. I had a KLH Model 11. One day, at the small town appliance store in Ohio that had some record bins in the back, I found Are You Experienced, Cream's first album and the first album by The Grateful Dead. That was the day everything changed for me.
Thanks,
Spence Burton
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My brother has a high-end, 35+ year old, vestigial stereo system with a newish turntable. He pulled out an original 1964 vinyl of A Hard Day's Night that his wife had from her youth but never played - absolutely pristine. I immediately understood what we have lost in the digital age - the sound, the presence was astonishing. And now people are streaming from the web into earbuds or Alexa or Google Home - even Sonos - and they think it's great.
David Murphy
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Loved the article. One of my earliest memories and genesis of my love of music was my dad putting on Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain on his Empire 598 Troubadour turntable and playing it through AR2a speakers mounted on the wall and taking out his trumpet and playing along on the Concierto de Aranjuez. I was 4 years old and remember it well. Since then ( I am in my 60's) I have had a lot of stereo rigs. Currently using a J.A. Michell turntable, going through Krell amp and pre-amp and coming out Vandersteen speakers. It is what I imagine heaven would sound like.
Regards,
Mark Goldman
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My favorite story about stereo components is about when I transitioned from an el-cheapo no-name all-in-one turntable/AM-FM/8-Track(!) unit that my parents got me for Christmas when I was 11, to my first real Technics AM-FM/receiver/amp. I saved up some money one summer from cutting grass and put down the $300 bucks for my new receiver and another $250 for a Technics turntable (exact model numbers escape me).Got home, unboxed everything, plugged them in and realized that I didn't have speakers… except for the tiny particle board junkers from my old rig. I figured, "What the heck?" and yanked the wires out of the back of the old box, soldered RCA connectors, and connected them to the new setup. Powered everything up and was awestruck by just the sound of the powerful, clean white noise emanating from my new rig. Eager to test everything, I grabbed the first record I could find: Styx' "Cornerstone" (don't judge!). I dropped the needle on the third track and the power ballad "Babe" rumbled through the speakers. By the second chorus, the tiny little paper cones had literally shredded themselves and Dennis DeYoung's vocals were just a satanic hiss. I'd forgotten to consider that my cheap old stereo probably put out 5 watts maximum. My new stereo's 100 watts per channel just devoured those pathetic little things. Had to wait another three months to save up for a decent set of new speakers. At least I got a great story to tell my friends and acquaintances about how I once blew a set of speakers listening to "Babe."
-Jeff Page
Somewhere In The Swamps of Jersey
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Love the gear talk! I'm 58 years old, so my stereo system history is about the same, but back in the day I loved to build HeathKit and Hafler kits - I still have my Hafler preamp and 100W power amp cuz they work great!. BUT -
Last year I was passed down my uncle's stereo system he bought new (I have the sales slips) in 1968.
- Macintosh C11 Preamp
- Macintosh M225 Power Amp
- Macintosh MR 65 B FM Tuner
- Dual 1229 w Shure V15 Type IV
- JBL 1270 horn tweeter + JBL 130A woofer + JBL N1200 crossover in custom cabinets
The system is in an 11' long mid century entertainment center. I had the C11 and MC 225 re-tubed and recapped - didn't bother with the tuner 'cus I just don't use it and it works fine anyway. Everything tests to original factory specs. There are exactly ZERO transistors in the original signal chain. It sounds as warm and rich as the day it was new.
Living in 21 century reality, I use an AudioEngine bluetooth receiver plugged into the C11's AUX input to stream Spotify from my phone to the system.
Rob Cromar
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Its one of those moments when you were eerily present, like where you were when you heard Kennedy was shot, or they day you came home from camp and asked your mother where your baseball cards are and she calmly said she threw them out. I remember that day my father brought home the KLH speakers, the Dual 1210 and the Sherwood receiver. I remembering wiring it up. For that whole year my mother's basement was the place to be. Guys would come over to listen to Santana's Abraxas, George Carlin's Class Clown, The Stone's Get Yer Ya Yas Out and anything by Yes. Imagine people getting together to share some vinyl.
When I went to Penn State I remember going into Philly my first semester to buy pretty much the same set up for my room....J. Geils, Slade and Lighthouse Live. Ha!
Good times and thanks for sparking those memories.
On another note, going to see Paul Rodgers and Jeff Beck in a couple of weeks, off your raves of last year. And I do have a good Paul Rodgers store but....another email.
Best
Jonathan Gross
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I'm a fellow addict, I'm listening to Cockburn's Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws on my Thorens TD-320 through my Sansui AU-555A 25w amp. Running Advent 5002 and some Dynaco speakers. I know not much power but the sound is that warm, sweet Sansui sound. Got it from estate sale last December for 20 bucks, along with a Technics SL-1200 Mk2 for 280 CDN. The real steal was the 1200 for 280 was looking for one for awhile, sits right next to the Thorens, love both of them. Put $100 into the AU-555A to get restored and sounds great.
So jealous of the Sansui AU11000 you had, a fantastic amp, have the AU-7900 which I spent way too much on getting it just right. Just sold a AU-4900 and had a AU-777A which I really regret selling. Obviously I love vintage Sansui gear.
It's a lonely pursuit though, my fellow workers think I'm nuts, lol. Only ones into vinyl at work are some of the young ladies, guys couldn't care less.
I keep thinking about tubes but that's another story.
Doug Gillis
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All that money, time and effort in search of the perfect listening experience, and no one paid much attention to line item #1: ears.
How many of us are hearing impaired as a result of too much volume and too many shows? Did any of us wear hearing protection when we were in bands? I didn't. Pretty much everyone I know over 50 has hearing issues to some degree wether they admit it or not. When the topic comes up, and I suggest that they get tested and consider a hearing aid, they change the subject. I've referred dozens of people to my audiologist, one has gone. I'm evangelical on the topic because I miss my hearing and I know that we of a certain age, in the end, will want to hear our grandchildren's laughter, nature, and our friends and family.
Protect what you have. When it's gone, it's gone.
Jim Anderson
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Speaking of vintage audio, perhaps the most extraordinary systems I ever heard was at the dearly departed Second Story, a gay dance club in Philadelphia. A modest size room in what was once an old church, each corner had two Klipschorns stacked in it, powered by some serious amplification ... not that it was needed. Loud and stupidly clean!
jeff lynch
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Marantz 2226 receiver with Advent 1 speakers. Still working 40 years later. Cost a fortune for those days, but worth it.
Richard Mersereau
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Bob---My JBL 4312 studio monitors + JVC RS 77 receiver (60 watts each side) system in constant use since purchase at Tech Hi-Fi in 1980, sounds like a studio control room. I patch my laptop's headphone output jack into the receiver. Paul Lanning
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Love that rig! My first "system" was a green turntable "suitcase" model with a built-in speaker. Wish I still had that thing
Mark Bast
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Classic rig Bob! Sansui big boy amps are still sought after. As are the L100 obviously... the 'California Sound' they used to call that. As a young man, I saved up money to buy an NAD integrated at Stax electrostatic headphones at the age of 14... been collecting gear since then.
I think your tastes might be well suited with some late 70s/early 80s Naim amps and preamps... and a set of active Linn or Naim speakers driven by them. I remember you bought a turntable recently. If you buy another, maybe check out the new Mobile Fidelity decks. Supposed to be great, and voiced to a reference of reel to reel tape machines. I have a Linn... and my next deck will probably be a MoFi. Keep up the great posts.... especially about business.
Other vintage reco's for you:
Dahlquist DQ10
Nakamichi PA7 and CA7 amp / preamp
Naim 32.5/250 amp / preamp
and since you've already had a Nak deck... why not treat yourself to a Dragon. You only live once.
Cheers, Chuck in NYC
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Vis-a-vis Jack's KLH experience: my wealthy college roommate had one. I couldn't afford that kind of stuff in college. But he's right: they were amazing.
I had a WAY cheaper GE suitcase stereo that I paid $25(!) to have a headphone jack installed in. The best thing it did was turn itself off as I feel asleep to Miles Davis' "Sketches of Spain".
I have a hard time with home sound systems. I think because I spend so much time in the studio, I really don't want to have to actually listen to stuff at home. It's okay as background music but that's about it.
Greg Prestopino
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Bob: Raised from 10 yrs old (1964) on our mint used Grundig stereo console my USAF dad bought from a fellow GI for $300 that year. To calibrate his outlay, he bought a 1960 Pontiac Catalina in 1962 for $600. My brother still has the Grundig, and fires the tubes up once a year. I can't bribe it away from him.
Original buyer in 1977 while in college, and still use daily, a
Yamaha CA-600 integrated amp, and JBL L-36 (nothing screams 70s like their flaming orange cloth grills - couldn't pry my wallet apart then for the L-100). One source until 2010 was the same Stanton cartridge as you in a belt drive Dual 510.
My kids were raised on CDs starting in 1988. Our daughter exclaimed, "Dad! That's the biggest CD I've ever seen!" the first time I cued a record on the Dual through the L-36 pair. Now she and her siblings listen 0to streaming on their phones. Where did I go wrong?
My vintage audio gear stash assembled and maintained over the years of speakers, power and integrated amps, receivers, turntables, CD players, and cassette decks keeps me from taking up something as useless as golf.
So today, I can satisfy all the lust I had for watts and sound pressure levels, but couldn't afford, when my ears were younger and today's vintage was yesterday's unobtainium. Time to fire up the JBL L-200 and their 15-inch, 35-pound bridge-iron construction woofers and move some air.
Glen Grissom
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Back it 1977 I traded my Pioneer SA 9500 along with my JBL L100's for a pair of Quad 57's and the early matching tube amp and pre amp ~ It seemed the owners wife didn't like the speakers because she said they looked like room heaters and his dog kept pissing on them and shorting them out ~ My friend Ed Semanko of Counterpoint Stereo fame who was working for Jonas Miller Stereo in Beverly Hills at the time repaired them for me for a few hundred dollar ~ I bought a pair of Dynaco Mark 3 tube amps that he modified and I never looked back ~ Still use my Quads that were built back in 1961 with no problems ~
Rock Singer
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I had a pair of Yamaha NS 500 speakers hooked to a Marantz receiver. But the prize was an Akai reel to reel that my brother bought for me in Hong Kong (when he served in Vietnam). All through college I hooked the deck to my roommates Thorens turntable and created 3 hour playlists— cut by cut. From 1973 to 1980 I made 60-3 hour tapes. The Akai was a pro deck. There was no pause. I wore out the solenoid.
In 1995, my five year old (at the time) tumbled my entertainment center and with it the reel to reel.
It's ironic. Today, I have over 50 playlists on Spotify.
Pat Christenson
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Still using my NAD amp, Klipsch Cornwalls and B&O 1700 turntable, most recent purchase out of those was 1980
Randall Cale
Hard Rock Tulsa
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love the stereo equipment list!
studio engineer, the late great david vaught, had
klh model 5 speakers (four way) in his studio. i got a pair
so i could hear mixes at home with same monitors,
powered through a fisher 800 B. nothing like the tube sound!
got the techniques, with a MONO ortofon cartridge.
that's the only way to listen to a mono pressing.
i had a carver cd player with a tube, but it broke down.
best sounding cd player ever!
system two:
i also have martin logan speakers, with ribbon tweeters
powered by a small yamaha amp (i've got the sansui in the garage,
just got to hook it up), and another techniques tt
with a stereo ortofon. ex: abbey road never sounded right
played through tube equipment. abbey was the first beatles album cut with
solid state board, and with drums in stereo. in the studio, i prefer a place with
adam monitors, they have ribbon tweeters. very accurate, and no ear fatigue.
mac book is connected to the martin logans when i review mixes,
mp3s sent, or when checking out music through amazon prime.
(ex. a friend of mine just turned me on to tone float, pre kraftwerk.)
one of these days, apple will promote large speakers (like the klh 5)
in their stores. the kids are missing out!
i recall david vaught telling me he turned down getting a house
in the hills because the living room wasn't big enough for his oversized studio tannoy
monitors. everybody's living room should revolve around the stereo system.
long live the stereo (or mono) fanatics!
keep on rockin' in the free world.
marvin etzioni
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Thanks for covering this Bob! I have made many consumer electronics devices over the years, but audio has been my passion. I have been an audiophile and to some extant have never stopped. The immersive experience of not only hearing but feeling the music is hard to beat.
While I worked on some of the very first Bluetooth speakers, iPod docks and ultra-portable sound it was to help people listen where they could not. I always think music is better than no music, but watching people only hear it through these tiny systems I know how much they are missing.
Perhaps your writing here will inspire more to take a listen and really wrap them selves in that sound.
all the best,
Robert Heiblim
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What a great thread. You knew my dad, and he appreciated music, he played piano all his life, loved jazz, Dixieland, ragtime, Scott Joplin. The music never stopped. He really appreciated how his kids liked music as much as he did. Helped me buy my first electric guitar. He also recognized how much I depended on that crappy Columbia record player sound system, circa 1966. He understood why I was down there in the basement, picking up the needle, over and over again, trying to learn those Buffalo Springfield, Byrds, Beatles guitar licks. When I went off to college, my dad went to Harvey Electronics on 45th Street, and bought me a Dual turntable, KLH speakers, and a Harmon Karden amp and gave it to me as a belated high school graduation present. I swear it must have been a $400 value! Made my day, and my freshmen and sophomore years, and those of my dorm mates...a loud non-stop vinyl records rock fest. How lucky was I?
Chip Lovitt
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How many of these contributors on this topic who are above the age of sixty wear hearing aides?\
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