Vintage electronics, now I've seen everything.

Midpack said:
Jeez, now youse guys are making me wonder if I should sell the SX-750 at all? But we use it about 2-3 times/year (hooked into the TV, but we only turn it on for some concerts or movies), so not sure what I'd do with it other than let it appreciate more in value. :crazy:

Guess I shoulda kept the Dynaco (SCA-80?) I built from a kit in college before I upgraded to the Pioneer...
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Geez Midpack, your really bringing back the memories of my PAT4 and ST120 which I built before college. Dyanaco also offered some pretty nice speakers which I never owned, but one of my buds did. I patronized a really nice stereo shop in Danbury, CT that offered a lot of great gear at a discount. I still have my Revox A77 tape recorder. I should check out ebay for that item.
 
DFW_M5 said:
Geez Midpack, your really bringing back the memories of my PAT4 and ST120 which I built before college. Dyanaco also offered some pretty nice speakers which I never owned, but one of my buds did. I patronized a really nice stereo shop in Danbury, CT that offered a lot of great gear at a discount. I still have my Revox A77 tape recorder. I should check out ebay for that item.
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We lusted after the Revox A77, but alas only owned a Sony reel-to-reel hand me down from my Dad. Ah the good old days when we played albums only once to record them, then put them away for all time. And I sold about 130 albums for 33¢ each at a garage sale about 10 years ago...:facepalm:
 
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Tyro said:
Visions of Cerebro/Cerebra...? :cool:
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Yes... exactly!
Wow! I had never heard of that before, but the picture is deja vu all over again... if a little bit bigger than the Bose test center. A very spooky experience. I looked up Google Images for "Anechoic Chamber", and found test rooms, but not the Bose Globe. Mebbe the memory is failing.
...........................................
Gotta check my hoarders junk drawer for my old KLH amp.
 
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Midpack said:
We lusted after the Revox A77, but alas only owned a Sony reel-to-reel hand me down from my Dad. Ah the good old days when we played albums only once to record them, then put them away for all time. And I sold about 130 albums for 33¢ each at a garage sale about 10 years ago...:facepalm:
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About three years ago, I gave all my LPs to a young woman who sang in the choir with me, after she told me that she had bought a turntable and was getting into vintage vinyl. They were in a sealed moving box that had remained unopened in my closet since about 1984, when I bought a CD player. I just pulled the box out of the closet and handed it to her without opening it first.

About a week later, when I saw her again, she said "Did you know you had Beatles records in there that had never been opened and were still in the original plastic wrap?" And then I remembered that, back in college, I had indeed bought some Beatles albums, only to find that the guy across the hall from me in the dorm already had them all. So I recorded his albums and left mine sealed.

I hope she got a good price for them.
 
Midpack said:
Doing some decluttering and finally took apart our old stereo system, with the intent of throwing it all out. The 5-disc CD player is in the trash (worth $20-40). And the Advent speakers will go in the trash too.

But I looked on eBay and found Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-750's like mine regularly sell for $100-180 after very active bidding! That's probably more than I paid for it around 1980! It's in excellent working and cosmetic shape, and I have the original manual, so I guess it'll go on eBay soon. It does weigh a ton compared to new electronics.

We're satisfied with our iPod and Bose dock - sadly our hearing ain't what it used to be. No idea what the appeal is with "vintage electronics," must be retro, amazing...
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I'm still using my Original Large Advents (bought new in 1974). Wonderful speakers. In good condition they usually sell @ e-bay for $200-$300. If the surround on the woofers has cracked (it usually does by now) it costs about $30 to buy a kit to redo both. I hope the garbage truck doesn't crush them as they are something of a collectors item.
 
Midpack said:
Jeez, now youse guys are making me wonder if I should sell the SX-750 at all? But we use it about 2-3 times/year (hooked into the TV, but we only turn it on for some concerts or movies), so not sure what I'd do with it other than let it appreciate more in value. :crazy:

Guess I shoulda kept the Dynaco (SCA-80?) I built from a kit in college before I upgraded to the Pioneer...
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I built one of those too! great amp. Finally sold it on one of my overseas assignments. It's probably still blasting away some salsa or such in the Orinoco region of Venezuela
 
ejman said:
I'm still using my Original Large Advents (bought new in 1974). Wonderful speakers. In good condition they usually sell @ e-bay for $200-$300. If the surround on the woofers has cracked (it usually does by now) it costs about $30 to buy a kit to redo both. I hope the garbage truck doesn't crush them as they are something of a collectors item.
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Mine are Advent 2002's, considered their bookshelf model IIRC, so not "large Advents." They sound good still, not used often and not often 'cranked up.' I took the grilles off and there are no (visible) cracks on woofers or tweeters. So they may have some value (saw 1 pair sold for $140 on eBay, though refoamed whatever that means), though they'd be a pain to ship to a buyer. Not sure what I'll do with them. Thanks for your insight...
 
If you don't want to tackle replacing the surrounds on woofers (re-foaming) most audio shops will do two woofers for about $75. It beats buying new speakers.
 
Thanks for this thread, I never thought my DJ equipment from the late 70s/early 80s might be worth something, particularly my Technics turntables. But I'm going to hold on to them as long as I still have my vinyl records (which I am converting to MP3 format).
 
jollystomper said:
Thanks for this thread, I never thought my DJ equipment from the late 70s/early 80s might be worth something, particularly my Technics turntables. But I'm going to hold on to them as long as I still have my vinyl records (which I am converting to MP3 format).
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If you going through the time/trouble to convert them, why not just convert to a loss-less format? Loss-less (I use FLAC), only takes ~ 5x the space of a decent mp3, and with the price of hard drives these days, that's nothing.

I suggest you keep a 'master' in loss-less, it is a snap to convert those masters to anything else if you want smaller files for a smaller capacity portable player. But if you try to convert a lossy file, every conversion will further degrade the quality.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
If you going through the time/trouble to convert them, why not just convert to a loss-less format? Loss-less (I use FLAC), only takes ~ 5x the space of a decent mp3, and with the price of hard drives these days, that's nothing.

I suggest you keep a 'master' in loss-less, it is a snap to convert those masters to anything else if you want smaller files for a smaller capacity portable player. But if you try to convert a lossy file, every conversion will further degrade the quality.

-ERD50
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+1
 
Gumby said:
Those old walnut-cased, brushed aluminum face Pioneer receivers are built like battleships, aren't they? When I compare them it to the black plastic crap available today, I wonder what happened.
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Yes they are, I'd never buy any of the modern stuff. Just a preference for the looks, and repairability, though only minor stuff to do. Same with my Realistic STA 2200 receiver amp. That one is 60W true RMS. per channel.

In both I did swap out the IF filters for narrower. As made the IFs were broad as a barn door. The change got rid of the SCA capability which I never used, on the plus side it eliminated adjacent channel interference. Though as I noted earlier the one station I liked switched to all politics all the time.

But there is hope. In Pittsburgh a group is planning to start a Jazz station. Initially they will be low power and only cover south and west of the city. In time they plan to increase ERP, maybe, with a monster Yagi or a Rhombic I'll be able to pull them in.

Hope springs eternal.
 
FWIW, after listening to 'alls youses,' I didn't put anything on eBay after all. May end up there, but the equipment (other than the CD changer in the trash, I'm not fishing it out) looks better than it did before I started this thread. Too bad our ears probably can't appreciate sound quality like we used to, before all those LOUD rock concerts when we were younger...
 
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Midpack said:
... (other than the CD changer in the trash, I'm not fishing it out) ...
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You don't literally mean 'in the trash', do you? I hope people drop things like this off at a recycling center. Trashing it might even be illegal in many places.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
You don't literally mean 'in the trash', do you? I hope people drop things like this off at a recycling center. Trashing it might even be illegal in many places.

-ERD50
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My bad. We recycle everything, and I've taken old PCs to the local recycling center. Didn't think/realize old stereo equipment should be recycled. So I just fished it out, thank goodness the trash was relatively clean...
 
I just tossed out my JBL 100's from the '70's. Still have my Dual 1229 turntable with a Shure cartridge and my Sony reel-to-reel tape deck.
 
My son just sold this on ebay, It's a vintage Tascam 388 eight channel mixer and eight track 1/4" reel to reel tape recorder. It's about 80 lbs and quite large so he sold it with "Local Pick-up Only". The buyer drove 6 hours from Toronto, Canada to pick it up.
 

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Sue J said:
My son just sold this on ebay, It's a vintage Tascam 388 eight channel mixer and eight track 1/4" reel to reel tape recorder. It's about 80 lbs and quite large so he sold it with "Local Pick-up Only". The buyer drove 6 hours from Toronto, Canada to pick it up.
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It's beautiful (depends on the eye of the beholder)! For no good reason, I want one.


-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
You don't literally mean 'in the trash', do you? I hope people drop things like this off at a recycling center. Trashing it might even be illegal in many places.

-ERD50
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REcycling it wouldn't be possible anywhere near where I live...
 
ls99 said:
I have a Pioneer SX720. Driving a pair of Infinity speakers. Total cost from Craigslist some years ago $150.-. Love it.

Unfortunately Jazz in Pittsburgh has died, thus the tuner is useless. Do listen to jazz stations via interweb driving the system via aux input.
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My husband just fired up his Pioneer SX 1010, also driving Infinity speakers.
He bought them in Germany back in the mid-70s on the Army base where he
was stationed.

They're out there next in the garage next to the microwave we bought back in the 1980s. :LOL:

He wanted to work on everything a bit and is looking forward to bringing it all back into the house.

Somehow the iPod/Bose dock just doesn't sound the same....
 
Accidental Retiree said:
My husband just fired up his Pioneer SX 1010, also driving Infinity speakers.
He bought them in Germany back in the mid-70s on the Army base where he
was stationed.

They're out there next in the garage next to the microwave we bought back in the 1980s. :LOL:

He wanted to work on everything a bit and is looking forward to bringing it all back into the house.

Somehow the iPod/Bose dock just doesn't sound the same....
Click to expand...
Alas, I wish my ears could still hear a substantial difference. :nonono:

Now back to Garage Band...
 
Accidental Retiree said:
My husband just fired up his Pioneer SX 1010, also driving Infinity speakers.
He bought them in Germany back in the mid-70s on the Army base where he
was stationed.

They're out there next in the garage next to the microwave we bought back in the 1980s. :LOL:

He wanted to work on everything a bit and is looking forward to bringing it all back into the house.

Somehow the iPod/Bose dock just doesn't sound the same....
Click to expand...

IPODs connected to a Bose dock can sound nice. But a listen to a decent mid-fi system will quickly show their deficiencies. Long live big stereos!:LOL:
 
I am suffering from the typical old age hearing loss combined with loud noise created tinnitus from guns and fireworks. I can't hear much any more in the higher frequencies. My wife has to tell me when the minute timer goes off in the kitchen! I have a nice-for-me stereo that was part of my new HDTV setup and love it. I can definately tell the difference from the old Sony CRT TV's built-in speakers.

I think most stereophiles delude themselves that the high end stuff is really all that better.

I have a friend who has now spent about $45K on a stereo system over the years. He wears hearing aids...

Mike D.
 
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