Old school stereo

[Qs Laptop]

I wish I could add more to this discussion but I sold most of my old stuff 6 years ago and modernized.

This is very weird--I bought my first real stereo system in 1987. I had Polk Monitor 10B for speakers which I bought on June 5, 1987 (I still have the receipt). I sold them on Craig's list on the same month/day, June 5th in 2020.

I really liked the sound of those speakers.

 

[Ronstar]

I bought a stereo in 1985 when we moved into our new house. I can't remember the components, except the B&W speakers, which we gave to MIL when we moved to our current house in 1994. MIL had them until 2 weeks ago when she moved in with us. And I brought her speakers with her.

B&W DM 2000

Found this online:

• Manufacturer: B&W
• Model: DM 2000
• Years of manufacture: 1983 - 1986
• Made in: England
• Colour: Black Ash, Natural Oak, Walnut
• Dimensions: 820 x 310 x 400 mm (H x W x D)
• Weight: 25 kg
• Original price approx.: (RRP pair)

Technical Data

• Type: 2-way closed, floorstanding speaker
• Chassis:
  • Low-midrange driver: 1x 160 mm

Tweeter: 1x 26 mm (dome)

• Power handling (nominal/music):
• Recommended amplifier power: 50 W
• Efficiency: 87 dB (2.83 V, 1 m)
• Frequency response: 50 - 20,000 Hz (±2 dB)
• Crossover frequency: 3,000 Hz
• Impedance: 8 Ohm

Now alive and well in my Bunker (exercise room)

 

[ERD50]

Wonder how many males aged over 65 can hear frequencies above 10 KHZ. Me thinks super high end audio gear even with great speakers is likely a waste for those folks...

My hearing is pretty much gone over 10 kHz, but I can definitely hear the difference between a high quality sound system and a medium/cheap one. There's a lot more to sound than just those highs.

Low distortion, an even frequency response (below 10 kHz at least!), make for good sound. A cheaper system will compress the dynamic range (adding distortion as it does it), bad frequency response can sound "honky", "tubby" , "boomy", (if certain frequencies are boosted) or empty/flat (if some frequencies are dropping).

There's also subtler things that affect the dispersion of the sound, and that affects how well you can hear/visualize the 'soundstage' (does the guitarist on the mid-left 'sound' like he's standing there, or is it all just mushed together?). My Magnaplaner speakers don't have the traditional drivers, the entire surface of the speaker moves. That seems to add a clarity, and in good recordings, you do feel you can pick out each instrument placement. Even with old ears.

 

[ls99]

^^^ Agree.

 

[Skitso999]

This thread stirs up my interest in the used stereo equipment market, and I surfed eBay and craigslist for fun.
There's a place selling used stereo equipment in town. He has a Web site listing high-priced collectible stuff which he can ship. For inexpensive items, he sells locally on craigslist. I see interesting things there quite often, but how much do I want to hoard in my home?

Anyway, I saw a couple of decent AV receivers going for $10! Guaranteed to work. The older receivers with phono inputs cost more, like $40. I drove there to see what else he had, and came home with one of the $10 receivers. I have several AV 5.1 receivers, but for $10 I picked this up for fun because it looks even newer, and is 7.1 instead of 5.1, with 100W/ch.

At home, I found out that one of the channels can be reassigned to be a subwoofer channel. No need for an active subwoofer, and I happen to have 3 passive subwoofers. Everything works! No remote though. A used remote on eBay costs $20. It's usable without a remote, but programming its feature via the front panel switches/buttons is tedious, compared to having a remote control.

Wow! What make and model of AV receiver is the one that you bought? I'd like to have one with 7.1 and 100W/Channel!

 

[FI FELLOW]

I built my own tube-based stereo system to go with my 1985 vintage Infinity RSIIb speakers. The mono amps are single-ended radio transmitter triodes running at 2.3kV on the anode and outputting a max of 200 watts per channel, and the DAC/preamp uses UX-201A tubes from the 1920s.
It was a good use of my spare time for a few years...

 

[HI Bill]

If I was going old school, simple stereo, I’d choose a used NAD amp, Onkyo turntable and some vintage (Heritage line) Klipsch speakers (Forte I to IV, Cornwall or Klipschorn.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Anybody ever use electrostatic speakers? As you may recall, these are ultra thin "sheet" speakers that are tall and require a separate woofer. My neighbor, an ultimate audiophile had a system built around this format. That was the only home system I have ever seen. I always viewed it as a novelty, conversation piece...sound was good. System is costly.

 

[FI FELLOW]

Another approach to old school is to refurbish a tube amplifier rescued from a trashed console stereo. I picked up a rusty early 1960s RCA RS177H amp at a flea market for a few dollars (first pic) and whipped up this two-channel amp with a Bluetooth receiver; it provides music for my basement system now (second pic).

 

[ERD50]

Anybody ever use electrostatic speakers? As you may recall, these are ultra thin "sheet" speakers that are tall and require a separate woofer. My neighbor, an ultimate audiophile had a system built around this format. That was the only home system I have ever seen. I always viewed it as a novelty, conversation piece...sound was good. System is costly.

My Magnepan speakers share the same approach of being a 'sheet' speaker (the entire front surface moves, not just smaller round drivers/speakers). But rather than high voltage electrostatic, they use conventional magnets with copper traces applied to the sheet. They don't have deep base (I use two subs), because there is no 'box', they are open dipoles. At low frequencies, the sound wave from the front will just move air to the back (as the front moves out, the back is moving in, and vice versa) - so it doesn't push air out into the room. But I love the sound of them.

Magnepan 1.7i

"This is a genuine Hall of Famer, and an easy pick for TAS 2021 Budget Product of the Year." In Issue 107, JV (Jonathan Valin - the absolute sound) selected Magnepan's tall, skinny, three-way, full range, quasi-ribbon, dipole MG 1.7 floorstander as one of his favorite loudspeakers of the last 70...

magnepan.com

 

[Skitso999]

My hearing is pretty much gone over 10 kHz, but I can definitely hear the difference between a high quality sound system and a medium/cheap one. There's a lot more to sound than just those highs.

Low distortion, an even frequency response (below 10 kHz at least!), make for good sound. A cheaper system will compress the dynamic range (adding distortion as it does it), bad frequency response can sound "honky", "tubby" , "boomy", (if certain frequencies are boosted) or empty/flat (if some frequencies are dropping).

There's also subtler things that affect the dispersion of the sound, and that affects how well you can hear/visualize the 'soundstage' (does the guitarist on the mid-left 'sound' like he's standing there, or is it all just mushed together?). My Magnaplaner speakers don't have the traditional drivers, the entire surface of the speaker moves. That seems to add a clarity, and in good recordings, you do feel you can pick out each instrument placement. Even with old ears.

How do you like the sound of HD sound from an HD receiver? How does it rate? I have several Jensen clock radios that are HD, and when an HD signal is picked up it makes a huge difference. I can't imagine what that must be like on a decent stereo system compared to my cheesy HD clock radio.

 

[Texas Proud]

Anybody ever use electrostatic speakers? As you may recall, these are ultra thin "sheet" speakers that are tall and require a separate woofer. My neighbor, an ultimate audiophile had a system built around this format. That was the only home system I have ever seen. I always viewed it as a novelty, conversation piece...sound was good. System is costly.
View attachment 64772

One of my BILs bought them... they did not have a great sound IMO..

But they were good for classical music which is what the liked...

Then they had our nephew live with them when he was kicked out of his house... when they were on vacation he played them loudly for a long time and ruined them... I think they were clipping but never did sound good again...

 

[Pointby2]

Old school stereo, and now we're talking about electrostatic speakers and 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound amplifiers? Jeez.

Talk about topic drift...

 

[ERD50]

How do you like the sound of HD sound from an HD receiver? How does it rate? I have several Jensen clock radios that are HD, and when an HD signal is picked up it makes a huge difference. I can't imagine what that must be like on a decent stereo system compared to my cheesy HD clock radio.

Never tried it, but I might expect it to sound not so great on a good system.

The FM HD broadcasts allow options to carry 100, 112, 125 or 150kbps of data

It can sound better than analog on a clock radio, because its analog receiver is probably not great, with lots of noise and poor frequency response. The digital stream can perform better. But...

100 to 150 kbps is not considered high quality audio. A good/great system will be more 'revealing' of the lost information from that much data compression.

I avoid data compression as much as I can, and use FLAC (lossless) where I can. I'm not saying I can always tell the difference, but over time, I think the lost information results in a sound that is lacking something that you notice over a period of time, and just starts to sound boring (like something is missing - because it is!). But for casual listening, it probably makes no difference.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Old school stereo, and now we're talking about electrostatic speakers and 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound amplifiers? Jeez.

Talk about topic drift...

Not sure if you are aware, electrostatic speakers are very much old school. My experience with them was in the late 1970s! No drift here in that case eh? I could join in with Edison 78 lps but...

fyi: The first operational electrostatic speaker was built at Bell Labs in 1929 by Edwin Washburn Kellogg, using a gold-leaf-coated pig's intestine for the diaphragm. However, Arthur A. Janszen invented the first practical, wide-range high-fidelity electrostatic speaker in the early 1950s. The first commercially successful, full-range model was the Quad ESL, launched in 1957. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

 

[Pointby2]

I did Not know electrostatic speakers went back to the 70s. Thanks for the heads-up.

Now about those surround sound modern amps....

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Anybody ever use electrostatic speakers? As you may recall, these are ultra thin "sheet" speakers that are tall and require a separate woofer. My neighbor, an ultimate audiophile had a system built around this format. That was the only home system I have ever seen. I always viewed it as a novelty, conversation piece...sound was good. System is costly.
View attachment 64772

I have a pair of Martin-Logans. They are wonderful!

 

[explanade]

I had a setup with tube preamp and B&W speakers when I had little money. That preamp, if you didn’t let it warm up before turning on the amp would pop the fuse in the speakers. I don’t even remember the brand.

I sold or gave much of it away, to declutter. Did the same with laser discs and huge players.

I have dozens of DVDs and Blu Rays I’ve never opened. I ripped some but it was a slog.

I have home theater with B&W speakers connected to a plasma TV and a 15-year old Denon AVR which I will upgrade but audio business is hanging on barely and they screwed up roll out of HDMI 2.1.

I get emails from B&W most of which I ignore. They push wireless headphones a lot these days.

When I play music, which isn’t often, it’s on a HomePod mini while I do other things. IOW, it’s background content. I don’t sit down and listen to music in the sweet spot, get immersed in it.

Oh had a car stereo too with Nakamichi and fancy speakers. Nowadays I use AirPods only one ear for podcasts when driving.

 

[DrRoy]

I bought my first stereo system in college in 1981. Tamron speakers, Pioneer integrated amp, and turntable. Over the years I upgraded the amp and turntable, added a cassette deck, and later a CD changer. Still had the same speakers, though, as I liked the look and sound of them. About a year and a half ago, I was reading a thread about stereo systems that prompted me to take a look at different speakers. I went to listen to KEF R3 Meta's. Wow. I was surprised how I could hear more from my music than I knew was there. I got the speakers plus a Rotel A14 MKII integrated amp, a REL T/7X subwoofer, and connected everything with 14 ga wire. It has been a brand new experience to listen to my music, and I'm so glad that I did it.

 

[finnski1]

Anybody think these speaker cables are undersized?

 

[DogDad]

I had a Dynaco amp and preamp that I built from a kit back in 60s. Apparently you can still purchase a kit if you want to build your own or buy it pre-built: Amplifier Kits Archives - Dynakit Parts

 

[NW-Bound]

Wow! What make and model of AV receiver is the one that you bought? I'd like to have one with 7.1 and 100W/Channel!

It's the Sherwood R-672. The seller "throws it away", perhaps because it has class-D power stages, all sorts of surround modes that I never heard of (I am not a video buff), and does not have phono inputs. So, audiophiles do not care for it. But for $10, how do I resist?

Once I took it home, found that it has interesting and useful features. For example, it could reserve the low bass for the subwoofer channel and roll off the low bass to the other channels if you are using smaller speakers (particularly for the surround channels) so as not overloading them at high volumes. The volume of each individual channel can be adjusted up/down relative to the ensemble, in order to compensate for speaker sensitivities or efficiencies. You can plug in a microphone, hit a button then let it measure and tweak automatically. I have not tried that last feature. Got to find room and wires to hook up so many speakers. I am just an old-fashioned 2-channel stereo guy.

 

[NW-Bound]

Anybody think these speaker cables are undersized? View attachment 64783

And inside the amps and the speakers, the manufacturers use 18-gauge wires.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Anybody think these speaker cables are undersized? View attachment 64783

What gauge...looks like 220v/30A capacity. fwiw...more important than gauge is shielded wire as this isolates and filters magnetic/induction signals.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

In 1975 my Fisher receiver was stolen and moving to Columbus a few months latter, I purchase a discounted quadraphonic, four channel receiver, at a distribution center. I don't think the concept ever took off. Anybody remember a FM station broadcasting in that mode/band? I think the receiver used a internal skewed equalizer per channel to give the four channel depth effect...not certain though.