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Post Your Old Stereo Systems


DudeAsInCool

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I thought it might be fun to post our old stereo setups. A lot of my friends were in bands, so we always had the best stereo equipment.

Back when vinyl ruled the day, here was my stereo setup :lol:

Sony Amp/Tuner

Benjamin Miracord Turntable

KLH Speakers (2)

Altec Rectilinear (2)

How about you guys?

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I don't have a pic but yours looks nice!

Back in the 70's I had:

1 Pioneer QX8000A qaud receiver

2 Akai 4000DS 7" reel to reel tape decks

2 Garard turntables (don't remember the model)

1 Pioneer CTF 9191 cassette deck

1 Pioneer cassette deck (don't remember the model)

1 Akai 8 track tape deck

1 8 track tape deck (Nivico or some shit brand given to me about 30 years ago)

4 Sterling speakers with 12" woofers

Here's the funny part. I don't have the Garrard turntables anymore. The rest of the shit I still have and I am playing that system daily. :lol:

The items of unknown model above are unknown only because I don't use them daily and I don't remember the numbers right off hand. I refuse to get up to look but they are all hooked up and worked last time I used them.

The Garrard turntables both crapped out and have been replaced with a 1970 vintage BSR MacDonald 5250W Professional Series turntable and a cheap Kenwood. I got the BSR MacDonald around 25 years ago from a friend. I got the Kenwood about 10 years ago from another friend. I have a nicer Kenwood but it needs a belt and cartridge and I am not using it currently. I had it out to repair it when I had my little accident and I haven't bothered to order the parts. I got it 20 years ago from a pawn shop.

All the items I bought NEW around 1973 or 1974 except as noted above. I have all this junk hooked in to my computer in what was the game room. Now we call it the war room. Nothing in here but stereo junk and 3 computers and related printers, scanners and the like. Well, of course we have ammo, gun cases, gun safes and believe it or not.....guns. Why else would we call it the war room? :lol:

We do have a Kenwood surround system in the living room but it doesn't have any personality. The setup in the war room has plenty of personality. :wub:

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Here's the funny part. I don't have the Garrard turntables anymore.

The Garrard turntables both crapped out and have been replaced with a 1970 vintage BSR MacDonald 5250W Professional Series turntable and a cheap Kenwood. I got the BSR MacDonald around 25 years ago from a friend. I got the Kenwood about 10 years ago from another friend. I have a nicer Kenwood but it needs a belt and cartridge and I am not using it currently. I had it out to repair it when I had my little accident and I haven't bothered to order the parts. I got it 20 years ago from a pawn shop.

Check out the Miracords (the German one's from the 70s) - you can still get them cheap on Ebay. Forgetabout Garrards, and i won't even mention the K-word one :lol: Technics from that time weren't bad, but not as solid as the Miracords. Pioneer equipment was always solid. I don't know those speakers - but they used to make solid speakers back then, so I imagine they're good.

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The Garrards were cheap but so was I back in the 70's since I had no money. Come to think of it, nothing has changed. :lol:

I also have a Pioneer PL-516 turntable that was recently given to me by a woman that knows nothing of turntables. She threw her husband out many years ago and it was his. It had been boxed up and she was going to throw it out to reduce junk around the house unless I wanted it. So I took it. When I got it home I found out the tonearm weight was missing. She has no clue where it is . It is useless without that part but I haven't tossed it yet. One of these days I may drop into a vintage record shop and see what the possibility is of getting a weight that will work on this unit. I would like to have the Pioneer with a semi-high end cartridge and the BSR as my 2 turntables that are hooked up and running. btw, the tonearm weight on the PL-514 is the same part number as the PL-516 but all the other models are different. If you have one in your pocket, please mail it to me.

The Sterling speakers are probably a private brand of the chain of stores that I bought them from. They are long since out of business. I blew out all 4 of the 12" subs a long time ago and replaced them with some Pioneer subs. They have held up. The cabinets are imo, decent looking and well built so I just upgraded the subs. The sound quality is probably less than a lot of speakers but the price was too. When you crank it up it can still make your ears bleed but I rarely crank it anymore. Old age has set in.

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I actually have an old 70's JVC quadraphonic Receiver. It has 8 speaker channels in total. The damn thing weighs about 60lbs. I saved it from Goodwill when I was about 13. I haven't found a speaker yet it couldn't power perfectly.

It isn't so great for highs, but that can be fixed with a boost in equalization.

I also had a Fisher that was about the same, but it had a joystick to control the fade/balance. That one I saved from the dump on the way home from school one day, saw it sitting on top of a garbage can and snagged it. I loaned it to a friend a long time ago, and it has long since disappeared from my knowledge, until it turned up in the hand of my sister in law's dopehead brother in law.

Nothing beats those old amplifiers for pure punch power.

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I like my Pioneer quad receiver but it only has hook-ups for 4 speakers and that's all the speakers I have connected. It is 35 yrs old and the only thing wrong with it is one of the lamps that lights up the meter that indicates signal strength has burned out. The Pioneer CTF 9191 cassette deck had to be worked on back in the early 80s. The two Akai 7" reels and 8 track have had no problems. This old junk that I have just works.

I am currently doing a test to see if I die before the Pioneer receiver does. I'll let you know the results. :lol:

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I bought a Sony System when I worked at Columbia Pictures in the 90s. Still have it. It looks something like THIS

I also have 5 little speakers. Funny how I now just listen to music mostly through the computer

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Yes. There are many people with newer sound systems than mine. Somehow I still believe that mine will be playing after most of the newer ones are junked.

Age is relevant. I have several guns older than my stereo and they work fine too. Let me catch you on my property around 3 a.m. and I'll show you. :lol:

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I just bought the parts to fix the Pioneer turntable that I mentioned above. :lol:

I had looked in the past with no luck but I just looked again and found that tonearm weight on Ebay. It was in an auction with some other parts for a PL-514. The tonearm assy is the same on my PL-516. I spent $13.81 for that auction plus $12.08 shipping. A belt on a "Buy it now" cost me $7.50 shipping and all. For $33.39 I should have the junker spinning. I now need to buy a belt for the Kenwood and a decent cartridge. Then I'll have plenty of turntables to sit around unused. :lol:

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I just bought the parts to fix the Pioneer turntable that I mentioned above. :lol:

I had looked in the past with no luck but I just looked again and found that tonearm weight on Ebay. It was in an auction with some other parts for a PL-514. The tonearm assy is the same on my PL-516. I spent $13.81 for that auction plus $12.08 shipping. A belt on a "Buy it now" cost me $7.50 shipping and all. For $33.39 I should have the junker spinning. I now need to buy a belt for the Kenwood and a decent cartridge. Then I'll have plenty of turntables to sit around unused. :lol:

But but but... they will be WORKING!

Never enough of a fan of vinyl, but I dig vintage equipment, and I have a habit of buying old speaker sets out of thrift stores and restoring them and/or updating the hardware in them. I haven't done a set in a few years, as it pisses my wife off, but it was something I always enjoyed and was a rather inexpensive hobby.

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