What's in your Hi-Fi?

[enframed]

Cerwin Vegas and have a proper 70s frathouse setup for the games room.

My wife's dad left us these bricks with deteriorated foam but all else in tact, the cabinets are still solid. After installing new foam on and cleaning both they sound as ridiculous as I'm sure they ever did.

My son uses them in the basement, attached to some Onkyo receiver for his Xbox and iPod. They'll be perfect for college days.

[JHarn]

Always liked those big boat-anchor Marantz integrated amps and receivers. Used to have one, will probably be in the market for one when we get to the new digs. Might get an old Thorens and some Cerwin Vegas and have a proper 70s frathouse setup for the games room.

You heard me. Games room.

Hah, this is basically my current set up. Except swap out the Thorens and replace it with a late 70's era Hitachi PS-58. The Marantz is a 2275 and I love it. Thing is a beast. Got it from my father when he stopped using it. I believe he slaved away at KFC during his teenage years and bought it along with a number of other components, blowing whatever he'd managed to save. His parents weren't impressed he tells me. My mother recalls a Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader calender and it as the only things he really had in his shit shack of a house that he lived in after he graduated high school. That's partly why I'm so attached to it...

[MatthewK]

A couple years back I picked up a Marantz 2220 ... I'll get around to the recap I still haven't gotten around to doing.

I have a schematic for a 2220, and I documented the recaps on my 2285B if you need links! Sorry - my inner geek is showing.

[sleepkid]

A couple years back I picked up a Marantz 2220 ... I'll get around to the recap I still haven't gotten around to doing.

I have a schematic for a 2220, and I documented the recaps on my 2285B if you need links! Sorry - my inner geek is showing.

I'd like to see the documented recap of the 2285B.

Mine is just about due, but I've not opened it up and poked around inside it yet.

[motorbike guy]

just before he headed to college, my best high school buddy had, like $350 to spend on a hifi for his dorm room. He came to me since I had memorized every Tech Hifi catalog since 1976. We hit the wholesale places in Boston and came away with a killer-painfully loud system with a piece of shit 40 watt Technics reciever, a Dual Turntable and the loudest and brightest little Cerwin Vegas. Those things rocked. Everything sounds like Motorhead on them. He lived with that happily for many years, until he joined the linnie cult with me in about 1985.

[MatthewK]

I'd like to see the documented recap of the 2285B.

WARNING, for geeks only:
Audio path caps: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58093
Power supply dual-section caps: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=281050
I think the images in the first thread are only visible if you're logged in to the site, sorry. Great site though and plenty of helpful people.

[sleepkid]

I'd like to see the documented recap of the 2285B.

WARNING, for geeks only:
Audio path caps: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58093
Power supply dual-section caps: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=281050
I think the images in the first thread are only visible if you're logged in to the site, sorry. Great site though and plenty of helpful people.

Nice work. I'm surprised you went through all that work to keep the look of the original caps! I'm sure at some point someone else has given you the lecture about why you shouldn't drain the capacitor with a screwdriver, but we've probably all done it at some time. Later I made a simple drain with a resistor and a lightbulb. Much safer. Much less sparky and scary.

But seriously, nice work!

[MatthewK]

Thanks! and yes, I knew it wasn't the ideal procedure - had I wanted to keep the cap I certainly wouldn't have done it, and I appreciate the safety angle too. To be honest I expected there wouldn't be anything in it, it had been unplugged for a day with the power switch on, lesson learned.
Only reason I went for the cap-stuffing was that I didn't want to interfere with something else in the case, it's a packed space in there and I figured if I kept the same dimensions I wouldn't overheat something else or short to something I hadn't noticed.
2 years later it's still working perfectly, I have no desire to open it up again - but if I get an overheat failure from having the new caps in the can, I'll just leave the can off next time.

[squarewave]

I'm sure at some point someone else has given you the lecture about why you shouldn't drain the capacitor with a screwdriver, but we've probably all done it at some time. Later I made a simple drain with a resistor and a lightbulb. Much safer. Much less sparky and scary.

Grab an automotive test light the next time you see someone selling auto repair tools at a swap meet or a garage sale.



When the light goes out, the cap is safely discharged.

[madmanmunt]

I'm fucked. I spent a significant amount of time this weekend researching old amplifiers.
What kind of stuff should I be looking out for? 70s/80s Sansui, Pioneer?

Is that Sony that bad?

Put it up on craigslist, reckon it'll be gone tomorrow. I would put it's value to me at $5.

Didn't even get a chance to get my bin bag of tapes out of the basement.

[MatthewK]

The late 70s were the time when the "receiver wars" resulted in some incredibly powerful and well-spec'd home receivers. Of those the most sought-after are the Marantz and Pioneer lines. But there are some excellent Sansui, McIntosh, Harman Kardon, Rotel, Sonab, etc. units. Beware the very top end for inflated prices and occasional cutting-edge design quirks (e.g. the toroidal transformers in the Marantz 2500/2600, irreplaceable and prone to burnouts).
But really, any quality-brand 70s integrated will have weapons-grade output stages, conservatively engineered power supplies, and will need its electrolytic caps replaced from go to whoa. I'd choose on (a) sound, (b) sound, and (c) availability of a service manual, output transistors and PSU components. Dual power supplies (one per channel) and DC coupled outputs are a plus. A modest 70s Marantz like a 1060 integrated (30Wpc), well adjusted, will absolutely slay any current "100W per channel with a favourable breeze if you only listen to sine waves in a 2 second burst" receiver. My 2285B (85Wpc) is louder than a Twin Reverb.
Audiokarma.org is a great place to go for advice and resources.

[LBx]

I had a 1060 years back. The Rotel I had after and the Sansui I have now sound much better but I'm sure you'll be able to get one cheap. I can definitely recommend a 70's Sansui. The industrial design of that era can be great too.

If you can swim thru the monied audiophile b.s. there are tons of other options to research at the forum/classifieds here. Local ish and otherwise.

http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/vi ... hilit=330c
http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/vi ... u&start=15
http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/vi ... u+#p184250

[MatthewK]

I had a 1060 years back. The Rotel I had after and the Sansui I have now sound much better

That really surprises me, the 1060 is renowned as a sweet sounding integrated, although I haven't heard one myself. I had a 90s Rotel and I went through an 80s Marantz before reaching the 2285B and stopping dead in my tracks. One man's warmth is another's colouration but I'm a pretty demanding (irritable?) listener and I haven't heard it put a foot wrong.
One thing which is important is that the bias currents and DC offsets have to be dialed in if you don't want it to sound flat and harsh.
But your practical experience > theoretical pontificating any day.

[LBx]

Well, I should say it sounded fine but lacked the depth and width of the latter two which had been checked over by a hobbyist tech before i bough them. Was in good but not great shape in retrospect and set up in a crowded/small room.

madmanmunt! buy one!

[enframed]

Is that Sony that bad?

Put it up on craigslist, reckon it'll be gone tomorrow. I would put it's value to me at $5.

Didn't even get a chance to get my bin bag of tapes out of the basement.

I just put the one I got up against a Sherwood S-7150CP (ca. 1978) receiver that someone gave me. The Sherwood blows it away. Bye bye, Sony. It's on C-list now.

[squarewave]

I'm fucked. I spent a significant amount of time this weekend researching old amplifiers.
What kind of stuff should I be looking out for? 70s/80s Sansui, Pioneer?

Sansui and Pioneer fell off like a rock in the 80s. A good yardstick to tell which models are strong vs the shitty later era models is the tuners...
If they had analog dial tuners, then they were probably still decent. The giant corporations buying up the hi-fi companies and stripping the soul (and the quality components) out of them coincided with the boom of digital tuners.

After 83-84 or so, up-and-coming brands in the US market like Onkyo, Yamaha, Denon, etc were taking over the shelf positions in the hi-fi stores where Sansui, Sherwood, Kenwood, Marantz, Fisher and Pioneer had always been. Those brands were dropped by the specialists as they went into the department stores, and the product went downhill fast as price became their most important feature.

NAD, Adcom, Rotel, Nakamichi, Luxman, Hafler, Soundcraftsmen, SAE etc were always a step above, but each of these brands has some specific service nightmares to contend with on a model by model basis.

Marantz was a dog line in the mid to late 80s... if you see items with a ton of pushbuttons for everything, and enough lights to remind you of the Tokyo skyline, avoid them... They really did not come back with another strong line until the mid-90s.

Navigating the 'mid-fi' segment of hi-fi is like navigating a mine field.

[Ben Abraham]

I have a Soundcraftmen equalizer. I've never used it but if anyone wants it PM me.

[Jodi S.]

I've got these small speakers, which I am told are better than my current ones.

They have connectors in the back that look like miniplug receptacles (like the kind you plug headphones into.) The speakers I currently have are the plain old lever kind, where you jam the wire into it and it "bites" it into place.

So I'm guessing I need new speaker cables to use them.

What's a good inexpensive set of cables to get?

[motorbike guy]

I've got these small speakers, which I am told are better than my current ones.

They have connectors in the back that look like miniplug receptacles (like the kind you plug headphones into.) The speakers I currently have are the plain old lever kind, where you jam the wire into it and it "bites" it into place.

So I'm guessing I need new speaker cables to use them.

What's a good inexpensive set of cables to get?

is there just one hole per speaker or two? What brand are the speakers? Something European?

If they have two holes per speaker, you probably just need standard 4mm banana plugs. There are clamp on types and solder on types.

These are clamp on/screw on ones.

They are regularly available from numerous hifi sites.

I like the solder on types. I can't find a picture, but the ones I use are very simple, with just a little cup to recieve the wire. If you are hip to soldering, I might have a few lying around that I can send you.

[Jodi S.]

is there just one hole per speaker or two? What brand are the speakers? Something European?

They're Cabasse, and there's two holes per speaker.

I need new cables anyhow (the set I have now is from college, which was back when the earth was still cooling) so keep the suggestions flowing.