My Marantz Collection.....
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510M nudie.....couple of beer can size capacitors....air cooling system....built in 1976
Retail Price was $999.95 in 1975........that's $4,651.64 in 2017
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Original U.S. made Motorola transistors with staggered pin fin heat dissipators.....
Factory rated 256 watts per channel at 8 Ohms but I have heard around 300 watts on test bench....
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Quoted from fuseholder:I mostly use tubes on the digital media. I think it warms up the music to a vinyl/analog sound. The Mc Intosh is solid state and I run the Thorens turntable into it. The Macs and records are warm enough, imho.
I thought of trying an older Mc Intosh tub amp as well, but as you say, there is only so much warmth you need.
Anybody ever try any of the new tube amps?
Quoted from Shiny_balls:My Marantz Collection.....
510M nudie.....couple of beer can size capacitors....air cooling system....built in 1976
Retail Price was $999.95 in 1975........that's $4,651.64 in 2017Original U.S. made Motorola transistors with staggered pin fin heat dissipators.....
Factory rated 256 watts per channel at 8 Ohms but I have heard around 300 watts on test bench....
You win!
Pioneer 9500ii integrated amp in the game room portion of the basement and a 6500 in the bar area. I was running Bose 901 Series 6's for years, but the room in my long-term home wasn't the greatest for them, so I sold them. Looking for some Pioneer HPM 100's for the space. The bar area has four AR-18's. They are good for lower volume in that area.
Great to see this thread pop up because I had just been doing some looking around about my old stuff. I found out that just like pinball there are a bunch of people who are into all of the vintage AV stuff, and they also restore them. This includes things like replacing caps, making electronic adjustments with scopes, and so forth. And, they even argue about replacing the lamps with LEDS, just like pinball!
I have a Kenwood KA-3500 amp and matching KT-5300 tuner. I bought these in July 1976 along with some speakers, a turntable, and the ultra cool Bic FM 10 antenna box, which I think is gone but possibly might be sitting in the attic. This was a ridiculous amount of money to spend in 1976 when I had basically nothing. But now 40+ years later I have to say it is some of the best money I have ever spent. These traveled with me everywhere I went and entertained me for all that time. Sure I have a fancypants modern AV receiver in the living room, but this amp and tuner still are doing duty even today playing tunes in the garage while I work on pinballs. These are connected to some Radio Shack / Realistic Minimus-7 speakers, and it sounds great for playing FM or even playing off an iPod connected via a docking station. I also have the turntable still and use it occasionally to digitize some vinyl that can't be acquired otherwise.
Soon I am going to work on the amp and tuner and Deoxit the pots. They are pretty crackly. I will clean everything up nicely but that's probably about it. I don't think I will get into replacing the caps unless I see something strange when I take the cover off. Everything works perfectly so I don't want to mess with it.
I love all the vintage stuff, especially those old receivers from Marantz, Pioneer and others. The designs are so cool, way better-looking than what you buy today.
An indication of what a packrat I am is that I still have the original receipt. But at least I am a digital packrat nowadays. I probably kept the original boxes for 20 or 30 years, but finally tossed them.
Quoted from ZNET:Fascinating series of posts, Half_Life.
Quoted from MustangPaul:Great series of posts. That's a lot of work.
Thanks for the kind words.
The Magnepan MG-1 speakers were truly an innovation in audio back in the day. They have probably one of the strongest mid-range responses of any speaker I've had or heard. Vocals especially, sound incredible and life-like. Also, the sonic spatial diversity/separation is awesome. However, the one knock against them is the low end bass is not strong; kind of muted. It's there, just don't expect to get that"thump" in the chest when hitting the low tones. On the other hand, if you want life-like sounds as if in a jazz club or the like, you can't go wrong.
Currently, my MG-1 pair reside in my shop driven by my Yamaha M-80 amp (which I also repaired/restored). I run a bluetooth adapter so I can listen to Pandora from my phone through this system.
Quoted from pindan3:Got to play all the 45's on the juke boxes...over 5000 of them!
Cool.
I've got my 60 hours in this week. The pins are energized and the Cerwin Vegas are relocating objects on the bar top. Late 70's punk at the moment..... Bring on the weekend
Enjoy. Sputnik
Quoted from Sputnik:...the Cerwin Vegas are relocating objects on the bar top...
Good one.. 
For anyone in need of a quad decoder for a Marantz receiver, currently on eBay are two auctions (links below), one for an SQA-2 and the other for a 2B model. I often see the inferior SQA-1 decoders for sale. The more advanced SQA-2 and 2B decoders are harder to find in working condition. I have heard that the 2 is actually better than the 2B.
ebay.com link: Marantz SQA 2 Decoder for Model 4300 Model 4400 Quadradial System Receiver
ebay.com link: MARANTZ SQA 2B 4 CHANNEL DECODER EXCELLENT CONDITION
Quoted from pindan3:the juke that is defying gravity...??? that is a WALL MOUNT Rock Ola!....I even have the WALL MOUNT bracket for it which is very rare!
Interesting, never seen a wall mount juke box before. (not counting the small controllers in a diner booth) Unless they were usually only mounted 1 to 2 feet off of the floor. It must have some advantages, rather than having the jukebox sitting on the floor.
I have a Panasonic turntable (with cassettedeck) for my vinyl listening.
+ an old travel grammaphone.
I've been wanting to transfer my vinyl and cassette music to cd for awhile and I wished to do so sans my computer. I didn't want to toy with PC software, sound cards and CD writer drives, even in the interest of improved fidelity. Most of my dubbing was going to be vinyl (as opposed to cassette) to cd so the fidelity ought to be okay even absent equalization tweaks. Also, there's only so much one can do to improve the sound on an old cassette, in my opinion.
My research led me to purchase a Tascam CC-222MKII, which is a revised edition of the first integrated device made to accomplish this task. The unit was made by Teac's Professional Division in about 2005. Back then, this particular model retailed for about $1,000, as best I can tell. Now, clean ones sell on eBay, with the wireless remote, in the $350 - $425 range (an SL model seems to sell for two or three times that amount. . .unsure precisely why). Often, the older equipment is superior to the newer stuff. That is the case with the various CC-222 models as compared to newer Teac decks.
There are several iterations of this device, some of which will also transfer to the MP3 format. If you buy rewritable compact discs, you can record over your previous recordings. I think that you can also record from cd to cassette (although I suspect few would care about that feature). These devices can even dub the same source simultaneously (e.g. vinyl to both cassette and cd). The Tascam supports all of the bias varieties of cassette tape, including metal tape. Most importantly, the units in the CC-222 series have dedicated, grounded RIAA phono inputs to connect directly to the turntable facilitating an easy burn to compact disc. The phono stage is the key for me.
This model does not support the high speed CD-RW blank discs (later units do, though, I think). Also, some of these dubbing units can be finicky about needing a particular name-brand blank CD and/or capacity (650 MB vs. 700 MB). It's my understanding that several consumers reported their units as defective because the screen kept reading "disc error," when in fact they were simply using unsupported blank discs.
Right now, I'm listening to cassettes and compact discs and they sound pretty darn good through my Setton 69 WPC receiver and Energy RC10 speakers. I will report back, after I dub a few items. Meanwhile, if anyone on this forum has had experience with Tascam dubbing units, please chime in.
Well, my effort with the Tascam (post #73 above) combo unit failed. The unit successfully created a high-quality duplication of a cassette (for about a minute) to a compact disc and then froze. The playback fidelity was better than expected before the defect manifested itself.
Consequently, I returned the Tascam and decided to go in a different direction. The question I asked myself was whether there were any outstanding compact disc players at the $500 price point. It turns out that in 2007, Cambridge Audio made an exceptional cd player (model 840C) which then retailed for $1,500 and which audio critics all agreed rivaled cd players in the $5K to $6K price category. That garnered my attention, especially since in 2017, the Cambridge 840C could be acquired for about $500, if you got lucky on eBay.
I found one, with a silver faceplate, on eBay from a high-end audio seller, with original box and manual and which was utilized exclusively with high-end equipment. Having now tested the 840C, I am utterly astounded at the sonic quality, plus the build quality is equally evident. Below is a link to one of the reviews. Also, below is a photo.
http://www.dagogo.com/cambridge-audio-azur-840c-cd-player-review
Quoted from Methos:What is driving you to convert analog sound to digital?
I bought the Tascam unit with the objective to transfer albums and cassettes to compact discs so that I could download the compact discs to my car's cd memory. I never got into the iPod craze. Thus, much of my music remains on the vinyl and cassette formats.
At home, I prefer the old records spinning on the turntable. However, I must confess that this Cambridge Azur 840C cd player produces outstanding sound, which does not cause listening fatigue, like most digitized music I've heard. It's not a cd recorder; just a cd player.
Quoted from ZNET:I bought the Tascam unit with the objective to transfer albums and cassettes to compact discs so that I could download the compact discs to my car's cd memory. I never got into the iPod craze. Thus, much of my music remains on the vinyl and cassette formats.
At home, I prefer the old records spinning on the turntable. However, I must confess that this Cambridge Azur 840C cd player produces outstanding sound, which does not cause listening fatigue, like most digitized music I've heard. It's not a cd recorder; just a cd player.
I get it. If you keep it in a AAD format, using it for mobility, makes sense. Good luck.
I bought this at a flea show in evansville Sunday. Forty bucks. Pretty neat with speakers in the sides, handle, and hideout for the cord.
I was hoping it worked without needing maintenance because I have some tapes I want to record to digital. After about a minute though it quit so off to the repairman.
I tried fixing my Sony R2R and was unsuccessful.
Quoted from dmbjunky:Also got this Sound Design turntable/8-track combo at Goodwill. First record player I've found at Goodwill.
I'll probably clean it up and give it to someone for a gift.
Take care in removing that tape. If that is a veneer wood, you should be fine. If it is a wood grain film it might lift off.
I added a Kyocera D-811 cassette deck to my bedroom system. It was made in in Japan in about 1987. Reviews tout it as a 2-head deck comparable to most high-end 3 head decks, utilizing many of the same key components as Nakamichi decks. The Kyocera unit has Sankyo based transports, a direct-drive front capstan and the heads are sendust.
I purchased an OEM belt kit online to repair the fast forward and rewind controls, which aren't functioning. The sound is terrific, though. My old cassette tapes (and I have a lot of them) perform on par with compact discs on this unit and on my Tandberg TCD330 Norway-made 3 head deck as well. Until I bought the Tandberg unit, I was skeptical that a cassette tape, especially a 40 year-old self-recorded tape, could sound so clean.
When I was a teenager and young adult, I created dozens of cassette tape compilations of my favorite songs, many titles of which are obscure. I remember popping a tape in my car's cassette player on a date and knowing right away whether she and I shared the same taste in music. So I suppose that these the tapes themselves, much like albums, apart from the music, bring me back to my youth. I wonder if others enjoy listening to music on different formats, like me.
This Kyocera cassette deck is in fantastic cosmetic condition. It even came with both the wooden side panels as well as the gloss black side panels. The last photo shows the unit with the black side panels installed. Original manual and warranty card was also included! Inasmuch as the warranty duration was 1 year, I suspect that I'm beyond the covered period for my new belt. Here's a review, with the performance details:
Here's a pic of a recently restored Carver TFM-15 and Carver CT-23 that reside in my pinball shop. Picked them up at Goodwill for next to nothing as both were non-working. They are connected to my Magnepan MG-1's.
I repair/restore vintage audio equipment as my other hobby. I switch back and forth between this and pinball repair/restoration so as not to get bored.
Quoted from Half_Life:Here's a pic of a recently restored Carver TFM-15 and Carver CT-23 that reside in my pinball shop. Picked them up at Goodwill for next to nothing as both were non-working. They are connected to my Magnepan MG-1's.
I repair/restore vintage audio equipment as my other hobby. I switch back and forth between this and pinball repair/restoration so as not to get bored.
Nice find. Audio equipment at Goodwill in my area typically carries a price tag of $15 - $25.
Quoted from pinster68:Bose Quietcomfort headphones
Is that an authentic Giger 'Bullet Baby' you're using as an earphone rack? What an amazing use of such a thing.
I've got a bunch of old Sansui gear I still use:
AU-9900, TU-9900 (sending out for mods), AU-555 (all original packaging incl. sales slip), SD-7000 r2r, AU-111G Vintage (doubles as space heater), SPL-700 speakers, SP-30 speakers (small but mighty). It's all about the knobs, you can't have too many.
This stuff seems cool to me but I'm no audiophile. Earlier this year I picked up a Pioneer receiver (SX 1900) and some JVC speakers for what I thought was a bargain. I was all excited and went home to look it up on the internet. It didn't take long to discover, those who know pretty much say it's low end crap. Doh! 
Ah well it's good enough for my amateur ears. And I bought some really nice cone beer cans from the same guy dirt cheap. Scored on those.
Quoted from Perspex:Is that an authentic Giger 'Bullet Baby' you're using as an earphone rack? What an amazing use of such a thing.
Chinese eBay knockoff, but yeah - it's a H.R. Giger Bullet Baby. Was $169 on eBay ... jacked up to $229 for a while, but now I see it's back to $189. I'll say the quality is pretty darn good. Considering the alternative (originals go for $20,000) it's a bargain. Tempted to get another so I can do this:
Quoted from pinster68:BTW - if you haven't seen Dark Star, I would highly recommend it for Giger fans.
Yep, watch that. It is amazing overall, but my favorites are the all too few scenes of him (younger) at work painting. Completely freehand airbrushing working out of his head. Unbelievable.
Quoted from Perspex:I've got a bunch of old Sansui gear I still use:
AU-9900, TU-9900 (sending out for mods), AU-555 (all original packaging incl. sales slip), SD-7000 r2r, AU-111G Vintage (doubles as space heater), SPL-700 speakers, SP-30 speakers (small but mighty). It's all about the knobs, you can't have too many.
Wow! Nice stuff. More pics please, especially of the AU-111G.
Quoted from Chisox:Wow! Nice stuff. More pics please, especially of the AU-111G.
Agreed. Sansui's 1970s equipment was (and still is) eye candy. I had a low-end Sansui amp and receiver (depicted in post #1 in this thread) in college.
The issue with Sansui amps is the capacitor glue in some, but not all units. It degrades and causes corrosion. Other issues involve the double diodes and the fuse resistors. Once these problems are corrected, the Sansui amps are wonderful, in my view.
Quoted from ZNET:The issue with Sansui amps is the capacitor glue ....
Same for some of the Yamaha gear from that time frame. It was a bonding glue made by Sony used on overly large components to hold them in place during the wave-soldering process. Nasty stuff. Picture corrosion from leaky batteries, basically the same here.
Anyone have an opinion about Monster Power Conditioners, like the model HTS5000 shown below? I have a model HTS3600 as well and don't know much about either unit, other than that they are popular for video equipment systems.
I bought them to consolidate electrical outlets and to admire the cool blue dial.
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