Any Vintage High End Stereo folks here. SS or Tube?

As I age, I've discovered I have a vintage problem. I like old stuff. Especially well made, good looking stuff. A few years back, my health took a turn, the military, and my career field caught up with me. was almost crippled, hardly walking, so I found things that I liked to do. Things that I could enjoy, rather then sit around in chronic pain day in day out.

Vintage stereo equipment caught my attention. Got back into albums, must have 1000 or more Albums now. and CD's, on really good gear. Thru really good speakers.

I've got 27 sets of killer speakers in the stereo room, my main system has four Klipsch Cornwalls, my main stereo is a 1962 HHScott Tube amp, with a 1963 HHScott FM tuner, ' Stereo' thru a Yamaha YH800 turntable, with Denon and Nack, Cassette decks, CD players.

My backup stereo is using SpeakerLab Corner horns, speakers, their five ft tall, well close, and 125 ish pounds apiece. Sound killer. The Klipsch Cornerhorns are 100 pounds apiece, and sound wonderful.

Seriously sounds like the bands right in front of you. This stuffs not cheap.

Anybody else into high end Vintage stereo kit?

DW

I'm actually a fan of modern equipment with the right construction. My current set up:

Pro-Ject 1Xpression Carbon turntable
Pro-Ject Tube Box S2 Preamp
Naim NAP 100 Amp
Bowers & Wilkins 606 Speakers

I hunted down some deals when putting things together, and have been supremely happy with the setup in my office. Not the biggest speakers, but they fill the space with sound easily.

From an investment standpoint I wish I still had my stuff from the early 70s. Had a JBL Paragon for a while. Didn't like it much and sold it. What are they worth today?

At the time I bought these items, they were considered at the lower end of audiophile equipment in the early 1980's:

Denon D-45 Rosewood Turntable
Nakamichi RX-202 tape deck
Carver Vacuum Tube SD/A 490t cd player
Carver C-1 Sonic Holography Pre-Amp
Carver M1.5t Magnetic Field Power Amp
Dahlquist DQ-10 Phased Array Speakers

Still have all of this equipment.

In this day, all your kit would be considered a great score. The DQ-10s, are fantastic, when pushed with proper power. I've got two sets. Carver makes good gear, the quality is outstanding. I'd be running the 10s,just find the Klipsch speakers to be so efficient with my older gear, pushing maybe 15 watts per channel.

My recent purchases have been Dynaco ST-70 tube amps. And Dynaco PAS2/3 pre amps. Also got into the Stromberg Carlsen intigrated amps, a week phono section in the iron, amazing music. Many of these were console pulls.

Also Heathkit,stuff, is desirable. Got several of their Tube amps. My best gear is David Bernings ZF270 tube amp, along with Bernings TF-10 pre amp. I'm sourcing his TF-12, got 8 grand tied up in my Berning gear alone.

CD players and cassette units, anything Nack, Denon Kyocera, or my favorite is California audio labs. I purchased a nos CAL, down in Reno for 900.00, it's a tube unit, along with a low end Conrad Johnson amp. Also have a bit of Mac gear but it's SS.

Back to the DQ-10s. Oh, your speakers if in good shape are reasonably priced, 400/500.00 the quality of music these fine gentleman produce is amazing. Also have a set of DQ-20s, an impulse buy. Great speakers a step up from the 10s, mine are in poor shape.

I'm retired, getting older, and find myself reaching back to the finer things of my past. My kits not the best, yet it's high end, and represent an era, of refinement. The new gear sounds awesome, SS or Tube. I just wanted to recreate the sounds and quality of music I grew up with.

My parents were music lovers, I inherited that same gene. I'm 63 now, can't tell you how many guns I own, but you guys here taught me the value of high quality, rifles pistols. Not that I had junk. But how to incorporate good pieces and parts into them. Samo samo with this fine old stereo gear.

I've not embraced these modern times, I like being surrounded by old stuff, to tinker with. Thes older stereo units are of a quality rarely seen in this day and age.

DW

Stormin, the newer gear is fantastic, I'm sure it's got a killer sound. I initially was headed down the modern stereo road. And then I heard some of the early 60s, tube units with tube pre amps, and my god, I stopped dead in my tracks. The equipment out of the late 50s, and 60s, is what made my stereo adventure, do a rethink.

Difficult to explain, the old stuff, with its fine wood casings, the warmth of the tubes, and the simplicity of operation, not to mention the fantastic quality of music won.

Enjoy your gear, I'm sure it's outstanding.

Dirk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dirk Williams

In this day, all your kit would be considered a great score. The DQ-10s, are fantastic, when pushed with proper power. I've got two sets. Carver makes good gear, the quality is outstanding. I'd be running the 10s,just find the Klipsch speakers to be so efficient with my older gear, pushing maybe 15 watts per channel.

My recent purchases have been Dynaco ST-70 tube amps. And Dynaco PAS2/3 pre amps. Also got into the Stromberg Carlsen intigrated amps, a week phono section in the iron, amazing music. Many of these were console pulls.

Also Heathkit,stuff, is desirable. Got several of their Tube amps. My best gear is David Bernings ZF270 tube amp, along with Bernings TF-10 pre amp. I'm sourcing his TF-12, got 8 grand tied up in my Berning gear alone.

CD players and cassette units, anything Nack, Denon Kyocera, or my favorite is California audio labs. I purchased a nos CAL, down in Reno for 900.00, it's a tube unit, along with a low end Conrad Johnson amp. Also have a bit of Mac gear but it's SS.

Back to the DQ-10s. Oh, your speakers if in good shape are reasonably priced, 400/500.00 the quality of music these fine gentleman produce is amazing. Also have a set of DQ-20s, an impulse buy. Great speakers a step up from the 10s, mine are in poor shape.

I'm retired, getting older, and find myself reaching back to the finer things of my past. My kits not the best, yet it's high end, and represent an era, of refinement. The new gear sounds awesome, SS or Tube. I just wanted to recreate the sounds and quality of music I grew up with.

My parents were music lovers, I inherited that same gene. I'm 63 now, can't tell you how many guns I own, but you guys here taught me the value of high quality, rifles pistols. Not that I had junk. But how to incorporate good pieces and parts into them. Samo samo with this fine old stereo gear.

I've not embraced these modern times, I like being surrounded by old stuff, to tinker with. Thes older stereo units are of a quality rarely seen in this day and age.

DW

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I'll be 60 this coming Saturday (George Washington's Birthday, or Birthington's Wash Day). Bought my audio equipment in early 1984 as an Army 1LT - just before going to Honduras. Was visiting the wife's relatives in Louisiana and went over to Beaumont, TX to an outfit called Beaumont Sound. They sold upper end stuff. Did a lot of reading before my purchases. That Nakamichi 202 is cool in the way it pops out and flips the tape around. My Carver CD player has one vacuum tube which is supposed to warm the sound. The Carver pre-amp has separate treble and bass for each channel. The push-pull Carver amp is 600 watts per channel stereo and can be bridged to 1200 watts single channel.

My Dahlquist DQ-10's are fine except one unit has a blown tweeter - it rattles. There are custom shops which repair those, but those speakers are like 60 lbs each - shipping costs would be prohibitive.

Very nice. I wish I was able to pick up a pair a/d/s home equipment before they got bought out and snuffed.

Their car stereo sound was so smooth, you could listen to it forever and have zero twitter high fatigue.

I have a VTA St-70 tube amp on some JBL 590 speakers. Tungsol 6550/nos amprex holland rectifiers. Good hifi music leaves no comparison for depth compared to modern equipment. I play my music from the pc on a schitt audio dac. 65k songs to listen to.

In the early 80's when I was buying this stuff, McIntosh was one of the top players in audiophile gear. A lot of the decent upper consumer level stuff was Technics gear. I haven't kept up with whats what in top end hi-fi gear in recent years, but I see McIntosh is still out there. When I was looking at tape decks, there was the Nakamichi Dragon, but that was out of the price range of an Army 1LT with a wife and child. Those used Dragons still sell for big bucks.