Old school hi fi systems

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Originally Posted by Alfred_B
I'm going to pass on the Realistic system and look for. Marantz or some other system.


OK, but I think you should look into that Pioneer I suggested
lol.gif


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_SX-1980
 
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"Seems to be working great".

Ha.

I would try a CA CX80 before something that musty.

It is a retro man cave bling thing.

I did enjoy my top of the rung Pioneer M22 class A power amp.immensely

but a Musical Concepts modified Hafler DH200 sounded almost as good.

[Linked Image]
 
Wow, this thread is making me want to go back in time and buy a "vintage" set up.

Would be a nice change from the Yami A/V hooked up to my powered Sub woofer, rear channel JVC's, Front channel Paradigm and center JVC. Sure its nice for watching movies, music? eh, wow, would love to have a nice simple 2 channel high current set up with a 'vintage" turntable and cassette.

But once again, in this day and age it would be a challenge to find a worthy room to put it in. Even new homes, although nice are one big open space (at least for us) of which our Home theater set up occupies.
One brand that was always a mystery/curiosity to me was Rotel. Read alto in my younger days, always seemed to review ok and correct me if I am wrong was a "value" high end brand from Europe.

Hmmm ...
 
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Originally Posted by alarmguy
Wow, this thread is making me want to go back in time and buy a "vintage" set up.

Would be a nice change from the Yami A/V hooked up to my powered Sub woofer, rear channel JVC's, Front channel Paradigm and center JVC.

Didn't you get some JBL center speaker?

BTW, I bought some JBL bookshelf speakers on clearance from Fry's. Probably the biggest bookshelf speakers I've ever owned. Hoping to use them as garage speakers at some point.
 
I'm using a pair of JBL S26 bookshelf speakers in my garage and an old 12" Kenwood sub hooked up to a Sherwood 2ch reciever, love rocking out on the weekends.
cheers3.gif
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
If you are old enough to remember the records in the 60's, they were generally thicker and stiffer. Names like Columbia, Capitol, Decca, RCA Victor and a few more dominated the scene. Then in the 70's like most things, record companies went cheap. There was also a influx of new brand labels, many were subsidiaries of the big names. Records didn't hold up well with excess playing like the previous generation so people like myself would record a record onto cassette tape and play that.

Cassette tape varied as well. The metal tapes were excellent. Then CDs came onto the scene and a whole new issue arose. Remember the encoding abbreviations? A DDD CD was perfect. AAD was junk.


For the record, yes I am old enough to have had a eight track player. One portable and one in the car. I used a matchbook. Thank goodness those died off quickly.


My current thing is collecting original 60s mono pressings. Getting more scarce by the day.
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
That big Pioneer M22 amp above is only 30 watts by the way.

Rotel is just OK. Bryston = Better.


Oh my, Yes, Bryston, the Canadian company, I went and settled for a NAD Amp and separate preamp decades ago, it was supposed to be the latest, greatest, high current value out there at the time, according to Julian Hursh of stereo review, almost enough headroom current to arc weld metal.
Well, sure, it was nice but it was only a year or two later one of the channels gave out, stuck it under the bed and bought an Onyko mostly high current amp, worked out great, loved it, thought the day would come where I would get the NAD repaired but figured why bother, as respected as their name might have become, I never bought another one of their products. I only have one component from back then (read below)

As you can see I was into value products, mostly worked out, others didn't. I can say (and I might sound old saying this) my Paradigms (Canadian) were bought darn, over 2 decades ++ ago now? At the time, they were an up and coming company (to the best of my knowledge) and these speakers were reviewed as sounding as good as speakers costing many times their price, so I bought them at the only place I could find at the time in Long Island, NY, wow, still have them today and they look/sound as good as ever, as much as I am tempted to replace them, I can't find a reason and why they still occupy the left and right channels of our Home Theater.
With that said, there was an issue when I first bought them, production defect, butyl rubber (?) surrounds were delaminated, bought them right back, new ones were ordered and received, decades later, these things are still amazing. I did not think it was possible for speakers to have a life this long.

Yes, I noticed the M22, been reading up on amps again, yesterday for fun.
 
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Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by alarmguy
Wow, this thread is making me want to go back in time and buy a "vintage" set up.

Would be a nice change from the Yami A/V hooked up to my powered Sub woofer, rear channel JVC's, Front channel Paradigm and center JVC.

Didn't you get some JBL center speaker?

BTW, I bought some JBL bookshelf speakers on clearance from Fry's. Probably the biggest bookshelf speakers I've ever owned. Hoping to use them as garage speakers at some point.


Oh Cr++, I can't believe, I said JVC ! Now that is scary. *L*

Two rear channel JBLs and center channel JBL. Right and left channel Pardigm
Bought the JBLs around the Christmas/thanksgiving holidays in 2018, up until then, I always had a issue with clear dialog on the center, tried polk and Sony, didn't like them, JBL much improved, after that and another sale is when I bought JBLs for the rear channels.


...
[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]
 
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Originally Posted by alarmguy
Two rear channel JBLs
What's the model number of those rear channel JBLs? They look similar to the ones I bought.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
 
Originally Posted by alarmguy
The rears are I believe Arena Series 120, they have built in mounting things on the back.
Ah, yes. The ones with key holes on the back are the 120. They are sealed - good for wall mounting.

Mine are the 130, which are rear ported, with 7" woofers. Can't wait to find a good use for them.
 
Yes, 130s good.
Thats why I mentioned the wall mounting thing, 120s -inexpensive speakers but excellent for use on rear channels. Far superior to most any "bundled" system that would be called Home Theater in a Box, actually is what they replaced (Yamaha) We noticed the difference right away.
The Front channel - important and why I went with the Series 5, liked it better then a Polk and a Sony that we tried.
 
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Is JBL still the indestructible commercial grade stuff they used to be,or have they gone department store mass-fi?
 
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
Is JBL still the indestructible commercial grade stuff they used to be,or have they gone department store mass-fi?

They have a dedicated Pro Audio product offering, but I don't know how good it is.
https://www.jbl.com/professional/

Most of their home audio products are typical mass market stuff, IMO, but not bad if you catch it on sale. For around $100 that I paid for those bookshelf speakers that I posted above, I can't really fault them. Build quality is fine. I also have one of their larger portable BT speakers, and it's nice as well.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
Is JBL still the indestructible commercial grade stuff they used to be,or have they gone department store mass-fi?

They have a dedicated Pro Audio product offering, but I don't know how good it is.
https://www.jbl.com/professional/

Most of their home audio products are typical mass market stuff, IMO, but not bad if you catch it on sale. For around $100 that I paid for those bookshelf speakers that I posted above, I can't really fault them. Build quality is fine. I also have one of their larger portable BT speakers, and it's nice as well.


I remember my friend's parents having JBL gear like this when I was a kid:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/vintage-jbl-pro-cinema-build-rev-2-0.780301/
 
Originally Posted by aquariuscsm
Is JBL still the indestructible commercial grade stuff they used to be,or have they gone department store mass-fi?


JBL like a lot of companies has been acquired and part of an international conglomerate, heck, like a lot of companies now, you never know who owns who.
To me, I think they are much more of a mass market consumer part of the market place as far as in the consumer division. They still make some really good higher end consumer products but there used to be a time when everything was higher end, now its a mix of lower end bluetooth speakers to higher end stuff, in the higher end, the JBL "sound" is still there and we really enjoy that on our center channel speaker of our home theater. One never knows where Harmon is taking JBL, of which, Harmon is part of Samsung!
It looks like more and more lower end consumer goods which I guess makes sense if you want to make money.

With that said, yes, they still have a commercial division.

High end audio used to be a specialty, streaming and MP3s became "the thing" a step down from CD's, Digital tape and even analog turntables. The public in general (not all but most) no longer strives for perfection.

"JBL is an American company that manufactures audio equipment, including loudspeakers and headphones. There are two independent divisions within the company; JBL Consumer produces audio equipment for the consumer home market, while the JBL Professional produces professional equipment for the studio, installed sound, tour sound, portable sound (production and DJ), and cinema markets. JBL is owned by Harman International Industries, a subsidiary of South Korean company Samsung Electronics."

Source and History - Click
 
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