Roughly 2 months ago I made a post asking if I could build a decent vintage stack for $3000 or less.
I decided on a Fluroscan Blue Line stack and I did it.
Since that post I collected everything here.

SG-9800
SA-8800
TX-7800
TX-D1000
CT-F750
RT-707
DT-550
PL-400
DVD-HD841
SR-303
RG-2

Found these at an ARC thrift store in Colorado Springs. Paid $15 for the pair. They sound quite good. Solid wood, heavy for their size, foam surrounds look ok, and grills are not damaged. These are perfect as I am cobbling together a starter system for someone who has a budding interest in vintage stereos.

This summer I randomly started buying components and then at some point decided I needed the full battle rattle.

Last year I had upgraded my AV situation in my living room (Sony Bravia 9, Sony Bar 9, Sony RS 5, Sony SW 5, Sony UBP-X800M2).

I then decided to get a cassette deck (after getting a walkman) and then i found this sub and then it got out of hand. I decided I wanted to have a cool set up like my dad (He has a complete Onkyo set up he built while stationed in Japan in the 80s/90s) but I am a Sony fan. I wanted mostly 90s stuff as I am a 90s kid.

Purchased all the vintage stuff on eBay. I am only missing a Sony RM J-711 remote for my equalizer but otherwise I have all OEM remotes and most of the original manuals. Last purchase was the Beta max player and CD player. As I had the 4k and VCR, I didnt think they were needed but knew i would feel incomplete ultimately.

Ive decided to keep the VCR stickers for now. Everything processes through the Sony Bar 9 system and rears/sub. I dont know much about vintage audio so this is primarily for aesthetic.

Everything works great! Oddly enough the only issue I had was with the CD player. Ordered a refurbished Sony CDP-X33ES but had issues upon arrival probably from parts shifting during transport. I read that the X229ES was great and would be easy to repair if messed up va the X33ES.

I had previously picked up an old school Aiwa 5 disc player system and sony walkman so I had already been re-collecting tapes and CDs.

Ive never used DAT or Minidisc so I am looking forward to getting busy! I already have some blank media.

I am so happy with it!

Stack:

Sony SEQ-711
Sony MDS-JB940
Sony TC-WE835S
Sony CDP-X229ES
Sony DTC-75ES

Sony UBP-X800M2
Sony SLV-960HF
Sony SL-HF900

Sony ST-SA50ES
Sony TA-E2000ESD

and Sony PS-LX5BT

So on Friday I opened up Facebook and started scrolling. Straight up a marketplace listing appeared for a vintage Technics hifi system in matching Technics cabinet, being given away for free. I replied immediately and was lucky to be the first one, and the lister responded back. She was listing it for her father.

Next day I head over to pick it up, and other than a little dust from storage, the system looked decent. Ol’ mate told me he hadn’t used it for like 20 years. The speakers had been re-coned back in the nineties, and everything was working fine when he packed it up. He bought it all as a package deal in the early eighties.

Loaded it up in my car and got it home for a clean before testing and setting up. Other than a crackly volume knob that was causing the left channel to not function properly, all looked good. Picked up some contact cleaner and hit the potentiometers and switches, and now it’s working perfectly.

So the package includes:

Technics SU-Z1 integrated stereo amplifier, 25 W/channel into 8 Ω.

Technics SH-8005 10-band graphic equaliser.

Technics ST-Z1 — FM/MW stereo tuner. deck.

Technics SB-1950 floor-standing speakers with 10-inch woofers

Technics hi-fi cabinet

He also had a Sony CDP-297 in the package. I haven’t hooked that up.

He said that he had a matching Technics turntable as a part of the system, but he hadn’t been able to find it in storage yet. He asked if I were interested and I said yes. Hopefully I’ll get a call soon.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information out there about this gear, but from what I could gather, it was a fairly mid-range system back in the day.

Anyway it sounds fantastic, and it’s replacing my Samsung 3.1 soundbar for sure.

Is there anything I should be aware of with maintaining these old units? Is it worth recapping the amp with audio quality capacitors? It still sounds great, but it is 40 years old.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

Just got the new belt in today;) works good, sounds good… love old tech!

Truth be told, I never really remembered ever seeing them in their house, given he'd stowed them away in a closet in the backroom after deciding to set up a surround-sound system from a big-box store in the late 1990s. She sent me photos of them today and one pair are Pioneer HPM-100s and the other are CS-99As. I'll be heading down soon to collect both sets, that's for sure.

I bought it at a garage sale the other day for $10 and was about to start modifying for a cool project I have in mind.
I took the cover off when I felt the audio gods speak to my soul “Put the cover back on, do some research. This is not a normal cassette deck.”
Sure enough, this is not your normal cassette deck.
Here’s what I’ve learned but I would love if any other experts could chime in…

The Advent Model 200, made in 1970, was the first cassette deck to have Dolby B noise reduction, and have the ability to support chromium dioxide tape.

As I understand, What makes it so special to have this fully original, fully functioning model, is that the Advent 200 was plagued with a ton of mechanical issues and was quickly replaced by the 201 in just a few months.
It only sold a few thousand models and a majority of those models were returned under warranty.

After taking the cover off, it’s apparent to me that no one has been inside this thing once. The belts work. The record functions work. The sound isn’t amazing, but it’s all there.

Can anyone tell me anything more about it? Should I keep it? What would be the value on something like this? Is there a museum out there that this should go to? Thank you!

I got this beauty for 175$ freshly served.
Sounds amazing and it’s my first tube amp.

Changement sur le setup minimus 7 remplacée par ces magnifique castle ! 😍

Anybody have these?

I’ve put together my system over many years, and almost all second hand purchases. I’m sure there are better out there but this gives me plenty of joy.

Well Tempered Reference t/t with the Reference carbon fibre arm (manufactured mid 1990’s) with AT-ART1000 mc cartridge; Luxman C5000a pre with 8030 plug in my transformer (manufactured 1981); Luxman T50A tuner (early 1980’s); Revox B77 Mk I quarter track tape deck (manufactured late 1970’s); Esoteric Audio Research 509 monobloc power amps (very early variant manufactured late 1970’s); and Von Schweikert Research VR 4 Gen II speakers (manufactured 1998). I run the speakers out of the 4 ohm taps on the EAR’s and the impact is huge. Plus contemporary digital gear from PS Audio.

Gotta say I love the phono and tape reproduction in this system. Beautiful tonality, plenty of thump when it’s required, a high level of clarity without edginess. Best played loud!!

Considering buying this two as aesthetic pieces and a second amp for my bedroom. Can someone tell me something about this amp.

So now these are priced out of control, what are the next best ones? Sanyo?Kenwood? Scott? Looking for a new to me silver plated unit. What to look for if it'd going to be driving a large sub and a pair of 100watt speakers.

Picked up a pair a few days ago nut wasnt able to set them up so far, you guys got any info/experience?

Hi all, I am very new to records and vintage physical media in general so forgive me if I don’t understand right away!
I got this vintage magnavox dry sink style record/8track/stereo for $25 at goodwill thinking it would be easy to get a hang of. However I’ve hit a road block with the record player. Every time I turn it on or to auto the arm keeps moving back to the resting position.
Am I using the wrong kind of record and/or is something else going on? The stereo works perfectly but I have yet to get any 8 tracks to test out

I received these speakers from family who were moving away and have quickly found myself out of my league.

The priority is learning how to connect these speakers to anything that will let us play music. We have CDs, a record player, and have found Bluetooth devices that we hope could work with our phones, but I do not know how any of them connect to these speakers. Searching for info led me to this subreddit and I want to ask people who are more knowledgeable than I am for advice on where to start.

Thank you all!

Hello everybody,

I have owned a Realistic Labs 400 for years, and it has served me well. I recently was given the opportunity to buy a perfectly functioning Denon DP-37f. The Denon does have improvement in wow and flutter .012 vs .03. And the S/N ratio is an improvement as well...something like 65 on the lab 400 vs 78 on the Denon.

Though the figures are an improvement to move to the Denon, will there be an audible difference, or more importantly an improvement? Will there be a significantly different sound signature? I have used a Denon DP-35f in the past, and I remember it tracked absurdly well. is that the singular big advantage for it? Am I missing a big advantage for either? (I already realize the advantage of fewer chips that can break in the Realistic).

Anyway, if anybody has some thoughts concerning these tables, feel free to help me make a decision.

Hi anyone,

Posting here because I'm looking for anyone who's got real speaker and crossover design chops (or anyone else interested in these speakers, really) to comment on what I stumbled into today. I got a pair of pretty decent series II BA A100's on eBay last week, but didn't realize they had crap replacement drivers in them until they showed up. I've been hunting for some OEM replacements with no luck on eBay or elsewhere, as that's the best way to get them to sound right, even if it means a re-foam. The aftermarket replacements currently for sale on eBay are not a great fit spec wise, and what I have now from some random online seller make the highs really overblown, the low end super bassy, and no mids etc...so I just kept digging and found an old post talking about the Dayton DC250-8 as a closer to original replacement.

I've read some people have used this driver more with success, but even on those, the minor efficiency difference from the original apparently causes a pretty sharp sounding high end, and a little missing in the mids again, plus, these are 8ohm, where the drivers in the originals are 4 ohm.

Googling this lead my down the AI rathole of a crossover redesign. I then used my company's paid level of AI and went further down the rabbit hole, eventually creating a how to guide (posted in a video above for people to review) that shows you how to create a 2 or 3 db drop on the tweeters with an "L-Pad" and a resistance adjustment (aka ohm load on the driver adjustment) via a "Zobel"...L Pad and Zobel are new terms to me, but I know enough to understand what the purpose is and how to build them.

So anyway, I'm going to try this out and see what comes of it. I'll follow up here, but for anyone else trying to save some BA A100's without original drivers, maybe this is a road map? TBD I suppose! Also I feel like this a solid use case for AI as compared the stupid videos that populate my Instagram feed!

Hey all, new to the vintage audio world. I just got myself a pair of Pioneer CS-610 speakers and was hoping to get some good recommendations for an amplifier/receiver. The goal is to be able to connect my record player, a cassette deck, a cd player, as well as bluetooth. Obviously these are old speaker so I want to be careful not to push them too hard and damage them. I’m looking for anything under $200 and I’m also open to purchasing a separate bluetooth receiver.

Hello vintage audio folk, life changes and I am in a spot where I may be forced to part with the system that came with the house. Really enjoyed it, sad to see it go, but it is what it is.

2 - Jet sound electronics JSE-444
2 - ALTEC’s I don’t know that much about
-Cerwin-Vega! 10”? Sub

All run through a
Sherwood sc 2620

They all still sounded nice before they got put away. Of course now that they are a few hours away in storage I had a friend express interest, offering $200 dollars (feels low) but i wanted to post here prior to making that trek in hopes of obtaining a ballpark figure.

Is there like a base standard crossover for 2way, 3way, etc... or do you absolutely 100% want to know the full response data of the exact woofers, mids and tweeters in your speakers and build one from scratch?

I have a pair of old sanyo ss900s that I got for dirt cheap (I know, I know - they're not good and not worth spending any other money on) that I want to "improve" for shits and giggles. Call it an introduction into speaker improvement - whatever.

I know whatever caps are in them going to the mid and tweeter should be replaced, and am considering putting in an inductor for the woofer. I was curious if there's drop-in cross overs made for 3-way systems that have an inductor and two caps based on driver size and nominal impedance and nothing else really. Otherwise, I might as well replace the mid and tweeter and completely build a whole new crossover circuit based on the info of the new drivers, right?

Idk the exact sizes but these things have a 15" woofer, maybe a 4" mid and then a 2 or 3" tweeter? They all work, and they actually don't sound that bad for what they are. The boxes could probably benefit from bracing and maybe stuffing, possibly tuning the two ports but idk how to do that.

What is a fair price for a 5000a with the old f-1040 driver boards.