Building a high powered home stereo… Audiophiles help..

[pwd72s]

If I was a high roller and still had decent hearing (I don't), I'd just go to these folks and have them design a set up for me. They must be good at what they do since I bought my Nakamichi cassette deck from them decades ago...and they are still in biz. I still have my old component set started in the 70's. All techniques in the beginning. All that remains is the linear tracking techniques turntable and the reconed JBL speakers. Other stuff is Marantz receiver, the Nakamichi deck, a denon CD player.

Anyway, a fun website for just looking at stuff...

https://www.chelseaaudiovideo.com/

[javadog]

I think I would suggest going with newer, higher quality equipment. Some of those old receivers were pretty decent, for their day, but time has marched on. I’m somewhat convinced that half of their appeal is just nostalgia.

You say your budget is five grand or thereabouts. It would buy a whole bunch of different things. As a data point, before I moved last year, I sold one of my systems because I didn’t need three of them and I didn’t want to have to screw with moving it. I sold a pair of Krell FPB 250 monoblocks (250W each) and a Krell KPS 20il CD player that would drive the amps directly, for $5000. I sold a pair of Transparent interconnect cables and a pair of Transparent speaker cables for another $500. That combination will absolutely smoke any old receiver, I don’t care how you feed it. It might be able to be purchased for less than what I got for it when I sold it, which was two or three years ago.

If you look nationally and are patient you can pick up a set of Energy Veritas V2.8 speakers for about $1500-$1600. Those speakers aren’t well-known but they retailed for about $6500 in the 1990s, the street price if you knew somebody was around four grand and they were a full range speaker with a class A rating from Stereophile. Kind of a sleeper and huge bang for the buck.

There are other combinations you can try and put together, that’s just one that I’m familiar with from personal use.

The other consideration is the room you’re going to put it in. That’ll have a bigger impact than you realize, and if you really want a good sound, you’re not going to get it if it’s a multi-use room with a lot of other crap in it. That’s what most of us are faced with, but room acoustics are a complicated subject and few rooms are well suited to two channel reproduction. There are a bunch of videos on the Internet that she can watch to learn more about acoustics on how to avoid problems and fix the ones you can avoid, so long as the wife looks the other way. To get started check out the videos on YouTube from a company called Acoustic Fields.

[aschen]

A thought experiment example: vintage inspired looking speakers with a true horn and compression driver not some cheap cone tweeter. A powerful integrated with bass mangment, a remote and phono stage, a real subwoofer that will have more low bass output than a dozen of those vintage pioneers combined. Will play loud enough to damage your hearing in most rooms, since the speakers will be relieved of thier LF duties.


https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisacd74-parasound-halo-hint-6-2-1-channel-integrated-amplifier-black-remote-35649-solid-state

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisabh3d-jbl-4306-studio-monitors-iconic-blue-grills-absolutely-mint-monitors

https://www.svsound.com/products/pb-4000


Just an example for fun. You really have to be cautious reading vintage enthusiast sites like autokarma. I like old stuff I have old stuff but new is higher performance.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by mjohnson

I had some 4xx-whatever Shure earbuds that on some songs make my neck and back twitch. That brain-injection was too intense for me. When they broke I went for something "dumber". Now I can sleep on a plane in peace.

I think there's something to the "super real is too real" and the associated love for vinyl...

I imagine you are right if your hearing is good...as sometimes I am happy to take mine out and hear nothing. But speaker music is just dull to me now. In fact, several years ago I spent huge on a rare, massive fiberglass subwoofer setup for my 911, but have lost so much hearing that I probably will never hook it up (and rely on my hearing aids/bluetooth.

[Bill Verburg]

A lot depends on how critical an ear you have
in order of net effect
The room acoustics color sound
the speakers color sound
the amp colors sound
the pre-amp colors sound
the source colors sound
and the material; has it's own slant for what it wants

The least color is added by high quality separates, a receiver just can't compete

I love JBLs sound still have a pair of L100s for casual rock

but the most accurate and loud sound I have comes from a pair of Polk SDA SRS 1.2s bi-amped w/ twin Yamaha MX1000's

[Rusty Heap]

Totally inefficient at only 88 dB but they sound GREAT and a broad soundstage.

I used to run a pair of these with 1500 watts a side bridged mono.

https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ele/d/bonney-lake-carver-amazings-original-60/7395970840.html

[93097004xx]

Here is where I ended up. Pioneer 9900s,D1S,9500 SG-90 EQ

Various speakers right now.

Current setup as shown. A bliss on 90s 2000s rock alt

Listening to live concerts you get a real sound stage effect.

Yes it will easily blast the walls down however even at low volume it has effortless BIG stadium sound. You feel it…













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[astrochex]

Erm, the image is ridiculously giant. Can you resize?

[93097004xx]

Originally Posted by astrochex

Erm, the image is ridiculously giant. Can you resize?

Tapatalk lol


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[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by astrochex

Erm, the image is ridiculously giant. Can you resize?

Big sound, even bigger images.

[HobieMarty]

Very cool stuff!!!

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[93097004xx]

Looks at these remote controls. 80s cool!!! Lol




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[Steve Carlton]

Originally Posted by creaturecat

grab a nice Mcintosh amp/pre amp.
an appreciating asset, sorta like an air cooled ..........

I don't know jack on this subject, but I always thought the McIntosh stuff was the coolest. While in high school in the early 70's a friends well-to-do parents had a two story high living room with floor to ceiling glass looking from a hillside view across the valley to Mt. Diablo. In there was a custom built McIntosh system that cost his parents $2,000 in the 60's including the cablinet. We sat on the floor around a 5' diameter oyster shell inlay coffee table and played that thing while smoking pot.

Suddenly, the parents showed up unexpectedly before we could clean much up or deal with the smell of the smoke. They stood above us silently surveying the situation, and after about 30 seconds, the mom said "Well, do I get a hit?"

[93097004xx]

Picked up some early 90s Cerwin Vegas.

DX-9
RE-30

These are Van Halen speakers. They play LOUD.

VERY VERY VERY loud lol.






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[Alan A]

Originally Posted by greglepore

Any of the Carver TFM amps sound great, although many need caps now.
The big Adcoms and NAD's are great amps as well...

I have two Adcom 555s each bridged mono to drive the sub.
$ to volume they are hard to beat.

[93097004xx]

Wondering if anyone has experience with a Sansui B2101 Amplifier and how it handles 4 ohm loads to 500w and 1000w?


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[Superman]

My amp makes 8 WPC. Last night the volume was on 3 and the wife asked me to turn it down. She was right. It was too loud. Speakers have a 102 db sensitivity rating. 3-way with 15" woofers.

[Jeff Hail]

Originally Posted by Rtrorkt

Did design work for a stereo store in the day. Took this instead of my small fee. Yamaha C-6/M-4 with a tangent tracking Yamaha turntable running DCM Time Windows. Just added the Bluesound Streamer.

I do have a hankerin' for McIntosh. So one of these days a tube pre-amp, say C2600 with a good clean amp. Would like to go B&W for my speakers.

I had that same Yamaha amp with matching receiver. Great unit. I piggybacked a seperate EQ as I was not sold on the built in parametric "adjustment method". Overall it was a great unit which gave way to space limitations.

[Scott Douglas]

This thread sets my tinnitus off just looking at the pictures.

[Scott R]

Pioneer is kind of off the shelf type stuff. Get Sansui and some JBL 100's.