Vintage Hi-Fi

[TyreFryer]

What it looks like now...

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[Dave999]

yeah tottenham court road

filled with shops like habitat, staffed by ladies (probably called Laura and Ashley) who wear roll necks, cardigans (sometimes at the same time) and floral summer dresses. Their only skill is chatting to their colleagues, discussing scented candles, and taking absolutely hours to quintuple wrap (in tissue paper) your hastily purchased "that'll do" birthday present for your Mrs.

don't get me wrong, perfectly lovely human beings JUST NO SENSE OF URGENCY..

it's lost its mojo some what.

Dave

[Jem]

If anyone is in the market for a very decent set of speakers you do a lot worse than buying these.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Revolver-RW4 ... 1438.l2649

[Dom66]

Just got a new Amp, well new to me, it's been rattling around somewhere since 1978. Lovely old thing

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[Dave999]

Just realised ive mentioned the philips before anyway got it re tipped, i'm obviously going mad or there is something terribly wrong with my short term memory


recently got 4 of these off a bloke in Oval job lot off shpock marketplace, Philips SUPER GP 390



its an electret based cartridge. but not your usual dansette regentone or jukebox fodder. Same tech used in modern stage microphones to stop Mobile phones and wifi interference dup a dup a dup etc

Philips decided in 1968 to carry on making crystal cartridges, but to HI FI standard, while everyone else made magnetic which at the time was considered NEW so obviously way way better than anything else. Philips knew better. (pity they were not so honest when it came to CD)
They added a circuit to the back, so that it worked with a normal magnetic input on an amp. they were expensive like 1/4 the cost of a house, so few outside of Holland purchased them.

what you get is a cartridge where the stylus is on a metal rod that is glued into a fancy bit of semi condutor that makes a signal with any movement of the stylus tip. The size of signal based on size of movement. My thinking was gotta be better than waggling a small magnet near some wires (like in a modern 300 quid magnetic cartridge)

These comes with a standard cone shaped stylus, which is a bit 1968.... its of the era, and things have moved on in terms or better tip shape to get more music detail out, and do less ware to the record.
So as they only cost me 15 quid each i had the expert stylus company make a new stylus for one, in a modern shape which they glued onto the end of the cantilever. they call it a paratrace stylus. its kinda a squashed elliptical shaped wedge that contacts the full groove wall.
were as the cone shaped original was like running a ball point pen down the groove

https://www.78tours.com/Expert_Stylus_Company.html

sounds great

to the point where any intake of breath at the beginning of a track makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up due to thinking you are not alone in the house

freaked my kids out with that bit of pink floyd where a kid says "Look an aeroplane up in the sky" both thought we had visitors with a small child.

every record sounds like its playing faster than normal, the attack ane energy is great, the treble is crystal clear and the drums and vocals pin you to the wall. i'm having to re listen to everything i own and have been digging up true stereo versions of small faces the who and the kinks 60s albums form germany. germans got stereo pressings of stuff we only got in mono then never gave the master tapes back.

i'm well impressed with the old tech.


Next project is a headphone amp to drive a pair of these koss cans. Iphone headphones do not work on hifis very well and hifi headphone do not work well on iphones and modern tech, All modern headphones have followed apple's lead so vintage headphones now need an dedicated amp to work to their best. big problems with impedance matching caused by apple

Koss Pro 4AAA (below) proper studio broadcast cans with the knob to mount a boom mic, and i also have a set of Koss K6 LC



amp is a NuHybrid kit amp using a Korg Nutube.

a Nu tube which is a strange glowing device built from similar materials as the funny little glowing digits on 1970s calculator displays
Korg use the same glass and glowing bits to build a low power equivalent of a 1950s Triode valve for their effects peddles and other equipment to get that true valve sound without electrocuting the musicians if they pour their beer into it.

this is the kit. Its soldering by numbers, check list, check part bag, match number to board, and solder it in. so not hard to build click on the links order the bits and find a UK spec power supply.

http://www.pmillett.com/nuhybrid.html





i await the postman......


dave

[Dave999]

Just got a new Amp, well new to me, it's been rattling around somewhere since 1978. Lovely old thing
HiFi.jpg

proper good chunk of quality

decent modern BIG speakers and it will sing

dave

[Dom66]

Just got a new Amp, well new to me, it's been rattling around somewhere since 1978. Lovely old thing
HiFi.jpg

proper good chunk of quality

decent modern BIG speakers and it will sing

dave

Modernish, KEF Iq9's in the lounge and a matching pair of Iq5's in the dining room. It does sound sweet.

I just need to make up the turntable now and give that vynil a good playing.

[Dave999]

if you have one excellent

if you need one

steer clear of any high street rubbish. crossleys and plastic lencos

retro tables that with luck are affordable £50-£500
Lenco 75 78 88
Thorens TD150 TD 160 145 147 all have the 10 MM bearing
Pioneer Pl 12-d
garrard 301 401 Zero 100
Ariston
dual

Modern as in 1980 onwards
rega
linn
Project
Thorens

dave

[Dom66]

I had a CS 505 back in the day, sadly now gone.

But I have inherited a SME 3009 tonearm and have a Technics DC belt drive motor and electronics, so looking to make something up, just to experiment. Fully manual, sand filled MDF Plinth, everything decoupled and sitting on a 30mm slab of slate that I've already had set in to the (super heavy) HiFi unit on a cork & rubber gasket.

Annoyingly though I have both Ortofon and Audio Technica 120E carts, you can't get the original nude styli for either, so on a budget I'm going to try the new AT VM95EN and see how that goes.

See how it sounds and go from there is the plan.

[Dave999]

if you send cartridge and stylus to expert stylus company they can probably stick a new rock on the end for you for £88

and it will be a paratrace i.e the most modern profile there is. i.e for 88 quid you get a stylus mounted on your cantilever that would cost 300+

the guy is very skilled can swap out cantilever and put a new gem quality stylus on the end, if that's what it needs that will cost more as the new catilver will probably be Boron.

the 120E had a nude elliptical. the paratrace would take it up to better than shibatta spec in respect to stylus shape and groove tracing

its a squashed elliptical with a special profile


PARATRACE PROFILE DIAMOND



MAXIMUM RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION:



The design ensures the radii 17 x 25 x.006mm will result in an improvement in tracing record modulations and low frequency distortion. There will also be a reduction in groove modulation wear and greater stylus life, as the tracking pressure is displaced over a greater area. The parameters can be applied to all periods of vinyl; early LP modulations are wider and require a frontal radius of 25um with the tracing radii remaining the same at 6um. The design is the result of seven years of research taking into consideration the design and manufacture of special purpose machinery and optics.






Dave

[Dom66]

Oooh, interesting, I'll look in to that.

Thanks Dave

[sharpie]

just found this thread, i run a monthly blues night in manchester, all vinyl sides and live sets, all played on 40s 50s and 60s kit ... my studio upstairs is rammed with gear !

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[Cannonball]

Nice one sharpie son

[Dave999]

Mmmm I love the smell of valve amps in the morning

erm

i'll get me coat

if you ever put on something bigger, Matt snowball on here hires out loads of kit he loves a bit of tolex, and has a spares department selling reputable brand EL34s KT88s and ECC83s and can get amps repaired

http://www.mattsnowball.com/

helpful advice, pointed me in the right direction when I needed to get a piano that felt like a piano, played like a piano sounded like a piano but wasn't the size or weight of a decent metal framed piano. I live in a town house, know nout about electronic instruments and don't own a crane...the piano playing ladies in my life were very happy

Dave

[Dave999]

sharpie

do you have one of those tape loop boxes with 1 record and 4 of tape play back heads that you can switch in and out to cause delay and echo

lovely bits of obsolete kit i never had one but fixed one up for a mate (music teacher) years ago..

he had this machine and a 60s fender amp neither worked, both just got hot and smelled like the 1960s

the amp was an easy fix it had a 12 inch speaker i think connected to the amp control circuit on back of front panel by a 1/4 inch jack on a flying lead pinned to the side and plugged into a socket on the back board. access for valve changes and access to some bias adjuster or some thing.
when you opened it it pulled the jack 1/2 out due to too little free play on the wire....he'd opened it in 1978 and the amp had not worked since. lucily a valve amp puts up with a short circuit better than most.

took me half hour to spot it...plugged it all back in and strummed the guitar....tears of joy in his eyes this was 96 or 97 so he'd hung on to the amp for a long time

tape box was a bit more involved

did a bodgy demagnetising of the heads using a school science power supply variable resistor and a big coil of wire soldered up the dry joints and oiled up the motor bushes needless to say his music lessons for the rest of term seemed to involve him his guitar and the kids all sitting listening....onley teacher in the school who could maintain their attention for more than 5 minutes he loved his kit and the joy of it all working again shone through.

dave