Vintage HiFi. Sounds great, looks cool, costs peanuts
Hiding in a dark corner of a local antiques centre was this chunk of fine German Engineering.
The label declared that it was “running slow”. For just £35 it would be rude not to find out just how slow. Continue reading “On the case of a Dual 504 turntable”
It is amazing what you spot in a skip sometimes. Have beats fallen from grace so much since Apple bought them that people are just throwing them out?
I retrieved these two from a soggy skip while out for a run. I certainly wouldn’t have entertained the brand previously. I’m probably twice the age of the target market. Since they cost me nothing, It’s worth seeing if these are fixable and if they are any good. Continue reading “My heart nearly missed a couple of Beats”
The big round illuminated dial looks great on this 1971 Tuner from Sony. I have a particular fondness for it because one was part of the first real HiFi system I encountered.
It belonged to my sisters boyfriend. I was allowed to listen, but definately not touch. Continue reading “Sony Stereo FM / AM Tuner ST-80F”
Back in 2018 I built my own record cleaning machine. It did the job, but wasn’t pretty.
I recently acquired a better donor turntable and have built a new machine, addressing some of the annoying quirks of my original. Continue reading “PlecRec RCM II. Updated Record Cleaning Machine”
Few would dispute that these receivers are a marvel of styling. Their “lifestyle” presentation made them very expensive in their day and equivalent sonic performance was available for less money in more conventional packaging. from other brands.
This one came to me from a cousin. It was an exchange for some vinyl records. It’s been stuck in the back of his wardrobe for years, so needs some attention. I’m not paying through the nose for aesthetics, so maybe I can now appreciate this 40 year old design classic. Continue reading “Danish Delight. Bang & Olufsen Beomaster 1900-2”
Within a week I acquired these two pairs of headphones for very different outlays.
Both are rather nice, but quite different. Continue reading “Headphones. Open or Closed back.”
I often use a fully automatic turntable for causal listening. For a small drop in fidelity I get the convenience of just flicking a lever and the record plays.
This worked great for LP’s and 7″ singles. Problem came with 12″ singles. Continue reading “Manual only for 12 inch singles on Garrard zero 100.”
This was a sorry looking set of separates lurking in a builders skip. Missing parts, dents, scratches and broken plastic aplenty.
It’s always worth a look, so I recovered a very sorry Technics SL PS670D CD Player and RS-BX501 cassette deck. Two Sony TA FE370 amplifiers completed the haul. Continue reading “Skip diving for parts. Motorised pots and a headphone amp”
For a while now I have been using a raspberry Pi to stream music from my NAS to my vintage HiFi through an Audioquest Dragonfly DAC.
Originally my choice of hardware and software was dictated by performance considerations. I now have a new Synology DS220+ NAS, which is quick. Time to re evaluate my streaming system and do things a different way. Continue reading “Digital Streamer now with Volumio on Raspberry Pi.”
Figuring out when a stylus or cartridge needs changing depends on many things. Condition of record, how well your system is set up and how may hours use it has had.
Recording needle time is a useful thing to do then, but precision of 10th of a second isn’t really necessary. So why did I create this fancy automatic digital play counter called the “Play Mate”? Continue reading “Play Mate digital record play counter and timer”