Best Vintage HiFi Designs

[firedog]

That Marantz tuning wheel was one of the best inventions ever in audio. Growing up, I always wanted a Marantz receiver, but they were too pricey for me then. 

[Allan F]

 

AR3a

 

KLH Nine

[PeterSt]

 

Nakamichi 700 Tri-Tracer.

(I still have two of these)

[Summit]

 

BeoSound 9000 was many peoples favourite audio design in the late 80's and was for many years exposed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

 

 

 

[yamamoto2002]

JBL Paragon and 4344
Mark Levinson No.27
Denon DP-S1
Sansui B-2301 Vintage
Technics SB-AFP1000
Goldmund Epilogue and Mimesis 22
Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage
Bose 802 and AWCS-II

[Superdad]

7 hours ago, PeterSt said:

Nakamichi 700 Tri-Tracer.

(I still have two of these)

For a summer in my teens I worked as an intern service tech (mostly mechanical disassembly/assembly) in Nakamichi’s Santa Monica, California office. I still have quite a collection of early Nak gear, including 600, 630, and 700. Actually, I let go of my 700 in favor of a 700 MkII. I modified it with fine silver wire to the heads and better caps throughout the analog stage—especially on the head-amp boards. The all-discrete circuitry of that era (when really nice bi-polars and FETs were cheap) combined with the care and elegance the Nak engineers put into it, made these machines something quite special (for cassettes anyway).  The dual-capstan 700 was mechanically equivalent of the Dragon (1000) without all the excess electronic circuits. Could still calibrate for different tapes and adjust the head alignment easily.

Of course all the Nak decks of that era were mechanically not nearly as advanced as the much later CR5/CR7. Those represent the world pinnacle of cassette transports and are sought after—but to my ears their electronics we cold and lifeless in comparison to the 600/700.

[Superdad]

Bang & Olufsen Beogram 4000 tangential tracking turntables. I used to service these (circa 1977). What a pain in the butt they were! But they looked cool...

[clipper]

Proceed (Madrigal) PCD (CD Player)

 

[lucretius]

My first amplifier (picture borrowed) circa 1974: A Citizen model JSA-8 (Citizen was a Canadian brand of Jutan International Limited - product made by Goldstar -- now LG -- in Korea and sold under various badges around the world including Goldstar model GSA-8500).  This thing put out tons of power (for the time). Unfortunately, at the time I never owned speakers that were worthy of such power.

 

 

Power output: 45 watts per channel into 8Ω

Frequency response: 10Hz to 35kHz

Total harmonic distortion: 0.06%

Damping factor: 30

Input sensitivity: 2.4mV (MM), 150mV (line)

Signal to noise ratio: 50dB (MM), 70dB (line)

Output: 100mV (line), 0.7V (Pre out)

Speaker load impedance: 4Ω to 16Ω

[RickyV]

Straight back to Dire Straights, Telegraph road times, ah memories.

 

 

 

 

 

[Superdad]

5 hours ago, clipper said:

Proceed (Madrigal) PCD (CD Player)

 

 

Sorry, but in my (not so humble) opinion that has to be one of the ugliest audio components ever conceived.  And I say that as someone who lusted after the Apple Cube and for a time at work had a NeXT. 

[ray-dude]

Now there is an old friend!  My '030 Cube is safely in a storage locker, as is the Megapixel Display case that some former coworkers kindly converted into a fish tank for me.

 

Extraordinary how much of the future was invented from whole cloth 30 years ago...

 

 

[Teresa]

In pre-digital times I owned a Teac A2300-SD reel-to-reel tape deck. I only played 4 track 7 1/2 IPS prerecorded reel-to-reel tapes on it, I never made any recordings. 

 

[clipper]

16 hours ago, Superdad said:

Sorry, but in my (not so humble) opinion that has to be one of the ugliest audio components ever conceived.  And I say that as someone who lusted after the Apple Cube and for a time at work had a NeXT. 

No offense taken.

 

I'm probably a bit partial to it, since I had one at the time and liked it.

 

I do remember that it looked pretty cool sitting on my equipment rack (in 1990), compared to all the other standard black or silver horizontal boxes.  Besides its cubic shape, I liked the shades of gray and the shape and feel of the buttons. 

 

I think the G4 Cube is a work of art.  

[CatManDo]

Braun Atelier Series (1980's)

 

[Allan F]

17 hours ago, Superdad said:

Sorry, but in my (not so humble) opinion that has to be one of the ugliest audio components ever conceived.  And I say that as someone who lusted after the Apple Cube and for a time at work had a NeXT. 

 

AFAICR wasn't it often, both aptly and somewhat derisively, referred to as "The Toaster"?

[charlesphoto]

This was my first, a Kenwood 9050 receiver. No idea how I convinced my Mom to buy that for a sixteen year old in 1980. Speakerlabs, I think, 16ga lamp wire of course. It sure lit up cool! Most of the buttons and dials just made things sound worse. And man it could play loud! And for many years that was the whole idea... No idea what happened to it (busted, discarded?) but now super rare and worth $$. 

[botrytis]

Kenwood L-07M/L-09M monoblocks were an interesting design and one of the only DC designs at the time. A Pioneer M-22 is in front of the Kenwoods.

 

 

[NOMBEDES]

On 8/5/2020 at 12:54 PM, Allan F said:

 

AR3a

 

 

 

My AR3a is better than yours.   

[NOMBEDES]

@Allan F

 

The above photo:  AR3a (improved) European Model.  Bought new on 23 August 1975 at the Wiesbaden Audio and Photo Club, Mainz-Kastel, Germany.  $402.00

 

The stands (photo 2 supra) were recently constructed from 3/4 in mahogany sheets purchased in Panama c.1978.   The labor for the stands was just under $400, I cannot recall the cost for the mahogany.

[acg]

 

 

Sansui TU-X1 tuner is sooo sexy, and sooo big.

[bobbmd]

anything designed and built by Henry Kloss ie AR/Model 6s/include any speakers from that other company he founded Cambridge Sound Works and any of the Pioneer Elite power amps preamps tuners 6 disc changers laser disc players from late 1980s

[mav52]

Still have my Marantz 2270, Dual 1229 TT and KLH 7 speakers.  All boxed up. The 2270 needs to go get its caps and speaker terminals replaced.

[fas42]

This setup, using ancient  cinema speakers,

 

 

makes magic sounds, from all reports, http://zero-distortion.org/vintage-exotica-siemens-bionor-and-turntables/