Hello

[juan_kenon]

I stumbled onto this site while searching the Internet for the best kind of porn, vintage audio gear. Unfortunately funds rarely match my extravagant tastes.

I am graduate student currently living in Ottawa Canada. I have had the vintage bug for a while and have collected a few bits and bobs as opportunity and finances have allowed. My system now consists of a B&O 4400 amp (I know, I know), McIntosh XR-5 speakers, a Revox B291 TT, a wonky Nakamichi 630 preamp/tuner and Akai GX-265D reel deck.

My main aim now is building my dream British HiFi system. I have to hand it to British styling and engineering in the 70s, simply masterful. Management & business acumen at the time...not so much.

I have very catholic tastes in music, from jazz to synth pop, classical to experimental. I love collecting old vinyl, it is a real passion for me, have about a thousand or so records. Sold my CDs long ago, good riddance.

I was really drawn to this board by your ethos statement, and that you seem like a warm and knowledgeable group of people. Hopefully this will be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Cheers,

Juan

[MartinT]

Hi Juan and welcome to AoS. What is the availability of vintage British hi-fi over in Ottawa? Perhaps you need to organise a trip over here and visit one of the regular audio jumbles to pick up some treasures.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Hi there Juan,
Welcome to The Art of Sound - it's great that you found us!
So what do you plan for this to consist of? - We'd love to know!

My main aim now is building my dream British HiFi system.

In a reciprocal hands across the water type gesture, you should know that I own Canadian loudspeakers!
Have fun while you're here.
Cheers

[Alex_UK]

Hi Juan - welcome to AoS from me too - enjoy! :)

[Thing Fish]

Welcome Juan...:wave:

[Beechwoods]

Welcome to AoS Juan, it sounds like you have an interesting journey planned! Nice to have a fellow traveller with an interest in reel to reel. The Akai looks like a nice deck :hifives:

Hope you enjoy it here, and get stuck in!

[Spectral Morn]

Welcome to AOS Juan


Regards D S D L

[juan_kenon]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys!
> Martin T

What is the availability of vintage British hi-fi over in Ottawa?

I just moved back here about a month back, still haven't had time to properly scour the shops. Scanning craigslist and canukaudiomart occasionally lands some good things, but more your standard stuff; quads, linns, etc. Not that there is anything wrong with that!

> The Grand Wazoo


So what do you plan for this to consist of? - We'd love to know!

Well it is the golden triangle, you can have great, you can have beautiful or you can have cheap. Pick two; rarely is there a happy compromise with all three. After a lot of research I have pretty much settled on this:

Pre & Amp:

Boothroyd & Stuart all the way...so Lecson or early Meridians (10x or 20x series). My preferences are in that order. About as close as I will get to an ideal "triangle" at my price point. These are unfortunately pretty thin on the ground here, but there is always the bane of my pay cheques, ePay!

TT:

Well there are so many good ones to choose from, but a real sleeper I think might be a JBE. Again scarce here, seem more common and generally ignored/unloved in the UK.


Tuners:

There are a lot to choose from, but honestly I may just keep the Nak, I'm growing rather fond of its eccentricity. Or Cambridge Audio, if I can find one locally, they made some tasty stuff.

Tape/Reel:

Harder here to keep it Brit here, I am just unaware of anything worthwhile in this department, seeing as the Swiss & Japanese had the market pretty much cornered (I could be wrong!). In an Ideal world I'd get a higher end Nak cassette & a Revox A/B 77, but these just go for silly money though. Hmmm perhaps fate will smile on me one day.

Speakers:

Ideally a pair of LS3/5a, but again silly money. Keeping an eye out for some B&W DM#s, KEFs, or IMFs. The problem is finding them local...int'l or even nat'l shipping is simply not an option.

...that would do me! Also nice of you to support the colonies with your speakers!

Anyways sorry to bore, hope your all doing well

Cheers,

Juan

[MartinT]

The JBE is a good choice. Nice direct drive unit and, as you say, strangely unloved. Looks good, too.

Preamp: you could always look for an early Croft - British and probably better sounding than Lecson or early Meridian. What do you do for voltage conversion?

Speakers: look too for Celef or TDL speakers as all being good.

[Beechwoods]

Make sure you really enjoy your Akai before you invest in anything else Juan. What you've got isn't exactly entry level, if it's serviced and calibrated it should be more than capable of making hi-fi class noises!

Nakamichi made some very nice tape decks at the high end (I have 2), but Revox and Studer did as well (I have a Studer A710 as well!). In my opinion tape decks came of age in the eighties though... there were some good looking decks from the 70's but they cracked the quality barrier in the 80's! The best 70's 'cassette' deck IMO was Sony's Elcaset (http://www.audio-extasa.eu/sony-el7-stereo-elcaset-deck-p-551.html)!

[juan_kenon]

> Beechwoods

That Akai RtoR is probably what I use most these days, to save on vinyl wear, and to think it was a bin find! I really love it, your right, no slouch in the audio department at all and those GX heads will last forever. I worry about spares down the line, which revox abounds in, but so far so good. The 10.5 reel models are alluring because they are so imposing, but it is definitely not something I need.

I am more interested in getting a nicer cassette deck at the moment. A Nak Dragon is of course right up there but there are plenty of excellent three head models with albeit less cache (and price tag) to choose from. Which do you use BTW?

> MartinT

Direct Drives have the association with cheap here, not so in Asia. It is a silly prejudice really, I have has the opportunity to listen to a lot of nice DDs when I was living in Asia. Inferior? Pure hog wash. At any rate there are a lot of rubbish belt drives too. All the better for me I suppose.

I will definitely keep an eye out the pre and speakers you recommended as well.

Ohhh and I forgot to mention....I am always open to donations!

Cheers,

Juan

[Beechwoods]

> Beechwoods

I am more interested in getting a nicer cassette deck at the moment. A Nak Dragon is of course right up there but there are plenty of excellent three head models with albeit less cache (and price tag) to choose from. Which do you use BTW?



I have a ZX7 and a CR7. Both are fantastic machines. Both imported from the States - it seems difficult to find high end Nak's in this country (at a decent price) though the cheaper ones turn up more often. The playback azimuth control on the CR7 is useful because I play a lot of tapes recorded on other machines... but the ZX7 sounds just as good on virtually everything put in it as well! And is cheaper because it doesn't have the cachet of the CR7. Both are very close to each other when it comes to recording and playing back those recordings...

[wiicrackpot]

Beechwood, seems you are a expert on tape machines, what are your views on the 660ZX?, i've owned mines for donkeys and the last 10yrs boxed up gathering dust, excellent condition so tried to sell it on the Wam and Pinkfish(before i joined here) for £80.00, not a sniff so plumbed it back in the system just for a try since i had it out to photograph, my O'my !!! i've forgotten how good it sounds.

On the subject of R2R, i got a Brenell Mk5 series2 with a box of reels thrown in,Ferrograph De-gauzer together with the valve PSU and Valve amp, came in a radiogram that contained a Lenco 70 and 1959 vintage Wharfedale Model W3 speakers, in your opinion how good is the Brenell decks?, is it worth keeping or best confine to the bin?.

wii.

[Beechwoods]

Hi Andy,

I don't really consider myself an expert, I'm an enthusiast, and I prefer to pass judgement on gear I've heard, rather than relying on what I've read. I've not had first-hand experience of either machine you mention... but

That said the 660ZX is in the Nakamichi sweet-spot, 79-80, it has the classic Nakamichi transport with auto record head azimuth control, pressure pad lifter... it wasn't the top end machine so it got (gorgeous!) analogue VU meters rather than the 'top of the line, just coming in' LED meters. Assuming your machine is in good working order I think folk missed out on a bargain if you'd tried to sell it at £80.

As for your Brennell. No first hand experience, but it's too good to bin. I suspect that it may leave you wanting in terms of what we'd now consider Hi-Fi playback, but before you consign it to the tip, it might be worth signing on at the UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration forum, where someone may be looking for one.

http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=35
http://brenelltape.co.uk/id3.html

[wiicrackpot]

Hi Nick.

Thanks for the links, will look into what the Brenell is capable of, one thing is for sure, it doesn't have the purposeful look of Revox or Akai players which works vertically where as Brenell's are made to sound best Horizontally according to the accompanying handbook.

My Nak 660ZX is quite a hefty machine, discrete heads and dual motor and these are big Nakamichi motors, auto azimuth alignment,all switches are little metal paddles that work with a reassuring mechanical click left and right fashion, and of course the Green hued VU meters, you know it's a good bit of kit by the general feel of operations.