Vintage Hi Fi anyone?

[Ned664]

I was recently gifted an old Luxman Turntable, which was from late 70's. After giving it a clean I fitted a Benz micro cartridge and hooked it up to the rest of my system. I must say i was very pleasantly surprised - ok its not the last word in detail and refinement but musical and sooooo pretty, not so far away from my existing TT. Got me thinking about other vintage components so am awaiting a delivery of on old pioneer amp. and will be very interested to hear the results.

Anyone else ventured into the realms of vintage equipment woud be interested in hearing your experiences.

[tommy6206]

Hi Nick
All my gear is vintage even me lol.Choose carefully and all should be fine.

[istari_knight]

I've tried loads of "vintage" bits, far too many to list !

IMHO, if it was good then it'll still be good now... If it wasn't good then It'll be awful now. Some people get carried away thinking if its old its good when quite often its just old junk.

I don't think the high end of hifi has come on leaps & bounds since the early 70's [some would say the late 50's!] but the low end stuff has, the margin between good & bad has been significantly narrowed on modern gear.

[The Barbarian]

Id really love to lace into this thread but i'll control misen..

[technobear]

Vintage hifi rocks! My Rogers LS4a's are rocking right now and sounding bloody fine doing it too.

The Topping TP20 mkII is really getting some surprising sound from these. The bass is very tuneful and surprisingly deep too. Midrange is clean and clear. Treble is just right, not too obvious. Fabulous!

OK so I'm using an expensive source (Audiolab 8200CDQ) but the amp and speakers were for pocket money and aren't holding it back.

[The Barbarian]

Vintage Hi-Fi more than Rocks

[Ali Tait]

Loving my 401, especially in it's slate plinth.

[The Barbarian]

People are easy to lose touch with reality regarding Hi-Fi you will learn in the end people ;) {posted from the wise old progmeister secret lab}

Oval Egg is the clue

[Ali Tait]

Wooden sleeve Sugden A21 is a reality check for me too, it's great to use as a benchmark for other stuff.

[The Barbarian]

Aye great amps those.. I picked up the original Richard Allen amp a bit back, it needs rebuilding maybe over crimbo

[The Barbarian]

Still looking for a mint Armstrong '421'/'424'/'425'

[Ali Tait]

Aye great amps those.. I picked up the original Richard Allen amp a bit back, it needs rebuilding maybe over crimbo

Very nice mate, not heard one of those.

[The Barbarian]

Hi Ali it's the pre Sugden 'A21'.. heres some bumf. they are rare hence the reason i bought it.. you don't want to know how much :nono:

http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/JES/RA/RAamps.html

[The Grand Wazoo]

Interesting thread - it makes me wonder "what is vintage?"

I own three items in my main system that are currently available - the Gyro, Angle Audio phono stage and the Koetsu Black......but the Gyro is 22 years old!
My CD player and SUT about 6 or 7 years old, so really not old at all.
The Zeta arm, preamp and Mark Levinson power amps, I'd call classic (1980's)
The speakers and LFD phono stage (1990's) - I don't know what I'd call them.
The Radford, tape decks, tuners, G99, Decca arm & cartridge....well, they're what I'd call vintage.

So a mix of old, old-ish & new-ish. They all work together very nicely, thank you. And they sound fan-bluddy-tastic!
Pick the good stuff from the not so good then choose good combinations. In truth, there is very little really bad hi-fi gear, just poor combinations.

[Ali Tait]

Hi Ali it's the pre Sugden 'A21'.. heres some bumf. they are rare hence the reason i bought it.. you don't want to know how much :nono:

http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/JES/RA/RAamps.html

Aye, I know about them, nearly bought one a few years ago. How does it sound compared to the A21?

[Ali Tait]

My 401 is three years younger than me. :D

[The Barbarian]

Aye, I know about them, nearly bought one a few years ago. How does it sound compared to the A21?

Dunno Ali it's not working.. no be long before wonder boy re creates life into the owd codger :eyebrows:

[The Barbarian]

Interesting thread - it makes me wonder "what is vintage?"

I own three items in my main system that are currently available - the Gyro, Angle Audio phono stage and the Koetsu Black......but the Gyro is 22 years old!
My CD player and SUT about 6 or 7 years old, so really not old at all.
The Zeta arm, preamp and Mark Levinson power amps, I'd call classic (1980's)
The speakers and LFD phono stage (1990's) - I don't know what I'd call them.
The Radford, tape decks, tuners, G99, Decca arm & cartridge....well, they're what I'd call vintage.

So a mix of old, old-ish & new-ish. They all work together very nicely, thank you. And they sound fan-bluddy-tastic!
Pick the good stuff from the not so good then choose good combinations. In truth, there is very little really bad hi-fi gear, just poor combinations.

You just know whats real vintage if you know what i mean.. from your listipoo the Radford, G99 & Decca + cart..

[Ali Tait]

Dunno Ali it's not working.. no be long before wonder boy re creates life into the owd codger :eyebrows:

Cool, bet it sounds great. Let me know.

[walpurgis]

I've certainly got equipment that qualifies as 'vintage', but I would not buy anything because of that. I just use the Hi-Fi that sounds best for my system regardless of age. I have items the best part of 50 years old and other stuff nearly new. 'Mix & Match', that's what it's all about! Works for me.

[Ali Tait]

Aye, but as Andre alluded to, there's vintage and there's vintage...

The great stuff remains great,as good and perhaps better than anything comparable made today.

[The Barbarian]

:youtheman:

[walpurgis]

there's vintage and there's vintage............................The great stuff remains great.

More like there's true 'Classic' and just plain old.............................I agree some stuff remains great!

[The Barbarian]

:rolleyes: stop comparing modern hifi to vintage for god sake really really fucks me off..

[synsei]

Good modern gear (and it does exist) will be vintage and lusted after in times to come. Like yours Chris, my system has a mix of modern, classic and vintage components and by golly it can hold a toon :D

[The Barbarian]

But people compare Vintage to Modern all the time :steam: Vintage is Vintage it was good as it got back then { A lot think it was a s good as it gets, like me} but modern gear moves on, well technically it does & will.so lets keep it that way. Two different worlds right!

I was offered a place on AOS to look after the Vintage section but declined straight way because it would have been an immediate nightmare for me for a number of reasons..

Im gonna tackle a Castle Acoustics thread tomorrow where i think the owner maybe used to modern hifi, which will be hard for the reasons outlined above but lets see..

[Ali Tait]

Agreed mate, some vintage has still not been surpassed in some ways, for me, '57's, still the best mid I've ever heard from a speaker.

[synsei]

But people compare Vintage to Modern all the time :steam: Vintage is Vintage it was good as it got back then { A lot think it was a s good as it gets, like me} but modern gear moves on, well technically it does & will.so lets keep it that way. Two different worlds right!

I was offered a place on AOS to look after the Vintage section but declined straight way because it would have been an immediate nightmare for me for a number of reasons..

Im gonna tackle a Castle Acoustics thread tomorrow where i think the owner maybe used to modern hifi, which will be hard for the reasons outlined above but lets see..

Our priorities differ. For me it is all about having the best sounding components I can afford in my system, whether they are modern or vintage items isn't important to me as it is all about the sound :eyebrows:

[Ali Tait]

But that's the point for Andre, it's the other way round for him I think.

[synsei]

But that's the point for Andre, it's the other way round for him I think.

Aye Ali, I know ;)

[Ali Tait]

:)

[Roy S]

QUAD (that is all)

[walpurgis]

Seems to me there's nothing to be gained by regarding equipment from different times as separated from the rest. I use a mixture of old and new(ish) gear with remarkable success! As those who have heard my system would confirm.

[Beobloke]

Vintage Hi-Fi more than Rocks

True. I've had loads of old speakers that rocked but this was mainly due to the inadequacies of 1970s speaker stands. Stick 'em on a sturdy pair of modern stands and they stay nice and still.

[The Barbarian]

Seems to me there's nothing to be gained by regarding equipment from different times as separated from the rest

Because people have a really bad habbit of judging Vintage against new. :steam:

[Ned664]

Ok so have now acquired two pioneer amps to go with my Luxman table. First was a SA 420 which I have to say it sounds very good. This was an bit of an experiment £40 amp sounds fab. I couldn't then resist a 606 it just looks fantastic - love the VU Meters, all that brushed aluminium and huge knobs. It also sounds great! Loving the vintage hi fi journey!

[The Barbarian]

Um! i read a few forum posts regarding Ferrograph 'F307'.. very funny really, fully rebuilt they would change their tunes hat's for sure.. :harp:

[Wierdhowler]

Wooden sleeve Sugden A21 is a reality check for me too, it's great to use as a benchmark for other stuff.

Ali, I TOTALLY have to agree with you, its good to find someone else who loves this amp from the 1960's. It was always much better sounding than its larger A48 brother. The detail and sweetness of the A21 is unbelievable. Strangely it is more obvious with older speakers. When I had Arcam 2's I boought a Myst Tma3 to replace the A21 as it "sounded" better.

Much later, after replacing the Arcam 2's and finally using much earlier IMF ALS40 speakers with the Tma3, the power supply of the amp failed (set wating in the attic to be repaired) and I dragged out the A21 and it sounded so much better.

I love the smell of the electronics and heatsinks once hot as well!

Wierdhowler

[Ali Tait]

Aye it's a nice amp, must drag mine out if the cupboard.