Old shyte and stuff

[Oddball]

Being a big fan of the 'Bargains on E Bay thread ' , I was eventually moved to post a picture of the Oddball 'mancave' and to talk a bi about my hi fi thoughts!!
Very random I know , but having watched over the last few months , how just about everything on E Bay is silly money nowadays , I am glad I bought my old tat a couple of yrs ago ,in the main , and I hopefully will avoid searching for The Holy Grail of vinyl ,by spending an shed load on different cartridges every now and then , and turntables , in the pursuit of it !!
Not to say I would not mind a very nice Akai TT like the one my roommate next door had in 1975/76 at college ,forget the model , I saw one in Birmingham 2 years ago and it made £285 at the time , what would it fetch now
I bought a Technics SU - VX 700 last June , a Denon cd player and a Nad tuner , so they sit along the old Hitachi branded hi fi with a Project Debut Carbon in blue on top .
Oh and Jachaks old sub , a Rel Q50
My limited hearing in the one ear (I lack hearing treble in that one) means I have taken a step back from the vinyl a bit ,and since I got into surround sound (Partly through Jackhawks generous donation of his old Marantz SR5400 !!) and the addition of a firestick on the TV , some donated Mission 733 speakers , I am mainly listening to Spotify and you Tube and cds!
Yes , I know its a mess :eek: and the diddy Panasonic speakers are in the tip , and some 50 watt Akai' s inplace of the 2 either side of the tv which have been used as a centre and rear !
I particularly love watching You Tube and getting all the Rolls Royce Merlin vids , Vulcan footage and 70's RAC Rally highlights and just blasting the room out!!!!
What a heathen :eyebrows:http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj205/anthyyyyy/IMG_1485_zpsyptdhk0v.jpg (http://s273.photobucket.com/user/anthyyyyy/media/IMG_1485_zpsyptdhk0v.jpg.html)

[struth]

Dalek in corner and nice parquet floor too... that one of those panorama pics?

[Barry]

Looks like it was taken with a 'fish eye' lens.

[Oddball]

Looks like it was taken with a 'fish eye' lens.

Top marks, I was messing around with an old fish eye on a newish diital Canon!!
Daniel Craig is behind me actually !! (An old Casino Royale theatre auditorium life size cardboard )

[Audio Al]

Looks good to me :)

[Macca]

Parquet. The Cadillac of floor coverings.

[Oddball]

Parquet. The Cadillac of floor coverings.

It needs to be solid because the HMV /ADC turntable: is very very prone to any vibration.

[Pete The Cat]

Yes , I know its a mess :eek:

Looks perfect to me, a real Aladdin's cave. I much prefer stuff to minimalism.

Pete

[Oddball]

Thank you :)

Here is a more conventional look taken today !
Fired the stove up and away to go;)

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj205/anthyyyyy/IMG_1489_zpsrgkypkkt.jpg (http://s273.photobucket.com/user/anthyyyyy/media/IMG_1489_zpsrgkypkkt.jpg.html)
A close up of the old s*****
The cabinet came with my old HMV stack ,and I find it handy ,despite it being 'shedwork'! It even has a bottom draw for those bits of tat you don't know what to do with.
The upright silver lamp was given to my daughter to save it from the skip.
Neither lamps worked in fact the top halogen bulb uplighter was a 500 watt!!!! Jesus !! (sign on side said max 350 watt !! ) At least it must have doubled up as a heater once :D I put a 15 watt led in it and a 5 watt in the spot !
Tidy

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj205/anthyyyyy/IMG_1491_zps6gtudijo.jpg (http://s273.photobucket.com/user/anthyyyyy/media/IMG_1491_zps6gtudijo.jpg.html)

[Macca]

Looks good, except for that red and white lampshade which is an abomination. I'd recommend killing it with fire.

What are the 3 way Akais like?

[jandl100]

Yay - proppa man cave :thumbsup:

But, yeah, death by fire is too good for that lampshade. ;)

[Oddball]

Yay - proppa man cave :thumbsup:

But, yeah, death by fire is too good for that lampshade. ;)
Don't diss the lampshade :steam: That's been here since I got hitched ,and I am too attached to bin the whole thing (it was used before the uplighter arrived !!!)
On the list for the tip though

The Akai's are suprisingly good !! I braved a visit to bandit country up by Marco's (Cefn Mawr ) while going to see the mighty Wrexham play , next to the famous Telford Aqueduct that I wont try and spell , at Trevor . Llangollen . The bass drivers were hanging about with advanced foam rot , so I gave a pound for them . £15 for a refoam kit off e bay and they don't sound bad at all , but despite being 1980 vintage they are nothing special !
Probably want the crossovers doing but they sound ok to my rough ears
Oh , I robbed the tv aerial lead , now that it does not get used much ,and it gave me suprisingly great reception on the Nad tuner !! (I am not sure the difference between a VHF aerial and a UHF ???)

[struth]

Those lamps and shades are cool.. love them.

[Marco]

Don't diss the lampshade :steam: That's been here since I got hitched...

Bet it's seen a lot of 'action'...:eyebrows:

Marco.

[Oddball]

Bet it's seen a lot of 'action'...:eyebrows:

Marco.

Ha ha , it knows when to keep quiet too !!;)
I like the old standard lamp for a bit of book reading , actually gives a nice bit of atmos !!

Tomorrow is my biffy . I have a old TT I am looking at , so fingers crossed . A project for me (no ,not a Project Debut Carbon either - does anyone want a 12 month old one , as new ??:)

[Oddball]

Well , unlike the Thread title , 'Bargains on E Bay' , I did not buy a bargain as the Technics SL 23 for spares and repair made £46.75 , and my snipe was taken out by another snipe !!!:doh:
It was a mere 8 miles away from me ,and I should have bought it but hell if E Bay does not get my goat lately!!
What the hell is up with folk lol:D

[Oddball]

Today I have mainly been - amazed at the sound from the Tannoy 635B's I bought off the Bay of Pigs ,last week!
I fully expected to be a bit underwelmed by any sound improvement over my old rosewood Mission 752's , but boy what a revelation!!:eek:

Pictures to follow as the mancave gets turned over for 'old shyte' to sell to recoup the vast £80 I paid for them ;)

[walpurgis]

Thought you might be impressed Anto. :)

Care to describe how you find these?

[Oddball]

Thought you might be impressed Anto. :)

Care to describe how you find these?
HHmm , I dont have a way with words Geoff , like some people , but will try my best !!:)
I hooked them up normally ,or non Bi wired , as I felt it would be a fairer comparison ,against the Missions (they were non bi )
Immediately I felt the bass was a tad overpowering (it was set at +2 on the Technics SU VX700 (95 watt per channel)so I put that back to -2 , and that sounded much better. (I do think the fullness of sound in the mid and bass caused my initial reaction )
On with a bit of Nursery Cryme -Genesis - The Musical Box , then a bit of Supertramp , the fullness througout all ranges ' a joy .
Those dual concentrics sing !!
My wife was struck by the way the bass went through the wall into the kitchen:eyebrows: and I didnt even have the sub on !!
Later on I cobbled together some stands from a bit of twin wall drainage pipe and some hardboard (for now)
Spent this afternoon listening to Dido's first album again , and the extra foot height ,does make that difference !!

Thanks for recommending Tannoys to me Geoff;)

[walpurgis]

Glad you like 'em Anto. If you can locate some sturdy stands, somrthing nice and hefty. It should clean the bass up and tighten it a bit.

[jandl100]

You do need to have those dual concentric drivers pointing to ear level, ime.
You can achieve this either by raising the cabinets or by tilting the cabinet back, or a subtle combination of the two.
Different sounds from each approach. You have to try it and see which you prefer, I think.

If you have overblown bass issues then raising them is probably the way to go.

[walpurgis]

If you have overblown bass issues then raising them is probably the way to go.

Acoustic foam port bungs can be useful too.

[Macca]

No I hate those bungs. Just get the speakers out away from the walls as much as is practical, and as Jerry says, get the centre of the DC driver at ear height.

Not surprised they blow the Missions away, they are bloody good speakers. Husband of a work colleague has some he is not using anymore, I've been trying to get him to sell them to me for years now.

[walpurgis]

No I hate those bungs.

Depends on the room and speakers. Bungs definitely helped with my Dynaudios.

[jandl100]

I generally have my speakers lightly bunged with acoustic material - it controls a noticeable bass resonance pretty much perfectly.

[Oddball]

Thanks folks !!:)
The thing that was going through my head this morning as I drove around and around the cubicle shed scraping up after the cows , was possibly how lucky I have been by not going down the route of buying older classic speakers that really are in need of a refurb , (which in itself can be a moneypit )!!

I had fancied some Celestion Dittons and some Goodmans Magnums :doh: and some Kef someat or others , in the past yr or 2 but ,usually got outbid on the Bay of Pigs , so having dropped on these was a bit lucky . I halfheartedly bobbed the first starting bid in at £84 and was not bothered if I got them really . But did!!!:eek:
35 miles away and a vendor who was absolutely a top guy , and had cared for them like babies . I dont think they had seen much service . He even gave me the receipt from Peters Hifi and Tv in Chester , bought in 1999 for £270.
Maybe old enough to be better build quality but new enough to not need any attention ?
I wonder just what similar quality ones would cost now , 18 years later

[Macca]

I wonder just what similar quality ones would cost now , 18 years later

I don't think you would see much change from £1500.

[walpurgis]

The only Tannoy with a single 6" dual concentric in the affordable Revolution series is the XT6, which is a shorter stand mounting speaker, costing around £600 per pair. The next model up, the XT6F is a floorstander using an additional 6" bass driver below the DC unit, these are £1000.

Your 635B's use a similar driver to the i6 AW and the rather sought after System 600 monitor. It's a very nice sounding unit.

[jandl100]

oh ... and photos needed or you are just making all this up. ;)

[Oddball]

Having a tidy up ;)
Oh , and I need another photo hosting site ,as my phurtbucket one probably wants a ransom

[jandl100]

I've moved to www.imgur.com for my photo hosting, it seems to work well.

[Oddball]

Here we are . Excuse the mess as I am sorting out some stuff to get rid of !!:rolleyes:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/153266777@N08/shares/096g4w

https://www.flickr.com/photos/153266777@N08/shares/10347j