Which components would you have in your ultimate 70's system?

[shane]

For various reasons, my actual stand-out system listening experience from the 70s was in around 1976. We had a customer who wanted to compare the best we could offer with what a friend in the business was trying to sell him. We took a Dual 701 with Shure V15 IV, a Yamaha CR1000 receiver and a pair of Gales. The opposition was Linn LP12/Grace G707/Supex SD900 into Naim NAC12 (I think) / NAP250 and a pair of Dahlquist DQ10s. The music was Christina Ortiz playing Shostakovich 2nd Piano Concerto (EMI ASD3081. A brilliant recording), and the annihilation of our system was total, as was our conversion. A lot has since been written about Linn/Naim hype and all the bullshit that went with it, but my God, that system did things that I'd never heard before, and 40 years later it's still my clearest hifi memory from that era.

I'd love to find an old pair of DQ10s and put them with a good valve system. For those to whom they are not familiar, these are not Quads!



This is what's inside:

[walpurgis]

If you wanna do it on the mega cheap a great sounding amp from the early 70's that go for peanuts Trio 'KA-2000A' The original {'KA-2000'} was the 60's..

Good sounding amp. Sounds rather like a Sugden A21.

[walpurgis]

I'd love to find an old pair of DQ10s and put them with a good valve system. For those to whom they are not familiar, these are not Quads!



This is what's inside:

That looks very like an Advent bass driver. I remember the DQ10 and have heard them.

[Macca]

Got the speakers already but I would quite fancy a Pioneer SPEC 9 combo to power them. Source would have to be an RtR, probably a Revox. Add a swiss cheese plant and a floorstanding lava lamp to get that perfect period feel.

[Gordon Steadman]

Lecson AC1/AP3/FM1

Gale GT2101

Gale GS401a

Yes, OK, it's all about the looks, so which arm and cartridge? The SME that's usually shown on the Gale looks like a Ford V8 stuck in a Lamborghini, so something a bit more space-age is called for. Transcriptors, maybe? Not sure...

Can't think of a suitably wild-looking cartridge either. Any ideas?

The Lecsons have to be the best looking hi-fi ever made. I could definitely live with the looks of this whole system. Nice one.

[The Barbarian]

I could make room for the awesome Trio 'Supreme 1' amp They cost an absolute fortune in the late 60's/early 70's..I have only ever seen one for sale 2nd hand..

[Wakefield Turntables]

What about tuners? What would all go for?

[jandl100]

What about tuners? What would all go for?

An AKAI AT-580 for me.
I actually had one in my 1st ever stereo system - sounded great and looks yummy imo.

[shane]

THE tuner of the 1970s was the Sequerra model 1! Never saw one, but how droolworthy is this?

[DSJR]

I've got a 70's system already and to me it sounds very good - Dual 701/ADC ZLM, Crown IC-150 with bridged D-60's and Spendor BC2's. Sure, the bits have been tweaked here and there, but the fundamentals remain..

For an ultimate system, the deck would possibly be one of the better Sony's (8750 or TTS3000/8000), the power amp a DC300A (I have fond memories of the QMI Gain Cell too and remember the Ampzilla but have no idea how these would stack up today) and speakers, well, either AR LST's or IMF RSPM IV's (big LOUD JBL's too possibly).

Loads of other good stuff, a Naim bolt-up 250 pales into insignificance in the wide scheme of things 1970's and the Naim 12S pre is totally outclassed here by the far more straight-wire-with-gain IC150 once a couple of small details are attended to (four little caps and two cheap op-amps).....