Vintage Based Systems. Who's got one?

[Barry]

The only vintage items I still use on a day-to-day basis are:

EMT 930/929/TSD15 turntable, arm and cartridge (mid '60s)

Thorens TD124/II turntable (x3) (late '60s)

SME 3009/S2 arm (late '60s)
SME 3009/S2 IMP arm (early '70s)
SME 3012 arm (mid '60s)
Breuer Dynamic 5A arm (late '70s)

ADC25 cartridge (early '70s)
Ortofon SPU (design goes back to 1959)
Denon DL103 (mid '60s)
Deccca Mk V and Mk VI cartridges (mid '70s)

Mark Levinson ML2 monoblock power amps (mid '70s)

and

Quad 57 ELS (advertised in 1955!)
B&W DM2a seakers (late '70s)




However like André, I do have other vintage equipment:

Ferrograph 632 reel-reel tape machine (late '60s)
Nagra IV-S reel-to-reel tape machine (mid '70s (?))
Quad 33/303/FM3/AM3 (early '70s)
Quad FM2 (early '70s)
Quad 50E (late '60s)
Quad 520f amp (late '70s?)
Radford STA15 Mk.III amplifier (late '60s)

Shure M55E
B&O SP6
ADC 10E Mk.IV (x2)

(all these cartridges mid '60s and early '70s)

Audio & Design M9BA unipivot arm (with mercury contacts!), later known as the Keith Monks arm (mid '60s)
Decca ffss arm (Super) arm (mid to late '60s).

That's about it.

[PaulStewart]

I want to get hold of another A60.

Just picked up an A60 from a chap I work with, he is an ex BBC studio floor manager and got this and a pair of Rogers LS3/5As under the beeb's staff purchase scheme. Aprt from a little fading of the wood it's perfect, measures 100% in spec. A light dose of wire wool and three or four coats of teak oil and it will be like new for the next Audiojumble

[Macca]

The really amaxing thing about Andre's list is that you can bet it will all be in concours condition, no scratched fascias or buttons missing.

[The Black Adder]

I thought you meant vintage stuff you presently use..I got tons of vintage gear i just keep boxed for keeps sake, i do get them out from time to time..Here's some..

Trio 'KA-2000' Amps {X2}
Trio 'KA-2000a' Amps {X2}
Trio 'TK-150' Amp
Trio 'KA-2002' Amp
Trio 'KT-1000' Tuner
Ferrograph 'F307, Mk.I' Amp
Ferrograph 'F307, Mk.II' Amp
Ferrograph '20/20' Amp
Ferrograph 'SFM-1' Tuner
Ferrograph 'Series Seven' R+R {X2}
Ferrograph 'Logic Seven' R+R
Revox 'A77, Mk.I' R+R
Uher 'Royal De-Luxe' R+R
Uher 'Variocord 263' R+R
Akai 'GX4000D' R+R
Rotel '100' Amplifier
Rotel 'RA-610' Amplifier
Rotel 'RT-620' Tuner
NAD 'Model 80' Amp
NAD '160a' Tuner/Amp
Armstrong '521' Amp
Armstrong '524' Tuner
Armstrong '421' Amp
Armstrong '424' Tuner
Rogers 'Ravensbrook, Mk.2' Amp
Rogers 'Ravensbourne, Mk.2' Amp
Rogers 'Cadet 3' Amp
Rogers 'A75' Amp
Leak 'Stereo 30+' Amp
Leak 'Stereo 70' Amp
Leak 'Troughline 3' Tuner
Leak 'Stereo 20' Power Amp
Quad '33/303/FM3' Pre/Power/Tuner
Quad '50D' Power amp {x2}
A&R Cambridge 'A60' Amp
A&R Cambridge 'T21' Tuner
Richard Allan amp {Sudgen 'A21'}
Sugden 'A48, Mk.II' Amplifier
Sugden 'T48' Matching Tuner
JA.Michell 'Focus One' Turntable {no arm}
JA Michell 'Syncro' Turntable/SME '3009, S2 Arm
Logic 'DM101' Turntable {Needs new motor}
Logic 'Gemini' Turntable/Logic 'Datum 2' arm
Rega 'Planet' Turntable/Colton 'MC-101' Arm
CJ Walker 'CJ55' Turntable/Linn 'LVV' arm
Monitor Audio 'ET500' Turntable {No arm}
Goldring Lenco 'GL-75' Turntable
Lenco 'L70' Turntable
Thorens 'TD15O,Mk.I' Turntable {No arm}
Thorens 'TD160 Super' Turntable/Mayware 'Formula 4' Arm
Rotel 'RP-3000' Turntable {No arm}
Connoisseur 'BD-1' Motor unit
Ariston 'RD11, Superior' Turntable {No arm}
Castle Acoustics Ltd 'Howard, Mk.I' Loudspeakers
Castle Acoustics Ltd 'Conway, Mk.I' Loudspeakers
Castle Acoustics Ltd 'Richmond, Mk.I' Loudspeakers {2x Pair}
Castle Acoustics Ltd 'Kendal, Mk.I' Loudspeakers

Loads of Cassette Decks/Loads of vintage CD player

You got the curtains to match, Andre? - Maybe a few rocket lamps, beauty board on the wall?... maybe one of those geometric pin and thread pictures.



You have some excellent gear my friend...Respect!

[The Barbarian]

Quad 520f amp (late '70s?)

Produced Mid 80's to mid 90's

[The Barbarian]

You got the curtains to match, Andre? - Maybe a few rocket lamps, beauty board on the wall?... maybe one of those geometric pin and thread pictures.

I do actually even a sofa to match

[The Black Adder]

I do actually even a sofa to match

lol... Superb matey. Bet your drum fookin ace.

[DSJR]

Apart from the cables, practically all my stuff is 'classic vintage.'

For anyone interested -

Dual 701 with a host of 70's (and one or two) 80's cartridges/ Amcron-Crown IC-150(updated IC's and a few caps)/Bridged Amcron-Crown D-60's into Spendor BC2's. A third D-60 in stereo mode drives headphones (no inline resistors so straight off the output stage). How could I forget the rebuilt Quad II's I care for - severely coloured sonics but who bloody cares!

The upstairs-office system gets loads of use and is again a varying mixture of - 'Any Garrard auto deck you like AP76/Zero 100/86SB/Lab 80mk2/60mk2 and AT6, all with almost period cartridges from Empire, ADC (I have a small collection of XLMs, a ZLM and a Phase IV or two) and an Ortofon VMS10e in the Zero 100 right now.' There's a Thorens TD160 in bits and a early 70's Beogram 3000 with SP12 cartridge, which is too slick in looks and operation and sonically, too well behaved for me. The amps are later, eitherAVI or Croft preamp (former from late 90's and latter from early 90's), an HH power amp (VX300) from early 90's I believe and LS5/9's from the same era. I've been given yet another Crown D-60 in lovely original condition externally and this is again used for headphones, although it's bloody marvellous into the LS5/9's. I'm currently playing another amp in this system (NVA AP20) and it sounds so perfect with the speakers I've not felt a desire to go back as yet.



Since my major Hifi (rather than record player) listening dates from the late 60's, may I say that very few early 70's transistor amps really float my boat as they all have flaws to some extent or another. By the mid 70's, Japanese amps measured very well on THD, but the bodging needed to achieve this robbed the music sadly I felt and crossover distortion, now all but banished in class AB amps, was still a huge problem for lower cost amps (Naim too, but nobody will believe me). Power supplies delivered volts but little current quite often, but since many speakers then were a 'comfortable' 8 Ohms plus, it may not have mattered too much.

[Barry]

Produced Mid 80's to mid 90's

Ah - not so vintage after all!

Cheers

[Marco]

If you run a system based on 'Vintage' or 'Classic' components, please tell us what you're using. I think pre 1980 equipment is what we're talking about here.

Wot about vintage CD players, muchacho? Those boys gots ta be included, too...

Marco.