This joint needs some more vintage hifi

mhardy6647

nice, serious piece of hardware, the BA-5000.

gdb

This one interests me a little..... Almost looks like B&O stuff of much more recent times!
Braun

mhardy6647

mrbigbluelight

A bump, and a question:

The Heathkit Linear Phase speakers from the late 70's; didn't another major manufacturer have similiar looking speakers with a "Linear Phase" or "Phased Array" promotion during the mid-to-late 70's ?

mhardy6647

Yup, Technics, for one.
The idea of "time alignment" was fashionable in the late 1970s. Other examples include the KEF 105 (a true **** of a speaker!) and... umm... the Polk "Real Time Array" tweeter installation on the RTA-12/Monitor 12 :-)

cnh

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

A bump, and a question:

The Heathkit Linear Phase speakers from the late 70's; didn't another major manufacturer have similiar looking speakers with a "Linear Phase" or "Phased Array" promotion during the mid-to-late 70's ?

When I see designs like that so "early" I "really" have to wonder when people say that we've made quantum leaps in speaker engineering in the last decade or two. Dome tweeters (very early), we saw racetrack passives and drivers yesterday in KEFs, there were Beryllium tweeters in very early Yamahas. Ribbons and planar designs have been around since at least the KLH 9s if not before, coax horn mounted Altec Lansings woofers, bass reflex, Acoustic Suspension, Aperiodic, Transmission Line, infinite baffle and so on. Early, early, early

If one wants to argue that crossovers have become more sophisticated and complex. Some of my favorite speakers have "minimalist" crossover designs that try not to get in the way of the music. And what about things like Carver's Amazings--with what kind of crossover? 100 Hz? And what about the ideal point source (the "single" driver unit with NO crossover at all!).

So when I see a crossover that's the size of a small tube amp. I just shake my head. And think, there could be "less" there and maybe that would be "more"? The ideal is to "eliminate" the crossover not "over-engineer" it! As far as I know, my eardrums have no crossovers. lol

cnh

mhardy6647

Magnavox invented the loudspeaker as we know it in the nineteen-teens and Western Electric perfected it by the early 1930s.
Everything else since has been marketing.
;-)

Actually, your ears do have crossovers in the sense that different patches of cilia in the inner ear respond to different sound frequencies; there is a lot of signal processing done by the CPU though :-)

codyc1ark

This thread has been reported for all of the **** in it!! :cheesygrin::cheesygrin:

mrbigbluelight

Not derailing, but archive.org has a lot of older RCA Victor, etc company films available that are pretty darn interesting, especially so, IMO, for the mid- to late- 50's.
Movement from "hi fidelity" to "stereo", different technology (4-track tape cassette !).

Just typing in "stereo" in the search function brings up a list of cool stuff to watch.
Be aware, though, that the people used in the filming make Ozzie and Harriet look like crack dealers.

http://archive.org/search.php?query=stereo%20AND%20collection%3Aprelinger

Having my memory jogged, here's a pic of a Technics SB 7000 (late 70's). Never heard one, never even saw one in person, but as mhardy mentioned, they were marketed, and marketed heavily:

dudeinaroom

Here's a few I worked on over the past month, not actual pics, stolen from the interwebs,

^^Gold faced version of this...I want one!^^

There have been a few more, I have two preamps on my bench right now, can't remember model #s right now, one is 95% done, clean and tubes tested.....just waiting on parts to come in, and the other is cleaned, tubes tested and opened up waiting for me to start as long as parts come in they will both be done tomorrow.

mhardy6647

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

Not derailing, but archive.org has a lot of older RCA Victor, etc company films available that are pretty darn interesting, especially so, IMO, for the mid- to late- 50's.
Movement from "hi fidelity" to "stereo", different technology (4-track tape cassette !).

Just typing in "stereo" in the search function brings up a list of cool stuff to watch.
Be aware, though, that the people used in the filming make Ozzie and Harriet look like crack dealers.

http://archive.org/search.php?query=stereo%20AND%20collection%3Aprelinger

Having my memory jogged, here's a pic of a Technics SB 7000 (late 70's). Never heard one, never even saw one in person, but as mhardy mentioned, they were marketed, and marketed heavily:

The "time aligned" Technics speakers aren't bad, actually. A pair of the smallest ones, SB-4500A to be exact, passed through my lair for a while. They were sensitive and fairly dynamic; "great for tube amps", as they say (ahem). :-) The bigger ones, with substantially better drivers, were even better.



Also, it will be recalled that the, umm... laid back stance of the orignal "PolkStand" was touted as a way to time-align the drivers :-)




dudeinaroom, here's one I re-habbed for a local colleague a few years back; fine sounding amplifier (albeit not a Scott)...

dudeinaroom

Have 2 of these on my bench right now waiting for parts to come in.

Have also had my hands in one of these

Gold face and light up dial are pretty cool looking.

GRRRRR......Craig is going to turn me into a tube guy, I can feel it.

dudeinaroom

mhardy6647 wrote: »

......


dudeinaroom, here's one I re-habbed for a local colleague a few years back; fine sounding amplifier (albeit not a Scott)...

I believe I have had my hands on one of those too, can't remember, I've been turning out an average of 3 pieces a week . I know for sure I have had my hands on at least 4 Fishers, a Pilot, and a good hand full of Scotts. I am loving every minute of it, only problem is time flies by when I'm working. Well, I guess that's not a problem.

SCompRacer

A gift from a friend. Thanks Ed!

A Mitsubishi LT-5V, a vertical belt drive linear tracking turntable from the late '70's (IIRC) complete with AT cartridge. I have the gooey old belt material cleaned off and some new ones ordered.

Oldfatdogs

I have never seen one like that.Nice gift.

cnh

A vertical TT! Now that is really "cool". Does anyone know if any other manufacturers came out with similar designs?

I have NO doubt that there must be a "vertical" unit by Bang and Olufsen (that goes without saying since they seem to love the upright position).


cnh

madmax

I'm into the Lafayette stuff, have several receivers. These days partsexpress.com is very similar, just has less audio components. The LR9090 receiver is a favorite, my first receiver. They were all made in japan and sounded very good!

Turbota

I was really happy with the performance of my old Pioneer stuff. Moved out of the country and gave it all away to a friend.

Bought it new while stationed in Korea in 1978. Worked like a charm for so many many years!

Used to power a set of Pioneer HPM-1500 speakers with this setup.

EndersShadow

^Thats some right purdy stuff!

TNHNDYMAN

Not the best pic, but a few of my older pieces including a Sansui 4000, Lafayette LR-4000, Sherwood 7100A, JVC R S33, and a Yamaha YP 211 turntable. To the left side you can see a Tandberg 1040 and a Dual 1225 on top.

littlewoodboats

I hope he said thank you over and over again. Beautiful gear

Turbota wrote: »

I was really happy with the performance of my old Pioneer stuff. Moved out of the country and gave it all away to a friend.

Bought it new while stationed in Korea in 1978. Worked like a charm for so many many years!

Used to power a set of Pioneer HPM-1500 speakers with this setup.

gdb

I suspect that if the vertical TT was a good or even viable idea long term......we'd be seein' them all over the place. We don't. I can only imagine how tracking force/weight was attempted to be regulated ! Nope, horizontal is the ticket !:cheesygrin:

mhardy6647

The arm would have been dynamically balanced (i.e., use springs instead of weights). There's actually a lot to be said for dynamic balanced arms - they don't require the tt to be level. The old Dual operating manuals proudly describe how to demonstrate their dynamically balanced arms by playing a record with one's turntable canted at an odd angle by, e.g., jamming a couple of books under it! Indeed, it's possible (although tricky) to flip such a turntable upside-down and play a record.

Take a look at the page labeled "3" (page 8 of 16 in the PDF file) of the 1019 manual available at http://www.vinylengine.com/ve_downloads/index.php?dual/dual_1019.pdf
(free registration required at the site to view/download docs - and well worth it if one's interested in turntables...)

SCompRacer

Mark, your post reminded me that once upon a time I had a Micro Seiki MA505 mounted on a Nottingham Spacedeck. It was a dynamic balanced arm with the spring in the counterweight tube. You could change VTF while the record was playing. IIRC I could also do VTA on the fly (fairly sure it was a MK II arm). Not my pic but same arm.



I have no desire to dig into the box around the Mitsubishi's arm since it all works after new belts and a tune up. A working conversation piece, kewl! It actually sounds pretty good. Can't embed but here is a short youtube video of the table in operation.

http://youtu.be/T8OjlcJjSEE

agfrost

Hey Rich, if you've got a weekend and a couple dollars you can undertake the simple mods undertaken by this guy on a Mitsu LT-5V here. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/analogue-source/173341-my-last-turntable.html

That is seriously one of the coolest build threads I've ever seen. (I'm partial to your Lenco one, too!)

I've got a Mitsubishi LT-20 linear tracker in my bedroom rig, which I'm quite fond of. Standard orientation, though!

SCompRacer

Hey Jay! Yeah, I've seen that thread! Lots of work. I recall you telling me you had that table. I prefer the horizontal orientation myself. Despite the small investment I have in it (~15% of what I did have) it would take one hell of a table to knock the Lenco off the rack.

Say, this is vintage. My old heavy platter Lenco L75, four speed, idler drive turntable, bought beat up, cheap.



This is what it looks like now.

mhardy6647

George Grand

Almost $400 back in those days, for a 35wpc, straight stereo receiver, whose only "features" would be an AUX input and a Tape Monitor loop.

mhardy6647

George Grand wrote: »

Almost $400 back in those days, for a 35wpc, straight stereo receiver, whose only "features" would be an AUX input and a Tape Monitor loop.

and that price doesn't allow for a number of hours of sweat equity... yeah, Heathkit stuff was never exactly inexpensive.

wxcarne89

I thought I'd post some pics of the Fisher 800B i'm working on, (there's also a pioneer sx-820 pictured, replacing leaking capacitorsin power supply).Sorry the pics suck!

It sounds great but I still got a lot of issues to work out. I still need to get my knob brights and dial lights installed too. my big issue is that when playing music from AUX or tuner the volume is inadequate, but through the tape section volume is perfect. Most of my tubes are still original though, so I imagine replacing preamp tubes may fix the issue. This unit was a great find for $30 locally!