I have positive experience with Aural Hifi - Jeremy Irwin.
Who to trust when buying vintage ss ?
A co worker wants to start getting into audio. I suggested an harmon kardonn 670 as a starter. Any suggestions for trustworthy online sellers of this sort?
Thanks
T
- ...
- 50 posts total
This falls into the "good problem to have" catagory. A friend wants your advice on how to begin his/her hifi journey. Sure beats someone seeking advice on prostate surgery. I can follow your logic here. You want to recommend something that brought a great deal of musical enjoyment in your life and you want to share that experience with a friend. It is a valid refererence to sound quality, functionality, and build quality. What’s not to like about this piece? It’s hard for others to get inside your head and figure out what’s driving your motivations. Your intentions are honorable, and rational. Or, is bang for the buck sound quality and reliability a stronger motiviator? A short conversation with your coworker will reveal the answer. That being said, my tech of 25+ years and I still spend one day a week trying to keep good older equipment from going into the dumpster. We recently serviced what I fondly refer to as the "Marlboro Man Turntable." A Pioneer belt-drive unit with nicotine stains embedded on everything on, around, and under the platter. It, literally, took Turtle Wax Bug and Tar Remover to get it all off. Needless to say, we’ve seen alot of vintage gear come across our bench(es). Dormant 40+ year-old gear can be a bit of a crap shoot. I’ve seen examples where dirty controls and switches triggered the death sentence for the original owner of a good classic pieces that were delegated to a garage sale and sold for the price of a set of used Tupperware. The pieces were, fortunately, rescued by someone who saw some potential in the pieces, and got them to us. $55 later, the units are up and running. And sounding as good as 40-year-old parts can sound. And, yes, we do performance upgrades to get them sounding better than new! As these vintage units are "exercised", stuff starts happening. Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good. Pushing high voltage heats things up that haven’t seen anything warmer than a hot attic in years. So, you might have 20+ years, or 20+ minutes before failure. The only way to find our for sure is to power it up, hook it up to a load a put it to work. As @lhasaguy states. WHO you buy from matters. In the hands of competant techs who apply their knowledgeable hands (and brains) and put the unit through it’s paces, the risk of (short term) failure approaches pretty close to zero. And you, and your coworker, can still be friends. A valid question for your coworker would be to determine if they listen to off-air broadcasts. If not, then the presence of a tuner is not a priority. The cost and real estate committed to a tuner section can be used for bigger/better parts in an integrated amplifier. There have been many good recommendations on this thread. Vintage and otherwise. Best of luck.
|
There is risk to buy a new set of audio components...Total value must be under 1000 bucks for the audio system ...Because my vintage system cost me 700 bucks and is a TOP AUDIOPHILE system... Not a cheap makeship... What are the risk to buy an under 1000 bucks system with a guarrentie versus to buy something like my vintage pieces with the necessary update clean cost ? Simple : with a system costing under 1000 bucks for the dac the amplifier and the speakers or the headphone you can be rest assured that the sound quality will be mediocre... With my under 1000 bucks system i own a TOP audiophile system which deliver the best sound there is ... How in the world one of the best amplifier in 1988 can be rival by a cheap one today ? how the Mission Cyrus speakers the best speakers Mission designed in 1990 , payed peanuts , because old now, can be replaced by cheap box of today ? The most evident case is my TOP of the wo4rld flagship AKG K340 paid 100 bucks... They rival almost anything today...
What are the risks you will advise someone to take ? Buying an under 1000 bucks audio system with a mediocre sound quality , or buying at low price some of the best of the past , if you are able to inform yourself to begin with ?
I dont advise people able to pay for a 25,000 bucks system today to buy a vintage one at low price here, i advise people with not much money to INFORM themselves before buying as i did before informing myself when i bought HYPED NEW PRODUCTS AT LOW COST that were almost trash in sound quality.. If your budget is very limited , inform yourself, dont read reviews by reviewers but reviews by OWNERS... Read about acoustic .... Buy KINGS of the past... Not unknown vintage trash...Dont buy nowadays lost cost gear save if the technology is new as for dac , i bought a low cost very good contemporary dac not a vintage one guess why ? ... But amplifiers , speakers and headphones , this is an other story...Vintage gave the best S.Q. /price ratio... But you must know what you will buy and inform yourself...
|
- 50 posts total