Have an old Denon DRA-755 receiver siting here that I've held onto.

My father had bought it new back in the lower-mid 80's (not sure why considering we had more pressing needs at the time).

Supposedly has some sort of cooling system in it IIRC.

Had a really nice Denon turntable from back then as well - that I sold a few years back for a not so cheap price.

The buyer was very impressed - told me if I had several others in the same condition at the time - he would have bought them all.

 

Beautiful TEAC Koda, perhaps aching for 10.5” reels. Somewhat of a Pandora’s box as NAB hubs and metal reels are getting harder to find and more expensive. Not unlike unmolested quality used Oldsmobiles.

 

Good idea. Previous owner had NAB adapters and 10s on it. This guy will only play 7.5 and 15 IPS reels. My dad's two decks are still out for repair, so, once I get them back, his 3.75 IPS collection will be available for play on those. I've currently got a 3D cad program (Inventor) on my other screen; I have to figure out how to expand the rack to fit:

3 turntables and a CD-4 box for vinyl.
3 reel to reel decks, 2 8 track decks, 1 cassette deck for tape.
1 stereo CD player, 1 universal disc player for SACD and DVD-A for digital discs
A PC for files off a hard drive, a bluetooth receiver, and a nice DAC to translate that all to analog and the stereo CD player's digital as well
A tuner for more radio.
An LED oscilloscope for visualizing this surround madness.
At least 4 DBX 200 switchboxes for all the sources
1 receiver for the front channels, a preamp and amp for the back channels
And one Quad Adapter Preamp to weld this alliance together.

I could cut a couple things out of that, but the previous rack was designed for a stereo, not a quad unit, so 8 more pieces of gear now have to fit.

 

That’s quite an audio arsenal Koda, I salute you, keep us posted on your rack / gear progress.

 

I'm picking up a matched Sansui Tu-717 tuner and AU-717 amp this week, both serviced/recapped to move into my living room rack - the Pioneer TX-9500 II tuner / SA-9500 amp combo that's in it now will be moved into the spare bedroom. I keep saying I will try to sell off my excess to make room for the additions but somehow that never happens - instead I just keep finding other rooms to put them in......

 

Nearing the end of the quest for the ultimate quad rig. One of the frontiers is how to deal with digital sources. One typically has a CD player, a computer, and a bluetooth receiver for your phone to play something, or someone else's phone. Another rabbit hole is DVD-A, DSD, and SACD digital multi-channel decoding, but you need a separate player with surround analog out, and that is not this.

For stereo, there's a bunch of two channel external digital to analog converters, DACs. Most use delta sigma chips and that is perfectly fine. There is a niche audio market of "the most analog sound" and they use something called an R2R resistor ladder of precisely matched resistors to make it work. There are also things called Digital to Digital Converters, also called reclockers, that finesse a digital signal after USB beats on it, and then sends it via a high speed, high bandwidth digital signal called I2S to a DAC.

In the picture, under the Very Best of Meatloaf, is a DDC sitting on a DAC, with a receiver and speaker behind it, and a cd player to the right. The two devices under discussion are Denafrips brand Chinese Hi Fi, or ChiFi, a segment that really offers bang for the buck quality per pricepoint. This is a test rig in my kitchen on the breakfast table to test and burn in the units before they go to the main system, plus I need to expand the rack.

It was a mild pain to get the DDC and DAC talking with digital pairs of conductors, but, it sounds good now, not burned in, and on a mediocre receiver needing restoration and 90s entry level bookshelf speakers. Played 4 CDs now; I'm hearing things in them I did not know were there.

 

This is more my speed now that the 64 is no longer in my garage.

• Realistic STA-225 50wpc receiver from 1975
• Realistic 31-2020 EQ
• Philips 312 belt drive turntable
• Sony 200 disc changer
• Toshiba dvd/cd single-disc player

 

Great stuff guys. Recently found the lightest CD player (perhaps ever made) for $12, looks cool playing disc vertically. Circa 1986, rebadged Yorx, but Made In Japan, so not bad.

A very far cry (albeit much more cost-effective) than the elusive Technics SL-P10 that I’ve been looking for.

 

I have 1950 Westinghouse Polyphonics Reproduction am/fm with record player.
Is there a site you can order parts from, looking for rubber band belts that would fit over your finger. 2 different sizes for 75 & 45 speeds. 33 runs off the motor shaft.
thanks
Jeff

 

My brother bought this for me at an estate sale and gave it for Christmas. I sourced the one missing piece and set it up like the manual said. Good display piece.

 

Lots of great equipment, brings back memories of my older cousin’s awesome stereo he had way back when. Technics real to real, huge receiver and 4’ tall floor standing speakers back in the late 70’s. I got the bug but was too young to do anything about it until got out of high school and bought up a Sony receiver, 5-disc changer CD/DVD player and a pair of Mission bookshelf speakers that I still can’t get enough of. I also set up the center Chanel and rear speakers for surround sound because I love to watch movies. I bought Polk audio for those and am well pleased with the choice.

 

Never have been a fan of auto reverse cassette decks, but Nakamichi did it right with their UDAR units.

Here’s an example, very beautiful RX 505. I have it’s a little brother coming soon, an RX 202.

 

Very cool, but what's wrong with auto-reverse decks? I have six of them. Four of them are Pioneer six-cassette, multi-play decks. You can put six tapes in at one time, and all can be played in order first one side and then the other. If you have C-120 tapes, you can have 12 straight hours of listening.

In the photo is one of the Pioneer six-cassette decks. It also has a single-tape slot on the right side that can play a single tape front and back. I have another deck just like this plus two other Pioneers that have the six-tape capability but don't have the single, separate slot on the right.

The upper deck in the photo is a more conventional two-cassette reversible deck. I also have a JVC deck with the same capability.

 

I also have a few cassette changers (from Mitsubishi and Pioneer) and they’re great fun, however, they all potentially suffer from azimuth error each time the play head is rotated.
So, Nakamichi engineers brilliantly rotate the cassette.


From Nakamichi:
The RX-202 transport features UDAR, Nakamichi's unique uni-directional auto-reverse mechanism, eliminating the azimuth error loss of conventional auto-reverse decks

Why does it matter? Sound quality suffers when alignment isn’t proper with playback head and tape.

 

"Azimuth error," huh? Who knew?

That Nakamichi costs almost as much as my first car. I'll sacrifice a little azimuth error in exchange for being able to have both a cassette deck AND put food on the table at the same time!

 

Hell, you guys need to see the Nak Dragon. It has something called NAAC, Nakamichi Auto Azimuth Control. It listens to the signal and adjusts to get it right. Makes all tapes sound like a million bucks. I don't run mine in auto reverse as, although the NAAC will try on the back side, it tries right at the start, which is the most cockeyed part. So, I don't have it auto reverse. It runs out side one and stops. I rewind a little bit, and start playing the back side. The NAAC aligns there and does better a little ways in on the tape. I then fast forward back to the start of the back side and start that side. It's a workaround because sometimes the NAAC can hit its limit and keep clicking over; it's not good for it. Sort of the Ferrari of tape decks.

 

The Nakamichi TD-1200 had the NAAC technology for your car. It would also fast-forward and rewind a small amount to make sure there wasn't slack in the tape. Because it couldn't use a #2 pencil. That was a smooooth sounding car stereo. Combined with a Master Recording tape and it was a revelation in the world of car audio. Paragraphic EQ, phase-corrected electronic x-overs, discrete amplifiers, and some high-end speakers like Nak, ADS, Boston Accustic Pro, or EPI could turn the commute into a pleasure cruise. I always enjoyed installing a well thought out high-end audio system. It didn't have to be expensive or ear crushing to sound nice. Although those were also available.

 

Finally brought home a pre amplifier. Have not had a carver for years, until today Friday the 13th score

 

That thing is a beast. Lift with your legs.

 

Yep the CARVER is a PRE-AMP tank.... weighs in at 11 Pounds
the amp it was running a phase linear 500.
those arrrrr a svelte 70lbs and nearly same shape and size

That was not in my budget last week. OVER $2000 for THAT