Vintage Asylum

Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time.

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What I See

Posted by JURB on August 26, 2020 at 16:48:16:
I have been working on bunches of older receivers and amps. It is starting to impress me what they could do, and it sounds good.

Little 25 WPC receivers with four gang tuning, which means a better FM. Quite sophisticated filters after the FM stereo decoder, before the pilot canceller came along.

The engineering is something they just can't do today. Well they can but I guess it costs too much and the chip is cheap.

Every day I see this old shit makes me loathe the new shit even more.

The really good part is how long ago it was. We had barely made it to the moon.

And speakers, damn. You got your high tech ported cabinets all figured out with the small Theil parameters and all that shit, set the resonance, these old speakers have been designed not to have resonance. That means when you put in 47Hz you get 47Hz, not 94Hz, not 141Hz.

Turntables, try to find a good one for $200. The EQs with coils simply sound better and I have an idea why but can't really prove it at the moment. Cassette technology, especially Dolby HX took cassettes much closer to reel to reel. And a bunch of those were better than digital.

So that is my job now. My health is shit, and now business picks up. I only did one ad but two clients crawled out of the past and brought stuff. I can barely walk but this is becoming a passion driving me.

I just did an MCS, scoff all you want but it is the nicest MCS I ever saw got a decent FM enough - analog with digital readout, selectable turnovers for bass and treble, and each individually defeatable, as well as the midrange but that does not have any frequency selection. I know why, too hard to make the choices for one and also very hard to implement.

You can't expect to buy the lunar module for $400.

Even low power stuff, like a Marantz 2220B. Sounds like a million bucks.

Maybe you got higher standard and I don't hold that against you. But the kids today are never going to have what we had. I had two friends over the years, we used to go out "shopping". Yes I admit it.

We would go to the audio stores and look around. "I think I am buying this, let's get the guy to hook it up". We had jobs and money.

That is why I make it my business to keep this stuff out of the dumpster. they are never going to build any more. so many of you are up and off to better things, but at the base of it, what do kids have today ? Bluetooth ear plugs, balsa wood speakers augmented by a one note supposed subwoofer. many channels, but no definition.

You know you split hairs but really they have no chance. They'll mostly never even hear good, let alone the excellence you nuts demand.

They think their stock car stereo sounds good. Damn. Boomy, shit mids, and they are satisfied with it.

And the worst part is when they are finally exposed to good sound they might not like it because they are so used to the junk.

Do everything you can to keep this alive, and any old midfi you find, don't throw it out.