Amplifier porn

[Knuckledragger]

Bogen SRB-20 Tube Receiver.

[Knuckledragger]

Quote

In the picture from top to the bottom: Hitachi FT-007: Hands down the best radio tuner I ever used. Solid Hitachi build quality and great looks. I picked it up at a yard sale for about 15€.

Sansui T-900: I haven’t used it yet and only got it for the looks. This one seems to be quite rare in Germany.

Sansui PC-X11: Very rare PCM Processor which let’s you record digital sound to VHS Tapes. Still sounds great. I’ve got about 40 VHS tapes with classical music recorded here in Munich in the 80s.

 

[swt61]

I had a PCM processor in the 80's. I used my Betamax as a reel to reel with excellent results.

[Craig Sawyers]

Oh yes. Betamax, I bought a Betamax back in the day because it was technically superior to VHS, and the tapes were physically smaller. But VHS won the day - so I had a lemon on my shelf.

Betamax, VHS - long dead formats both of them now. Like cartridge tapes, cassette tapes, floppy discs, Zip drives and quadraphonic. But who would have thought that vinyl records would make a come back? 

[robm321]

My parents got Betamax for the same reason.

[Knuckledragger]

 

Pathos Classic One.

[skullguise]

I had the Pathos Twin Towers for a while, even lovelier.....one of my favorite all-time amps

[Knuckledragger]

Inside a Cambridge Audio A100 & C100.

[Craig Sawyers]

As I said - the reviewers kind of stopped at the physical appearance, which they hated. I'd forgotten how superb they were inside, and that the A100 was dual mono! I do however remember the blue flexible links in the preamp.

It wasn't long after those beautiful British manufactured products were built that Cambridge Audio made decision to have them built in Taiwan. The problem was that they were too expensive to build in the UK, and were close to making a loss on every single one sold.

The Taiwan outfit (forget their name - it was 30-odd years ago!) used to build them , box them (including instruction manual etc) and ship to the UK for a goods inward cost less than the circuit board parts cost (ie not counting transformers and cases) at Cambridge Audio. Looked like a dog inside, with the cheapest brown circuit boards, but worked just fine.

When we bought CA from the receiver, quite a bit of the stock was from Taiwan. As part of the appearance uplift we started manufacture back in the UK to get a grip on quality.

[shaizada]

On 5/10/2020 at 8:08 PM, Knuckledragger said:

 

 

Thanks for the post   This setup really works well in this very difficult room.  Very tall ceilings and tons of reflective surfaces.   Making anything sound decent here has always been a crazy challenge.

[Dusty Chalk]

I thought the solution to anything was, “buy moar whisky”...?

[Knuckledragger]

[MexicanDragon]

On 5/15/2020 at 1:42 PM, mikeymad said:

I don't know -

but I want to listen to the Awesome Mix -- Vol. 2! -- on the Nakamichi.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Guardians-Galaxy-Vol-Awesome-Cassette/dp/B071HJ41VR/

If you can help me steal liberate a couple Nakamichis from a storage facility in the greater Chicago area, we can both listen!

[Knuckledragger]

[Knuckledragger]

[Knuckledragger]

Monoprice Pure Tube.

[Knuckledragger]

Nothing like vintage porn.

[Craig Sawyers]

I really like McIntosh gear. It has always been stylish, and they have never deviated from the characteristic appearance as the decades have rolled by. Their latest stuff has eye popping performance too.

[mwl168]

6 hours ago, Craig Sawyers said:

I really like McIntosh gear. It has always been stylish, and they have never deviated from the characteristic appearance as the decades have rolled by. Their latest stuff has eye popping performance too.

Does McIntosh continues to use output transformers in all their amps?

[RudeWolf]

1 hour ago, mwl168 said:

Does McIntosh continues to use output transformers in all their amps?

I think so. It's one of the reasons I don't like them.

[Knuckledragger]

[Craig Sawyers]

Nice kit, good record.

[Knuckledragger]

[Knuckledragger]

Sophia Electric EL34-ST on a Leben CS600.

[Knuckledragger]

Two more photos of the above:

 

Unrelated cable management: