Most Obscure Equipment Ever Owned

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Grainger49

Old Fart
What is the most obscure piece of home audio equipment (manufactured to be home audio equipment) you have ever owned?

Remember, mass produced equipment like my Infinity Servo-Statik Is were rare, esoteric, but not obscure. Obscure indicates not well known and not widely distributed, something a company was not known for producing. A good example is the Sansui Speaker wire.

No cheating now :nono: , you had to buy it and use it in your stereo system. :thmbsp:

My most OBSCURE home audio equipment was probably that Dayton Wright SPS Mk I preamp. :tears: Really Sucked in my system since I couldn't use the volume control. (that was not their fault) One channel didn't come on at low volume settings and it was too loud when both started to play. It was unbearably loud in my tiny room.

Please attach pictures if you have them.

So let the smoke blowing begin! :thmbsp: :thmbsp: :thmbsp:
 
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In strict, literal keeping with your request:
Polk Audio LF14 subwoofer

I have owned (and still own) much more obscure hi-fi arcana... but the other pieces fail one or both of your qualifying criteria and are thus out of scope.
 
An old Heathkit SP-2A tube stereo preamp. Never really popular or sought after. It was produced for a short time at the beginning of the stereo era.
 
My entire system.

Almost everything in my current system(see below),except the Kenwood Basic M2,is rare(or extremely rare) in Australia and from what I gather fairly hard to find in the rest of the world. :yes:
 
Rolecor Stereo receiver made by rolland electronics. Was made in the late 60s. Very odd receiver. It's on the bench, but I'll pots pics if needed.
 
Once owned a 50's era IMPERIAL mono tube integrated amp from Japan. It had a very cool preamp rollover control for TT & tape and used a quad of 6BQ5's biased in Class-A. Ran hot as a firecracker and had a tendancy to eat itself on a regular basis.
 
Yamaha HA-1 head amp. In keeping with Celt's last half sentence...Wow.....did that thing give good head!! :D
 
Without qualification, the Equasound Loudspeakers. Something a little more mildly obscure is the Kenwood SA-90 spectrum analyzer. And a little less obscure, but still on the rare side is the Pioneer SR-101 valve spring reverb amp.
 
I have an MF AC-1 head amp. Don't know anything about it except it is number 89 in the run. Anyone know of it. A black box in and out on the back a single red light centered in the front and run by a plug in transformer like on portable stuff.

I think it is a Musical Fidelity but I have not been able to verify that. I will post pics soon and try to find out about this unit. Probably an early '80s unit.

Is that obscure enough?
 
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "obscure", a quick search reveals a goodly number of hits for your Dayton Wright preamp.

At any rate, a few obscure components that have seen use in my main or secondary (though most used) system.

Design Acoustics D-12 --The forgotten oddball. In the early days of my owning my bright blue examples, there was but one post at AA and one photo found on the model via intensive Google searching. Thanks to my managing to locate a forgotten Julian Hirsch review and the very knowledgeable folks willing to share what they remembered, this model is now a bit less obscure.

Infinity ES-1 electrostatic headphones with ME-10D energizer S/N #00347 -- I had a few Infinity enthusiasts argue with me that Infinity never marketed e-stat headphones despite my having a pair in my possession. Eventually, some information was located at the Infinity product support site, The Audio Circuit, via a gent at AA with an incredible memory, and a former Infinity dealer who remembered the 'phones simply for their being too expensive to consider stocking, I was able to eek out some more info.

Kenwood KR-1000 "Galaxy Commander" S/N #0016 -- Not too many can lay claim (or are brave enough to admit) to owning other examples of this model.

I have some other unusual/obscure items, but they've not yet graced my system(s).

- JP
 
Hello M Jarve,
I don't think the Equasound speakers are rare as I have been listening to them for the last 30 years. I sold them only to my best customers in the 70's and have enjoyed them since.. Altho I have never seen them anywhere else. Oh, well. I still enjoy them even compared to everything else I have. JBL 212, Altec 819A, JBL L88. The Equasounds still rock.....
 
I guess the most obscure component I have would be my Heathkit AD-1307 Audio Control Center. I have searched ebay many many time for it or anything like it and except for the other one that was for sale at the same time as mine was on ebay. I have never seen another though a couple of AK'ers did mention have them.

It is a pair of analog RMS power meters reading the approximate RMS of the channels I can serve two amps and two pairs of speakers. It also has the ability to switch up to 1500 watts of power through 4 outlets. It also has 4 unswitched outlets.

I use it to turn on my whole system through it controling my Monster Products PowerCenter HTS3500MKII. And through it's own outlets.

It is a silver faced unit that fits right in with my 1973-1985 Pioneer units.
Heathkitstylingchange.jpg


I have also placed blue bulb condoms on the meters lighting giving me a bluish tint to the lighting.
 
Would be the Mattes equipment; the preamp, power amp and integrated.

Also:
Jencklin Float headphones
Transcriptors Skeleton turntable
Marantz 9 amps
KLH Nine electrostatics
KLH 41 reel to reel
db System preamp
Marantz SLT-12U turntable
JansZen Z824HP hybrid speakers
Infinity 2000A hybrid speakers
Quad 22 preamp with II power amps
Marantz 24 tune/preamp

I could rack my brain for a few more off the wall units such as the Dennison hybrid speakers.
 
It was part of my sons system for a bit.
NAD 160a. Don't see many of these.

Rob
 

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Audiograph 2A100 stereo receiver. I've got the only one known to exist. How much more obscure can you get? There are plenty of low power things like this floating around, but this thing weighs 47lbs and has 24000uf caps!
 
crooner said:
An old Heathkit SP-2A tube stereo preamp. Never really popular or sought after. It was produced for a short time at the beginning of the stereo era.

Very Cool! I have never seen one of these.

Now maybe we can find someone who actually owned a Hervic Reciever! (Made by SAE)
 
My Sony Superscope R2R...I have never seen another anywhere by ownsership, ebay nor audiogon.

superscopeinaction.jpg
 
Hummmmm.. well here goes (not much really)

Bedini 150/150 mkII amp. I hardly ever see these for sale, about as rare as Moscode.

B&O U70 headphones (electrostatic)


Layfayette 550 tube amp. Many of the "tube-o-philes" have never seen one, and yes, it sounds great!

I still own all and use the amps on a regular basis.
 
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