Most Obscure Equipment Ever Owned

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I know the guy who made the knobs for that McCormack preamp. He used to be in California and knew the people at the company. I think they may have already stopped production when he moved out east -- I don't think their products are that common, though they were well reviewed.

Hah, very cool! Tell your friend he does good work. They're some of my favorites. Just the right size and shape.
 
Just got a pair of 1970 Sansui AS-300s (acoustic suspension) speakers. They need one woofer repair, or replacement, and a 'total crossover rebuild'. I'm just happy to have found a pair, finally, after 4.5 years.
 

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I don't really have any data to back it up, but I get the feeling my McCormack preamp and phono pre are pretty obscure. Anyone here have any experience with them? I haven't been able to find much info.

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I recall the Line Drive was pretty popular with Stereophile back in the 80's. It was always in somebodys test setup.
 
Manufactured by Acoustic Reality in Denmark. My eAR 1001 Preamp and Two 1001 Ref Mono Blocks Power Amps. At least rare here in Australia.
 
Just got a pair of 1970 Sansui AS-300s (acoustic suspension) speakers. They need one woofer repair, or replacement, and a 'total crossover rebuild'. I'm just happy to have found a pair, finally, after 4.5 years.

Hey, congratulations! They look pretty good, under the grills.

The woofer doesn't look beat up, is it the voice coil that's fried? Even if the spider got overpowered and knocked loose, still could be repairable. It would be a shame to "pollute" them with some other woofer, wouldn't it?

Anyroad, good luck with them...
 
So far this is the most obscure....but I'm just starting out. :banana:

Telefunken TA-250 int amp, TT-250 tuner and TC-250 cassette deck. Small, simple and pretty cool I think. I've been searching the internet for info on this set-up. If anyone knows anything about them, I'd be happy to hear from them. All I know so far is that the amp is rated for 30w/ch.
 

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So far this is the most obscure....but I'm just starting out. :banana:

Telefunken TA-250 int amp, TT-250 tuner and TC-250 cassette deck. Small, simple and pretty cool I think. I've been searching the internet for info on this set-up. If anyone knows anything about them, I'd be happy to hear from them. All I know so far is that the amp is rated for 30w/ch.

I will give you unusual. But not obscure as defined in the first post.
 
Just got a pair of 1970 Sansui AS-300s (acoustic suspension) speakers. They need one woofer repair, or replacement, and a 'total crossover rebuild'. I'm just happy to have found a pair, finally, after 4.5 years.

Not as obscure as your speaker wire but I have never seen a sealed cabinet from Sansui.
 
Ooh, I want to play too!!

I believe my 1929 Western Electric type 46c amplifier qualifies in ALL CATEGORIES. Rare, Obscure, and Unusual. You're not going to find one of these, unless you are very lucky.
 

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I would certainly say rare today. But you don't think WE made only a few of these, much less, were they not well known in the days they were made. They are theater amplifiers... I would still love to hear them!
 
Hey, congratulations! They look pretty good, under the grills.

The woofer doesn't look beat up, is it the voice coil that's fried? Even if the spider got overpowered and knocked loose, still could be repairable. It would be a shame to "pollute" them with some other woofer, wouldn't it?

Anyroad, good luck with them...

(Newly purchased 'used' 1970 Sansui AS-300 speakers in great cosmetic shape)

So far...the one woofer only vibrated with 2 CDs in 3 weeks on certain bass passages:
Steely Dan - Greatest Hits
Bob Dylan - Desire.

It's never vibrated on any other CDs or any LPs.

I do need to take the woofer out and flip it 180 degrees and give it a try. Just glad to finally have a pair of these ''all elusive AS-300s. I Love em. Been playing them a lot and they sound is really nice. At first I thought it sounded flat...I was wrong. After listening to them for a few weeks now they sound great! Even with the 40 year old caps. I may, or may not, replace the caps. I'll investigate. Don't want to mess up a good thing. I am going to go through them but not now. Family stuff is goin on at the moment.

Also...Finally got a 1979 Sansui GX-100 TT/amp rack a few weeks ago, $150, eBay. Only seen one for sale used 4.5 years ago on eBay, USA and international. I wanted it but passed on it and have 'been kicking myself' in the butt ever since. It sold for $325-350 assembled, used of course. I was worried about it being broken in shipping.

And then there it was, on eBay in the Sansui Box! I got it. When it arrived, I opened the box and to my 'total astonishment and amazement' it was BSP (brand spanking NEW)! Still factory wrapped!! Obscure...very. Rare...I think so. Do I love it? YES. Just old Sansui collector stuff. It's a beautiful design, at least, to me. And a TT fits on top, even a 'large' one. I was worried about how much weight the shelves could hold. By the design, they can hold a ton. Hat's off to Sansui for this design!!

a pair of handbuilt shaker table amps from NASA that i used to run a sub under my bed.

what did i win?

The NASA award! Verrrry cool!! You won!
:>)
 

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I would certainly say rare today. But you don't think WE made only a few of these, much less, were they not well known in the days they were made. They are theater amplifiers... I would still love to hear them!

No, I'm sure they made quite a few, but initially they were leased to theatres, not sold, and the audio systems were updated to more modern equipment in most theatres prior to WW 2, at which time a great deal of these were junked, so the survival rate is very low. Most of those that survive are in the hands of well-heeled Asian collectors in Japan. They were not "well known" to the general public..as they were never initially sold, you couldn't buy one, and they were not visible to the public, as they were mounted in the projection booth. You entered into a lease/service contract with Western Electric who then supplied all the sound equipment and an engineer to come install and adjust it to your venue. In side the unit is a whole bank of wire-wound resistors that you used on different taps to adjust overall system gain. Of the Western Electric equipment that was still in use at the time of the split-up of the theatre sound division of Western Electric by court order (pre-WW2), into a separate company called All Technical Services (Altec) theatre owners were offered the opportunity to buy out their leases for $1. Some did, and from this is where the Western Electric equipment has survived to be found today by collectors in the back rooms and dusty damp basements of old theatres and such. Those units still in use continued to be serviced by Altec up into the 1950's and 1960's...
 
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As much as I would love to hear, much less own those amps... an excerpt the OP:

What is the most obscure piece of 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. . . .

The WE amps are not home audio equipment. Neither is a ham radio that receives FM, as one poster listed.

But CRAP! I would even love to just see those amps!
 
Hello all, hope my speakers are Obscure enough? SONY is well known yes, but not for building quality speakers over their lifetime. These are the "elusive" ES series SS-M7 speakers designed by ex-Polk engineer Dan Anagnos, who is now the VP of Product Development at Boston Acoustics Inc. Sony hired him in the early 90's to design them something to compete with the highend speaker lines offered by other well known "speaker" companies. These were hand made in the U.S. and are loaded with superb drivers made in Denmark. These took the place of my Infinity Kappa 8's........??:scratch2: Anyone who comes over and listens can't believe what they are hearing from these, as sony's reputation (in my opinion) is "not for biulding quality speakers" such as these.

They make my kappa's sound like mud

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Those are some Very Nice and Very Sharp lookin speakers!!!! Bet they do sound great toooo!!!!!! Very HOT with great credentials!! Nice indeed!!!!!!

Back in the day Sony really did produced some great sounding quality equipment. I hear ya on how great your speakers sound. I have an late '80s Sony amp I bought new at Circuit City. I'm still using it today and it just kicks A$$ in the sound department. It functions PERFECT. It has a very strong sound with great bass. It sounds quite remarkable really. And it weights a ton. Most all my other amps have come and gone, but this old Sony just keep on crankin...it's bullet proof. It functions like 'new'. (hope it stays that way!)

Ya just gotta love this older obscure and rare equipment. I just love it. I love the 'sound' of it, the looks of it, the feeling of it, the smell of it, I even just love touching it!! Even really just love looking at photos of it! LOL. I love just everything about the older vintage equipment. Anyone can buy the 'new stuff'. It's really lucky to have the old stuff that's in great shape and works excellent. Guess I shouldn't say lucky, it's more like you really have to 'search out' this stuff, specific items or not, for years, and get really lucky to find it in great shape. For the person who just stumbles on it by accident, total luck! Congradulations. Amen. Enjoy!! When you do find a piece you have been searching for many-many years, it just makes you feel so happy inside! It does to me anyway. :>)

Great Post!

Hope this post never ends. It's fun!
 
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As much as I would love to hear, much less own those amps... an excerpt the OP:



The WE amps are not home audio equipment. Neither is a ham radio that receives FM, as one poster listed.

But CRAP! I would even love to just see those amps!

Yeah, well I still think I fit, as these amps were NEVER distributed to the general public, and certainly only known to those in the industry. Even the technical data on them was for "restricted" use..

I'm sure there were plenty of shaker-table amps made, but very obscure to the general public also.
 
Yeah, well I still think I fit, as these amps were NEVER distributed to the general public, and certainly only known to those in the industry. Even the technical data on them was for "restricted" use..

I'm sure there were plenty of shaker-table amps made, but very obscure to the general public also.

That above in red keeps them from being home audio equipment.
 
Old threads never die... I last posted in this one in 2006, so maybe it's time for an update.

Among the more recent (last year or so) obscure/rare gear I've picked up, I'd mention:

(3) Sansui JB-200 System Selector. This thing is seldom seen, at least as a Sansui. The interesting thing is that it seems to have been re-badged by a number of different companies, including Kenwood and Aiwa, so maybe it wouldn't be quite so obscure if all the ones sold had been under a single name?

Arkay: what is a JB-200 system selector. Is that one of the 'switchboxes'? Those are really hard to find. And 'very usefull' for sure! Ya never need one...until you need one! Then you can never find one. Congrats.

Can you post pics?
 
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