Nightwisher's Systems In "Luxman's Room" And Beyond: Some New And Lots of Vintage

My systems are all into the apartment (as of yesterday). The main parts of the main stereo system and surround system are connected, but I've still got the tape/processor loop stuff to connect and the bedroom system (and computer) to connect.

I'll post more pictures when I'm done either tomorrow or Wednesday.

My Brother's System

I also helped my brother move into his apartment today. I set him up with my old 32" Toshiba TV, the Realistic Optimus-400s, Pioneer CS-G201WAIIs, Klipsch B20 (as center, that he already had), Klipsch 10" sub (already had), Yamaha 5.1 receiver (already had), and a Teac EQA-5 from my dad. I must say, even though the setup is not optimal it sounds kickass. We watched the opening battle of Deadpool and it was awesome. He loves it.

The sub is behind the TV stand.
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Left surround
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Main listening position (and right surround in the corner)
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I moved into the apartment yesterday and have finally gotten everything up and running. Sounds awesome.

From the left surround/entrance hallway
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From the kitchen
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From the right surround/dining room
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Bedroom/computer system
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Bedroom cabinet
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Everything Looking Great Brother :)........Congrats on the Move-In. Don't Let Your Studies Fall Behind Make Us Proud at AK ;)

,Mike.
 
Nighwisher's Thrift Store Invasion

I did the new thrift store loop yesterday and my goodness, I have never seen so much vintage equipment and vinyl in one day! Every store had at least some piece of vintage equipment and, with the exception of one store, about 1000 records each.

Needless to say, I scored a lot of good stuff.

Stereo Equipment:
Kenwood KR-V6070 Receiver - Works great, I'll use it as the rear amp in my computer system so I can use my Nak RE-2 elsewhere
Singer HE4010 Stereophonic Receiver - Works, even pulls in stations without an antenna, just needs Deoxit, all the lights work
Yamaha KX-250 Cassette Deck - Works great, may replace my JVC, counter doesn't work but that's no big deal
Sony TC-C5 Cassette Changer - Doesn't work, may just need some new belts, I'd never even heard of these and apparently they're fairly rare
Fisher FM-55 Stereo Tuner - Doesn't work but it's missing the power plug so the one I tried it with may not be good enough
RCA S-Video/RCA Switch - Works great, doesn't seem to be any crosstalk thus far, going to use that in the main system for some of my lesser used inputs (iPod, Tuner)
Discwasher D4 $1.79 - Brush is clean and looks beautiful, there was even some cleaning fluid left in the bottle, still had the smaller brush and stylus cap as well

I bought 60 records. A lot of jazz, a bunch of Motown, some rock, some disco and a little older pop. The prices varied on these - SA practically gave them away, Habitat and a couple GWs charged $.50, and the majority of GWs charged $1. I think a couple of records were like $2. Overall, very cheap for all those.

I passed on a lot of stuff including 4 pairs of meh vintage speakers at the same store (Clarke Systems, Brecker, Sanyo, and Zenith Allegro), the next model up of my JVC CD player (priced too high), the next model down of my JVC tape deck, a cheap Sony turntable, and a bunch of CD changers that varied wildly in price (Sony, Onkyo, Kenwood, and Denon). An older guy got to a Monster Cable speaker selector box before I could (and bought the Sony turntable), but that's fine (I probably wouldn't have used it much anyway) - I got to the Yamaha deck before he did.

I also got some decor for my apartment, including the Japanese symbol poster in the background.

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I know the struggle of small spaces and many speaker configs trying to fit lol. It's tough. (I'm moving though to a 1 Bedroom soon though) I live in a studio currently.
Nice setups though :D
 
I know the struggle of small spaces and many speaker configs trying to fit lol. It's tough. (I'm moving though to a 1 Bedroom soon though) I live in a studio currently.
Nice setups though :D
Thanks. I picked my apartment with having a big living room/listening room in mind. This one was a perfect compromise between price and living room space (it's also got a lot of other great features that helped the decision too). Just the living room is almost the size of my dorm room (bigger than the usable audio space in that dorm room for sure), so being able to truly spread out for the first time is awesome.
 
Glad to see you got your apartment but dude, slow down.You'll need another apartment just for your gear.:yikes:
Thanks. I'm already in the process of turning my room back home into the storage area/spare listening room for some of the gear that's not in my 2 main systems. There's just been too much good stuff lately, plus I love the different looks of the gear.
 
There were a couple of stores I didn't hit in the original invasion because they were too far out, plus I needed to return the Fisher Tuner, so I did another loop (not the whole loop though).

Found a few more things.

The store where I found the JVC tuner had nearly a complete JVC system and then some (2 CD players, 2 tuners, and a cassette deck) - all it was missing was speakers and a integrated amp (probably the first to go). Also had a Fisher tape deck and CD player, as well as an Onkyo multidisc player. The JVC Tuner was the only thing I was interested in that worked.

JVC T-X300 Turner $3.42 - Looks to be one of their highest model tuners of the 80s, has 2 manually switched outlets and a calender timer to turn the system on or off on a schedule, I'll use it with my Kenwood integrated back home, pulls in stations pretty well without an antenna
Toshiba XR-9057 $5.99 - This is one of the first 6+1 Changer units, works well and sounds very nice
JVC XL-V311 $18.75 - I decided to buy this when I returned the tuner despite the fact that the price was pretty high because I love my XL-V211, works great
Pioneer PD-4051 $5.75 - Also works but the tray sensor keeps tripping when the tray opens all the way though, so I have to turn it off to keep the tray out, I'll open it up and see if some cleaning helps when I get a chance
Realistic Nova 40 Headphones $1.74 - Work great, won't be replacing my Philips anytime soon, but a nice collector/era piece

The CD players I'll mix and match with the systems I have going.

Surprisingly, the biggest score of the day was a small 2 shelf bookshelf for $.81 that just needs some nails.

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There was one more Goodwill within reasonable driving distance that was too far outside the rest of the loop, so I went there while I still had some time to do so.

I scored a pair of Baby Advent IIs for $7.75! I'd been looking for some Advents, because I hear they are the vintage speaker to have. Also, the wood tops and bottoms are very attractive on them. They need to be refoamed, but once that is done, I'm going to make a small dining room setup with them, the Nakamichi RE-2 and one of my CD players for some light music while I'm studying. They sounded very nice in my quick demo, despite the rotted foam. Very nice imaging on vocals was the first thing I noticed.

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I also scored this hefty little mid-century Elgin clock radio for $3.75. The clock still works, but no dice on the tuner (I get some knob static but nothing more). It's missing some vinyl veneer by the snooze button, so I'll have to get some for it.

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Just Kidding Brother, it's just Amazing some of the Gear You Have Found and at Such a Young Age. :thumbsup:

,Mike.
Thanks. And no worries man. I have a lot of fun picking up "new" gear and messing around with it. A lot of times I just get really lucky.

The dining room system is something I had been planning anyway, because I don't want to run my main system all the time to try to preserve the life of it and some electricity, especially if I'm sitting as far off-center as the dining room is. I was thinking about bringing my Polk R20s or another pair of Bostons down to use there, but I happened to luck into the Advents so that is fine by me. :banana: Besides, my dad likes helping me refoam the old speakers. He had even asked me if I found any for us to work on after my first loop.

I listen to music just about all the time, so a multitude of systems is something I like to have around. It would be a little less crazy in a bigger apartment or a house, but oh well. :dunno:
 
I had a couple hours yesterday free after I completed my first law school assignment, so I decided to check out the few local local thrift stores nearby (i.e. one-offs that benefited churches or in the case of one, St. Paws) since I'm going to be booked with orientation until Saturday.

In the first one, I found a nearly mint Realistic stereo cabinet. It even still has the "Oiled Walnut Veneer" sticker on the side and the majority of the shelves (I think it's just missing the very bottom one, which is no big deal). It is, however, missing the magnet for the door and the top turntable cover unfortunately, but the rest of it is just about mint. Even the back panel was still neatly attached (usually those pull off). I paid $25 for it, which was slightly high IMO, but it was in such great shape and I knew I could use it for the dining room system. I needed something to house that equipment anyway. It even matches the wood of the Advents nicely, which is a huge plus. And it is of approximately the same era as my Nova 40 headphones. It just barely fit my gear, measuring in at a hair over 17 inches wide.

It's tucked in the corner for now, but I'll probably move it a bit once the Advents are refoamed.

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I also found this near mint Columbia Masterworks Records ad for $1.

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love that cassette changer - something like that would be very handy for digitizing cassettes en masse
That's a good use for it. I do have a lot of cassettes I've picked up cheap lately that I'd like to digitize. That would really help me go through the massive 27 cassette 50's/60's Rock N Roll set I picked up (for $2.95).

Unfortunately, I got no action from either the carousel motor nor the playback motor, so I'm going to open it up and see what's going on on the inside. Hopefully, it only needs new belts and/or a bit of a motor clean. It's only 20 years old and looks pretty well taken care of, so I'm hopeful it's not too much. If not, I'll probably be posting in the tapes section to try to get some help. These things are definitely rare - I had never seen (even pictures) nor heard of one in my "studies" and experiences, which tells me there really aren't many in the world. There's also not many on the 'Bay (from $100+ to $250), which helps confirm that.
 
That's a good use for it. I do have a lot of cassettes I've picked up cheap lately that I'd like to digitize. That would really help me go through the massive 27 cassette 50's/60's Rock N Roll set I picked up (for $2.95).

Unfortunately, I got no action from either the carousel motor nor the playback motor, so I'm going to open it up and see what's going on on the inside. Hopefully, it only needs new belts and/or a bit of a motor clean. It's only 20 years old and looks pretty well taken care of, so I'm hopeful it's not too much. If not, I'll probably be posting in the tapes section to try to get some help. These things are definitely rare - I had never seen (even pictures) nor heard of one in my "studies" and experiences, which tells me there really aren't many in the world. There's also not many on the 'Bay (from $100+ to $250), which helps confirm that.
hopefully that's all it is - i wish i could help, but my repair game is pretty weak....getting better though, i am determined to put some battle scars on this pretty blue hakko soldering iron....visited the surplus electronics place today for supplies for my next project.

there's a great free program called Audacity that you can use to record to your computer....the nice thing is that it has a feature where it can pause based on the input level, so you can, for example, load 5 tapes into your machine, start it recording, and then go to class for the day, and it won't fill your hard disk with silence after the 5th tape...although 5 tapes is a long time, it probably won't be done when you get back, if i remember what my student life was like, correctly.....ah those were the days....enjoy it while it lasts.
 
hopefully that's all it is - i wish i could help, but my repair game is pretty weak....getting better though, i am determined to put some battle scars on this pretty blue hakko soldering iron....visited the surplus electronics place today for supplies for my next project.

there's a great free program called Audacity that you can use to record to your computer....the nice thing is that it has a feature where it can pause based on the input level, so you can, for example, load 5 tapes into your machine, start it recording, and then go to class for the day, and it won't fill your hard disk with silence after the 5th tape...although 5 tapes is a long time, it probably won't be done when you get back, if i remember what my student life was like, correctly.....ah those were the days....enjoy it while it lasts.
Good call on Audacity. :thumbsup: I already use that for all my digitizing. I've actually got a Fever Tree record being recorded into Audacity as I type.

If I can get that changer going, that's a good idea to leave it going all day to Audacity. I'll be at the law school around ~6 hours a day the majority of the week, so that could work. I just don't know how I feel about sorting through that file when I come home to split up all the tracks. :idea:
 
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