Got my work done for right now. We're off from school because of the hurricane, so I finally have a break.
Found some really good stuff in the past few weeks thrift shopping. Mainly now I'm just goofing around with my dining room system and cycling things in and out of that. Realizing that I have a lot, my plan is to sell some stuff off, and probably pass some along to my brother and friends.
I found a Sony STR-D590 stereo/surround receiver for $9.75 complete with the manual and remote. Even still had the FM tuner loop wire. It sounded really nice hooked up to my Baby Advents.
I also found a Pioneer SX-303r ($4.75!) and a pair of Pioneer CS-G301WAIIs ($15.75). The speakers are going to my brother once they are repaired to upgrade his CS-G201WAIIs (which will probably get sold after that). I found the receivers in the same weekend. I also found a nice Pioneer surround receiver from about the same era (4 channel equal output) that weekend, but it didn't turn on at all and was too expensive (~$22) for me to take a chance on it. The speakers seemed to sound better than the 201s, i.e. not having the harsh top end, which was interesting. Of course, I had them hooked up to my Nakamichi RE-2 which may have helped smooth that out. Luckily I have enough space behind my couch that I could store the speakers there for a couple weeks.
The dining room system has gotten almost fully upgraded. The main speakers now are Technics SB-CR55s ($9.99), which I had bought originally just for a party speaker for my balcony. However, they sound surprisingly nice so they have replaced the Advents (the Advents have a better top end and imagining but the Technics overall have a richer sound). The Technics have rubber surrounds, so they are one of the two pairs of thrift speakers I have found that didn't need any repair (the other being my Eosone RSF-600s). Positioning is a little awkward because the right speaker is so close to my cabinet, but that's the best I can currently do right now. I was expecting them to be harsh in treble like the Pioneer CSs, but they aren't, which was the true shock.
The Advents are still in the system (on the floor currently) as the B speakers. I may pass them along at some point, but for right now they remain, mainly so that I can pull the onto the balcony when I want the speakers facing that way.
The Pioneer receiver went into the system because it has the most wattage (supposedly 100 w/ch into 8 ohms). The Sony only had 60 w/ch so the Pioneer was the obvious choice (although the Sony looks better and has a remote). I bought a replacement logo for it since that was missing (also had to buy a power cable because that was missing too but I was able to find one at GW), which I think looks better than the original logo. It's a pretty ugly receiver in my opinion, but it's growing on me, especially with its specs and sound.
My best find in my opinion is an ADC Sound Shaper SS-100SL ($8.75). All the LEDS work, it's just missing the cap on one of the sliders which is fine. This is the model with the spectrum analyzer that just analyzes the music, but it's cool to watch.
I found 2 more cabinets for my growing vinyl collection that you can see on the right. The one on the bottom is from a Panasonic cabinet and matches the Realistic one beside it almost perfectly.
The headphones on the left are Pioneer SE-30as ($4.75). I had found another pair of Realistic Nova 40s ($4.75) but unfortunately they didn't work at all. My original Nova40s are on the right.
I finally found a logo for the front of my turntable. It's not the right one because those just don't exist without the turntable attached to it, but it is the right era Kenwood logo. Those are hard enough to find. Had to import the pair (because they were from speakers) from France.
I've bought a bunch of RCA cables, pretty much getting them whenever I can find them to have them on hand. I've found some THX Monster Component Cables (and paid shipping for a set from an AK member), which I currently have hooked up between my preamp and power amp and from my DAC to my preamp. I didn't notice any difference, but I didn't do any side by side comparison. That's just a why not? type of thing. If nothing else, they look better and have less obtrusive and tighter connectors than my Monoprice ones.
I don't have a picture, but I found a dbx DX-5 CD player two weeks ago. It didn't turn on at all, so I'm thinking it has power supply problems. My dad and I will take a look at it soon and see if we can bring it to life. If so, that will be my main player. If we can't get it working, I think I'll keep it around and try to have it professionally restored. I don't have any pictures because I sent it home right after I bought it.