Underdog hi-fi components

Mmmm, I only use my AVR for home theatre use routing the main speaker outputs through a high to line level adapter into my little 45WPC Oldchen KT88-K3 integrated amp with 97db Oatlon speakers.

Course the Tascam PA-R100 is only rated 80WPC and was mainly chosen as it was rack mountable. I'm considering a Denon DN-500BD Blue Ray player for the same reason. Then I can retire my Shanling EC1B CD player which will free up space to put my Sheer Audio MM-88 phono back into use rather than the diminutive Realistic 42-2101A :)

Space is a bit of an issue ;)
 
How about a brand new underdog?

Pro-Ject Tuner Box S on sale at $149... may be discontinued, afaik.

I've found it to be a decent, very compact tuner, FM-only. With the dearth of tuner offerings these days, this one now being very affordable, and with the decline in FM as a source for many, if not most, then this fits in nicely. Literally. On the main rig it's the diminutive Sony HD model, while the even more compact Box S resides in the bedroom. It just makes sense to me not to take up a lot of space for FM. My old dreams of a TU-X1 notwithstanding. The little Box has pretty good sensitivity, but if your bandwidth is crowded, may not work as well for you as for me - selectivity seems to've been sacrificed for wide bandwidth. I think. It sounds good on strong locals, even outperforming a few you'd think would best it in my space. The small size of both these models have proved to be big advantages.
 
Picked up a Sony STR-GX80ES receiver a few months ago. It looks like BPC and, worse, a dreaded Home Theater Receiver. But it's not. 110 watts RMS, huge toroidal trafo, two 15,000uF filter caps, and designed to run 4 ohm loads. Very heavy, with special damped base material, triple tone controls, low level listening switch, remote. Giant, illuminated volume knob is aluminum, not plastic. Two channel, no stupid digital sound enhancements that I can detect, and very well made inside and out. Also has insulated PRE/MAIN jumpers, so you can do a lot with this thing. But if you saw it on the shelf at Goodwill or on a folding table at a yard sale, you'd walk right past it because it looks like every other BPC AVR.
Read a lot of good things about these Sonys when I had my R117.Also I don't walk by any receiver... bpc or not.I'll always see what it is.
 
New one: Mirage M90i speakers. As with the Paradigm Titans (original version), look like absolute garbage. 4" woofers, I believe, and some of the deepest bass I've ever heard from speakers this size. The front baffles loosen up over time, making the speakers sound like they've blown. I pried/sawed the baffles off with an old serrated chef's knife (I'm sure you could find a safer way to do this), then hot-glued a bead around the entire joint, slapped the baffles back on and secured them with a bunch of sheet rock screws along the entire perimeter. Ugly as sin repair but they were $5 Goodwill jobbies and I was this close to tossing them. They sound so good that I may build new cabinets for them. Crossovers have no caps in them whatsoever; indeed, I couldn't find anything that wouldn't stand the test of time in the xovers, which was a pleasant surprise. No, you can't crank them to 11, but they will surprise the hell out of you at low to 'normal' listening levels and tend to make every amp you hook up to them sound good.

Toshiba SA-300 receiver. Tiny little thing from early 70s I believe. 12 watts and cute as a button. Cap-coupled so no DC offset woes as long as those caps are still alive, and that nice, fat bass we love. So light you can just about work on it while holding it with one hand.

Concept 2.0 receiver. "Oh, it's only 20 watts? Think I'll pass." Think again! This is built like a brick sh--house and produces so much low-power 'torque' I call it the bulldozer. Chunky aluminum controls. Clean, neat innards with plenty of space for ventilation. Everyone wants the 16.5 and, at anywhere up to $2500, go knock yourself out. I'll take this one, thank you.
 
I have found the Bose 10.2 stereo everywhere speakers to be my surprise of the year. The're extremely neutral, missing that big midbass hump that Bose is famous for. They image well from anywhere in the room, although you don't get the sharp detailed image of a conventional loudspeakers sweet spot.

Listening to them reminds me of listening to Ohm Twos, but not quite as, how do I say it, refined? detailed? I can't really describe the difference as they are very similar, but I slightly prefer the Ohms. To be honest I prefer the Bose when cost is factored in, but the Ohms are better speakers.

They do go high and pretty low. I would say at least down to 35htz before beginning to roll off.

If you get a chance, take a listen. I think most people will find them better than expected. They were a good effort by Bose. I wonder why they aren't very common?

My other entry is any of the Phillips USA receivers that I have heard. They are very well built, and sound great. Plenty of dynamic headroom makes them sound more powerful than they are.
 
This "underdog" is well known — the Superphon Revelation preamp. As cheap looking as it gets, but glorious sound and wonderful phono stage. Only $400 back in the day, and often fetches above that now — but can till be found, if not for peanuts, maybe for crushed-almonds. Easily equals or surpasses SS preamps costing $1000. In fact, I got mine after comparing it to a "high end" Audible Illusions tube preamp for two days — I wanted to prefer the AI, but couldn't. The Superphon smoked it.

Another: Klipsch KG1 — an almost unknown Kipsch 2-way. I compared them to KEF Reference 101, and Infinfinity Modulus with Emit-K ribbon, both high-end classic 2-ways. The Klipsch surprisingly equalled them for detail and soundstage, and sounded much "bigger", almost like a good floorstander. With subs filling in below its 50z roll-off, it's a great system.

And one more speaker: Infinity Primus P152. I had low-to-no expectations, but for $10 why not? They astonished me — and I'm not an Infinity fan. There's a review on Amazon that analyzes them perfectly. I know, Amazon reviews usually don't mean much, but this guy was a pro and it reads like a serious review from TAS in the good old days. And they truly cost peanuts.

This is my favorite kind of thread! I hope we get a lot more posts...


+3 on the Superhon ... took a tubed Electrcompaniet to best it back in my day (30 years ago).. (headache with two volume knobs tho)..
Interesting that it began as an inexpensive Underdog then, and today it fetches more than when new .. that makes it an overdog in my book ..
 
I chose my Superphon over an Audible Illusions 2. I had them both for a week to choose. The AI-2 retail was $1K and it looked like 1K, while the Superphon looked like junk. I could have either for 250. The AI-2 is an all-tube preamp with high-end cred, and I was an all-tube guy back then, SS only when desperate.

Easy call, right? But it was no contest; the Superphon was waaaaaay better.
 
+3 on the Superhon ... took a tubed Electrcompaniet to best it back in my day (30 years ago).. (headache with two volume knobs tho)..
Interesting that it began as an inexpensive Underdog then, and today it fetches more than when new .. that makes it an overdog in my book ..
They still sell for less than high-falutin' preamps from Audio Research, Conrad Johnson, etc. Not sure I could reliably get one for $225 as I mentioned earlier in this thread, but the four which have sold on eBay in the past few months have gone for under $400. Here's a better picture of mine when I had it in operation, sitting underneath my nixie tube clock:
nixieclock1_running.jpg
 
Here's an oddball piece, the Zenith MC 7051. It was made for Zenith by Samsung. IMO it holds its own with the other ≈40 Watt receivers of its day while flying way under the radar. (Picture borrowed from this Audiokarma thread.)
index.php

It is well known that Zenith allegras punch above their weight. I stole the drivers out of a pair, the woofers now reside in a pair of MC1000 RS speakers. They were a drop in fit and are far superior to what came out of them, I expect there may be several old Zenith stereos floating around that are real sleepers.

I just finished building a pair of Heresy wannabe speakers from various parts, (including the foster tweeters from the aforementioned allegras). Tried them on my newly recapped Sansui AU 517. Hmm, not bad. Took them out to the garage and hooked them up to a RS STA 47. Holy cow! That little stereo flat out rocks those speakers! 10 WPC, yea right!
 
SUPERPHON NEEDS HELP!!!

Mine lost a channel: cuts in and out. Started years ago, never fixed it. I think it's the power supply for that channel. (It's the 2 volume-knob dual mono version.)

Question: I think mine has TWO power-supply boards, one above the other on the right side (separated by stand-offs).

IF I'm right, could I just use one of the power-supply boards to run both channels? I'll lose the benefit of separate power supplies, but that's a luxury not a necessity. And the power should be sufficient, right.....................?

I use the word "think" above to emphasize I really don't know much about this stuff. But I can solder, so if my thinking is right, it might work.....................?
 
SUPERPHON NEEDS HELP!!!

Mine lost a channel: cuts in and out. Started years ago, never fixed it. I think it's the power supply for that channel. (It's the 2 volume-knob dual mono version.)

Question: I think mine has TWO power-supply boards, one above the other on the right side (separated by stand-offs).

IF I'm right, could I just use one of the power-supply boards to run both channels? I'll lose the benefit of separate power supplies, but that's a luxury not a necessity.

I use the word "think" above to emphasize I really don't know much about this stuff. But I can solder, so if my thinking is right, it might work.....................?

Necessity is the mother of invention .. yes ??
 
........And one more speaker: Infinity Primus P152. I had low-to-no expectations, but for $10 why not? They astonished me — and I'm not an Infinity fan. There's a review on Amazon that analyzes them perfectly. I know, Amazon reviews usually don't mean much, but this guy was a pro and it reads like a serious review from TAS in the good old days. And they truly cost peanuts.

This is my favorite kind of thread! I hope we get a lot more posts...
I have to completely agree, in fact the whole Infinity Primus line flies under the radar. I've had P140's and the P360 floorstander and both produced sound way above their price points. The P360's, in particular, are smooth with deep tight bass and throw an astonishing soundstage. Plus they're easy to drive and mate well to even flea-powered tube amps. My P360's we're driven for a while by another serious underdog contender, the little 10 wpc Pioneer SA-500. This combo could easily fill my large living room with sound. Some days I wish I had held on to those speakers.

pioneer_sa-500_front.jpg
 
there aren't a lot of them out there and the info is kind of sparse on the intrenet, i have one running as a pre amp and i love it, found a local tech who does vintage repairs out of his home shop, going to get it over there one day and have him go thru it to feel him out, it's untouched since new The Onkyo A10

JFPAtD6.jpg
(picture found on the web)
 
It is well known that Zenith allegras punch above their weight. I stole the drivers out of a pair, the woofers now reside in a pair of MC1000 RS speakers. They were a drop in fit and are far superior to what came out of them, I expect there may be several old Zenith stereos floating around that are real sleepers.

I just finished building a pair of Heresy wannabe speakers from various parts, (including the foster tweeters from the aforementioned allegras). Tried them on my newly recapped Sansui AU 517. Hmm, not bad. Took them out to the garage and hooked them up to a RS STA 47. Holy cow! That little stereo flat out rocks those speakers! 10 WPC, yea right!
Thanks! I have a Realistic STA-47 driving a pair of Klipsch CF-2's and another pair of "white van speakers" and I love it! I knew I wasn't crazy.
 
Most view black Fisher stereo components as BPC (Black Plastic Crap). There were a couple exceptions and the unheard of 1989 TOTL Fisher RS-Z1 happens to be one.
When Fisher was sold to Sanyo, Luxman actually made some of the early Studio Standard gear.
 
The little FX Audio Tube - 01 would easily be overlooked as who would expect a $31 preamp to sound so good? If you want to know more there's a lengthy thread here on this overachiever. The FX has introduced thousands to the magic of tubes.

P1010056.jpeg
 
Back
Top Bottom