dogn4u
Active Member
Hello AKrs. I'm seriously into thrift stores for as many of my wants and needs as possible. Most of my furnishings (except mattress and bedclothes), clothing (except underwear and jeans), kitchen (including German cutlery and a nice set of Revere copper-bottom pots and pans), and artwork. The best way to score is to go often...and to remember that junk is junk, even if it's dirt cheap. Don't let a jaw-dropping low price alone convince you to buy things you won't use or want - no point in dragging stuff home only to throw it away there.
Music related items are harder to come by. Sometimes some decent records. A ton of cheap junk - computer speakers and cheap all-in-one systems. A couple of months ago, though, I scored a Bose wave radio for $6, cleaned it up, gave to my ex.
I had some interesting finds in the last couple weeks: first, at $1.99 a piece, these Sony floor standing speaker cabs. I normally wouldn't give Japanese speakers a second glance, but these cabs are extremely solidly built - and most curiously are marked "Made in USA". Really? Speakers from Sony? WTF? So I coughed up the $4.28 and hauled them home. At first I thought they had two 12" woofers a piece, but they turned out to have one woofer and one passive radiator.
So what the hell. For $20, I ordered four foam surround repair pieces. Been reading up on speaker design and believe I will eventually build a pair of acoustic suspension speakers, perhaps bookshelf sized. I currently had no way to drive any speakers at home. I have a pretty nice home recording studio, and while I love my 8" KRK monitors, they are self-powered and fed by a line level signal from my board. So I needed an amp, and having no interest in 5.1 or 7.1 systems, began to search for a stereo amp or receiver, used or new. They are not easy to find new; most everything is A/V surround oriented, so I was watching eBay and CL for a used integrated SS amp. Holy cow, but "vintage" stuff has jumped in price.
I wanted a minimum of 60-80 wpc (RMS), bearing in mind I'd need some power if I ended up building (or buying) a pair of acoustic suspension speaks. I was watching for the usual: Pioneer, Sansui, Kenwood, Sony, Denon, Yamaha. Anything Japanese from the 70's or very early eighties.
I was getting discouraged and thinking about just dropping 150 on a new Yamaha R-S201BL stereo receiver as a temporary solution. Then, the Batman fictional characters, Analogus Maximii and Transisto, my invisible friends, intervened and directed me to look one last time at the Animal Shelter thrift store before driving to Spokane Best Buy. And there it was, squatting on a shelf, large and menacing: a 1981 Sansui 7900z stereo receiver.
Consensus is that this unit is one of the last high quality Sansui pieces before the decline of Japanese stereo equipment. Faceplates soon after turned black, the Japanese manufacturers began to outsource to China, Taiwan, etc, and internal components took a dive in quality. Bells, whistles, and especially lights, meters and "digital" readouts soon became more important than solid, good sound, a trend that sadly has continued, culminating in today's dirt cheap (but lots of flashing lights!) stuff from Pyle, etc. Might as well buy your equipment from some skeevy looking junkies in a battered white windowless van on the street.
So anyway, I paid for the Sansui and brought it home. I'm have too much respect for my brothers and sisters at AK to tell you what I paid for it...let's just say that I'm still in shock...and that it was between 14 and 16 dollars. Popped the hood and cleaned up the guts with compressed air and DeOxIt and it runs just fine. I need some better speakers than the testers I'm using, but the parts are on the way and if the Sonys don't happen for me, it will be a pair of 12" CVs. I notice a lot of people ragging on Cerwin Vega...and frankly that's the least of my worries. I've never heard ballsier sounding speakers for rock and roll in that price range and I think for sub-$1000 speakers, they are untouchable.
Anyway...that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. I wish you all a relaxing Sunday evening.
Rudi
Music related items are harder to come by. Sometimes some decent records. A ton of cheap junk - computer speakers and cheap all-in-one systems. A couple of months ago, though, I scored a Bose wave radio for $6, cleaned it up, gave to my ex.
I had some interesting finds in the last couple weeks: first, at $1.99 a piece, these Sony floor standing speaker cabs. I normally wouldn't give Japanese speakers a second glance, but these cabs are extremely solidly built - and most curiously are marked "Made in USA". Really? Speakers from Sony? WTF? So I coughed up the $4.28 and hauled them home. At first I thought they had two 12" woofers a piece, but they turned out to have one woofer and one passive radiator.
So what the hell. For $20, I ordered four foam surround repair pieces. Been reading up on speaker design and believe I will eventually build a pair of acoustic suspension speakers, perhaps bookshelf sized. I currently had no way to drive any speakers at home. I have a pretty nice home recording studio, and while I love my 8" KRK monitors, they are self-powered and fed by a line level signal from my board. So I needed an amp, and having no interest in 5.1 or 7.1 systems, began to search for a stereo amp or receiver, used or new. They are not easy to find new; most everything is A/V surround oriented, so I was watching eBay and CL for a used integrated SS amp. Holy cow, but "vintage" stuff has jumped in price.
I wanted a minimum of 60-80 wpc (RMS), bearing in mind I'd need some power if I ended up building (or buying) a pair of acoustic suspension speaks. I was watching for the usual: Pioneer, Sansui, Kenwood, Sony, Denon, Yamaha. Anything Japanese from the 70's or very early eighties.
I was getting discouraged and thinking about just dropping 150 on a new Yamaha R-S201BL stereo receiver as a temporary solution. Then, the Batman fictional characters, Analogus Maximii and Transisto, my invisible friends, intervened and directed me to look one last time at the Animal Shelter thrift store before driving to Spokane Best Buy. And there it was, squatting on a shelf, large and menacing: a 1981 Sansui 7900z stereo receiver.
Consensus is that this unit is one of the last high quality Sansui pieces before the decline of Japanese stereo equipment. Faceplates soon after turned black, the Japanese manufacturers began to outsource to China, Taiwan, etc, and internal components took a dive in quality. Bells, whistles, and especially lights, meters and "digital" readouts soon became more important than solid, good sound, a trend that sadly has continued, culminating in today's dirt cheap (but lots of flashing lights!) stuff from Pyle, etc. Might as well buy your equipment from some skeevy looking junkies in a battered white windowless van on the street.
So anyway, I paid for the Sansui and brought it home. I'm have too much respect for my brothers and sisters at AK to tell you what I paid for it...let's just say that I'm still in shock...and that it was between 14 and 16 dollars. Popped the hood and cleaned up the guts with compressed air and DeOxIt and it runs just fine. I need some better speakers than the testers I'm using, but the parts are on the way and if the Sonys don't happen for me, it will be a pair of 12" CVs. I notice a lot of people ragging on Cerwin Vega...and frankly that's the least of my worries. I've never heard ballsier sounding speakers for rock and roll in that price range and I think for sub-$1000 speakers, they are untouchable.
Anyway...that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. I wish you all a relaxing Sunday evening.
Rudi
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