A potentially overlooked gold mine can be "mil-spec" thrift shops as well as Base newspapers. If you have access to a military base, keep an eye on both. Having spent some time(OK,OK, two decades) at Minot AFB, ND, I can vouch for this. My garage stereo almost totally consists of deals. The receiver is an '81 Technics SA-818 that was $50 @ten years ago. This blows away the Kenwood KVR-970B in the house that I brought from Korea in '83. The speakers are two dumpster dived(dove?)Pioneer CS-9000's scored outside a base dorm dumpster and rewoofered, plus two Altec-Lansing Seven Series II from the thrift shop for @$10 and refoamed (rubbered?) the woofers. The Sevens came in their original boxes as did the Pioneer PL-530 turntable ($7.50) and the SX-980 rcvr ($15) The boxed stuff was labeled for the original owner who'd bought them as a cadet at the Air Force Academy in '77. The last two will be the basement system and the $20 Kenwood KR-7050 is headed to the barn paired with some old JC Penney speakers to keep the varmints out.
The garage system also has an old Kenwood cassette deck, Magnavox CD player and a Sylvania VHS deck hooked to it with a $4 19" tv so I can watch movies whilst I work on the vehicles. Or just make my eardrums meet in the middle if I want.
The wife does object if she can hear it in the house over her tv, but the house is 100 feet away! And the nearest neighbors are a mile. The best scores were last spring. An ad in the base paper said JBL L100 speakers, 3ft tall , very loud, some chips, $50. I called, I saw, I didn't bargain! The timing was perfect as I'd just noticed some buzzing coming from one of my Pioneer HPM-900 speakers' woofer. I'd brought these back from Turkey in '81. The foam was toast. Jeez! You'd think they'd make stuff last longer than 22 years
Wow! These JBLs are SOME speakers! I remember being awed in '83 at the Osan BX by some JBL L112s and thinking they were SO far out of my price range it wasn't funny. And now... The guy I bought the L100S's from bought them in Germany in '93 when he was riding around in an M1 as an Armored Cav Capt. Now he was an Air Force Major and moving to New Jersey to be a Judge Advocate. (AF lawyer) Works for me.:huge: :To quote the booklet for the speakers..."for reproduction of the full dynamic range of contemporary recordings, including CDs, an amplifier delivering up to 400 watts with the L100S will provide optimum performance." 
And" There is virtually no danger of damaging your speakers if......" I like em!. The other real score was not normal AK material; a Roman Red 1960 Chevrolet Corvair 700 4 dr sedan with 13,788 original miles for $900.:thmbsp: The nicest original Corvair I've seen outside of a museum or a CORSA National convention. Overall, 2003 was a pretty good year. What should I do to repair the HPM-900s?
STU
The garage system also has an old Kenwood cassette deck, Magnavox CD player and a Sylvania VHS deck hooked to it with a $4 19" tv so I can watch movies whilst I work on the vehicles. Or just make my eardrums meet in the middle if I want. The wife does object if she can hear it in the house over her tv, but the house is 100 feet away! And the nearest neighbors are a mile. The best scores were last spring. An ad in the base paper said JBL L100 speakers, 3ft tall , very loud, some chips, $50. I called, I saw, I didn't bargain! The timing was perfect as I'd just noticed some buzzing coming from one of my Pioneer HPM-900 speakers' woofer. I'd brought these back from Turkey in '81. The foam was toast. Jeez! You'd think they'd make stuff last longer than 22 years Wow! These JBLs are SOME speakers! I remember being awed in '83 at the Osan BX by some JBL L112s and thinking they were SO far out of my price range it wasn't funny. And now... The guy I bought the L100S's from bought them in Germany in '93 when he was riding around in an M1 as an Armored Cav Capt. Now he was an Air Force Major and moving to New Jersey to be a Judge Advocate. (AF lawyer) Works for me.:huge: :To quote the booklet for the speakers..."for reproduction of the full dynamic range of contemporary recordings, including CDs, an amplifier delivering up to 400 watts with the L100S will provide optimum performance." And" There is virtually no danger of damaging your speakers if......" I like em!. The other real score was not normal AK material; a Roman Red 1960 Chevrolet Corvair 700 4 dr sedan with 13,788 original miles for $900.:thmbsp: The nicest original Corvair I've seen outside of a museum or a CORSA National convention. Overall, 2003 was a pretty good year. What should I do to repair the HPM-900s?STU
Minus 95 (wind chill) DOES keep the riffraff out! And lots of tourists, for that matter...
