• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

chicks' Goodwill Systems

Some nice stuff there! I can appreciate your passion and anyone reading this has the same passion. I just started getting back into analog and have had several items come and go over the last 7 months. Maybe I should get a thread started. Your like me where I look and get deals then clean and tweak. Though I am not electronic savy I have been know to pickup an iron and have at it. Kudo's and thanks for sharing!
 
Vintagegeek said:
I just started getting back into analog and have had several items come and go over the last 7 months. Maybe I should get a thread started.
Click to expand...

I suspect that (sadly) there are a lot of people unloading gear in your neck of the woods. Like Pittsburgh in the 70s.
 
Man, the stuff you find... it never ceases to amaze me. Only thing I've ever found worth scarfing anywhere 'round here was the $3 pair of Minimus 7s at the humane society thrift shop. We need a higher class of thirft shop around here! :)
 
mrz80 said:
Man, the stuff you find... it never ceases to amaze me. Only thing I've ever found worth scarfing anywhere 'round here was the $3 pair of Minimus 7s at the humane society thrift shop. We need a higher class of thirft shop around here! :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, well, full disclosure - the best stuff lately has been from CL; paid for by all those GW find-and-fixers, though. Consider yourself lucky, I paid twice what you did for my pair of Minimus 7's. ;)
 
i started working somewhere thats walking distance from a goodwill...
i go in about every other day..
never anything but cheap particle board, and plastic speakers...
i have a feeling sombody who works there is into audio or ebay..

il keep looking though.
 
Added a little German Accent

Found this little Dual 1019 for an extremely good price at an Estate Sale store near my job a couple of days ago. Just had to clean the idler to get it working perfectly - not my usual Dual experience. ;)

Will re-finish the base to match the Empire's (Varathane American Walnut stain, Howard's Feed-N-Wax). Nice to have a deck that will shut itself off, as I've been known to... well... :boring: while listening.

One thing that was immediately apparent: the Dual picks up every little sound. I can hammer on the Empire's base and hear nothing through the system. I had to remove the stabilizer brush from the Pickering XV-15 on the Dual, as it was quite audible in the background!

A U.N. system going here, representatives from Japan, Germany and the USA present. Sorry, China, you're not invited!

Edit: Putting the Sony XDR-F1HD back in, so, yep, China is also present, but in a small way. ;)

Think I'll get some of those square sticky rubber feet from Rat Shack to lift the Dual up a bit.

Edit 2: Replaced the Pickering XV-15 with a Grado Black; a much better match, it seems. :music:

100_4296.JPG
 
Last edited:
Found this pretty little 'sui G-3000 at the GW the other day. Didn't have time to test it thoroughly, but the tuner meters were working on AM & FM, clearly tuning in stations, so I grabbed it.

Got it home and realized that the tuner is on its own power supply - one of the power output transistors was dead shorted. Replaced them and the dial lamps, only to discover that the power switch contacts were badly burned, causing lamp flickering and noise for up to a minute after power on.

Put a good five hours' time into this little BOTL unit. Worth it? Well, it is 9/10 cosmetically.... The things I'll do for a pretty face. ;)

100_4350.JPG
 
Listening tests: The "new" Yamaha NS-200M's vs. the AR91's. Midnite has made her choice already, I'm still gonna listen for a while...

100_4474.JPG
 
Wish I lived in your neck of the woods. You do come across some nice stuff! Like the yamaha speakers. They look like they just came out of the box:-)
 
Well, the Yammie NS-200M's are very, very good speakers. Audiophiles would call them "revealing", or some such thing. With their mirror-image design, they produce great imaging, etc.

Problem is, 90% of my listening is thrift store vinyl - "revealing", highly accurate, or just plain bright are not desirable assets for a pair of speakers when listening to thrift store vinyl. So, the "east coast sound" AR91's, with their nice tight bass and rolled-off highs will do just fine, thank you very much. ;) For me, the music, the truly great stuff, is of far more significance.

Also simplified a bit - after a week or three, the Dual got less and less usage. There's just something right about the Empire - and the Kenwood Supreme... The Dual was upsetting the "balance" of the system's look - yin and yang, or whatever.

Will continue buying thrift and CL "scores", but primarily for fix-and-sell, to pay for all those LPs; doubt the system will be changing much more anytime soon (knock on wood).

100_4548.JPG
 
Last edited:
I'm so jealous! People in California are ridiculous for giving such good stuff away to goodwill. I was damn lucky to find a functional Pioneer SX-636 a week ago. A total of 5 lights were burnt out, replaced 3 so far. 90% of the stuff at my goodwills are almost always junk. Lots of cheap busted Durabrand boomboxes and crappy computer speakers are generally the extent of the audio section of the goodwills in my area.
 
Again a disclaimer: nothing in the current system actually came from the GW. The Kenwood was traded for a little $4 Sony shortwave radio that came from the GW, so it's sorta from the GW, in a roundabout way. The Empire tagged along with a CL purchase, essentially for free. The AR's were bought through AK's very own Barter Town for hard, cold cash, albeit at a very good price. And the Sony tuna was bought new at Fry's (at a very good sale price, of course).

The LP's are (almost) all from the GW, however.
 
chicks said:
Listening tests: The "new" Yamaha NS-200M's vs. the AR91's. Midnite has made her choice already, I'm still gonna listen for a while...

100_4474.JPG
Click to expand...

How does having the cat on top of the speaker affect the sound? Does the bass "positively purr", the midrange "soft and fuzzy", is the treble all "hissy"?

Dave
 
dread31 said:
How does having the cat on top of the speaker affect the sound? Does the bass "positively purr", the midrange "soft and fuzzy", is the treble all "hissy"?

Dave
Click to expand...

Heh, something like that. Put the dog up there for a little extra "woof". ;)
 
chicks said:
Again a disclaimer: nothing in the current system actually came from the GW. The Kenwood was traded for a little $4 Sony shortwave radio that came from the GW, so it's sorta from the GW, in a roundabout way. The Empire tagged along with a CL purchase, essentially for free. The AR's were bought through AK's very own Barter Town for hard, cold cash, albeit at a very good price. And the Sony tuna was bought new at Fry's (at a very good sale price, of course).

The LP's are (almost) all from the GW, however.
Click to expand...

I really like your system, Chicks. It's proof that somebody can do things affordably without the compromise that comes with just relying on what you might find cheaply, or what you luck or score into. It also looks excellent- I love the two tone look that Empire has taken on. Nice cat, too. My cat will let me know what sounds bad, before I even admit it to myself- by leaving the room. He loves music but is picky about systems.
 
Very nice. It does prove what I have been saying all along. If you are patient, and persistent you never know what you will find.
And of course you buy to re-sell, and that pays for everything else.
So many people jump in, and out of audio, and are upgrading spending $$$$ trying to chase audio nirvana that some great stuff is always out there. :thmbsp:
 
Chicks
You really have some super great vintage collection in your house my friend
If i will put all those stuff in my house my wife is gonna kill me for sure.
I brought a week ago the Technics RTR and she almost fainted :D
She says my machines are junk :P
I forgive her.

Enjoy your stuff Chicks. Good collection
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom