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Classic High-End Gear

HB3 said:
I bought some great gear at the Kadena AB BX on Okinawa. I had my Pioneer SX-939 for thirty years before it died a noble death.
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I bought a ton of stuff at the Air Force BX at Anderson and the big Navy base PX while on Guam in 1985... all the young guys were spending all our money on good quality stuff for 1/3 to 1/2 the price you would have paid in the states.

I went with mostly Onkyo equipment while a lot of other guys went with Yamaha, Kenwood, Nakamichi, Pioneer, Klipsch, etc. It all sounded great and nobody gave anyone grief about what they bought, we were all happy with our equipment. I still have most of it and they still work great 39 years later: M-508 amp/ P-306RS preamp/ 9090II tuner/ Infinity RS4b speakers. My Hitachi CD player died after 14 years, followed by my Yamaha tape deck at 15 years.
 
Yeeterkeeter said:
I don't know if this has been mentioned in this thread before, but the Technics 1200 is a piece of high-end equipment that I would consider "classic" since it was released in 1972 and set a firm gold standard for turntables that came after it.
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I did not thought about those famous Technics 1200 turntables, but yes : I agree...

I recently (April 2023) ventured in the Technics dept., after 30 years of Thorens fidelity, with a brand new (costy !) high-end version model SL-1200G :

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T
 
Yeeterkeeter said:
I don't know if this has been mentioned in this thread before, but the Technics 1200 is a piece of high-end equipment that I would consider "classic" since it was released in 1972 and set a firm gold standard for turntables that came after it.
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I am not sure how High End they were but they were decent

When the Matsushita Corporation (today Panasonic) rolled out the SL-1200 in 1972 it was dubbed "the middle-class player system", an aspiration borne out in its $350 price tag, clean lines and minimalist design....

High End TTs from that era were Oracle, Thorens, Linn Sondeck, some others along with Technics SP-10, Gerrard...
 
At least, the model G can be considered high-end, if only by its selling price... Moreover, they have features that most of the high-end brands do not offer - and I exclude the speed variation :

https://www.technics.com/fr/produits/classe-de-grand/serie-sl-1200g/sl-1200g.html

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The model G offers consequent damping and mass, both in the body and the platter :

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And the facility, the precision for tonearm adjustment is as remarkable as reliable :

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I would also include the 2nd in the rank - the SL-1200GR - in the list of high-end turntables too, at a 1790E price, with nearly the same technical features, except the weight reduced to 11kg.

You can have less for more (1969E) with the TD1500 from Thorens today (below) - not much more than a timid evolution of the reliable but rustic TD160 and TD160MkII (I had both for 30 years) which can be found in France for 250E in mint condition...

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Classic/vintage (say at least 35 years old) "high end" gear currently in my collection, and currently still packed away as I just moved half way across the country:
Sansui BA-5000
JBL-L300
JBL L-212 system, one of the earliest time-aligned speaker systems.
ESS Superquads (Quad ESL 57 with an array of Jantzen electrostatic tweeters, KEF transmission line subwoofers, and a matching active crossover)
ESS AMT6
Genesis Physics 3+
Triad System One
Adcom GFP-565
Adcom GFA-585SE
McIntosh MC2105 (My first "high end" system consisted of this amp, a C28, and the ESS AMT-6)
Amber 17 preamp
Denon PRA-1100
Denon POA-2400A
Pioneer PL-L1000
Marantz 3800
Marantz 300DC
harman/kardon Signature 1.5 (OK, not 35 years old, but Madrigal built and a very nice amp, the matching preamp wasn't so great)


Sold off along the way:
McIntosh C26
McIntosh C28, I've had two or three of them.
McIntosh C29
McIntosh 2205
McIntosh 2100
McIntosh 502
McIntosh MA-6100
McIntosh MX113 (I wish I had that one back)
Bryston 4BST
and many more.
 
Still rocking a Sansui G7700 I purchased at PX in Germany in '78. Esoteric DV50, Thorens TD320. Swap out the 7700 with my 9700 and hook up my Sansui SPZ9's when I feel like beating up the neighborhood. For classic, Dynaco ST35 is my sweet little spot. Have that hooked to a set of Bozaks, oh, almost forgot a set of AR2's with the AR3ST super tweeters. The AR3ST's are fairly rare.
 
Klipsch Klipschorn
Sansui 500 (tube receiver)

This is the most immediate, you are there speaker I have ever heard. Lost when we down sized from a 15 x 25 foot listening room. It was "the first watt", above 5 watts Gotterdammerung and Guitar Gods strode between the speakers.

Sansui 500 we forget how good low powered tube amplification is, sure they now have auto biasing, but sound wise not much better.
 
Here's the only vintage gear I have remaining in my systems. Only the Luxman power amp is in active duty as there are no FM stations in my part of the desert that don't broadcast religious programming in Arabic or Farsi. Someday I'll move.
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Addendum: I do have an ADCOM GFA-555 Mk II on standby duty but that was never considered as "high end" - more middle brow but still very good.
 
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THEWEREWOLF said:
I don't like separates so that train will never enter my station. If separates make your heart pound I won't berate your love. My speakers are just basic SONY, Polk and Pioneer floor standing towers. I've been blessed with cerebral palsy and other cognitive defects so speakers all pretty much the same to me. I enjoy the music from any speaker that is not cheap and tinny. Heck I even have some huge Fisher speakers most audiophiles say are junk but I love em. I'm no audiophile thank goodness as a result a good $300 SONY tower speaker off Amazon.com is all I need. I have no need or desire to buy $3,000 speakers because my ears don't need whatever motivates audiophiles to spend insane amounts on speakers. I buy top end receivers because I enjoy twiddling the knobs to get the best sound. I love the connection to my youth. Most of all I love the old technology in vintage gear. If I like the sound a speaker makes then that's all I need nothing more.

Growing up all I wanted were receivers. ONLY Separates I'd want is a really nice really expensive McIntosh. When I must scale down to one system I might buy a single McIntosh to replace my 9 receivers. Till then I am having a blast with the receivers I have now.
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I totally get you on the "..twiddling the knobs to get the best sound." I was with my son at vintage stereo record shop where they had a Pioneer SX 950. He was flicking the toggle switches back and forth and he turned to me to say, "There's something oddly satisfying about that!" which I agreed as I'm certain back in the day pioneer along everyone spent a ton on getting the right 'feel' out of all their switches, knobs and pushbuttons.
 
Regarding twiddling, I’ve always loved the feel of a good knob (minds out of the gutter, now…). It’s one of the things that drew me initially to Marantz and then to McIntosh, before I ever heard them. Feel is part of this hobby.

I don’t much like doing things (except volume control) from my remotes. When I was shopping for a new preamp, I read a review in TAS in which the author said that his seven-year-old daughter—while playing CDs, IIRC, in preparation for her dance recital—told him that she really liked turning the knobs and switches on the McIntosh C22 IV preamp he was reviewing.

I ended up buying that preamplifier—not because of the feel of the knobs but, ultimately, because of its sound and features. But its aesthetics and “feel” didn’t hurt. Sometimes when I’m turning a dial, I think about how I’m not the only one who enjoys this. Even a seven-year-old gets it.
 
Bushikan said:
liked turning the knobs and switches on the McIntosh C22 IV preamp
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Me too!

Curious... on your IV, does it have the words "60th Anniversary" silk screened on the glass mid-center? I have some new info on the III, IV and V versions of the 22 as to which is which. There seems to be some confusion about this.
 
onemug said:
Me too!

Curious... on your IV, does it have the words "60th Anniversary" silk screened on the glass mid-center? I have some new info on the III, IV and V versions of the 22 as to which is which. There seems to be some confusion about this.
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No. The “60th Anniversary” edition (to which you are referring) is officially the C22 MK III. (Mine is similar but doesn’t have the “60th Anniversary 1949-2009” nomenclature.) I have the next edition (the MK IV). The “Commemorative Edition Frank H. McIntosh” is the MK II. The current C22 is the MK V. (I attached photos in the next post.)


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My McIntosh C22 MK IV (Bottom) ^
 
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C22 MK I (Original) ^

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C22 MK II (“Commemorative Edition Frank H. McIntosh”) ^

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C22 MK III (“60th Anniversary 1949-2009” Edition) ^
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C22 MK IV ^

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C22 MK V (Current Edition/Model) ^
 

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