Helping out a friend with his audio gear

[BilboBaggins]

I'm not sure how this thread will evolve, if it even does evolve. But this is too interesting not to document it.

I reconnected with a college friend back in January on some emergency services work he did for me. As a result, we have gotten together a few times since then. At a pub playing pool, at his place, and then at my place. It turns out he has a lot of clutter, I could even say he has a bit of a hoarding problem. However, it isn't all his fault. I think a lot of it has to do with the house in the woods he inherited from his parents, who I suspect were a bit of hoarders. However they also had good taste, so he was a little overwhelmed with the situation and hasn't been able to resolve it. So before I visited his place the first time, he told me he had a bit of audio gear that he would love for me to go through with him so he could see what he has.

And he wants to put together a nice system with it, for audio and for watching TV. After discussing his goals and looking at what he has, we decided upon a direction. First, he needed a preamp.

He has some really nice stuff!

Just to give you an idea, he has an Adcom GFA-555, GFA-545, GFA-535II, Thorens TD-316 MkII, Pioneer Elite PD-54 CD player, to name the better gear, plus speakers.




The speakers are the real treasures. He started off by showing me a pair of Fostex LS3 Studio Monitors.



Stay tuned! More pictures to come!

 

[Lavane]

 

[BilboBaggins]

And then I found a Tannoy crossover. That got my radar going and I saw an ugly pair of green fabric speaker boxes. Took off the covers, and there is a 12 inch dual concentric driver mounted face up with a dispersion cone above it. The speaker connectors (on the bottom) are Tannoy HPD 315A! Wow!



Then he went back to his cottage, where he brings back another pair of speakers. According to AI, these are Tannoy HPD-295s. According to what I saw last night, AI was right!



Then he shows me a tall stack of midrange drivers. Can't really tell what they are, but I suspect Tannoy. And he has a big subwoofer in a shed. We brought that into the house to test out. It has a 15 inch driver and a 12 inch driver. Each have their own connectors. We tried them out using the Adcom GFA-545, and they sounded quite good, even on their own!



Also in the shed is a speaker stack with 4 12 inch drivers one of which is dual concentric and the other 3 are single (suspect Tannoy because they look just like the non concentric tannoy drivers I had in my DC3000s. Getting even more interesting. No pictures of this. It will be a weekend project, to get them out of the shed.

Stay tuned! More to come!

 

[Lavane]

Wow, just wow!

 

[BilboBaggins]

Wow, just wow!

I know, eh?

When he told me he had some audio gear, I was thinking vintage receivers, smaller speakers such as advents, etc. But I never expected this. And there is lots more to see, I think! I'm very interested in seeing what is driving the columns. I think they are Tannoys based on looks, but the backs of the drivers will tell the whole story. I would say well over $10,000 worth of gear at current resale prices. I'll get into the listening sessions as I go.

I toy with offering to buy some of it from him, but I don't think that is realistic for me. I don't even have my Sony SS-G7s running right now.

 

[Lavane]

So far It's a nice hoard.

 

[BilboBaggins]

To put this into context, his house is about 45 minutes away, when I'm not dealing with traffic. The first night, when I didn't know what I was dealing with, we were able to hear sounds out of the Fostex monitors using a Technics SA-5170. One of the tweeters was dead, so we ohmed it out, and it was definitely dead. Even so, the LS3s sounded great! I would say I liked the sound better than the Tannoy HPD-295As.

He had no other input device, so the first order was to pick up a preamp, or equivalent. He decided on a Pioneer Elite VSX-26TX HTR. He wanted the HTR to drive his TV, which he intends to install on the wall between the two LS3s. Since he was going to dual purpose the system, a better HTR seemed appropriate. I'm not so sure now, because last night, after we got things working, even though we weren't using the HTR for amplification, it was running quite warm. I can't imagine what it will be like later on in the year when things really warm up. That may require a revisit.



So last night, since he had some problems getting things to work, I went to his place with my Sansui AU-9900, a CD player and a Yamaha dual cassette deck, along with some cables. It turned out he had one speaker on the main left speaker out, and the other on the surround speaker right. That was an easy fix. But then I wasn't getting output. After playing around, I decided to put things into known working, which meant we used my Sansui AU-9900 with the speakers and the CD and tape deck. Got that working, so then I split the power amp off of the preamp in the Sansui, and added the Adcom GFA-555. Oh baby, that sounded really good! I then removed the Sansui, and connected to the Pioneer, and that sounded better. Interestingly, it also sounded quite different from the Sansui. I would say the Pioneer with the Adcom GFA-555 sounded much better than my AU-9900 driving the speakers alone. High current vs regular power, maybe?

Then we decided to try out the HPD-295As off the AU-9900 with the GFA-545. That sounded nice, but didn't wow me. Then we tried the same thing with the GFA-535II. That sounded about the same, but we had now confirmed all power amps work fine. I did find that the Adcom all had the same tone. I didn't notice any difference in sound quality. I did notice a difference though between the GFA-555 and the LS3s vs the GFA-545 or 535II driving the HPD-295As when we cranked up the volume a little. I was hearing a little distortion on the LS3s. In hind sight, that might be the fact that one tweeter on the LS3s is dead, or the LPADs on the LS3s were dirty. Time will tell.

The big surprise for me last night, was when I hooked up the HPD-315As to the Sansui with the GFA-535II. There was a very special quality to the bass that the fastex didn't have. I guess the other difference was that the HPD-315As have the upward pointing drivers into the dispersion cone, meaning it was more like a surround speaker setup.

The other surprise of the night was when my friend asked me about the connectors on the subwoofer. It turns out it had a pair of red terminals on it.

I didn't think anything of it, until I realized there were two of them. So I grabbed the Adcom GFA-535II and they fit perfectly into each channel. Lets try it out! So I removed the HPD-315As and plugged in the two sub cables, one into each side, and it actually sounded quite good for a sub woofer! Almost like something in the room was absorbing some of the treble, but still decent!

So lots still to do, and to think about.

Finally, for the last order of the night, we removed the Fostex Tweeter, and I will bring it to my local Voice Coil guy and find out if he can repair it.

 

[Oerets]

Hey as long as you are enjoying this and reconnecting with a long lost bud. Sure sounds like this ....
Hey life is all to short and it about the good times after all right.

At least for me anyway.

Nice story.

 

[BilboBaggins]

Hey as long as you are enjoying this and reconnecting with a long lost bud. Sure sounds like this ....
Hey life is all to short and it about the good times after all right.

At least for me anyway.

Nice story.

I'm having a ball doing this! I had forgotten how much I enjoyed trying out different things. When I first got into the audio craze back in 2010, it wasn't unusual for my future wife and I to go through a bottle or two of Freixenet and wake up in the morning with a wall of speakers beside the dining room table with a number of amplifiers and receivers on the table. I haven't done something like this in about 5 years, maybe more.

And yes, most importantly, I am reconnecting with an old friendship. A lot has changed, but much is still the same.

 

[Ballylongford]

Fascinating.

His parents were hoarders with good taste.

Did you have any idea way back when that his family had such good gear?

 

[gizzyman47]

Sounds like fun!

 

[BilboBaggins]

Fascinating.

His parents were hoarders with good taste.

Did you have any idea way back when that his family had such good gear?

Yes. Interesting house. His dad built in ambient heating into the floor using an external wood burning stove. I took a wrong turn into the electrical room which also had all the plumbing for the ambient heating. Quite good quality. My understanding is the audio gear is from his uncle. He did have good taste. Apparently, there was a McIntosh amp that his sister just took and sold. That upset him, because he would have liked the opportunity to buy her out. I'm not surprised there was McIntosh gear. I bet he had that driving the HPD 215As. That would have been a beautiful match.

 

[ETLS]

That's one way to tannoy the neighbors.

 

[DeeCee]

That's one way to tannoy the neighbors.

Buh-dump-dump!

 

[tarior]

Nice collection, looks like you and your friend are having a good time with it all.
Long have I desired a pair of real Tannoy coaxials.

 

[RunOutGroove]

Cool... I'd be set with all of that! I like a kind of mixture of vintage and modern gear, but a top notch all-vintage system would probably be great, provided that everything is gone over and working up to spec... which could be a bit pricy, but likely not nearly as much as the value of the gear, so totally worth it. I suppose that the TV is the one modern part, and for me just about any will do (the picture quality even on cheap new TVs is pretty damn good).

 

[twiiii]

I wish you luck. Because unless you two hear things in the same way there are bound to issues in which you both will have to agree to disagree. Compromise can be difficult some times.

 

[BilboBaggins]

I wish you luck. Because unless you two hear things in the same way there are bound to issues in which you both will have to agree to disagree. Compromise can be difficult some times.

All I am doing here is helping him out with his gear. He didn't have a clue where to start, but I have done this enough with enough gear to be able to help him out. As for what I get out of this, well, I get to play around with some really fine gear that I will never own, but will have an excellent memory of.

 

[BilboBaggins]

Cool... I'd be set with all of that! I like a kind of mixture of vintage and modern gear, but a top notch all-vintage system would probably be great, provided that everything is gone over and working up to spec... which could be a bit pricy, but likely not nearly as much as the value of the gear, so totally worth it. I suppose that the TV is the one modern part, and for me just about any will do (the picture quality even on cheap new TVs is pretty damn good).

Yeah, the one other item he has that is fairly modern is the Pioneer Elite VSX-26TX, although that may change. It runs too hot for him (and in my opinion as well) for an amplifier that is not being used since the Adcom is taking that role. I know there are some HTR receivers which allow you to turn off the amplification stage, and that may be the answer. A little more research required on that.

My gear is all vintage, but fully restored where required. Kef 107s, Bose 1801 power amp, McIntosh C26, McIntosh MR74, Yamaha GT-2000, JVC TD-V711, and at the moment, a Harman Kardon HD-7500II. I have another complete vintage system comprising of a pair of Sony SS-G7 speakers, McIntosh MC2205 power amp, Bose 4401 Preamp, Micromega DAC1 and Stage 3, Denon DR-M24HX, Yamaha PX3, Sony PS-X600, that is disassembled at the moment until I can address a water issue in the basement. All the amplification gear has been restored or brought up to spec, so I'm not concerned with vintage gear failures. I think it is as reliable or more reliable than modern, and it all sounds crazy good!

Finally, I have a bedroom system comprised of a fully restored (by Leestereo) McIntosh MA6200, Kef 103.2 speakers, Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi, and currently, a Sony TC-K71 cassette deck, an Apple TV, along with a pair of B&W CCM664 with enclosures installed in the ceiling of the en-suite bathroom.

I generally prefer vintage gear, but I'll take modern if it fits in with what I'm looking for.

 

[BilboBaggins]

Interesting. I could have sworn I had posted about the results on the tweeter and the preamp, but I guess I didn't. I brought the tweeter to my speaker guy, and it seems I'm a dumbass. I had ohmed out the speaker inputs and found that it was sitting at something like 2.1 ohms, but I never ohmed the tweeter out once I disconnected it from circuit. I should have. The tweeter measured 6.1, which is pretty well bang on for an 8 ohm tweeter. So the tweeter was good. I then asked my friend to bring the crossover when he brought the Pioneer Elite receiver to be replaced. The vendor didn't have anything really appropriate at that time, so I told my buddy he could use my Sansui AU-9900 while he waited for a better option to be available with the vendor. I brought the crossover home, measured the LPADs, and I was getting weird results. Very inconsistent. I started getting suspicious that my battery might be going, so I tried a different meter, and I got better and good results. Replaced the battery on the first meter and I got the same results. All was good. I decided to bring the tweeter with crossover down to my lab with the HK 630 twin, and plugged it into the channel B on the receiver. High frequency! Cool! I told my friend I had success and I was 50% certain it would work, so last night, I went back.

Time to install the tweeter and crossover back into the speaker cabinet. And wouldn't you know it? I had considered bringing my soldering station and soldering tools with me, but after a little thought, I figured there was no soldering required. But I hadn't taken into account how moving the wires around on an old crossover could affect it. The return wire on the tweeter section of the crossover came off from the LPAD. Damn! I should have brought my kit!

It turns out my buddy has a lot of things, and after about 30-45 minutes of searching, he had found a butane soldering iron and a pile of acid core solder. Well, the solder won't do, but I found a spot on the crossover where I could tap into the same connection, and successfully reconnected the wire. Another 30 minutes later, and we were getting beautiful music out of both speakers. Success! Unfortunately, we hadn't noticed that the foam surrounds on the woofers were toast, so that is another task.



While I had been waiting for my friend to find the soldering iron and solder, I was looking around in his audio room. I didn't find any solder, but I did find quite a few cartridges with styli. Crazy! Some styli I had never seen before, and some I was quite familiar with. ADC, Shure, Stanton, AKG, but the one that I found about 4 or 5 cartridges for and which looked quite interesting, was the red one in the bottom left of this picture.



And here's a better shot of it, along with the mounting bracket. Does anyone know what this is?



There was also this one! I don't know anything about it either. Hoping someone here can tell me about it.



And here is a column of drivers. There are two of them. I don't think these are Tannoys, but I could be wrong.