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H

Hugo614

New Member
I want a vintage 70s maybe some 89s solid equipment

My budget 500
Speakers
2 modern kenwood 40watt 8ohm bookshelfs (own)
1 modern kenwood sound bar ? Not sure it's hung up (own)
2 15 modern inch car subwoofers ghetto blasting style (own)

Recievers
Vintage 1970s Panasonic 120volt 60Hz 80watt RA-6600 (own)
Vintage 8 track sound design multiplex 8 track player

Turntable
SL-23 1970s (own)

Amp
Scs amp 80s (own)


Now I have all 3 kenwoods hooked up to receiver
2 book shelf on A channel
1 sound bar on B channel
When I switch to a&b only FR speaker work and sound bar not all 3 so I need help there
Turntable I pick up tomorrow

Cost so far 100.00 most of this I've been collecting over 1year pissing off my fiancé digging throug trash and I've been learning and doing most of my own fixing. I did spend 60.00 to get the SL-23 professionaly serviced but other than that I fixed 2 recievers myself they were in the trash no life when I plugged it in.
Something happened though when I spent hours cleaning and replacing connectors then the fuses and switching it on. The hum I heard at first. It went away but my life has changed since then I sat there for another hour just staring at it. My fiancé has learned this will be my hobby now my it's time to spend my younger 30s relaxing a bit and the way 70s equipments makes me feel like I'm brining something back to life has changed me forever.
Sorry about that but where do I go from here

Do I hook the turntable into reciever then... Say screw it for awhile. I like base but I know to car subwoofers will get me nowhere and my amp may have to much power so I need to sell some stuff


My idea would be to have Turntable, 8 track recorder, 8 track receiver 2 book shelfs 1 sound bar one sub. I love the 8track recorder it works and it's my 1st piece so ra 6600 may suck but this is my 1st setup.
Do I need the SCS AMP or what? How can I add the sound bar 2 book shelfs and a sub without screwing everything up? I do need help I'm stuck!
 

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Welcome! Sounds like fun.

Here's a suggestion- keep an eye on Craigslist for a subwoofer with a plate amp that looks something like this:

300-803_HR_0.jpg

Run speaker wire from your A output to the sub, and then a second speaker wire set from the sub to your bookshelves. I see subwoofers frequently in the $50 to $100 range. Great combination for the bookshelves. The sub will have a crossover and an amplifier to send low frequencies to the sub, and will pass the hiher frequencies to the bookshelf speakers.

I have no clue on the sound bar. Might be tough to mix modern and vintage gear, or could be an issue with the A/B selector.
 
dcmfan said:
Welcome! Sounds like fun.

Here's a suggestion- keep an eye on Craigslist for a subwoofer with a plate amp that looks something like this:

View attachment 719249

Run speaker wire from your A output to the sub, and then a second speaker wire set from the sub to your bookshelves. I see subwoofers frequently in the $50 to $100 range. Great combination for the bookshelves. The sub will have a crossover and an amplifier to send low frequencies to the sub, and will pass the hiher frequencies to the bookshelf speakers.

I have no clue on the sound bar. Might be tough to mix modern and vintage gear, or could be an issue with the A/B selector.
Click to expand...

Thank you sir that looks like something I'll start doing research on next. I can't wait! Thank you
 
Might want to dump the soundbar. They are chiefly to improve intelligibility on movies and whatnot.

Hope you don't have to dump the fiance'. Good ones are very hard to get. Probably better to train this one. But that thing with the eight track might have to go. Like out to the garage if you have one.

Mix and match and see what sounds the best. Later you might have to buy something but you burn that bridge when you come to it.
 
JURB said:
Might want to dump the soundbar. They are chiefly to improve intelligibility on movies and whatnot.

Hope you don't have to dump the fiance'. Good ones are very hard to get. Probably better to train this one. But that thing with the eight track might have to go. Like out to the garage if you have one.

Mix and match and see what sounds the best. Later you might have to buy something but you burn that bridge when you come to it.
Click to expand...
The fiancé's coming along but it did take her by surprise to see me hurry home to change a connector and add new fuses on a Friday night but I know the 8 track thing will be handed down to someone but brining it back to life was something I've been missing. I'll mix and match when I get my 1st TT today. Thanks for the support feels good to share and would you happen to know about my SL-23 TT and the magnetic ceramic switch I need to use? It's on the receiver RA-6600 I'll be starting with
 
At least it CAN take a mag, many with eight tracks could not. In act most of them had a built in TT, a BSR with a low compliance ceramic.

Are your woofers in one cabinet or two ? If two I would say just hook them up for now and stick the regular speakers on top. If it is one cabinet that raises a few problems. You want it pretty much centered but if you get it too close to the TT it will rumble and howl.

That TT will have a mag cart in it. But that is not etched in stone. Put the receiver switch i ceramic and play something, if it sound thin and very low level, flip the switch. If it is in the mag position and you got ceramic it will be way too loud, muffled and probably distorted.

I think in time you will want to move on to better equipment, but there is no need to spend the house payment on it. What you have should sound alright. In time, as you listen more and more you'll find the flaws. One day you'll probably want better speakers. Then you find they do not go as loud so you will want a bigger receiver or amp.

See if you can find all the model numbers. Like that SCS, I never heard of them, but they could be great. Even the receivers, some of those all in ones were not bad. Few of them were DC coupled, but then you might get into a biamp system here where the SCS feeds the woofers. Need the model number to try to get anything on it. For wattage, take the rating on the back and half it to get somewhat of an idea of total power output. Like if it says 200 watts on the back it is probably about a real 50 WPC. That'll drive those subs. Problem is to do that with either of those receivers you will have to get four resistors and cut up an RCA cord to drive it.

I have rigged up systems you wouldn't believe, I should write a book about it. Some were hilarious.
 
JURB said:
At least it CAN take a mag, many with eight tracks could not. In act most of them had a built in TT, a BSR with a low compliance ceramic.

Are your woofers in one cabinet or two ? If two I would say just hook them up for now and stick the regular speakers on top. If it is one cabinet that raises a few problems. You want it pretty much centered but if you get it too close to the TT it will rumble and howl.

That TT will have a mag cart in it. But that is not etched in stone. Put the receiver switch i ceramic and play something, if it sound thin and very low level, flip the switch. If it is in the mag position and you got ceramic it will be way too loud, muffled and probably distorted.

I think in time you will want to move on to better equipment, but there is no need to spend the house payment on it. What you have should sound alright. In time, as you listen more and more you'll find the flaws. One day you'll probably want better speakers. Then you find they do not go as loud so you will want a bigger receiver or amp.

See if you can find all the model numbers. Like that SCS, I never heard of them, but they could be great. Even the receivers, some of those all in ones were not bad. Few of them were DC coupled, but then you might get into a biamp system here where the SCS feeds the woofers. Need the model number to try to get anything on it. For wattage, take the rating on the back and half it to get somewhat of an idea of total power output. Like if it says 200 watts on the back it is probably about a real 50 WPC. That'll drive those subs. Problem is to do that with either of those receivers you will have to get four resistors and cut up an RCA cord to drive it.

I have rigged up systems you wouldn't believe, I should write a book about it. Some were hilarious.
Click to expand...
You should write a book! With pictures of what your're doing for all main terminal types. Vintage and modern are so different but the wires are all made from the same material if someone would break stuff down for different formats you'd have yourself a nice little guide people could use. Do it!!!
 
If the "soundbar" is what is hanging on the wall in the 4th picture, then that is a passive center speaker. This is kind of like your stereo speakers, however this would be used primarily for dialog in a home theater system (in the center between the two stereo speakers). I wouldn't advise using it in a stereo setup because it's not designed for that nor do you actually need it. It might be nice to have a speaker where the center is hanging, but I would recommend trying to avoid using it if at all possible. I've used center speakers in "stereo" setups before and it's not something I would go back to unless I was using two center speakers as bookshelf speakers with a subwoofer (otherwise they do more harm than good for stereo sound).

Instead of the center, the B speaker terminals should be used to output into the high level inputs of a subwoofer like @dcmfan posted. The amp and subwoofers you already have could work, but you would have to jerry-rig something to make them work properly as @JURB noted.

I agree with @JURB that while this equipment is good to start with, it might leave a lot to be desired. However, it is definitely a good start to your hobby. My philosophy is that the journey to "musical/audio nirvana" is a lot of the fun of this hobby and it doesn't cost a whole lot to get well along on that journey, as you have already figured out.
 
Welcome. Love seeing a can do attitude. As others have said nix nay the sound bar. If both speakers are properly set up the sound should by default radiate from the center. Cha-ching and save you $$$ in the process.
If old school is where it's at a reel to reel would take you further than an 8 track.
Enjoy!
 
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