Keep one, Sell one advice

[TheDudesRug]

Hey all! This may be my first post, but I’ve been lurking for years.

I have collected too many solid state receivers. I’ve gotten into resurrecting and rehabbing and I am getting to the point where I need to make some choices.

Here’s my stable:
—Technics SA-5560 (85wpc, main unit, running my Warfedale Evo4.2s)
—Yamaha CR-800 (45wpc, recap of power supply board)
—Fisher RS-2010 (100wpc, sounds good but not perfect needs some love cap/transistor wise, planning on digging in to it over the holidays, might be my new primary unit)
—Pioneer SX-440 (12wpc, TBD, arriving soon, somewhat a fun snag, supposedly ‘tube like’ sound)
—Pioneer SX-3600 (30wpc, repaired some bad speaker switches, and clean up, in good shape and it’s got the fancy, fun digital meters)
—Fisher (by Sears) model 143-92521600 (35wpc, good shape, no repairs needed)

All units get a good pot, input, contact cleaning and polish. All get fresh lamps.

My questions are:
1. Between the last two, do you keep either, both, neither and why? Neither would be needed for anything more than bookshelves and medium to small room.

2. Any gremlins in my stable that I should be leery of and look to offload or upgrade? I’ve been seeing more about STK power packs and that is somewhat worrying.

3. should I take that step into tubes? Is there a reasonable (sub 500) starting point (vintage or otherwise)?

thanks in advance!

 

[Bone Yard]

You know how it goes, there's two camps on the forum, the guys with one stereo they upgrade once in a while and the other 90% that have multiples, sometimes even storage units full of equipment.

It depends on your situation and which camp you lean towards, all of the units are respectable mid-level and would be easy to move on, but they most likely would be replaced with something similar.

There's nothing wrong with tube equipment, there used to be a ton of it floating around for dirt cheap, I've got a little Heathkit A-9 Amp out in the shop I've been meaning to clean up, that might be a good starting point, they seemed to be popular years ago. Mine was paired with the Eico HFT-90 FM Tuner, both of these can be found for 1/2 of your budget.

 

[milo63]

STK packs are great while they work, as they are NLA once speaker wire gets touched together you're kinda SOL unless you can find a donor.

Put that into the equation when deciding what to keep or sell.

 

[slow_jazz]

Prices on ebay are high it's a sellers market right now.

 

[Asmodeus2112]

You know how it goes, there's two camps on the forum, the guys with one stereo they upgrade once in a while and the other 90% that have multiples, sometimes even storage units full of equipment.

It depends on your situation and which camp you lean towards, all of the units are respectable mid-level and would be easy to move on, but they most likely would be replaced with something similar.

There's nothing wrong with tube equipment, there used to be a ton of it floating around for dirt cheap, I've got a little Heathkit A-9 Amp out in the shop I've been meaning to clean up, that might be a good starting point, they seemed to be popular years ago. Mine was paired with the Eico HFT-90 FM Tuner, both of these can be found for 1/2 of your budget.

Wait, some people only have one system?

 

[Bone Yard]

I've been told that some only want one system but in my travels most people have a ton of mid-fi stuff lying around. The "audiophiles" seem to be more minimalists but I did see a guy once with a few sets of killer speakers in his pad.

ebay prices have always had units priced at silly money, I still find bargains every week but you have to look everyday, sometimes late at night and be open to other options. I've been extremely lucky after midnight with Buy It Now, maybe guys having a little sauce and just want to move equipment?

 

[similost]

Tubes aren't cheap... even if you get into an amp for a decent price, many need a bunch of work, ......then you get caught in the tube rolling bug, and before you know it, your $500 investment turns into $1000, then $2k and so on...

 

[Bone Yard]

similost, what do you think of the Heathkits?

 

[similost]

similost, what do you think of the Heathkits?

I like Heathkits Never owned one, but I'd love to build one of the new ST70's.... that is if they are still making them? Been a while since I've kept up..
I gave up all my tubes, well, except for the guitar amp.. Just too much tinkering for me. I just like to come in and flick a switch and start listening... Not have to worry about bias, and warming up, and microphonic tubes and so on...

I've heard and seen a fair amount of old heathkit amps.. and never heard one I didn't like...

 

[Lavane]

Dynakit still sells ST-70 kits. They're out of stock at the moment.
Tube4Hf8 sells a version of the ST-70 also. Tubes dont have to necessarily be expensive. 4 power tubes for one of my amps cost me $20 total. Another, $10. My ST-70 cost me $80 for a quad of new of power tubes. A pair of 125 watt mono blocks cost did me around $140 for each amp, but they're kind of high power for tube amps.so needed more and bigger tubes.

 

[TheDudesRug]

Thanks All, I think it sounds like as maybe as any/all of the ones I have are basically middle of the road and easily sold (and likely found) I shouldn’t be shy about moving on, particularly with it being a seller’s market.

The pioneer 440 arrived yesterday and I love it. It’s no world beater obviously but it’s now officially my oldest one and it’s in fantastic shape.

Does anyone run multiple amps on the same speakers? I’m considering making a switcher so I can at least utilize a few on the same system. I know there’s a right way (never two sources feeding at the same time) and that’s what I’m considering.

and thanks for the info on tubes. I have some research to do!