Poor man's system setup..
- Thread starter Vegaguy7
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- This is my poor man's system setup, main: Adcom GTP 860II w/Adcom GFA 6000 only 2 channels driven @4ohms EQ: Pioneer SG 9800 speakers: Cerwin Vega LS-15 floor standing speakers Secondary receiver/amp Nakamichi AV300 speakers:Technics SB-6000A Third receiver/amp: Yamaha RX-V1000 speakers: B&W 600i series and Energy 2.1e with Velodyne F1200-r subwoofer First off, I know that overkill could be one word that comes to mind, also I like to feel my music as well, that being said, my Cerwin Vegas are just 2 gorillas beating the window loose in my room, but they are amazing to me. My combination of vintage speakers w the Vegas real full rich sound. I know my neighbors gotta hate me! Yes I do run all at same time they are all linked from EQ the system is just the way I like it, headbuzzing, clothes shaking and plenty of bass....The Marantz SR7400 and the 2 Denon in picture are not being used...
Just resurrecting my stereo system after a 25 year hibernation. The AR Turntable with a Shure V15 - MR cartridge, Jolida SJ-302a integrated amp, Parasound PPH-100 phono preamp, Arcam Alpha 7se CD player with a recently acquired Audioengine D1 DAC. Visonik David 602 speakers to be replaced with a pair of Meadowlark Kestrals I have stored in the basement. Temporary setup on my computer desk.
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lightcapture
Super Member
Very nice po' man's stereo. And I have a homeless man's stereo. lol
Freddymac2
Super Member
Vega:
You are not a very poor man, even if you stole your listed equipment, I would guess you have at least $1,800 invested. From the descripting you should be able to shake the snow off your roof with it all running. I don't have pics
I am running a Luxman PD 289 TT ($40), Nakamichi SR 4a receiver ($75), Early 35 year old Dahlquist DQ 10's ($500)
and a Polk 10" PSW 404b sub woofer ($50)... It doesn't sound poor though!
You are not a very poor man, even if you stole your listed equipment, I would guess you have at least $1,800 invested. From the descripting you should be able to shake the snow off your roof with it all running. I don't have pics
I am running a Luxman PD 289 TT ($40), Nakamichi SR 4a receiver ($75), Early 35 year old Dahlquist DQ 10's ($500)
and a Polk 10" PSW 404b sub woofer ($50)... It doesn't sound poor though!
grillebilly
Empty Head
I have about the same money invested in phono carts than the rest of my main system. All total around $500, with two turntables, Denon DP61f and Sansui SR 838.
Nightwisher
Farer In The Goldilocks Zone
Very nice system you have there.
So what constitutes a "poor man's system"? I may post mine but I'd like to be sure I meet the requirements.
So what constitutes a "poor man's system"? I may post mine but I'd like to be sure I meet the requirements.
mark warren
Music Lover!
not too poor! very nice...........
Rach3maninoff
Speaker Magnate
Here is the current incarnation of my poor man's setup.
Here is the breakdown of my investment in this setup - minus the records...
AR-XA Turntable - $78.00 on FleaBay four or so years ago
$100.00 in mods
Shure M97-XE. $60.00 online
Sony MXD-D40 $7.00 at Goodwill
Boston Acoustics A-150's $40.00 on Craigslist
Refoaming kit $25.00
Dynaco PAT4 pre. $40.00 after replacing a switch and some caps. It was a gift from my brother in law.
Dynaco Stereo 120 $27.00 after replacing non functioning guts with a Audiobah TPA3116 chip. Otherwise free.
Flexy Rack $75.00 for materials.
Total: $452.00
I love the way it sounds, given the small living room that it shares with a sofa, loveseat, 2 tables and 2 pianos!
Here is the breakdown of my investment in this setup - minus the records...
AR-XA Turntable - $78.00 on FleaBay four or so years ago
$100.00 in mods
Shure M97-XE. $60.00 online
Sony MXD-D40 $7.00 at Goodwill
Boston Acoustics A-150's $40.00 on Craigslist
Refoaming kit $25.00
Dynaco PAT4 pre. $40.00 after replacing a switch and some caps. It was a gift from my brother in law.
Dynaco Stereo 120 $27.00 after replacing non functioning guts with a Audiobah TPA3116 chip. Otherwise free.
Flexy Rack $75.00 for materials.
Total: $452.00
I love the way it sounds, given the small living room that it shares with a sofa, loveseat, 2 tables and 2 pianos!
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AudioHertz
Can You Hear That?
View media item 8425It has been about 2 years since the last time I posted any pictures of my system. I've spent many hours looking and marveling at the many amazingly beautiful and complex systems that others are constantly posting. The "Poor Man's System Setup" is finally a place I can feel comfortable showing what I have. Thanks for looking! 
Sony STR 6046A - Utilizing the "Normal/Preamp" switch in preamp mode $18
Technics SL-D2 Turntable with Shure 800E Cart and SHS0800E stylus $10 Table, $0 Cart and Stylus free from a friend
BIC T-05 Cassette Deck $3
Sony C69ES CD Player $8
Harmon Kardon HK3270 - Used as Power Amp $12
KLH Model Six Speakers $7 for the pair
Maverick Audio Tube Magic D2 DAC $175 purchased from friend who gave me the free Cart and Stylus
Total: $233
The DAC may have disqualified this as a "Poor Man's" system!
Sony STR 6046A - Utilizing the "Normal/Preamp" switch in preamp mode $18
Technics SL-D2 Turntable with Shure 800E Cart and SHS0800E stylus $10 Table, $0 Cart and Stylus free from a friend
BIC T-05 Cassette Deck $3
Sony C69ES CD Player $8
Harmon Kardon HK3270 - Used as Power Amp $12
KLH Model Six Speakers $7 for the pair
Maverick Audio Tube Magic D2 DAC $175 purchased from friend who gave me the free Cart and Stylus
Total: $233
The DAC may have disqualified this as a "Poor Man's" system!
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Jim Marantz
Active Member
That looks like a very well matched set-up. I bet it sounds very rich. Enjoy it!
Jim
doctor fuse
Super Member
I kno' it's po', but I love it mo' an' mo'!
I wanted to go retro for my system in the bedroom and ended up with kind of a weird set up. I could not find any local vintage amps that I liked so I went with two on eBay; I bid first on a Kenwood KR 4600 (exactly the look I was going for) and while waiting for that auction to end I saw a new listing pop up for what the ad claimed was a new in box KR 850 of 1982 vintage. The KR 850 was not really what I was looking for since even though it was one of the last silver Kenwoods it still had plastic knobs and no wood on the case etc......but it did have decent specs (75 WPC .01THD) and looking for those specs and other info how I found AK. And the most interesting thing to me was the claim of being "new". To my surprise they accepted my $100 offer (free shipping) and the next day I won the auction for the KR 4600. When I got the 850 (shipped in its original box) it was wrapped in the stock packaging with the manual and warranty card sitting on top. I looks like maybe the original buyer bought it, took it out of the box, then put it back in. There was not one spec of dust or even a fingerprint on it, so IMHO $100 was not a bad deal. While I was waiting for the amps to arrive I finally decided to get new speakers instead of vintage. I found Polk TSx 110Bs for $119 shipped (of course the Cherry ones were $20 more than the black) and I was fairly impressed at how nice they were and are compared to anything else in this price range at brick and mortar retailers. I also bought a fresh surge protector, 16 AWG speaker wire (eight foot speaker runs) and banana clips. We already had a BluRay player in the bedroom but it had only HDMI outputs so I went to a local thrift store (wife and I are obsessive picker/thrifters) and found a Sony DVD player in silver for $9 and I found the remote for it on eBay for $9 more and works perfectly. I still have a 1000 or so CDs since I got rid of my vinyl in the 80s but since this was an extreme budget system the Sony player was fine. After a massive Goodwill hunt over six locations two weeks ago I scored a Sony PS LX22 turntable from the 80s (silver as well) that was in really really nice shape except for the bent factory needle for $10. Since I only have about 30 albums left and probably wont ever be big into vinyl again I just found a factory replacement needle on eBay for $10. When I got it, I rebalanced the tone arm, put the new needle on and it works like a champ. I had planned on just setting the components on a wire rack that I had so I had two pieces of bronze plexiglass cut for the shelves and it looked pretty good. A day later I was at my local Deseret and an old stereo rack cabinet caught my eye, when I walked up to it, it proudly had the word "Kenwood" on the front so for $15 it was a no brainer.
The KR 4600 has a slightly different story. The eBay listing for it said "Recently professionally cleaned and serviced", since I did not want to mess with cleaning it that is why I bid on it. I won the bid at $31+$39.99 shipping from VA to CA. The amp arrived very well packed and I took it out and put it on the table and started hooking up the speakers when I noticed that behind the glass was some dust bunnies. I shined a flash light down inside the top grilles and saw it was covered in dust. Of course when I fired it up it was filled with static on the volume control and shorting out on the mode selector. I wrote the seller right away about how ticked I was (he HAD to know it was like that). He wrote back saying that his "service" guy lied to him yada yada yada. Final arrangement was that he fully refunded my money and I would not leave him negative feedback. I have always been fairly mechanically inclined (grew up working on cars, engines, watches, guns etc) so I thought this would be a good time to start on vintage electronics with little risk. So I took it all apart, cleaned the pots with Deoxit, blew out as much dust as I could, cleaned the front glass and scrubbed the alum knobs with 409 and a toothbrush and put it back together. About 6 hours later I fired it up and much to my amazement, it works perfectly!
I fully intended to use the 4600 with the 850 in reserve for future use but after using the 850 while waiting for the Deoxit, my wife and I fell in love with it. It has two timers that we really like. One timer is a simple run for an hour then off and the second is an alarm timer (run 60 min then off). We like soft jazz at night when falling asleep and the 850 has a far superior tuner to the 4600 in pulling in the only Jazz station in our market, a low watt NPR station. Just a few days ago I hooked up the Xfinity X1 cable box to the Aux port and began running the Music Choice channels through it and now we listen to the Soft Jazz channel at night when falling asleep, and wake up to it in the morning. I really like the 4600 and at the low volumes we listen to sounds just as good as the 850 with the Polks but the convenience of the 850 means the 4600 will sit until I get another set of speakers for it. I think I will just use the turntable with it when I get them. Sorry for the long winded post but it was easier to understand if I just typed it all at once.
Total investment: Just about $285 all in including the connectors and clips. Since the purchases were made on eBay and at non profits, only the Deoxit had sales tax since I bought from a vendor in CA. Oh and BTW, I am not poor at all, just really cheap!
http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/kenwood/computerized-high-speed-stereo-receivers.shtml
http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/kenwood/kr-4600.shtml
The KR 4600 has a slightly different story. The eBay listing for it said "Recently professionally cleaned and serviced", since I did not want to mess with cleaning it that is why I bid on it. I won the bid at $31+$39.99 shipping from VA to CA. The amp arrived very well packed and I took it out and put it on the table and started hooking up the speakers when I noticed that behind the glass was some dust bunnies. I shined a flash light down inside the top grilles and saw it was covered in dust. Of course when I fired it up it was filled with static on the volume control and shorting out on the mode selector. I wrote the seller right away about how ticked I was (he HAD to know it was like that). He wrote back saying that his "service" guy lied to him yada yada yada. Final arrangement was that he fully refunded my money and I would not leave him negative feedback. I have always been fairly mechanically inclined (grew up working on cars, engines, watches, guns etc) so I thought this would be a good time to start on vintage electronics with little risk. So I took it all apart, cleaned the pots with Deoxit, blew out as much dust as I could, cleaned the front glass and scrubbed the alum knobs with 409 and a toothbrush and put it back together. About 6 hours later I fired it up and much to my amazement, it works perfectly!
I fully intended to use the 4600 with the 850 in reserve for future use but after using the 850 while waiting for the Deoxit, my wife and I fell in love with it. It has two timers that we really like. One timer is a simple run for an hour then off and the second is an alarm timer (run 60 min then off). We like soft jazz at night when falling asleep and the 850 has a far superior tuner to the 4600 in pulling in the only Jazz station in our market, a low watt NPR station. Just a few days ago I hooked up the Xfinity X1 cable box to the Aux port and began running the Music Choice channels through it and now we listen to the Soft Jazz channel at night when falling asleep, and wake up to it in the morning. I really like the 4600 and at the low volumes we listen to sounds just as good as the 850 with the Polks but the convenience of the 850 means the 4600 will sit until I get another set of speakers for it. I think I will just use the turntable with it when I get them. Sorry for the long winded post but it was easier to understand if I just typed it all at once.
Total investment: Just about $285 all in including the connectors and clips. Since the purchases were made on eBay and at non profits, only the Deoxit had sales tax since I bought from a vendor in CA. Oh and BTW, I am not poor at all, just really cheap!
http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/kenwood/computerized-high-speed-stereo-receivers.shtml
http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/kenwood/kr-4600.shtml
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An update to my long winded story above. After having the Polk 110s for a while, we have fallen in love with them. For the 4600/Turntable setup I decided just to get another pair of 110s in black to save a few bucks (the cherry ones are at least $20-30 more). I found a pair on eBay that had the original box but had a nick on one of the cases (very minor) for $89.00 which was actually high since the new ones are around $99 (they were from a company that buys factory RTVs so they were new, just damaged). The next day eBay sent me an email saying they had been reduced to $69 or Best Offer. Never being afraid to throw out an offer, I offered $58 and won them! Great deal! Flash forward a week and they arrived in the original box. BUT when I opened it they did not have the original styro inserts and were just lightly wrapped in bubble wrap. One of the grills had bumped into the case of the other and broken one of the grill pegs and dented the case. I contacted the seller and we worked out another $20 discount for them for a total of $38. Since they are in the bedroom and the damage cant really be seen unless one really looks I am super happy to have another pair of Polk 110s for $38.
