Chrisssssssss
Active Member
Hey all,
I was thinking the other day what got me into this obsessive hobby and thought I would share the story of why I am here.
I was always into stereo's. One of the very first things that I was ever able to do as a baby, shortly after crawling and way before walking, is I would crawl my baby butt over to my dad's stereo and turn up the BIG KNOB in the middle. Yep. Crank the volume knob to max every chance I get. My parents said that they had to relocate the unit to "higher grounds" so that I would keep my little fingers from playing with it. Apparently, it seems when they went to to turn the stereo on, when the music started the volume happened to be cranked.
:thmbsp: I guess I was hooked right from the start.
Growing up, my dad had (and still has) a Nikko Amp, pre, tape and tuna (silver faced with BIG VU's), a dual 721 w/Shure v15III, and a Teac RTR connected to a pair of Bose 901 III's. I abused this system for many years. The set-up is pretty much the same, just he has added a CD Player, and replaced the 901 III's that suffered from foam-rot with Bose's trade in program, now has a pair of 901 VI's. I ended up with the Dual and the Teac, but won't part with the Nikko's and the 901's. :nono:
My younger brother has taken my place and is continuing to abuse the system to this day.
I bought a Toshiba dual cassette Blaster (RT-7055) which I used as my source of tunage for many years. I still use this number as my bank card PIN (shhh - don't tell anyone - won't do any good anyways - nuttin' in it - spent it all on audio! ) I guess I got it when I was about maybe 11 - 12 years old. It was a portable, dual cassette w/logic touch control mechanism, aux in and detach speakers. It was a cool unit. Being a Bose fan at a young age (didn't know any better - just father's 901's as influence) went and replaced the internal drivers of the RT-7055 with a pair of the drivers and xover modules designed for the bose 101's. They fit into the stock black speaker boxes almost perfectly, just had to work a bracket due to the stupid 3 bolt setup Bose used vs the stock regular 4 bolt pattern, used some silicone, and had my dream blaster.
Also a few years later, I was shopping with the grandparents, we walked into a thrift store (I was about maybe 14-15 years old by now) and was poking around and stumbled upon an older looking amp of some kind. I was peering into the back (barely could see into it, and it had a bunch of funky connectors on the back) but I could barely see these little tubes inside and thought that it looked kinda cool and I wanted to see if I could get this thing working. I asked my grandma if I she would buy it for me. Asked what it was, and I said it was an old music amp. Since it was only 50 cents, I think she said fine just to keep me quiet and occupied for a bit I guess.
The first thing I did was attempt to get it working. This was mildly difficult due to the fact that it had those funky European connectors on it, pin blade for the speakers, 5 pin DIN's for the tape, and some funky 4 or 5 pin straight pin connections for the tuner and phono connections. Being the genius that I was, shoved the speaker wires into the provided pin - blade holes (speakers from aforementioned RT-7055) and used a mini headphone jack to 2 RCA cable that I had (out of the headphone jack of the RT-7055) as a signal source, cut off the 2 rca ends and tried splicing the wires into the input holes of the old tube amp. I never got it to work properly, all I was ever able to get was a totally minimal output from the speakers that I had connected as you could barely hear anything at all unless your ear was right up against the speaker. The signal was there, just not right. At this stage I was not comfortable (ok, couldn't figure out how to take the top off to get at the inside to see what was up - it was confusing the way it came apart!) so it then went into the closet, then into a box, then ???
Many, many years later, I had a descent set-up. A sony system with a pair of Cerwin Vega speakers that rocked my world for a good number of years. One time when I was moving about 5 years ago I stumbled upon this amp again and decided to toss it into the dumpster remembering back to my childhood trying to get the thing working. It was before I was into audio like I am now. Something made me go back and climb into the dumpster (actually did this!!) and retrieve the unit a few minutes later and put it into a box for a later date.
I guess it was about a year later, I was discovering ebay. I was looking and one day spotted what looked like that little amp that I had. I wonder what it was worth... Holy crap! That thing was going for over $250ish bucks! This made me go on a rampage searching through boxes and boxes until I finally found the little gem. I figured out how to get the top off (a bit smarter and wiser, well maybe just a bit more experienced and motivated - it slides off, BTW, not lifts...) and found out that it was only a loose connection in the speaker output jacks that caused the pos and neg terminals on the inside to short together therefore causing poor output and the thing came to life!
THIS was the exact moment that I was hooked on tubes and vintage audio. I remember the exact moment that I finally got real output and real music out of this amp. It was an exciting day for me. I have since completely restored and updated this Philips AG9016/52 amp by placing a new pair of high quality gold RCA terminals and a set of good quality binding posts for speaker connections and still use this as my main amp today, connected to a pair of Tannoy monitor gold 12's. Pure audio heaven, no matter what the source is.
I base my audio obsession on this Philips amp as my starting point of no return. I also collect Philips gear and have the holy grail set-up of their SS gear, a black set of 5781 amp, 5721 pre, and 5731 tuna as one of my main sets. Also have a PA 1200B with the big VU's on the front. Philips is my favorite gear right now. I think that it is fairly under the radar, but is slowly getting discovered, especially the little AG9016 and the 5731 tuner.
I wonder what would have happened if I would have NOT dived back into the dumpster and retrieved that little Tubie. Life would not have been the same... Should have left the @#$%ing thing in the trash! 
:scratch2: :thumbsdn: :thmbsp: 
:drool: :nono: :tears:
Oh well, too late now. I'm addicted to vintage audio. This is my true life story in a nutshell and pretty much explains who I am today. Not sure whether it is good or bad, just know that I have the little scratch and ding to prove it on the top of the amp where it hit the dumpster. A reminder of where it could have ended up... Probably in one of your guys rigs!!
I know it was a long post, but I think that this is the only place that would or could relate to it. If you are still here and reading this, come on and share your story! I know you have one!
I was thinking the other day what got me into this obsessive hobby and thought I would share the story of why I am here.
I was always into stereo's. One of the very first things that I was ever able to do as a baby, shortly after crawling and way before walking, is I would crawl my baby butt over to my dad's stereo and turn up the BIG KNOB in the middle. Yep. Crank the volume knob to max every chance I get. My parents said that they had to relocate the unit to "higher grounds" so that I would keep my little fingers from playing with it. Apparently, it seems when they went to to turn the stereo on, when the music started the volume happened to be cranked.
:thmbsp: I guess I was hooked right from the start.Growing up, my dad had (and still has) a Nikko Amp, pre, tape and tuna (silver faced with BIG VU's), a dual 721 w/Shure v15III, and a Teac RTR connected to a pair of Bose 901 III's. I abused this system for many years. The set-up is pretty much the same, just he has added a CD Player, and replaced the 901 III's that suffered from foam-rot with Bose's trade in program, now has a pair of 901 VI's. I ended up with the Dual and the Teac, but won't part with the Nikko's and the 901's. :nono:
My younger brother has taken my place and is continuing to abuse the system to this day.I bought a Toshiba dual cassette Blaster (RT-7055) which I used as my source of tunage for many years. I still use this number as my bank card PIN (shhh - don't tell anyone - won't do any good anyways - nuttin' in it - spent it all on audio!
) I guess I got it when I was about maybe 11 - 12 years old. It was a portable, dual cassette w/logic touch control mechanism, aux in and detach speakers. It was a cool unit. Being a Bose fan at a young age (didn't know any better - just father's 901's as influence) went and replaced the internal drivers of the RT-7055 with a pair of the drivers and xover modules designed for the bose 101's. They fit into the stock black speaker boxes almost perfectly, just had to work a bracket due to the stupid 3 bolt setup Bose used vs the stock regular 4 bolt pattern, used some silicone, and had my dream blaster. Also a few years later, I was shopping with the grandparents, we walked into a thrift store (I was about maybe 14-15 years old by now) and was poking around and stumbled upon an older looking amp of some kind. I was peering into the back (barely could see into it, and it had a bunch of funky connectors on the back) but I could barely see these little tubes inside and thought that it looked kinda cool and I wanted to see if I could get this thing working. I asked my grandma if I she would buy it for me. Asked what it was, and I said it was an old music amp. Since it was only 50 cents, I think she said fine just to keep me quiet and occupied for a bit I guess.
The first thing I did was attempt to get it working. This was mildly difficult due to the fact that it had those funky European connectors on it, pin blade for the speakers, 5 pin DIN's for the tape, and some funky 4 or 5 pin straight pin connections for the tuner and phono connections. Being the genius that I was, shoved the speaker wires into the provided pin - blade holes (speakers from aforementioned RT-7055) and used a mini headphone jack to 2 RCA cable that I had (out of the headphone jack of the RT-7055) as a signal source, cut off the 2 rca ends and tried splicing the wires into the input holes of the old tube amp. I never got it to work properly, all I was ever able to get was a totally minimal output from the speakers that I had connected as you could barely hear anything at all unless your ear was right up against the speaker. The signal was there, just not right. At this stage I was not comfortable (ok, couldn't figure out how to take the top off to get at the inside to see what was up - it was confusing the way it came apart!) so it then went into the closet, then into a box, then ???
Many, many years later, I had a descent set-up. A sony system with a pair of Cerwin Vega speakers that rocked my world for a good number of years. One time when I was moving about 5 years ago I stumbled upon this amp again and decided to toss it into the dumpster remembering back to my childhood trying to get the thing working. It was before I was into audio like I am now. Something made me go back and climb into the dumpster (actually did this!!) and retrieve the unit a few minutes later and put it into a box for a later date.
I guess it was about a year later, I was discovering ebay. I was looking and one day spotted what looked like that little amp that I had. I wonder what it was worth... Holy crap! That thing was going for over $250ish bucks! This made me go on a rampage searching through boxes and boxes until I finally found the little gem. I figured out how to get the top off (a bit smarter and wiser, well maybe just a bit more experienced and motivated - it slides off, BTW, not lifts...) and found out that it was only a loose connection in the speaker output jacks that caused the pos and neg terminals on the inside to short together therefore causing poor output and the thing came to life!
THIS was the exact moment that I was hooked on tubes and vintage audio. I remember the exact moment that I finally got real output and real music out of this amp. It was an exciting day for me. I have since completely restored and updated this Philips AG9016/52 amp by placing a new pair of high quality gold RCA terminals and a set of good quality binding posts for speaker connections and still use this as my main amp today, connected to a pair of Tannoy monitor gold 12's. Pure audio heaven, no matter what the source is.
I base my audio obsession on this Philips amp as my starting point of no return. I also collect Philips gear and have the holy grail set-up of their SS gear, a black set of 5781 amp, 5721 pre, and 5731 tuna as one of my main sets. Also have a PA 1200B with the big VU's on the front. Philips is my favorite gear right now. I think that it is fairly under the radar, but is slowly getting discovered, especially the little AG9016 and the 5731 tuner.
I wonder what would have happened if I would have NOT dived back into the dumpster and retrieved that little Tubie. Life would not have been the same... Should have left the @#$%ing thing in the trash!
:scratch2: :thumbsdn: :thmbsp: :drool: :nono: :tears:Oh well, too late now. I'm addicted to vintage audio. This is my true life story in a nutshell and pretty much explains who I am today. Not sure whether it is good or bad, just know that I have the little scratch and ding to prove it on the top of the amp where it hit the dumpster. A reminder of where it could have ended up... Probably in one of your guys rigs!!
I know it was a long post, but I think that this is the only place that would or could relate to it. If you are still here and reading this, come on and share your story! I know you have one!
Enjoy the Monitor Golds, I know I enjoy mine! :thmbsp:
speakers and a simulated woodgrain cabinet. I remember toggling between mono and stereo, back and forth, and hearing the difference for the first time. I thought the world was coming to an end when the dial-light burned out.:yes:
