Let's See Those Home Audio Systems

[Soul Tramp]

What do you folks have for home audio systems (hifi, stereo, etc.)? Anything interesting? Anyone into vinyl & turntables?

 

[Guildedagain]

Old Sansui 210 amp, Technics SL1800, old Bose 301's hanging from ceiling.

I can hardly get away with turning it on, usually just when alone.

Probably 100lbs of vinyl in the house, but I like my CD collection.

 

[gjmalcyon]

Top shelf: Some miscellaneous spare Schiit gear on the left, mostly deployed for sound reinforcement at cookouts.
Schiit Modi Multibit 2 DAC connected to an Itona 7055 Series USB Isolator.
Feeding an Exposure XV integrated amp.

Next shelf: Intel NUC PC in a custom fanless case that is my music server. 34,000+ tracks and 500Gb+ of music. I'm using foobar2000 as my music server software.

Next shelf: Marantz 2252B receiver that I'm using as an FM tuner.

Bottom shelf: Aiwa AD-F810 cassette deck. Not hooked up but will be soon since SWMBO has informed me she has some cassettes she wants to listen to.

The furniture is a custom solid mahogany entertainment unit I commissioned in the late 80's/early 90's from a buddy of mine who was thinking about going into business making custom furniture. I think building this convinced him he did not want to do it. Weighs over 200 lbs. and contains enough mahogany for a dozen or more guitars. That photo is only the left half of the unit.

Speakers are a Celestion 5 satellite/Celestion CS135 passive subwoofer system that cannot get earthshakingly loud but does image really, really well.

WTB: CD player/transport so SWMBO can play CD's and turntable to replace my deceased Dual so I play my vinyl again.

 

[twocorgis]

Now that I'm (sort of) a bachelor again, gear has the run of my house again, with a 2.1 music system downstairs for music, and a 7.2 surround system upstairs for everything else. Here's the downstairs rig.

The LPs are a bit unorganized at the minute, but I have about 1500 of them in the cabinets off the frame to the right, and more underneath waiting to be vetted and filed. The gear is" my beloved Thorens TD145 that I've owned since high school with a Shure V15 Type III cart, Nakamichi CR-1A cassette deck (maybe the best entry level deck ever made; also have an Onkyo TA-6510 3 head), recently added NAD C368 hybrid digital/analog integrated amp, that can also stream, and play my rather large high resolution audio library off a 1TB SSD, Boston Acoustics T830 speakers paired with a PSB subwoofer, and a slightly generic Panasonic CD/DVD/Blu-Ray player. There's a TiVo and a "vintage" LG plasma TV there too, along with my '53 Kay C-1 upright bass.

 

[Guildedagain]

Now that I'm (sort of) a bachelor again, gear has the run of my house again,

Lol

This is me left alone to my own devices. Things changed dramastically after meeting current voice of reason.

 

[jp]

I just recently described my system in another post, but I'll do it again.

Like gjmalcyon above, I also have a Marantz 2252B but it's my main receiver/amp. My main sources are also Marantz -- a 6350Q turntable and a CD-67SE, which I'm about to disassemble this afternoon to fix a non-opening slide-out door and dirty switch open/close switch. Fooey! My old Denon is dead.

Speakers are a Polk 10" sub, JBL L62Ts, and Polk mini-monitors. As mentioned in the other thread, it's a power-hungry speaker system, and I'm on the hunt for Pioneer HPMs or Dynaco A25s.

 

[Uke]

No, it's not for sale:

 

[Nuuska]

More than legally allowed - Studer-ReVox sound systems - no picture readily available.

 

[Prince of Darkness]

Garrard 401 turntable with Denon DL-110 cartridge, carbon fibre unipivot arm (home made). Pioneer blu ray player, which also plays SACD, DVDA etc. Nakamichi BX-125e cassette deck, Tandberg 3000X reel to reel tape deck. Rotel 930AX tuner. Amplifier is home made and all valve, includes a phono stage (3x ECC83) designed by Andy Grove (QUAD, Audionote etc), which was published in Hi-Fi World magazine and a single ended power amp of my own design which uses an EF86 and KT88 (triode connected) in each channel. Speakers are also home made to my own design, with a high sensitivity to match the low output of the amplifier.

 

[shihan]

Plays 78’s, 45’s and LP’s. AUX in for iPod/phone. Sounds wonderful.

 

[bobouz]

I’ve long been a fan of ADS speakers. Bought a pair of the original L400s (larger cabinet) in the late ‘70s, and had them until last summer. My daughter came home for a visit & asked if she could have my old stereo stuff, which no longer fit our living room & was being stored in the basement. I said sure & we tested the equipment first. One brief listen & I was hooked all over again! I started researching ADS speakers that might fit in our designated space & ended up with essentially a 4-way set-up, prioritizing highs through two L300c speakers, and lows through a L400e pair. I split the signal after going through a graphic equalizer, sending it to two amps going to the separate pairs of speakers. This allows a lot of specific control to more properly recreate poorly digitized ’60s & ‘70s CDs & get closer to what my ears recall from original albums (I’ve always hated trying to get to the song I want to hear on albums & sold them all off - along with the turntable - a number of years ago). The Onkyo receiver is a Japanese TX-830 from the late’80s & it’s a favorite (just picked up a second one that’ll be replacing the Kenwood above it). Fun stuff!

 

[GGJaguar]

 

[twocorgis]

You're not allowed to ever play any of my LPs on that!

 

[GGJaguar]

You're not allowed to ever play any of my LPs on that!

No, no, it's okay. I put a penny on the arm over the needle and it tracks just fine.

 

[Canard]

Electric:

Clear Audio turntable and cartridge for LPs​

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Dual 12xx something with Stanton 500 and Stanton-500-like Pickering cartridge with various styluses for MicroGroove and Mono LPs and 78s​

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Rek-O-Cut phono pre-amp for pre-RIAA-Roll-Off-Curve disks​

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Old Adcom gear, a power amp and a tuner/pre-amp (have some NAD gear in reserve)​

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Pre-Klispch Jamo towers and subwoofer​

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Carver Cassette deck​

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Cambridge Audio CD deck​

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Audio Technica electret headphones​

Windup Acoustics:

Tall boy pagoda top gramophone with rotating soundbox/reproducer, plays both laterally cut (now normal) 78s and vertically cut (Pathe/Edison/etc) disks.​

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A number of portables, including an HMV 102b​

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Power outages, who cares?​

 

[ReevesRd]

Yamaha Natural Sound Stereo Receiver RX-595, Yamaha KX-W392 Natural Sound Stereo Double Cassette Deck, Sony Compact Disc Player CDP-C365, with Klipsch KG2.5 Medium Studio Monitors and Panasonic Surround Theater Speakers with Subwoofer.

Klipsch makes great speakers! https://www.klipsch.com/

 

[lungimsam]

Wireless connect to interface then straight to 8” studio monitors.

 

[Soul Tramp]

My setup is a real mutt made up of old tech, new tech, and homemade. It's tri-amped. An Ashley active cross-over splits the output from the Marantz preamp into three freq bands. The high freqs go to a Crown power amp that drives JBL 2402 ring ratiatiors in small cabs I built (sitting on top of the L-100s). The mid freqs go to a pair of KT88 mono-blocks I built that drive the JBL L-100s. The low freqs go to a Phase Linear 400 (or a Dynaco 400, depending on mood) that dreves a pair of subs I built (Infinity Kappa 12 drivers).

 

[bobouz]

Geez, I thought I was doing something fancy by splitting the signal to two amps….. but three? Very cool!

 

[Soul Tramp]

Geez, I thought I was doing something fancy by splitting the signal to two amps….. but three? Very cool!

The tri-amping is probably overkill. But, I really like the JBL ring radiators, you wouldn't believe the presence they add. They bring forward a lot of the freqs that are lost in most other systems. It's like the front row of a Blue Cheer concert!

The Ashly x-over is a very cool piece of gear.