Final Chapter. Forty-Plus-Year Adventures with Vintage Dynaco Stereo Equipment and More!

July 22, 2018

#263

Gentle reader,

Well, this is it: The final chapter showcasing the crazy ride I've been on. I am have striven to show that acquiring components and speakers is a good thing. In my case, I never collected just to amass a collection. I don't have the room and feel that thing which were made to DO something should be employed as such. While stacks of speakers are impressive, listening to them is more so. I was often trying new things to see/hear if they improved the sound. If they did, I kept them and enjoyed them. The rest went to new homes. 

For those readers new to blogger.com, when viewing on a PC or MAC, clicking on any photo will open a window in front of this page. One can stroll through the photos either by clicking or the left/right arrow keys.

Here is a link to the previous chapter:

Forty-Plus-Year Adventures with Vintage Dynaco Stereo Equipment and More! PART FOUR


And here is a link to a list of EVERY article I have written of all-matters related to listening to music. Each article is listed like these links. Oldest at the top and newest at the bottom. Thus, the links are easy to read to help you decide which you will enjoy next.

EVERY Blog Article I Have Ever Written and Illustrated About Stereo Equipment and Speakers Galore!

Have I regretted passing things on to the next guy? Absolutely. In fact, the resurgence of interest in things analog has fueled a price increase on things I had sold for far less money back then. Thus, I can no longer afford what I once owned. Not just stereo equipment, but film cameras and lenses and more. There ought to be a book......

Speaking of analog...I found this image on the web. I have been enjoying reading it. A great read, there is a lot more "analog" things than I would have thought of. This is an excellent book.

Below, is what the room looked like in July, 2017:  

The ONLY change from a few days earlier, is a significant one. I finally found a PROTON preamplifier! It is the 1100 model, and I got it for a great price. Below is the front of it:

No shortage of inputs, it has the ability to record one thing while listening to another. Has a rumble (infrasonic) filter and even bass equalization. The last only for use with speakers with small woofers. On the back are switches for MM or MC cartridges and three choices of capacitance too! Plus a second pair of outputs marked "High Level". Since I could never find a manual, that one's exact purpose remains unknown.

 Then, these happened: Klipsch KG4 speakers! $9.99!

The came with risers on them, one of which had some veneer missing. Plus, the glue had failed on one and the base was no longer attached to the plastic brackets. I used those loose brackets mounted under the front to tilt the speakers upward and then sought a better solution. An extensive search led me to these bamboo step stools, seen below. Made for kids, they seemed ideal to get those horn tweeters nearer to ear level when I sat in my chair.

Another significant change occurred. See silver things above? Yep, this photo shows my first attempt to recreate my first stereo from 1976. I wrote all about that. A Dynaco PAT-5 preamp and all the SWTPC Tiger .01 mono power amps that I was finding did not work, I found a stereo version of them in the form of a 35 WPC amp all in the same size and type of chassis the Tiger 60 watt mono amp resides. Above the right speaker is a folding wooden shelf I put a LUXMAN turntable on for the 1976 stereo. Better, by far, than the B.I.C 940 unit I originally had, there was no room for it and the components.

But, I still needed Dynaco speakers. eBay had many A25 models, but they were all more than I wanted to spend. But there was a pair of A25XLs at $99. and no one was bidding on them! I bid and won! Sadly, one of the tweeters separated during transit......

Some rearranging moved the PAT-5 down and the SWTPC up next to the ST-200. The shelf and turntable was moved to the front wall.

A search on line found me one A25XL tweeter in Poland, of all places! It cost me and took a while to get here, but it works and was worth it.

Sonic totem poles.

I forgot to mention, I had bought ONE A25 speaker, a vinyl veneered version, but all the other solo models were still expensive. I decided to make a MONO system with it. I used my spare PROTON D540 as the amplifier for it. Look closely, it's beneath the ST-200 and to the left of the chrome faced SWTPC amp. Getting a bit crowded now.

WOW! What happened? An experiment in simplicity. Note how suddenly empty the shelves are. One of PROTON's most expensive components was their AI-3000 all-in-one-receiver-CD-cassette player. Retailed for $1,300 when it came out. VERY heavy unit. This one like so many was missing the fold-down door at the bottom that covered the less-used controls. 
My Denon turntable was the only external source for the PROTON. The LUXMAN turntable and JVC cassette were sources for the Dynaco, since CDs were far from being invented in 1976. 
PROTON had a whopping 22.5 WPC, which was plenty for the Klipsch KG4 speakers, being so efficient. Dynaco speakers were still attached to the Dynaco vintage system. Another whole article covered this HUGE change.

Halloween, 2017 coincided with the disassembly of the mono system AND the 1976 system, too. The PROTON is now being used with the LUXMAN turntable and powers the A25XLs while the rest of the stereo components are back, playing through the Klipsch KG4s.

Ten days later, the original system has been restored to it's places. To switch turntables, I unplugged one and plugged in the other. Kind of silly. The A25 is just a space filler now.

Here is the back, where I can use them, I have PANGEA power cables. I was still using both sets of BLE Design speaker cables. The only Liberty Cables cable that remains is for the Denon turntable. All the rest of the interconnects are high quality ones, mainly top of the Monster Cable line.

A random search on eBay for Panor-era Dynaco products revealed someone was selling their QD-2! The only "modern" Dynaco product that I could afford new was their updated version of the 1973 Dynaquad. The QD-1 Series II added a center channel and one could switch it out, listen to just the fronts or just the rear speakers. The QD-2 was their ultimate version with proper 3-way binding/banana posts on it. It sits right between the preamp and power amp.

The Dynaco A25XLs serve as the surround channels and face both sides of my chair. This was taken April 2nd, 2018. We're almost done!

Young grandkids are spending more time here lately, so all speaker grilles (8 total) are back in place for good. The flash washes out the color of my old Barcalounger wingback recliner. Now, you can see the overall picture of the room and surround speakers placement.

Because I'd expanded via the QD-2, all the BLE Design speakers cables were too short. So, I sadly passed them on to others. At this point, I had to move the Monster Cable Z-Series from upper to lower or vice versa with the front speakers. 

Also, note the Advent Baby Advent II speakers that I renovated are shown in situ for the first time in the photo above.

Most important and I believe, the FINAL change, is I finally scored a Panor-era Dynaco PAT-6 preamplifier-tuner. 
The PAT-5 Series II preamp they teased us with was never offered for sale. This beauty was their top-of-the-line and a SCORE at $89.00 from the original owner. I even have the manual and remote! So, that top row is ALL black Dynaco! The sound is SUPERB! 

The Baby Advents, which I replaced the cheap crossovers with not-cheap ones from Parts Express and replaced the spring terminals with 3-way binding/banana terminal, as well as their new foam kit   have   brought   those   long-throw   woofers   to   life!   I   never   would have thought these Latter-Day-Advent speakers would have been capable of such dynamic music. But they are.

The Babies being less efficient than the A25XLs means I can now hear the surround speakers better. The Klipsch KG4s serve as the "B" speakers. Below is the latest photo of the room, to avoid flash glare, I took the shot from an angle. I was using a camera I don't often try. So the flash was quite bright on the picture above the rifle's stock.
I now have two pair of Monster Cable Z-Series speaker cables for the front speakers. The "umbilical cord" cables serve well for the surround speakers.

I know I've said it many times, but I believe that I am finally done!  

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my humble blog. Keep on listening! 

Scott

July 22, 2018
#263