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

July 17, 2018

#258

Gentle reader,

I have written extensively, since starting this humble blogging experience, about my numerous stereo equipment iterations. It all began when I was not long out of high school in the mid-1970's when my new friend, Philip showed me his stereo. I was SO impressed with it that I went home and looked at my plastic suitcase stereo and whimpered.

I attempted to relive that experience by buying similar equipment that I had in the beginning: Dynaco PAT-5 preamplifier, two SWTPC Tiger .01 mono power amps, two Dynaco A25 speakers and a B.I.C 940 turntable. I wrote several chapters that started here:

BACK to: My First Stereo 1976 Dynaco PAT-5 SWTPC Tiger 01  

I have kept others up to date with my pursuit of audio nirvana since then by photographing the various stages and writing about them on this site. Here is my page with links to every article I have written on the subject. They show many of the HUNDREDS of components and speakers that I have tested and enjoyed.

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

Components seen in these photographs have likely been written about in depth in articles you can see a link for on the page linked above.

I've decided to do this in multiple parts. I have too many pictures, (well, my last article had 91 and it is still drawing readers, over 1,000 so far) so I'll see if I can choose a logical stopping place.

I did not own a camera until my first child was born in 1980. Photographing my stereo was not a priority then, to say the least. Photos above and below are after that marriage ended. Above is my original Dynaco PAT-5 plus other components I had found locally in the previous years. The Dynaco A25s were still in use then too. No such thing as eBay in 1995. Well, the Internet existed, but most people would have had no idea what "the Internet" was if you asked them. No digital cameras then either. The first several photos are from film cameras.

A closer view of the components still do not yield their identities. The integrated amp was acting as a power amplifier.

I built that cabinet myself from white walnut from a tree that my girlfriend's father had felled himself. He had it rough cut at a lumber yard. He taught me how to plane and join wood and more. The tall white book next to the center stack is The Audio Alternative by Mark Tobak. It was the guide that helped me choose my first components. As you can see, I was into things Asian then too.

This photo was made with a Polaroid Captiva camera and is from this Century. That's Aires, a "mitten-kitten" slipping from behind the reel-to-reel. Cats we have now still love to try to get behind records and equipment.

I had forgotten that there was a time when I had TWO complete stereos in here, one in the living room and one in here, my "home office". Same cabinet, above and below, but this is in this house, so post-2001. Note my long desired Dynaco Stereo-400 power amplifier. Above it is a ROTEL power amp I found at a flea market. I no longer have the model number. Right stack is a Techniques cassette deck, an RCA CD changer and given-to-me Pioneer CD recorder.

I do not recall the turntable in either of these photos. Also above is the beginning of my 1:18th scale diecast car collection.

Above and below shows a rack that I bought to house the living room stereo. As you can see, I had acquired some Mitsubishi DA (dual-audio or dual-mono) components and added the ST-400 to them.

Then, it all changed.

Above is the new and still-in-use-to-this-day steel and glass component table which I bought for the living room stereo. A Denon CD player, JVC 3-head cassette deck and ADC equalizer, plus the power conditioner seen in the rack. Date was April, 2006.

Above is one of the Radio Shack Optimus PRO 4000 speakers I found in a thrift store. Fifteen inch woofers. Not Mach-One quality of sound, but my first with 15" woofers. My wife bought me a pair of BOSE 301 speakers hoping I would stop using these in the living room. It didn't happen. But I use them daily in here.

The rack is now had moved to this room, at bottom is a Dual-Mono Dynaco Stereo 120 power amplifier. Incredibly heavy creation!

Above and below are film photographs. Note the houseplants my wife felt needed to sit atop electronics. Limited space on this wall of the living room for proper speaker placement. From June, 2006. 

Note the analog KLH tick-and-pop eliminator. It detects ticks and pops on records and blocks the noise somehow, It's been a while since it left. A ROTEL CD player is there and and an Adcom tuner has joined it's siblings.

About, those are Adcom components, I found the trio: GFP-565 preamp, GFA-585 250 WPC power amp and ACE-515 power conditioner at Salvation Army all THREE for $149.99! Oh, above is a digital photo. You can see that 6 megapixels is nothing compared to 35mm film for detail.

JVC cassette deck has re-joined the gang. I don't remember the brand of the equalizer. That's the last Radio Shack power meters they made, now using LEDs instead of analog meters. Switchable from 0 to 2 watts or 2 to 200 watts. Date, July, 2006.

Halloween, 2007, for this photo and we are back in this room. I Sold the rack off on eBay. Coustic equalizer under the ST-400. Atop that is the first of three versions of the "new" Dynaco company of the 1990's, their five-channel update of the Dynaquad four channel device of the 1970's. Above that, I added the meters from a Radio Shack APM-100 to a black box, and a switch and three-way posts to make a speaker switch/meter combo.

White Van Speakers are seen below with my Dynaco A25s atop them. I had not heard of WVS until some years after finding these at a thrift store. They sounded OK to me.

Note the color and top/bottom edges shape of my PAT-5 compared to FM-5 which is older.

I stacked these for a photo. Soon after, I had sold them off. End of an era. November, 2007.

More than a year later, now I've fully embraced the Dark Side. A smaller Denon turntable than the other system. Atop that is the Insignia HD Radio tuner. Also Denon: tuner, preamp and Kenwood Basic power amp. MXR equalizer with solid walnut end caps, Denon: universal player (I've gotten into SACDs), 3-head cassette deck and CD player. December, 2008. A great "Denon-stration".

Six days later, even I do not question why my wife gave up trying to figure out how to put some music on, this living room system. Denon DP-23F turntable which I still have, same Adcom tuner and other units. Samsung universal player atop ROTEL CD player and JVC 3-head cassette deck. Right side, I've added a second ACE-515 power conditioner. Otherwise unchanged.

13 months later, January, 2009. Insignia HD Radio tuner from the office replaced the Adcom tuner. Denon DCD-690 CD player atop the same universal player, with same brand cassette deck. Right stack now has MXR equalizer less walnut sides, KLH is still there as is Pioneer CD-R.

Again, 13 months later, February, 2010. Big changes as you can see. Adcom power amp melted voicecoil of left Optimus speaker. I sold that amp for parts for same price paid for all three units many years ago. I did not trust it after the meltdown. I found DCM speakers at local pawn shop. American made! KLH tick-pop remover has moved on to a new home, too.

Top of unit, left has same TT, I've added a speaker switch which I modified to accept vertical 3/4" double-banana plugs, it is atop the LED meter. SONY SACD changer atop Denon CD changer. Note on shelf above them that I scored a complete Discwasher system. Those are the BEST headphones I've ever had, next to it. Audio-Technica units that were JDM for the longest time. Read about them, tried a pair and never went back to clamping headphones.

A Kenwood THX certified power amp replaced the huge Adcom beast. Aside from the missing KLH, the right side is unchanged.

One month later, the DCM speakers have been replaced by a pair of LYRIC models I found in a thrift shop. I completely overhauled them with (POLK) EOSONE components. Below is with the grilles off. Equalizer is gone as well.

I did a step-by-step article on the restomodding of those LYRIC speakers at the time. This is the last photo of the system in the living room: March 26, 2010. 
We had converted what was the original master bedroom when we bought this place, but was one of the girl's rooms into a Den with the HDTV and surround system. It was a simple setup with small Infinity speakers and a subwoofer. Bare walls with IKEA chairs and leg rests and not much more.
After some time of us using the den for TV needs, I asked my wife, "What do you think of the idea of moving the stereo in here and the TV back to the living room?" "I would LOVE it!" So, I did.

This is a good place to stop. Next time, the den gets more and more filled with goodies of all sorts. She calls it my man cave, I prefer: Listening Room.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Scott

July 17, 2018