May 2, 2019
#306
Gentle reader,
Thank you once again for taking the time to read my humble blog. I never thought anyone would be interested in what I wrote and photographed. You have proven me wrong.
In our home growing up, music was often playing. Dad had a fairly nice stereo with KLH 17 speakers. I do not remember what else he had.
I did not have a camera until the early 1980's when my first son was born, a JCPenney 110 camera. But taking photos of my equipment never crossed my mind then.
NOTE: If you are viewing this on a computer, clicking on any picture will open a second window over this one. You click through or use your right and left arrow keys to look at the photos. They will be larger than seen here. If you are viewing it on a device such as a phone or tablet, I do not know if that works the same way.
This article deals ONLY with the main stereo that was usually in the living room. I had two systems most of the time since 2001. I will not show any photos except the main stereo.
A couple years ago I did an article which showed the transformation from den to listening room. You may read it also by clicking:
The Transformation from Den to Audio Man Cave. In many crazy steps!
The film image below is from the basement I rented from a buddy after divorcing in 1993. It is the first photo of my stereo. Even then, I had an interest in Asian art and Bonsai trees.
These photos dates from after April, 1995 (when I bought my first 35mm camera) almost twenty years after building the Dynaco PAT-5 seen here (half hidden behind pots). There is one of the Dynaco A25 speakers I had bought as floor samples from Dixie HiFi. The two SWTPC Tiger .01 mono power amps, which I also built from kits in 1976, stopped working before then, so I gave them to a coworker. The B.I.C. 940 turntable is also long gone. The integrated amp, shown, was serving as a power amp. I don't have any idea now where I got the FM-5 tuner and two cassette decks, most likely thrift stores.
A little time has passed, the PAT-5 lost one channel, so it was put in a closet. That shows my first CD player. After a while it stopped reading discs and the repair shop told me replacing the laser would cost more than a new CD player.
Much time has passed, this is after 2001 when we bought this house. I bought this rack and center-mount rack shelves since it made for a small footprint in the living room. I had joined eBay in 1998 and much of what you see here came via it. Mitsubishi Dual Mono equipment and the always-wanted-to-have, a Dynaco ST-400 power amp.
I bought a glass and steel shelve meant for 52" flat screen TVs and filled it with equipment. I then had a complete set of Mitsubishi DA equipment. Behind the meter at the bottom is their 150 WPC power amp. The ST-400 had moved to the system in my "home office".
During the halcyon days of thrift store finds, someone donated the three Adcom pieces seen here. All three for $149! I couldn't grab a shopping cart fast enough! The turntable is a Denon DP-23F, first time seen in the system. That KLH device is an analog "tick and pop" eliminator for playing noisy LPs. It worked very well, too. A coworker gave me that Pioneer CD recorder. An equalizer has joined in. Oh, yes, I DID remove the plants before turning anything on. The yellow post-in notes were directions for my wife in operating the system. She eventually gave up trying to do so.
I thought that was an Adcom tuner atop the preamp. But I am incorrect, perhaps an Onkyo? JVC cassette deck is my first with three heads. I think that is a Realistic equalizer.
Now, there is an Adcom tuner. And a second ACE-515 power conditioner. Also new is a Samsung universal player. A Coustic equalizer in now there.
Adcom tuner is gone and an Insignia HD Radio tuner took it's place. I was an early adopter of HD Radio. I am listening to one right now. Gone also is the Samsung and possibly a Denon took it's place. Now a MXR equalizer was being used. Below shows the first time the LED light for the turntable is seen.
These two photos include speakers, DCMs (above) that I found in a pawn shop. I can't quite tell the brands of 5-disc changers. One may be a SONY SACD player, the other a Denon? Gone is the beastly 500 watt Adcom power amp. The left channel melted the woofer's voice coil on a super-rare pair of speakers. I sold it as-is for the same price I paid for all three. A Kenwood KM-X1000 THX Certified power amp replaces it. NOTE that the rack/table now has casters under it.
DCMs had found a new home by this time. Those are cheap LYRIC speaker cabinets, I replaced all the components with EOSONE parts. I had separated the changers. Am no longer using an equalizer. I was right in both changer cases (above). Now a Denon 3-head cassette deck had replaced the JVC.
MAJOR changes. Once the kids stopped moving back in, we painted what was the original master bedroom and made it into a "home theater", in quotes because it was far from it. Again, clicking on this link: The Transformation from Den to Audio Man Cave. In many crazy steps!
will show the room in that state and many more photos. The stereo was at that time alone in the living room. After a few weeks I asked my wife if she'd prefer to have the TV, etcetera, back in the living room. She readily agreed. Thus began the listening room. That was May, 2010. The BOSE 301 speakers you see here are what my wife bought for me hoping I wouldn't use the big speakers (which they are sitting on) in the living room. I did not. But once I got them setup similarly to how BOSE 901s are supposed to be used, they surprised me. I hated that chair. Someone was tossing it because it was broken. I should have let him continue to do so.
Here is where the system sat for years on the left wall, reachable from my chair, barely. I don't see any difference in the components yet. The door was too narrow to fit the table through, the glass top is too wide. So, I had to remove all those components and turn in on it's side to get it through the bedroom door.
My first Panor-era Dynaco component! A QD-1 Series IIL. An improvement to five channels of the 1970's Dynaquad. I no longer am using the LED audio power meter at this time. No other changes that I can see.
I show you this photo for one reason: In July, 2012, I decided to add a SECOND system to the listening room. A six-channel one for playing SACDs and DVD-Audio multi-channel discs. I also separated the power amplifier from the rest of the system. This teak table, originally made to hold a stereo with LP storage below, sat in front of me. I had no where else to put the subwoofer.
The second ACE-515 now supplied the second system. Bottom right is SONY's first DVD player that also played their new SACD format. It was over $1,000 new. $9.00 and it came home with me! Also, there is a dual cassette, something I disdain. At least it was a Denon. ALSO note the red and blue interconnect cables. I replaced all my interconnects with Liberty Cable brand THX Certified ones.
SONY DAT deck was a thrift store find, but it had issues. Also new is the Nakamichi CD changer. Dual-Denon is gone and JVC cassette is back.
Here is a closer look at the Kenwood power amp and LED meters. Also shown is a super rare speaker selector, Legend LE-412. I have only seen one other and it was for four speakers. Those are isolation padding beneath the amp's feet.
Speaking of feet, I experimented with various rubber feet to "isolate" the equipment from vibration. Couldn't tell if it made a difference. That's why everything appears to be on tiptoes.
That's a Yamaha universal player on the top-right. Bottom right is a TDK dual tray CD recorder. I sold the single disc Pioneer CDR after getting this one. An equalizer, this one I know is a Realistic, is back.
Then it all came tumbling down. I decided it was silly to have two systems and took everything apart. A tiny fraction of the speakers I have owned are shown here. Note all the cables..... Not one of those speaker cables or wires do I now use.
Someone at work had thrown out two convoluted foam padded boxes. I decided they would be dandy at preventing bass from bouncing out of the corners. Not sure if they worked, but they stood there for years.
TWO things, first, the Asian rug, barely visible, I had found for the room has been there for a while, but I had not mentioned before now.
Second, the system has now been moved to in front of me.
Oh! Seen in the lower left is my second piece of Panor-era Dynaco equipment, a ST-200, 100 WPC power amp!
Top left is a SONY Digital Processing Control Amplifier, model 1000ESD. It came and went. An OPPO universal player, first of many, has replaced any previous ones.
The Dynaco ST-200 has moved to the top. OPPO to the bottom. Now I'm using a Yamaha C-45 preamplifier. Those are Monster Cable M-Series speaker cables which have grey sleeves. Atop my Cerwin-Vega! (that's how their badges read) LS-12 speakers are my first Minimus 7W speakers. I'd had numerous small Radio Shack-sold diecast ones, but not wooden models. On the platforms that once held the BOSE 301s and Polk speakers, now sit a pair of AR speakers and the Minimus 11 restomodded speakers I created. My first ribbon speakers, Optimus LX5s are not in the system at that point.
A simple rearrangement of the components in this photo. Same components. I simply can't understand why my wife says, "You keep changing things!" ;-)
I don't remember how PROTON components caught my eye, but this was the first of several that I've had, the D540 integrated amplifier. I bought it to use as a preamp, but at the time if this photo, I was using as designed: integrated.
Now it is being used as a preamplifier. I found that my ST-200's left channel would cut out. A whisper fan (with filter I added) did the trick to keep it cool.
Ah, first photos of my ten dollar Klipsch KG4 speakers. On the shelves are the modified Minimus 11 and next to them the modified Minimus 7Ws which I still have. Now a PROTON 1100 preamplifier takes the place of the D540 integrated amp.
By now it was August, 2017. I decided to try and replicate my original 1976 stereo. I wrote about that and many of the things you have seen here in these pages. More of the Asian rug can be seen. Some wonderful things are donated to thrift stores.
That is a circa-1975 Dynaco PAT-5 preamp and since I could not find any working SWTPC Tiger amps, I settled for this stereo amp, 35 WPC, instead. Both channels in the same sized chassis as one mono amp. It was the dustiest piece of equipment I had ever seen, but it still worked. I was waiting to find a reasonably priced pair of Dynaco A25 speakers.....
Found one, I did, but not a second. Then I scored this PAIR of Dynaco A25XLs which are much more rare and 3 decibels more efficient (the same as doubling your power amp's output) for $99.00! SWTPC has moved up by the Dynaco ST-200 amp and a LUXMAN turntable on folding pine wall shelf supplies the music to the vintage components.
Solo A25 previously mentioned now seen. I set it up to use as a MONO system with the vintage components and LUXMAN TT. A25 looks like it is leaning, but it is an optical delusion. Yes, that was a play-on-words joke.
ALSO, a major change is that I had removed all of the fancy components and replaced them with ONE: A PROTON AC-3000 all-in-one: Receiver, CD player and cassette deck. Heavy beast. They went for big bucks when new.
Now, it gets a little weird. "Now?" you may be thinking. I ditched the vintage (PAT-5, SWTPC amp) components and have TWO systems again, one with a PROTON D540 and the Denon turntable and other sources drive the Klipsch speakers. The PROTON AC-3000 and LUXMAN turntable drive the Dynaco speakers. With both turntables on the top shelf.
Once again, the separate components are back. The AC-3000 has moved to this room, the home office. The solo A25 eventually goes to someone else's house. I had to unplug one turntable and plug the other one in. Not an efficient way to do that switching.
I'm still using the PROTON preamp, but have added a super-rare Dynaco QD-2 to the system. The LUXMAN is gone. Using the A25XLs as rear channel speakers. It worked quite well when playing Quadraphonic LP records and enhanced stereo ones too.
Here is a much closer look at the system's components. Note the PROJECT phono preamplifier by the turntable. I thought the PROTON preamp's phono circuit had a problem, the woofers were visibly moving. Turns out that the Loudness switch was on and that was the real problem!
This is a wide angle view of the room and my faded and threadbare Barcalounger wingback recliner. At that point, the A25XLs were sitting on the floor, the right one hindered by the table and it's contents.
See the record cover leaning on the system rack? I found that Dynaco LP locally and wanted to experiment which is why I bought the QD-2. The QD-2 is superior to previous models by having three-way binding/banana terminals.
You can see just how much Asian art has joined the crowded room.
Ah! The final Panor-era Dynaco component has joined the permanent system. A PAT-6 Preamp-tuner. I was SO excited to score it! I had hesitated in the past because they were so expensive and did not have enough inputs and only one set of tape/CDR inputs and outputs. But I overcame that handicap. Plus, this one was affordable.
The MOST major and difficult changes to the room. I moved the system to the right side where the massive LP shelf once sat and stuck into the room. It is now front-and-center and a pleasure to look at.
The QD-2 has been removed and both sets of speakers sport bamboo risers, all of which were made as stools originally. Both are close matches for their respective burden's coloration.
The room in general looks and works so much better now. The PAT-6 has a remote so I can now control everything from my chair.
The sound is better since the speakers are further into the room. All four were laser-aimed at the center of my chair to form the "sweet spot".
The artwork looks better too. The whole room seems larger and breathes better.
I rotated the Asian rug 90 degrees which works better too. The tassels are no longer being messed up. Yes, the rack/table is level, the casters in the back are height adjustable and I level the turntable separately with thin rubber shims.
I made a set of cassette mix tapes for my oldest grandson, using all of the blank cassettes in the process. He got into classic rock music after seeing the movie about Queen. I found an old cassette "Bang" box and gave it, the tapes and a portable cassette/radio player to him for Christmas. He was thrilled! So, I no longer needed input cables for the cassette deck, only the CDR. As far as their output, I use a SONY A/V RCA switcher, seen atop the PAT-6. Prior to this, I used it to switch the two turntables. They are abundant and pass the signals with no noise.
Also, a black OPPO DV-980H is now in place of the previous black one. I have two identical ones, the other for the stereo next to me in this room.
Lastly, I replaced the whisper fan with a dual fan system case fan which sits atop the ST-200. Can't hear any sound from it and I added black filtration to the top to keep the dust out of my amplifier. And it looks much better.
An overhead view of the system clearly shows the SONY switch. I use the same reusable adhesive (QuakeHold!) to hold the SONY switch in place which also holds the speakers to their stands.
Note the many pieces of record cleaning things I have. Don't get me started on record cleaning. I would have to do a YouTube video about it.
The FINAL iteration of the system! I found that some of my DVD-Audio discs require choosing the player's stereo or surround sound output to play them. So a wee 7" TV does the trick. I keep the PAT-6 and OPPO player plugged into the two ACE-515's unswitched terminals. That way the settings for both are not lost when they are off. Shown below in photos of the back of the system.
I had to unplug the Monster Cable Z-Series speaker cables from the ST-200 power amp to get the rack far enough away to get these photos.
I AM a believer in quality cabling. Not expensive, but quality. Most, except the red and black ones, are top-of-the-line Monster Cable interconnects. I don't remember their model numbers.
The red and black cables are from China but made with Japanese cable. Quite reasonable in price, I'm pretty sure I wrote about them in these pages. CD player and output from the A/V switch are their sources.
Thicker blue ones are from the turntable and are all that are left from my Liberty Cable days. They have very low capacitance.
This photo highlights the PANGEA AC-14 power cables that supply the two Dynaco components and the OPPO universal player. Fine AC power cables at a very reasonable price.
Here is a closeup of the care I took to keep the signal cables apart from the AC cords and cables.
This picture shows the multi-colored wiring (at the top, right) which supplies the former speaker switch which now chooses the correct pair of speakers for the audio power meters to monitor. The yellow shrink sleeves are labels as to what wire goes where. OCD? Me? What are you kidding?
And this final closeup shows the AC power box I made for the OPPO and Dynaco preamp to plug into. As I said, I used Belden shielded "audiophile" cable to construct it. It and the tan power strip occupy the two unswitched outlets on each of the Adcom ACE-515 power conditioners.
As mentioned, the PAT-6 does not have any AC terminals on it. This was to me and my long arms, anyway, a convenient way to overcome that problem and turn on the ACE-515s. THEY then supply power to all of the components. Though unswitched, all of the terminals are all protected and conditioned by the ACES.
That's it! I hope you enjoyed seeing this encapsulated look at many years work which finally led me to this day and my supreme happiness with my listening room system.
Thank you once again for reading my humble words and viewing my images. Your kind words and comments are what keep me cranking out these articles.
Scott
May 2, 2019
#306
Thanks for share your blog here .
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