The Other Stereo. The One I Use Far More Often Than The Listening Room.

May 8, 2019

#309

Gentle reader,

I've been in a writing mood lately. My previous stereo post was this one:  Forty Three Plus Years Perfecting My Home Stereo System Dynaco to Dynaco Quality Cables

It dealt with photos showing just the Listening Room stereo system (mostly without speakers showing) and the changes I'd made over the years and captured on film or digitally.

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. 

Now, I spend a lot of time, more so these last three years, sitting right where I am now, typing on the PC. Like you perhaps, I have more than one music system in the house. 

I've never been an audio equipment collector, having collected hundreds of film cameras taught me that unless I am using something, there is no point to having it just to have it. Thus, I sold off 95 percent of the collection. I am not poo-pooing your collection, that is your choice. Also we do not have the room to store big things like speakers and components.

That being said, I have usually had a complete stereo in this room we refer to as "the office". Originally, we were going to have two desks in here facing each other like on the old Dragnet TV series. That didn't happen. Now she has the room next door as her woman cave. 

This image from 2005 shows the walnut cabinet I made when I was 19 with help, and wood, from my girlfriend's father. It is made from white walnut, the trees that grow edible walnuts. This was 1975 or 76. Now, that shelf is fully occupied with a portion of my LP collection. And a cabinet rests on the top.

You can see the monitor and part of my desk and chair in the lower left corner of the image. So, that is where I am sitting right now. 

Still working since 1976, at the time of the photos, was the Dynaco PAT-5 I built as a kit.  That's a JVC turntable. Radio Shack APM-100 meters sit atop a Rotel RB-980BX power amp I found at a flea market and bought for $20 based upon the seller stating that it worked. It did. Below that is, of course, the long-sought-after-by-me, Dynaco Stereo 400 power amp. Atop the Dynaco FM-5 tuner in the middle, sits a Radio Shack APM-500 meter. A Technics cassette deck, a RCA CD changer and the Pioneer CD recorder my coworker gave me.

Long before I had heard about the infamous "White Van" speakers, I bought those black ones from an antiques store. They sounded OK to me. Atop those are the 1970's Dynaco A25 speakers which were my first ones in 1976. They were floor models and I found out DECADES later that one did not have SEAS drivers in it. Nope, they had exchanged them with some generic ones and stuffed the cabinet with fiberglass. So much for my "golden ears". I never heard a difference. Then one day, I heard a scratchiness from one woofer. I pried off (Dynaco glued on the grilles at the factory) the grille and that's when I realized Dixie HiFi had screwed me.

This picture was back in 2006. If you've read my previous article, you have seen this rack. Looks like the same cassette deck. Philips Magnavox CD changer and a TEAC equalizer plus the dual-mono Dynaco ST-120 amp are the other differences. What? Dual mono Dynaco? No way!

Here is a full height view of the rack. A much larger image file.

Didn't believe me about the dual-mono ST-120? Here's the insides of it. Heavy sucker!

The quality of some images is poor because I did not have large hard drives then. So they are small JPEG files. That is a Coustic brand equalizer.

My first 1990's Panor-era, Dynaco component sits atop the ST-400, a QD-1 Series II five channel home theater system. Above that is a speaker switch/meter combo that I made.

My PAT-5 was from the new-look era at Dynaco, silver instead of champagne gold and no longer beveled top and bottom of the faceplate. Wooden shelf I cobbled together did the trick.

Stacked only for the photograph. One should never put something atop a power amplifier, they get right warm.

2008 and I have gone to the Dark Side. Six, count 'em, six Denon components in those stacks. Also, then I have more records.

Denon DP-7F turntable to which I added larger feet. An Insignia HD-Radio tuner atop a Denon TU-600 tuner which rested upon a Denon PRA-1200 preamp. Beneath that is a Kenwood Basic M1 power amp. Next stack has a MXR equalizer with solid black walnut end caps. Below that is one of many Denon universal disc players I have had and next down is a Denon 3-head cassette deck and then a Denon CD player, model DCD-690.

I had stopped using the top of the shelf for the stereo and, as now, have a stack atop the top shelf of my desk. These are all Onkyo R1 models with my first OPPO universal player atop it. Tape deck is a TA-2120, tuner is T-401 and integrated amp is model number A-RV401.

Then, I came across PROTON. Believe it or not, this all-in-one AI-3000 unit sold for $1,300 back in 1988, it included two small speakers. That is over $2,850 today! CD, cassette, tuner and integrated amp all-in-one. Most of them I've seen and the second model which had a better CD player and larger transformer, lost their fold down door across the bottom. People must have bought them because there are plenty on the used market. I had three. Used, not new!

As I've mentioned in the past, my wife, that's her next to the "Flight Stimulator" poster, bought me a pair of BOSE 301s, the latest models, hoping I would stop using the large (15" woofers) speakers in the living room. I didn't, but once I did set them up somewhere else in the house, their sound surprised me. And still does.
I wrote an article about how I mounted them as you see them, in this room, many people have read it and followed my suggestions.

We're up to 2017 now, this is a Pioneer VSX-917V 7.1 channel receiver I found in a thrift store with another of the many Denon universal disc players. Look at how thick the manual is for the thing. One shouldn't place a heavy component atop another, and I did not use the 917 very long before passing it on to another owner.

The Yamaha RX-496 that I have been using for two years in here and the same Denon, which is no longer mine. The 496 was missing two knobs, but on eBay the day I bought it were the exact two knobs I needed. Paid more for them than the receiver.
Starting May 12th, that receiver will be on eBay starting at a bargain price. rfcollectin on eBay is my seller's page.

Here's the back of it. Super clean inside and out. Plays perfectly. I just replaced it with a filthy AX-500U I bought via eBay. I use an Insignia HD-Radio as a tuner and thus the receiver was not being used to it's full potential.

We have a number of cassettes from our pre-CD days, which I began playing when I had those PROTON AI-3000 units in here. So, I began looking at cassette decks. This Fisher is one of the few black ones that have VU meters. They made three that are almost identical with different model numbers.

It had been on eBay for sometime and not selling. I found out why when it arrived. This one was part of a set, integrated (100 WPC) amp, tuner and this deck that Fisher sold as a set. The latter two used AC power from the amp. 

That did not stop me! I have a big selection of "wall wart" transformers kept from electronics that failed over the years and one that is marked 16 VAC put out over 20 volts unloaded, it works perfectly.

Speaking of Fisher, I wanted a classic chrome and wood receiver. This 35 WPC model was a good price.

I cleaned it up inside and out and replaced the faceplate as it was scratched.

I also converted the tiny spring speaker terminals with this set of three-way binding/banana terminals. 
The cassette played through the Fisher, the universal player through the Yamaha.

Aside from the BOSE 301s, there are three other pairs of speakers in here. Crazy, right?

A pair of really nice Cerwin-Vega! LS-12s, the only CVs I've ever found in the wild, they and those on top which are directly beneath the BOSEs.

I completely overhauled a pair of Radio Shack Minimus 7W speakers with new crossover kits via a seller that came up with the kits, woven Kevlar woofers from a pair of Optimus PRO-LX4 speakers and ribbon tweeters from Dayton Audio. The emblem on the grilles read: Limited Edition, and they are. 
Below them are a pair of LX4s with their Linaeum ribbon tweeters. The LX4s bass goes deeper, they are ported, but the 7Ws tweeters reach higher. I run them together for superb sound.

This is a panorama shot stitched together from four shots which is why the angles are so odd. Pretty cool, huh? I love Photoshop.

 

This is the stack (above) with the JAMO speaker switch I found on eBay. An excellent switch with three-way binding/banana terminals with inputs for TWO amps and outputs for four pairs of speakers. All are resistor matched so that all four can be used at once with no danger to the amp.
An Insignia HD-Radio which acts as a tuner  on the very top. One of two identical OPPO DV-980H universal players, the twin is in the listening room system. And as you can see, the Yamaha has all of it's knobs. 

Now we come to the present. The ugly but well functioning AX-500U integrated amp I mentioned. Below, you can see I have proper labels on the JAMO switch.

Just look how filthy inside this amp is! It works perfectly and there are no noisy controls, so I consider it patina. I cleaned the outside by alternating stainless steel cleaner and glass cleaner.

Back of the stack. I use good quality cabling in here as well as in the other systems in the house. The "U" jumpers are for use with an external processor such as an equalizer.

Something I bought had those two shorting plugs on it. Once I learned what they were for, I have used them in the Phono terminals ever since.

You may have been wondering where the speaker cables were going two pictures up? Well, now you can see. 
The cables are so heavy, they're all 10 gauge, that they will pull the speaker switch right off of the stack.
My wife saw this, uh, arrangement and shook her head, then turned around and left the room.
Hey, it does the trick and I am using a couple of camera straps that I just knew would come in handy someday. 






You can probably guess where I retired from by some of the photos in this shot, and it's not sports car racing. 35 years of what often felt like a sentence, working on subway cars. 
Don't get me wrong, it was a great job and thanks to God, I had a good paying job with great benefits and a pension. Sadly something most Americans do not and will not ever have.



I want to thank you for once again taking the time to read my humble words and view my images. It is your kind words and comments that keep me cranking the stories out.


Scott
May 8, 2019
#309

 

Mourning the Death of Shutterbug and Popular Photography Magazines. Their Articles on Classic Cameras.

May 6, 2019

#308

Gentle reader,

It's been a while since I've written anything about classic film cameras. Mainly because, aside from nine still cameras and two movie cameras, most of which were gifts, and my Voigtlander Bessa R, which come to think of it, my wife gave to me for my birthday, I have no more collection.


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.

My camera articles are the most popular by far in this blog series, and I have you to thank for that. I did not have a "real" camera until April, 1995 when I visited a pawn shop for the first time and picked out an Olympus OM-10 with a 50mm lens and a generic flash.

Since I knew NOTHING about cameras, I subscribed to  Shutterbug and Popular Photography magazines. In fact, the first time I'd seen the word: eBay, was a full page ad in Shutterbug with a photo of a single old camera centered and at the bottom: www.ebay.com.

By then, 1998, I'd started collecting cameras, as people found out what I was doing, they started giving me old cameras: A Voigtlander Vitessa, Rollei 35 and a Busch Pressman 4x5 camera. Later, my sister gave me a pair of old Kodaks: a box and folding camera. The latter in the original box. The movie cameras were my in-laws.

As you no doubt know, both Shutterbug and Popular Photography magazines are now out of business. Which I why I felt safe to finally write this article. 

In fact, I had written to the editor of Pop Photo, telling her about my having kept old article and of my longtime subscription. She e-mailed me back to ask if it was OK for her to hold off publishing my letter until the next issue. She wanted to include all of it and didn't have space in the upcoming issue. Unbeknownst to me, that issue turned out to be their LAST one! She wrote about me in her editorial and published my entire e-mailed letter. Quite an honor to be sure. I was saddened about their folding and again when Shutterbug announced a couple of months later that they too were ceasing to exist.

I have made all of these scans full sized so that you should be able to read the articles.

I had kept these and many other articles in binders, thinking I could refer back to them in the future. Jason Schneider had a column about collecting old cameras which I especially liked. Of all those above, I had a Contax II, Leica IIIC and an OM-1, as well as a number of Olympi cameras. Olympi is plural for Olympus, right?

I had a Mercury II and a number of Argi, including that one shown. I mainly collected rangefinders, but had a number of SLRs over all those years.

The closest I had to any of these was a Kiev 60. Big, heavy beast that shot 60cm by 60cm negatives. Made in Kiev, Ukraine.

My Rollei 35 is an original model, made in Germany. My brother mailed it to me.

I had both versions of that compact Petri and a whole lot more Petri models, all rangefinders.

I also had several Olympus X series cameras. The XA is the only one that has a rangefinder.

The Electro series of Yashica rangefinder cameras were quite popular and with a battery adapter can still be used today. I had all of them in all-black as well as chrome models. None gold plated, however.

I always wanted one of those TASCO binoculars/cameras. But all that I could afford were a number of 110 models.

 I too had a King Regula, one of the more attractive rangefinder 35mm cameras.

Once, while looking through the usual bagged small items at one of our favorite thrift stores, there in one bag was a Contax T2, marked at $7.00. Here it is:

Titanium body, Carl Zeiss lens. I should have hung on to it. I sold it for $200 then. They are worth much more now. Who knew?

There were SO many TLR cameras made by so many manufacturers. I had a number of them, but no "sem".

Ah, yes, Aires. They were a favorite of mine. The top model was the 35V which had interchangeable lenses. I bought no less than FIVE 35 IIIC models before getting one which worked. The IIIC resembled a Leica M3, unless they were side-by-side.

 Two Bolsey models were in the collection, one B2 and a Jubilee.

Very few Zeiss Ikon cameras came my way. I did have a Moscow which was the Soviet copy of a pre-WWII Zeiss Ikon 6x9 roll film rangefinder camera.

Aside from my Cosina-made Bessa R, I also had a Voigtlander similar to that one, but not meter equipped.

Here are some photos of Germany's most revered camera brands that were mine for a while.

This is a pre-WWII Contax, it was modified with a pair of contacts to use a flashgun.

The lens is post-war since it is coated, the T indicates that and the fact that one can see so many colors reflecting inside it.

My one-and-only Leica, a 1946 IIIC which I recovered with snakeskin. 

These are the panels I came up with to mount the cameras on. I called them CameraLock. I offered plans to build them online but few took up my offer.

This is both of then in one shot. I had more cameras which were too large and/or heavy to mount thusly. 

Finally, this fisheye lens shot of the collection. I spent years amassing them and then realized that I had achieved my goal of having a large camera collection. Then began selling them off, one by one.

I took up film shooting for a while last year, but at $20 a roll to develop and print them, I decided to stick with digital.  

Thank you once again for taking the time to read my humble words and view my images. It is your kind words and comments that keep me cranking out these articles.

Scott
May 6, 2019
#308