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

July 18, 2018

#259

Gentle reader, 

I am starting this second chapter to:

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

mere hours after publishing part one. Your warm and kind response do so encourage me to continue in what started as simply something new to do.

Above shows how I set the den up initially. Optimus Pro boxes hide the Lyric speakers inside them. Wrote about that, too. BOSE 301s are atop those, I don't remember what the little black speakers are. May, 2010.

We left off with the decision being made to move the TV/surround system to the living room and move the main stereo into the den. 

For a while, I had speakers in this room, my "home office", which is across the hall from the listening room, and had no separate components at the time. The speakers were driven by the living room stereo and later the home theater receiver. I had found some 10 gauge speaker cables that are twisted with one wire silver-plated with clear-insulation and the other being copper with clear-blue insulation. And they have a second thick clear insulation cover. (Can be seen in the LAST photo below.) I put a terminal plate on the ceiling above the living room stereo and another on the ceiling in here. Ran the cables through the attic to this room. I don't recall the brand of the cables, but am using them right now, with the office stereo. 

Here is what I have right next to me now in the office:

Pioneer was $14.99 at a thrift store, Denon the same price, via eBay. I normally frown when people put amps atop other components, but this receiver gets very warm, even just in stereo mode, so the Denon went underneath. IT doesn't seem to be stressing the DVD player. I have a dual whisper fan coming to help extricate the heat from the receiver.

Since I'm on the subject of the office, I once had this all-Onkyo kit shown here. Note OPPO universal player at the top.

Here's another angle of the early Listening room. I'd read that one should not have things in between the speakers, thus, the components were on the left wall. Chair was rescued from a friend's apartment. I hated it, so it didn't last long. As a bonus, I could reach the volume knob if needed. 
NOTE, the wood beneath the down-firing subwoofer? It makes NO sense to have a subwoofer firing right into carpet and the padding beneath! The wood directs the sub's sound outward so that it is not absorbed or muffled by the carpet.

Back to the story, the former den, now listening room, was all mine, all mine. And as you can see on the photo above, I had a few things to fill it with. Only one of those radios shown is old, the black Halicrafters was my father-in-laws. Coincidentally, my father had a similar one. The rest are "retro" models with modern electronics. Some are exact replicas.

As BOSE model 301 are for most purposes the top of the BOSE line now, and are a "Direct-Reflecting" design as well, it made sense to mount them in such a way as to reap the sonic benefits of the design. CRT-TV wall mount stands did the trick. I made sure they were the same distance from the side walls and the front tweeters aiming towards the chair. Those are the DCM speakers. OH! Those are the cables I mentioned above. For a while, I had a pair of them climbing the left corner to the ceiling where I had a terminal plate mounted. That brought sound into this room from that one. My wife likened the look of the cables to "Umbilical cords".  

I had to remove the top glass shelf to fit the table (now equipped with casters) through the den door. Same set of components as before.

Yes, those are the legendary B.I.C Venturi speakers! I about flipped when I spied them in an antiques store. Same store I found the White Van speakers in. I had to repair the paper surrounds of the midrange cones and carefully pull the poked-in woofer caps back out. I must admit, I had higher hopes for the sound of these. So, they were passed on to a new home.

I'm trying to remember the names of any of these thrift store speakers. So, I looked through the HUNDREDS of photos of former speakers. The ones on the floor are Genesis I models, someone replaced the woofers. On the stands are my first Wharfedales, Diamond 7 models. Atop those are some small SONY units.

I lucked out at Salvation Army one Wednesday (25% off day!). Someone had donated a set of FIVE Definitive Technology speakers, two towers, a center and two bi-polar surround speakers. Got the lot for $99.99. Also a Pioneer receiver and one speaker.  I decided to make a mono system out of them. I managed to stuff them all in this car:

Good thing it has a back seat. I miss it, it gave me six years of fun. 1990 Australian Ford Capri. Sold here as a Mercury. It is the XR2 turbo model.

The only change I see in this photo is rubber feet I added to some things for isolation. Did they help? Meh, who's to say.

Well, as you can see, I scored a few speakers. Two sets one store, one day. Starting with the top pair, they are the Genesis I models. They sit atop Pioneer R500 models with their two-tone grilles. The middle ones are Coral speakers, but I don't remember the model number.

Here, once again are the FIVE Definitive Technology speakers and a new pair found at a pawn shop: ADS MV30/t models. Twin 5 or 6 inch woofers with a tweeter in between. Sounded great. Mesh metal grilles are convex and screwed on. 

Here are a pair of Paradigm Mini Monitors. It think the tweeters had a problem so I replaced them. The silver components are matching Sansui Classique A-470 amp and T-470 tuner. In front are a Denon 3-head cassette deck and a SONY CD players. Sad story, the USPS dropped the box carrying the Sansuis to their new owner. Ruined the amp. No insurance. Sigh.

Here, the Sansui models are driving the Paradigms and the old tweeters are atop one of them. 

I scored four KLH Model Twenty speakers. They were four-ohm and had a single RCA terminal. I swapped in a pair of three-way terminals instead. Cy Beam was kind enough to part out a Model 20 he had to sell me a tweeter.

Ah! My most valuable find. At the time, I'd never heard of Spendor or that some BBC scientists had created their own speaker designs for studio and mobile studio monitors. So, when I spied these small black speakers marked, "SPENDOR LS3/5A" on the back, I honestly told the man, "I've never heard of this brand, how much?" "Ten bucks?" "OK." I later sold them for $1,100.00 to a man in Hong Kong.
The big ones are Electro-Voice Interface 1 Series II speakers. Also note the GARRARD 4-speed turntable which I equipped with a Shure 78 RPM cartridge to play the 78s I'd been finding.

I pounced on this Sansui AU-717 amp when I saw it. I believe those are the Paradigm Mini Monitors atop the BOSE 301s. ADS towers in the corners. This photo is out of order. Oh, well.

KLH Twenty-Four speakers are the latest, sitting atop the E-V speakers.

Too many speakers, was the title of this photo. Starting with the outside are a pair of hand-made, solid-oak (no particle board or MDF) speakers built by someone in Maryland. I know this because he carved his driver's license in the back of them. All Radio Shack components. I restomodded them as well, and wrote about the project. NEXT is a pair of DCM Time Frame 275 transmission-line speakers. And the ADS towers in the middle.

This is the setup I made to play mono 78 RPM records. I don't recall why the SONY CD player and Dynaco QD-1 Series IIL are there. Midi-Mitsubishi equipment drives a Sherbourn power amplifier. 

And here they are "in action".  

Unseen in most of these photos are the changes that are happening in the rest of the room. More and more CD racks are needed as I keep buying them. More and more Asian art, and more to fill the empty walls.
Changes above include a TEAC V-95RX cassette deck. I loved the wooden case. AND another incredible bargain:  SONY's FIRST SACD/DVD player, the DVP-S9000ES. I got it for $9.95. HUGE and heavy with solid COPPER chassis. Thrift store only saw "DVD" and priced it like the rest. 

Getting rather crowded again. Let's see, the stack in the middle and two taller speakers were all found at the same place and time. A pair of small SONY speakers, a Zenith Tube radio which had issues, a SONY cassette deck and Technics cassette deck. 
Bottom is a Radio Shack ELECTROSTATIC speaker! Who knew they made such a thing? Well, I could never get it working, so sold it on. As I did with the rest seen. The speaker had a finish similar to a high-end piano. Lastly are a pair of RCA (formerly Radio Shack Minimus 7) diecast aluminum speakers.

Now we can see the Wharfedale W40 speakers better. I found a spec sheet attached to the back of one:

 How cool is this?

 An on line search revealed stickers I copied for the rears.

One can clearly see the cables I described at the top of the article.

That is it for now! Many more changes are coming. We are up to June, 2012 at this point and I'm about to add a SIX-CHANNEL SEPARATE SYSTEM to the already crowded listening room!

Thanks for looking, stay tuned for more!

Scott

July, 18, 2018
#259 

 

 

 

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