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vintage gear esp. tuners with controls on top

My vintage stereo rack has a spot for a turntable, but my turntable is now on a semi-wall mounted unit for better isolation. The spot the turntable is recessed, essentially imagine a box with no top you would have accessed the turntable from above.

But this is an opportunity, right! I could relive my life in the late 80s with a Tandberg cassette deck, but I dunno, can I really run that through my Vandersteen Quatros? Moreover, just what would I do with a cassette deck? Play one of my twenty cassette tapes?

A tuner would be ideal, but is there any decent tuner out there that has its controls on top?

Or any other gear that I can stick in there that'd make sense?
128x128intermediatic
8 responses Add your response
intermediatic's avatar
intermediatic OP
72 posts
 
The Beomaster 6000 looked great, but I wound up getting the Nakamichi 630. It's great.
kirkus
502 posts
 
Try the Beomaster 6000 (later type 2253) ... it's a cool piece with a varactor analog tuner and digital frequency-counter display, and I think it's a bit narrower than the 1200.
intermediatic's avatar
intermediatic OP
72 posts
 
Very cool. Thanks Daniel!
danielk141
489 posts
 
Google Nakamichi 630 & you'll see a tuner/preamp with an angled face. Maybe this will fit your needs. I've seen these sell for a few hundred dollars, in 7/10 or 8/10 condition.
intermediatic's avatar
intermediatic OP
72 posts
 
How tragic. A B & O Beomaster 1200 would do the trick, except it is 1/2" too wide. The space is 20 3/4" wide by 18 1/2" deep. The 1200 is 21" wide.

It's in MoMA's collection and it's completely crazy looking (disclaimer: I'm an architect really I'm only looking to fill that spot with something that works and isn't completely ridiculous!).

I could've outfitted the tape out with a DIN to RCA cable and been fine. It's a tuner so I don't particularly care about the sound except that it not fry my Cary preamp as I will only listen to it every great now and again (if ever? I so miss Jazz Revisited although I guess being close to WFMU now would be a plus).
intermediatic's avatar
intermediatic OP
72 posts
 
BTW I used to have a Rega Planet 2000 in there, but moved up to the Oppo BDP-95 since it seemed equal as a transport, but had a better analog stage and was a universal player. So there's another unit for sitting on top.

Still, yes I know there are vintage tuners (I'd say mid-1980s or older somehow my RM-9 amplifier strikes me as transitional) but I'm looking for ones that would have controls on top. Maybe B & O made something? Hmm
intermediatic's avatar
intermediatic OP
72 posts
 
it's not really a typical rack. it's a 1960s swedish design which is horizontal. there's a spot a turntable that you would access from above. it's only about 2 1/2 feet off the ground on top though so it's very visible.

yes they are very nice speakers, thanks to john rutan for those.
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
Hi Intermediatic,
I can't quite envision your rack setup requiring controls on top. My tuner gets MUCH play time, I am in metro NYC area. There are many fine vintage Tuner examples available at very reasonable bargains.
Btw, my personal picture of vintage is 1960's and older, but that's just me.
Your Vandersteen Quatros are very nice speakers.
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