You have to tell us...what was the obscure integrated amp on Ebay? Let me guess: A&R A60? |
Cwlondon
You are not alone,I am also into buying and buying and buying some more components.I rarely use them all but like to keep them around.I can't say no to a good deal.It's kind like a disease.I keep some in their boxes or on the rack,my wife complains about the boxes however,like a warehouse!!!!
Best
George |
I'm like that also - I've got 6 systems in my bedroom alone. Lots of stuff from ebay and Audiogon. I'm into equipment that has lots of lights, esp. Blue lights. Some of them I've replaced the LED's with blue ones. Maybe you could put together another system in another (or same) room. |
Hi CW-
I would add some to my existing rig just for static display.
Or maybe place a nice table in the vicinity of your rig with a couple amps (tube) on it.
I bought some real nice steel shelves I mounted on my listening room wall about 14" down from the ceiling.
Im just starting to collect vintage tube radios and the shelves are for the radios.
I have 1 empty shelf (bottom) in my rack and I have my busted but mint Mistubishi DA-A10-DC vintage mid '70s, super cool looking amp on the empty shelf.I figure its too unique looking to not show plus it adds 35-40lbs of weight to my rack.
I have some Dynaco A-1 speakers I picked up at the Salvation army for $5/pair.
The cabinets were rough but the grill covers and drivers are mint.The grill covers still have the little dynaco gold badge on them.They sell on ebay for $7/pair,more than I paid for the speakers.:~)
I removed the covers (glued on) and using very course sand paper I rounded all edges and corners to the max totally eliminating a box looking speaker.I then primed them.painted them black them sprayed them with black granite textured paint.
They look AWESOME and sound pretty good too.
Im trying to figure out a way to integrate them into my system without botching the soundstaging of my main speakers,but still be able to use them now and then without having to move them.
I hope some of this helps CW and this is a fun thread.
CW,what gear do you want to display?
dave
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It keeps filling up under my bed and my wife keeps complaint about them. It seems I will have to put them back on ebay some day but the problem is... I am a really good shopper but very very... lazy as a seller. |
I have lot's of equipment i never sold or traded in when I 'upgraded' including:
Quad 57's, in bad need of a restoration
old Quad mono tube amps, later SS tuner
Old panasonic SP-10 TT, on Music and Sound plinth
ARC-Dual 75a, refreshed, recapped and retubed, doing yeoman's
duty as the rear channel surround amp in a HT set up;
Decca Ribbon tweeters;
Sequerra Ribbon tweeters;
various passive crossovers, cartridges (van de Hul, Grado, Sumiko cheapies, etc.)
Some of the stuff (the Quad amps) is on display in the listening room- other stuff just gets boxed and stored.
None of this was acquired as a 'collectible' but instead was used in the day, and is now no longer in use. But, the few
dollars I could get on sale or trade is not worth the trouble of getting rid of it; hence, the 'museum.' |
Glad you guys like this thread - the ultimate anti WAF thread.
The integrated amp was a Yamaha A-1 which further to Joeylawn's comment was all about the LIGHTS, in this case, mysteriously glowing colored lights.
I can also relate to Whart's comment -- I have an old Yamaha T-2 that I never use, a Naim Nait integrated amp, a pair of Genelec powered mini monitors (for when my big rig was in storage) and a few other things knocking around.
For my "museum" I think what I would really like is for these things to be operable, most importantly perhaps to LIGHT UP, to otherwise fit neatly on bookshelves and in an ideal world to hide the wires behind a bookcase or something.
Then, all of these components could be rotated in and out of the guest bedrooms for historically accurate systems.
How does that sound for the private audio museum?
Obviously after I submit this post, I should get on the phone with a psychiatrist and/or a divorce lawyer.
cheers
cwlondon |
After 18 years of living with my disease my wife had enough and split. I knew it was over when she asked me to "dismantle" my sound room. She even sold the nice little system I gave her on ebay. I could not fault her, after all, 40 or so components (mostly vintage high-end) is a bit much.
Afterwards I dated someone much younger than me for awhile. She even asked me out, I never would have approached her. When she saw my sound room she asked me, "what is all this stuff?". I said it was a "stereo". She was flabergasted and said she never knew stereos like this existed. She said she never knew how good music could sound on a good system.
When I was her age everyone wanted a "stereo." It usually consisted of a receiver, turntable and speakers. There were at least 12 audio stores in the Providence area. Now all teenagers care about are computers (for games), MP3 players and maybe video and all the trimmings. I feel so old. It hurts when your favorite pastime makes you a freak. |
Nightdoggy-Im starting to become a freak at a young age then. Im 19 years old and addicted! I dont own an ipod and never will but i do still like to play my PS2. I am replacing my reciever with seperates but i dont know if i will sell it, i think to myself this reciever could be used in a secondary rig down the road. But down the road will probably be like 5 years. When you meet your ex-wife did you have the disease or did you become infected after saying "I do"? |
my particular strain of the "museum bug" has resulted in my
getting FIVE reel-to-reel tape recorders- 4 teacs and
an otari. i also have two cases of GP-9 "platinum" tape-red painted aluminum reels in beautiful clamshell boxes.
i occasionally play a few tapes on one of them- the others are
for show although they are nicely maintained. i recently saw a Nagra-D-II on e-bay for $4000 (originally over $25k and pictured on a stereophile cover)-
a digital true-24 bit machine. i almost pulled the trigger, but with a strange looking rotary head and software meant to interface with a computer, i sadly looked away...
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Jlind325is I became an instant audiophile in 1973 when I was in the 8th grade. I always loved music and had a little compact with speakers which folded into a suitcase-like rig. That fateful day occurred in the spring of '73 when I was going to a private school in NH. I went into the art house and found a Stereo Review magazine. I thumbed through it and was amazed by a turntable I saw. It was a Garrard Zero 100. Its main feature was a kind of dual (they called it articulated) arm. The main arm held the cartridge and the second part, a tube, made the headshell move to supposedly achieve zero tracking error. This was a revelation to me. Wow! Zero tracking error. So there is more to audio than I thought possible. Thereafter I hunted for and frequented local audio stores. I saved up and bought a Pioneer SX-424 receiver (17 watts/ch), a Garrard 82 auto table and EPI Microtower speakers. Since then I've ridden every wave and tried everything there is. The best time to be an audiophile was probably from 1975-1983. You got the most for your money then and stereo stores were everywhere because people bought stereos like they buy tv's. Even the cheap stuff was heavy and well built. I was an audiophile through every relationship and every one of my girlfriends and my ex hated my interest in it. I could go on and on. |
Cw, I just have to say I just got through looking at a yamaha a1000 int. amp on craigslist for 250us. Looks nice. I need it like a hole in the head but I still just had to do a search just to uh... well you know. I wonder if there's room on my closet shelf for a third amp, ha! |
Your Private Audio Museum AKA Audiophile CONFESSIONS....
A few years ago, I noticed a Marantz receiver on ebay in seemingly perfect condition. Now I have no particular thing about Marantz and in fact I think I have never owned a Marantz component.
But then, a stirring of one of my oldest audiophile memories...when I had only a plastic, staticky Soundesign "stereo" in my own bedroom, I was invited over to my neighbors house, circa 1977, where I was at first flattered and excited to be hanging around the older kids, but then I was terrified and mesmerized....
to see giant pitchers of beer being poured....a curious smoke in the air....both mixed with the smell of cedar wood dust and linseed oil from the garage where there had been making tall cylindrical devices....
All of this, accompanied by the sounds of Gentle Giant, Jan Hammer, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock..
WOW this didnt sound like the Beatles! or the Partridge Family?!?!?!?
As I moved closer to the sound, I saw it: the MARANTZ receiver, high on a shelf, glowly softly in blue and white against the silver, perhaps the beginning of my neurosis...
So 25 years later, I just had to have that receiver.
It sat on a shelf in my office for 3 years, plugged into the wall to light up, but without speakers or a source component.
Last year, I moved it to my library, where I now use it with the DVD player and TV. Its wonderful, warm sounding, and the lights are soothing. Even my wife likes it.
The babysitter, thinking she is being polite, turns it off with the cable box and TV when she prepares to leave at night.
I get angry when she turns it off. I confess. |
Cwlondon - I never really thought about it this way... but I'm glad you pointed it out that all of my hi-fi stuff that I've never gotten around to sell is part of my hi-fi museum! I still live in an apt, but when I do buy a house I will make some shelves, platforms and other displays to showcase my extra hi-fi components all throughout the house. My girlfriend is an artist and also likes hi-fi gear (so she tells me) and she can paint murals on the wall that best showcase and draw attention to the specimins. Of course, they will be able to be turned on and show the lights. The great thing is - That it will be a functional museum. If I decide I want to listen to that old tube amp just for the fun of it, I can take it off its display shelf and hook it up.
At least your babysitter didn't shut off your operational preamp and then your amp! |
just picked up a mint 3012 tandberg for less than the cost of a night out. will sit next to a mint revox 251, next to an accuphase 100/200/300 combo like new...waiting to get rotated into my main system someday. i love my mac stuff, but have to admit lots of brands made legendary stuff that still sounds great today. i love this hobby |
this thread is right up my alley
I have a music room
not only does it house my main system
it literally is an audio museum
the music room is art deco and thank God water from Katrina roof leaks only made it in the edge of the room enough to tear out the carpets and dampen one box of rare 45's
it has a 1910's wind up victrola wood cabinets with wood speaker (found at a salvation army for $120 offer - it plays great 78's)
a 30's radio
a 40's console cabinet (doesn't play from a flea market)
a 50's rca console cabinet (could play but doesn't)
a cool 61 wurlitzer jukebox - pristine scored on ebay
a les paul body guitar table - made custom by my best friend
my main system
a bass or two in the corner
yellow submarine beatles figures
I used to have an 8 track and a pop open record player but it was too much in the room
art deco posters (Lempicka etc) echo buster wall treatments and it's tastefully done (honest)
will have to put it back together soon
cement slab - waiting for carpeting
my bedroom has old upgraded leftovers
and some of that went to Houston with my temporary relocation
my music room is long 15 by 27 and the components are fun
I've been divorced 9 years so no one is telling me "no"
and good criteria for girlfriends includes enjoying the room's vibe (some don't pass that test)
I also have basses and guitars around the house
6-8 usually at a time hanging from the walls of my bedroom
my daughter's friends are always amazed
and my daugher embarrassed by the room
Tom |
