The Death of The Stereo?

I still use my beloved 4000 dollar (aproximate) Bang & Olufson stereo - Best speakers I have ever heard, get's the best sound out of any album. It will NEVER be replaced. It's been going strong for 10 years now, and it will hopefully have many years left of awesome musical delivery. Long live the stereo!

I had a 4 component system...then I sold 2 of the components...now I just run my iPod through the "Tape" channel and play it through big speakers...

MetalGuy71 wrote:

My stereo is on it's last legs. The turn-table crapped out years ago, I haven't used the dual tape deck in God knows how long ago and in the last year or so, the cd tray keeps getting stuck. It still works, but I usually have to hit it on the side like Fonzie to get it to work. Oh, and the right speaker died around Christmas time.

I've had the stereo part since I was a teen and added the Sony cd player back in the mid-90's. It had a good run, but I'm looking at new systems. I'll probably get something new this summer.

Well since this last post, my home stereo has gotten another life. I still have the same system, but over the last month, the cd player has been working fairly smoothly. Maybe hitting it on the side enough times finally knocked something back in place. And the right speaker came back to life after a power outage. The electricity came back on and so did the speaker. Go figure. So I guess I'll just keep on keeping on with what I've got until it dies.

I have been ripping more of my collection to the home computer lately, so that's been getting more play than the stereo recently.

i wish i could afford a really good hi - fi setup but as i live all over the place my budget hifi does the job.

When I had room I liked to just throw the CD in the DVD player and light up the house.

i have to have my speakers near the wall which makes them sound pretty poor

I still have (and buy when needed) my stereo equipment. Tape deck, CD player, record player, receiver. JVC and Sony. Still use it all.

I don't know why, but recently I decided to get a cassette player to match the turntable and receiver that I got for free...... all 1976

Pioneer SX-450(after I restored the paint, wood and lamps):


PL-112D(stock picture from vinyl engine):


CT-F 2121 (ebay picure of the item I won):




Dorky, I know, I'll probably get a set of speakers to match at some point.

I added an AKAI GX-4000D to the system:



The deal included 30 used tapes.

I still use the stereo system I bought about 30 years ago. Kenwood amp, tape deck and EQ, Sony CD Carousel and Infinity speakers (the kind that are 4 foot high pieces of furniture) and an MKC subwoofer. It's also hooked up to a 32 in HD TV and a Sony blu ray player in the workout room in my basement.

I don't really use it much but when I do, it still shakes the walls.

I have a 15 year old Yamaha amp.

I have 2 sets of speakers. A pair of 30+ year old Bose bookshelf speakers and a pair of cheap speakers that I bought at Best Buy and then paid a friend of mine to upgrade the crossover and they sound great now. I switch back and forth depending on what I'm listening to.

My turntable is a 38 year old Technics 1800.

I have 2 blu-ray players, a Panasonic I mostly use for the streaming apps and a Sony that I use for playing audio (the Sony has a better transport control and better readouts).

The main component of my system is a computer, a Mac Mini.

My system is also used as a DAW.

chewie wrote:

I added an AKAI GX-4000D to the system:



The deal included 30 used tapes.

Those are great
I miss reel to reel tapes. They sound killer with proper components.

On a somewhat related note, the CD player in my truck seems to be on the fritz... the last few times I've used it, the CDs have gotten stuck and refused to "eject" when I want to pop them out at my destination. I've been able to force them to eject by using a credit card and/or the flat side of my pocketknife blade but I'm literally afraid to put CDs in this thing now.

...which sucks cuz I do a good three-quarters of my weekly music listening in my vehicle! I rarely listen to tunes around the house (when the mood does strike me I just play'em thru the TV via my DVD/Blu-Ray player) and since I now work out of a different office three days a week I don't even get to listen to CDs at my desk all day, every day like I used to. GACK!!!  

I haven't decided what to do about the truck stereo yet. My truck is 10 years old and has other mechanical issues that are more important than the stereo, so I duno if it's even worth the time and trouble to look into replacing it... nor do I know if there's anyplace nearby that can even take a look at my existing one to tell me if it's fix-able.

Is this the Universe's way of telling me it's time to break down and buy a friggin MP3 player?

Ok, I ended up emailing my local shop and asked if he happened to have a Pioneer RT-707. He sure did! Serviced and ready to go. I did have him bias towards the new RMGI LPR 35 tape(RMG/Pyral and ATR are the only new tape manufacturers) as I will be recording on that. I might get an ATR just to check it out since ATR is made in the US(RMG is now owned by the French company Pyral). That's it! My stereo setups are now pretty much complete. Outside of paying for maintenance and new tech, like a blu ray and I would still like to get blue tooth into the system, I'm done.



For now, this will be in the music room because it is less dusty in there and the Akai will end up in the living room until the dust settles down from the bathroom remodel.

chewie wrote:

Ok, I ended up emailing my local shop and asked if he happened to have a Pioneer RT-707. He sure did! Serviced and ready to go. I did have him bias towards the new RMGI LPR 35 tape(RMG/Pyral and ATR are the only new tape manufacturers) as I will be recording on that. I might get an ATR just to check it out since ATR is made in the US(RMG is now owned by the French company Pyral). That's it! My stereo setups are now pretty much complete. Outside of paying for maintenance and new tech, like a blu ray and I would still like to get blue tooth into the system, I'm done.



For now, this will be in the music room because it is less dusty in there and the Akai will end up in the living room until the dust settles down from the bathroom remodel.

Holy crap, chewie... I thought I had some vintage electronics obsessions, but you've humbled me.

I'm hoping we're not seeing the end of the stereo. I don't mind if the form factor changes to an all-in-one unit with the TV, but I do object to all the crap that most consumers are gravitating towards.. It's all hot, buttered garbage - sound quality that makes budget stuff from 20 years ago seem audiophile grade and so on down the line. Worst part is, you CAN make consumer grade stuff sound awesome. Run an optical cable out of a basic TV into a decent receiver with alright speakers and you've got yourself the start of a great all-in-one sound system. Hell, I do a ton of my listening at my computer which has a really nice set of Emotiva speakers hooked up to it. You can do awesome stuff, but you have to go beyond stock and a lot of people can't be bothered to hunt that stuff down.

Thrift stores tend to be picked clean by eBay speculators, but you can still find the odd nice piece there and on Craigslist. Big box isn't the only game in town (fortunately).

And Freddy, did you ever sort out your truck's CD player out? Not sure what your budget is, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to do an install if all you're plugging in is a new head unit.

Quote :

And Freddy, did you ever sort out your truck's CD player out? Not sure what your budget is, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to do an install if all you're plugging in is a new head unit.

Nah, not yet. There have been too many other things taking priority over it.

For now, I bought a cheapie little speaker that plugs into my cell phone at Five Below - I rip tunes to MP3, load 'em onto my phone and set that speaker up on the dash to listen to as I drive. It's not an ultimate solution but it'll do for now.

chewie wrote:

I added an AKAI GX-4000D to the system:



The deal included 30 used tapes.

Pretty sweet, we had this same model at the radio station I worked at in the early 90's.

I have one of these pieces of Chinese garbage:



The CD changer no longer works but I use the AUX input for our Audio Technica LP-120 to play records. That is all we use it for anyway and the speakers sound decent.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

And Freddy, did you ever sort out your truck's CD player out? Not sure what your budget is, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to do an install if all you're plugging in is a new head unit.

Nah, not yet. There have been too many other things taking priority over it.

For now, I bought a cheapie little speaker that plugs into my cell phone at Five Below - I rip tunes to MP3, load 'em onto my phone and set that speaker up on the dash to listen to as I drive. It's not an ultimate solution but it'll do for now.

You ever done any soldering? The only hard part of installing a head unit is buying the wiring harness for your vehicle and then basically color matching it to the wiring harness that comes with the head unit. Get some heat shrink to cover up the joins and you can make it pretty tidy. There's a site called Crutchfield that throws in the installation kit for free (unless you need some really wild component for your car/truck).

The only time I ever had a nasty surprise was helping a friend who had a Ford. Most of the time, you're just plugging in from the stereo to just behind where it sits in the dash. In her car, the damn connection was in the trunk. Trying to wire up a connector to an 8 foot braid of cables is a headache I only recommend taking on if your friend is cute and of the opposite gender (or same, if that's how you fly).

I've posted this before but dis! (but with different speakers and a turntable and much, much better music! )



I love HAL and people can wrestle it from my cold dead hands.

Runicen wrote:

Holy crap, chewie...  I thought I had some vintage electronics obsessions, but you've humbled me.  

Yea, I almost got an 8-track and decided that I didn't want to go down that road. I need my cassette player repaired though...............