What kind of vintage system can you get for a budget of $1,000? Let's find out!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 พ.ค. 2024
- Using a budget of $1,000, we explore what are some possible gear we can buy to put together a system of a receiver, turntable and speakers. There are some great gear to buy within that budget from Klipsch, ADS, Thorens, Rogers, Technics, Sansui, Luxman, Yamaha and others.
Video: • What kind of vintage s...
Email: stereoniche@gmail.com
Great Video and Content!! Im 53 and Decided to pull out my 125 records that I've carted around with me for decades around 6-8 years ago. Upon unearthing my Audio Gear, many problems arose. Technics SL-BD22 belt drive p-mount Plastic Fantastic was not completely flat in it's box= Base and Plinth Warped to the point platter scrapes molded body every rev., not really fixable! My Advent Baby 2's foam surrounds gone= waiting to fix. Fortunately my Integrated Amp and Separate Tuner Survived just fine except for replacing a few bulbs and giving them a good clean out and cleaning and lubing all pots. My JBL JS-2050's from same era as Advents surrounds perfect. So I needed a turntable= I did Exactly what your talking about today. I took my time and scoured nearby listings and found a Beautiful, Barely Used Technics SL-3300 Direct Drive Fully Automatic circa 1979 about an hour and half away, came packed in its original box and foam disassembled like new would be. Got it out serviced it, even came with a cartridge on the original headshell packed inside, pristine dust cover only a few barely noticeable scuffs. I Love this turntable!! Being patient and willing to drive a little rewarded me with this awesome piece. Cost me $350 and 3 hour nice round trip 2-3 years ago. Still in the rotation with some new goodies alongside. Again Great Content!! Keep Listening and Spinning those Records and Tapes. Peace and Love from RI
Bingo! There are some great, lightly used tables still out there. With patience comes great reward! :-)
Great video loved the Advent speakers. Should look into an advent receiver totally rebuilt you can get them for under $300 great video keep it coming
I think I actually saw one that sold on eBay, but it was just a little above the "budget" so did not include it, but would certainly be in the running.
With the rising prices of vintage audio within the last several years, you would be lucky to find anything within a budget. I have seen people charge astronomical prices for low end Pioneer stuff.
100% right! I've left the vintage market which is full of FLIPPERS and ESTATE SALE VULTURES. These guys don't care about the equipment they simply want to make the MOST PROFIT. As a result, prices are through the roof. In many cases they are ridiculous. Paying 1000s of dollars for a 40, 50 year old piece that may fail as soon as you buy it and need major repairs. I will eventually sell some of my stuff but I will not sell it for much more than "I" paid for it. And if possible, I will NOT sell to a known Flipper.
But, I just gave you some examples of actual selling prices. They are not the highly collectible gear, of course, but they are some decent vintage components. If you pair a set of efficient speakers with a low powered amp/receiver, it can sound quite nice.
$1000 is very reasonable for a used system.
It can go well beyond that quite easily, but one can still put together a nice system in this range for sure.
Great video today, Scott. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Loved your anecdotal story about your first system. My first was $350 in ‘73. I bought Smaller Advents, Gerrard something something, and a Nikko STA-5010. I loved it.
We never forget our first. I've often thought about trying to replicate that first system for fun, but I would have to get it shipped most likely, so I am hesitant.
Actual separate purchases I made...
Dual 1219, $10 + JBL 4310s, $25 + Kenwood KR-6200, $30. = Complete stereo system, $65.
That was on the order of 20 years ago, though. Doing it now would be pretty close to impossible.
If patient and diligent, one can still find some very good deals. Maybe not quite as good as 20 year ago though.
I got a pair of 4312s for $100 last summer. Just sold them for $400 including a spare woofer. That’s still a bargain for the next person.
This is a great exercise Scott. Right now I'm looking at my Marantz 2220b that my son gave me, so original investment was 0 dollars. A new face plate was $129.00 and an LED light kit was $13.00. Vellum paper was under a dollar. I bought an absolutely mint Sansui 5050 for $75.00 so there are still some bargains out there if a person is patient and keeps looking. Sneak in an $80.00 Wiim Mini and you have the start of a great system.
Indeed. This is why I like to showcase some current examples once in a while. There are still relative bargains out there, even online, if one is patient and does some research. The key is to not look for something specific.
Fun video. You surprised me at the beginning when you didn’t mention the advent. 🙂The Harman Kardon and Yamaha would definitely be what would recommend to a friend. Advent Model 300 receiver (got one for $65) could be also a great option, especially given the reputation of its phono stage. For speakers, I would also recommend to check Ohm Walsh speakers like the model L or the FRS-11 for a different style.
I snuck the Advents in at the end. :-) Lots of good options, the Advent 300 is very nice, not always easy to find though, but as I say, the best gear is what you can find local to you.
Really enjoyed the video some great advice 👍
Glad it was helpful!
I cannot speak for your area but around here in the northeast prices are different on the marketplace or Craigslist. I find you can get speakers for a good deal and receivers have gone up ( but i'look a little newer like mid-late 70's for the look and condition. I do like the Vector for a entry level).. think i'd go 375 for speakers, 375 for receiver.. and I do agree with 250 for turntable..maybe it's my area at least. Good vid for guiding the ones that are new to the hobby. Nice advice, some people need vids like this to get started . You are totally right..one can get lucky if you have patience and try.
Thanks for the feedback and comments.
I've gotten good deals on vintage gear by shopping local estate sales / estate auctions. It does require patience, though. I lose the majority of the auctions I bid on, but the times that you score a good deal make up for the losses. Similarly for in-person estate sales - many times I get there too late and the "good stuff" is gone. But once in a while, I've been surprised when the thing I was looking for is still there, and usually discounted (if you go on the second or last day of the sale).
I picked up one of the Vector Research VR-7000 receivers you show in the video, and a matching cassette deck for a song at an estate auction (I don't remember the exact price). Both are in good condition and just need a little cleaning and De-Oxit.
Bingo! Persistence pays off. I certainly have lost more than I have won over the years, but that is what it takes. If we look at the hours you have used to find these deals and equate that to an hourly wage, the units would really cost more overall, but you (we) get the fun of the hunt, etc.. If others do not want to invest the time, they will spend the $$ on the convenience of having it more available in a more broad geography and the like.
@@stereoniche Also, be prepared to do a little work on vintage gear to improve its condition. Tape decks (and some turntables) may need replacement belts, as well as re-lubing and minor adjustments.
Depending on the owner and how it's been stored, it will probably need some exterior cleaning, and at a minimum blowing / vacuuming out dust from inside.
Like you said, if you factor in your time, this makes vintage gear a little more expensive, but I get some satisfaction from making it a little better and possibly "rescuing" it from being discarded.
I have a pair of Jensens from the 80's I'm guessing. They are "CD ready" but one has a blown tweeter. The other one sounds really good actually. Also Utah speakers would be great budget system but not sure if Utah ever built complete speakers, or just raw drivers. Occasionally I will see vintage speakers at thrift shops, but rarely in good condition.
The Polk audio SDA-CRS are normally horizontal, tweeter on top. They have an interconnect cable. The polk monitor 5 and 10 are also good choices for under budget, no interconnect. I'm wary of vintage receivers since they all need refreshing/recap. Caps only last so long. Likely corroded inside too.
There are many that just need some minor work, but if hesitant, one could look for later 80's model. The problem with that era though is that many of the digital readouts are now failing and I am not aware they can be fixed.
Need or should have? I own maybe 14 vintage units, the only one having been recapped is a Fisher X-100-3 tube amp. The others still sound great, so I can only imagine how good they’d be with new caps. Not talking about Sansui’s with death caps, or other dangerous situations.
I have a number of systems like this. But, and this is important, I put most of these things together 10-15 years ago. When VINTAGE was fairly cheap.
So here we go. ADS L-520 $80, Realistic STA 2270 $65, TEchnics SLQD3 Direct Drive $100. You'd be surprised how good that '80s Realistic receiver sounds.
As good as almost any '70s Ratshack silver face. Quite surprising, a sleeper of sorts. Today, probably double those prices or more.
It would be a completely different $1k system if this were 10 yrs ago. :-)
@@stereoniche Absolutely, but hey, things happen. Actually, a $1000 for today would be an affordable system.We were spoiled by the early days, lol.
@@cnhhnc No doubt. What is funny is that at the time, most of us still thought things were "over priced". LOL
I bought the same receiver last summer (2023) as part of a $150 package (with a mint Dual 1219 and some Mach Twos. Got a mint Dual 1019 for $100 last week (May 2024). There are still killer deals in my major east coast market. Smaller Advents for $25 about two months ago - have to install the $20 foams. ADS pairs go for about $150-250 around here all day.
@@emeeul Those are great prices. It depends on where you are. For example, if you're in the greater Boston area there are lots of EPI, Advents and Boston Acoustics speakers so you might find bargains there. Also, a guy I know down there gets a lot of his stuff at a recycling center where people dump old electroinics.
I'm not in such an area, but deals do occaisionally pop up. I also have a couple of Mach Twos on a Vector Research receiver as a stereo system in my living room-where the AVR and surround system is. I beileve I paid 125 or 150 for the pair but they had already been refoamed. In the basement room I have some B.A. 100s and Original Large Advents on a Technics integrated, a Dual TT and a HK CDP. Also a Pioneer SX-838, Realistic LAB TT and a pair of KLH Sixes from the '70s. Among other things, lol. I'm a big fan of Henry Kloss.
If you're looking for a new, reasonably good-quality turntable, you might check out some of the entry-level models from Pro-ject or Fluance. I think they can be had for around $300 (maybe on sale), so it's a little higher than your $250 budget. And they usually come with decent (but not great) cartridges. They won't have a lot of features (they won't be fully automatic) and probably not the same build quality as a good vintage table, but can be a good entry into the hobby.
Great idea. A new, entry level table could be a good alternative for an entry level system and something at least to consider.
Great video! About 8 or 9 years ago I was scouring ebay a lot and buying a lot of different things. I was very curious on how certain things sounded. I bought a vintage Yamaha integrated amp. I was curious how Class A sounded, and it had a switch where you could choose the more common Class A/B operation or press the switch, and listen to it do its thing as a Class A amp. The more things I played, the more I did start to hear and appreciate Class A. It had a purer sound with more vivid tone colors and a sound with no grain whatsoever. I think I paid less than $300 for it and I think it had 100 watts per channel.But not near as many watts in the Class A mode, but I preferred that mode anyway. It did have a very noticeably more forward sounding midrange than another Yamaha integrated I bought, which was the 900U model, (? prefix before the 900). It had a transformer as big as a softball, which helped give it a big airy sound with huge instrument size. So between the 2 Yamaha's I had a choice of a bigger and more airy sound, but Class A/B, or a somewhat smaller sound that was ultra pure and suave running in Class A. I wish I could have combined the best qualities of each in one amp.
I also discovered the vintage T series of turntables by Harmon Kardon from the 1980s, which gave Thorens turntables from that same era, all they could handle, as far as performance. I started buying 2 pairs of the same bookshelf speakers and stacking them 2 per side, which resulted in a much bigger sound, not only in height but depth for some reason. Doing that also made them aound less strained, as they were sharing the volume and they had twice the power handling, where you didn't have to worry about overdriving them damage. The bass alway went about 20 hertz deeper when stacking them also.
Some integrated amps from the 1980s let you use the preamp or amp sections seperately. The original NAD 3020 had a wonderful preamp section, where you could bypass the amp section and go directly into the Main In power amp section of an integrated amp with a great and seperateable power amp section. Bypassing its preamp section. Some real good vintage 1980s bookshelf speakers you might be able to find include Cizek speakers (Roy Cizek was a concert hall designer). The original Infinity Infinitessimal speaker, you might want to team it with a sub. The Clarke bookshelf speaker with its great ribbon tweeter. And the Proac Studio 1. Not the tightest bass, but what amazing midrange and highs.
I missed out on one of those HK turntables years ago. It was in the original box. Have never run across another one, sadly.
The T65 was the top of the line HK turntable. It had a very unique and advanced kind of anti skating mechanism. I have never had a turntable without some kind of anti skating. The model, one down, the T60, I have much experience with. It has a carbon fiber Microtracer tonearm, which is great. An employee of McIntosh (or former employee?) commented on one of the forums how great that tonearm is. The T 60 has a wonderfully effective spring suspension. Wonderful definition including deep bass definition. The T60 also has capacitance trim adjustment for your cartridge, and RCA jacks on the back of the turntable so you can use your cable of choice, instead of the afterthought cable manufacturers usually provide.They also come with a heavy platter mat and a record clamp/weight included as standard. I once bought a used T60 for $140 including the cartridge. It equaled or outperformed a turntable/cartridge combo which cost 10 times more than the $140 I paid.
I’d go with the thorens table, any pioneer sx _50 series in budget, and whatever speakers sounded good to me-
Can't go wrong with that.
I think at your side of the world prices for vintage hifi are really high. Good advice though.
Location, location, location. It certainly has the biggest impact on pricing for sure.
Why’d you have to go and bash that luxman receiver like that? The R-1050 is from a coveted line of receivers that all look the same but outdo their contemporaries in excellent sound. Seriously people say the R-1050 is probably the best sounding late 70s receiver. I also have 3 within this line.
Btw not giving you any flack. I’m a fan and enjoy your vids. I just got a little soar there lol carry on.
@@bradleyelston3265 LOL, no worries. I thought I said it was a highly regarded brand, is that bashing? 🙂
@@stereoniche the praises should’ve been higher 😝
. LQQK, I wasn't gonna' comment but you're asking. There are many combinations of brand new equipment that are of higher component quality, build quality and sound performance for an equal $1000. That vintage system is easy to beat.
Speakers, you lead us to believe, might just be the biggest savings. However. you say some labor could be used to improve the Advents to acceptable shape. But if one chooses to go that route, then one would be FAR better off by building a modern speaker kit. We know now that having those Advents so low on the ground is bad. Also big front baffles with centered drivers and raised framing is bad. And 50 year old surround rot & 50 year old crossovers are dismal. A modern 2-way kit on stands will easily better the Advents for the same money & labor.
Sansui T-60 Tuner in perfect black condition. That's the vintage in my system. It's a totally useless source except for the local baseball game, but it sure is Gorgeous Stereo Jewelry! And for that 1 reason, I parted with my $80.
Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
BTW,
Looks like you have a shop. Wouldn't you like to easily afford a helper? Put them to work on a speaker kit then retail it at a profit. Make an employee productive by selling the labor.
Certainly, one could go with new. If so, it wouldn't be vintage. This is why some lust after a split window Corvette vs a new one. :-)
@@stereoniche .
That wasn't YOUR question though. 19:32 your question asked specifically about a quality/price equivalent on NEW. A new kit beats the Advent. I understand the nostalgia value but again, that wasn't your question.
Want more? No service will touch a Technics fully automatic, direct drive turntable. Are you capable of maintaining one? And with a now 46 year old cheap cartridge? I wouldn't spend the gas money driving there to pick it up if it were free.
Delivered & warranted NEW U-Turn Basic turntable with Audio Technica AT91B cartridge $249.
Like I said, I bought the Sansui T-60 Tuner. Have you seen it? So, I get it. But it was your question friend.
Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
@@stereoniche .
BTW, a Luxman R-1050 'ain't no Split-window Coupe. It's far more equivalent to a 1976 straight-6 automatic Mustang II survivor.
(edit) A Sansui G33000 is the split-window equivalent.
@@TriAmpHiFiTrue! :-)
There’s certainly the final analysis in this overreaching hobby of ours. folks different styles, and tastes. While reading the various entries in the blog, I took a closer look at your aloof disdain of broadcast FM. Using Cherokee’s 500256 distribution amplifier on a 40ft abandoned AT&T utility pole, with 4 aerials on precise points of the compass has yielded me performance that possibly fewer than perhaps 125 folks in the nation have ever experienced. Full modulation FM quieting, on even THIRD tier from Flag tuners is ‘Silent Hill’ frightening. And the Adcom, Hitachi, Onkyo, and Sony I have would have welcomed the sad, stepchild T-60 to a universe of the unstrained receptive ease it has never experienced since it was built.
How very sad.