The Audiophile Club of Athens

Here's a nice Ken Barne's documentary on the Audiophile Club of Athens.

What are your thoughts on spending this amount of money on equipment?

Is it any different than spending money on classic cars, boats, or any other luxury hobby?

When does a hobby become an obsession?

The Dangers of Over-Driving Vintage Speakers

Mystery Speaker Challenge

The "Weird Speaker of the Month Award" goes to: Yamaha N8-15 Speaker. Could be a Japanese-only model. Hard to get the scale by the photos, but these are approximately 22" high by 6" deep by 14" wide.

Chime in if you've ever seen one of these.

How does it sound? Bass unit Mylar was loose on both speakers and produced very little bass. Tweeter sounded okay.

Stack 'em Deep and Sell 'em Cheap!

Although a convenient way to purchase and assemble a home stereo, the matched "stacks" of gear usually were sub-par in sound quality. Radio Shack may have been the first to package their components as suggested sets, but when the 80s hit and consumer, mass-market audio diverged from the audiophile market, most big players realized their demographic didn't get a buzz from piecing together the "perfect" sound system. Thus the "Stack 'em deep and sell 'em cheap" mantra was born.

Ever try tapping on the cabinet of one of the speakers that came bundled with these? Sounds like a toy drum

Receiver - Sansui 7900-Z

Sansui gear has always fascinated me. They made some outstanding amps and receivers and some real clunkers - depending on the decade, usually, but this one falls outside the pattern. This 1981 little gem sounds quite good to me - both the tuner and the amp section hooked to a CD source. What it lacks in punch it makes up for in. . .well, not much compensation there, but it's perfect for a small room system. Quite an attractive dial and front panel as well.

This is not mine - had the opportunity to buy it from a pawn shop, but decided against it. They wanted $100 for it, and I think it's worth about $75. Took some pics though to share :)

Any of you have any experiences with the Sansui 7900Z? Chime in through comments or email. Thanks.

What's it worth?

In very good condition: $75 - $100

Facebook Fan Page - Vintage Stereo Ads Galore!

Each day I'm posting a vintage stereo advertisement on the HiFiCollector Fan Page on Facebook.

Join in, leave comments, post photos of your gear. . .it's a great way to share with our growing community of collectors!

Receiver - Sony STR 6055

Took this Sony STR-6055 out of storage this past weekend and still need to do a faceplate cleaning. Can't get the left channel to work either, but I'll open it up on Sunday and poke around inside.

From what I remember, this little early 70s gem sounded really nice when it worked a couple years ago. I'll check it out and give you an update soon.

Have any stories about your Sony STR-6055 receiver? Leave a comment or shoot me an email. Thanks!

What's it worth? In this condition (without optional wood cabinet) and not working well: $25. In excellent condition with wood cabinet - $65 or whatever a collector is willing to pay.

What's My Gear Worth? >> Part Deux

I'm getting quite a few requests for gear quotes, which is great!

I want all these requests to be arranged for easy retrieval - not only by the people who requested the quotes, but also by future visitors as well.

So. . . From now on, please submit all your gear quote requests on the HiFiCollector.com forum.

You'll see the "What's it Worth?!?" topic, so just create a new post under that topic and I'll answer it ASAP.

Thanks folks!

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

Community Photos - Tube Radio and Heathkit

This photo is from Mike in Las Vegas. Here's his description:

Attached is a picture of my favorite piece I bought in bad condition at the Rose Bowl swap meet for $10. On top of it is a Heathkit AJ-31. Both operate superbly.

-Mike in Las Vegas

Thanks Mike! I also spy a Zenith Trans-Oceanic in there as well - cool. . .

If you have a photo or two you'd like to have posted - send 'em on in with a description. hificollector88 [at] gmail.com

Thanks folks!

Speakers - Vandersteen 3A

See the cat's tail in the second photo from the bottom? Yup - that's the reason you're seeing these Vandy's in their birthday suit. Picked these up off local (LA) CraigsList for a song and the socks were in good shape. My cat, Satchmo would have, sooner or later, discovered these wonderful scratching posts and tore the socks, possibly even the rear woofer, to shreds.

With all the best intentions, I decided to set forth and remove the socks, taking care to keep them intact so that I may put them back on in the future should a resale opportunity arise.

Ever removed socks from Vandersteens? There are no less than 100 industrial staples per speaker holding these super-tough socks in place. The first sock removal took over an hour, and the second speaker went a little faster at about 45 minutes. Of course had I realized what a chore it was going to be I would have photographed and documented it for this site. As it stands, if you need any advice on removing the socks from Vandersteen speakers, go ahead and email me or post a comment and I'll be happy to answer specific questions.

So, the good news is that I really like the way the look without the socks! No, this isn't sour grapes, you see I've recently discovered the societal sub-culture of steampunk, and these skinned Vandys reflect the design influence of steampunk perfectly! Love the over-built structure and commanding lines of these speakers. The mat-black sprayed finish and the khaki stapled felt pad accents.

So, how do they sound? Wonderful. I've got a pair of Vandersteen 3A Signature speakers downstairs in the family room, but we use these mostly for gaming and home theater. HORRORS! I know, but they will be around for decades, and will eventually find their way into a dedicated listening room. In the meantime, don't fret - Call of Duty on the PS3 sounds absolutely phenomenal on these puppies. They are NOT going to waste.

I can't tell any difference between the 3A and the 3A signature, sound-wise, but then again, I don't have them set up side-by-side in an A/B test configuration. One is on tile in a very large room with hard surfaces, and these 3As are in my smallish loft with lots of soft surfaces and heavily-padded carpet. There's no way I could say which one sounds better under these conditions.

My recommendation: Look for any Vandersteens after the 2C model as they will have rubber surrounds on the drivers. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the 2C and prior models all had foam surrounds. You can usually find 2CE and above for $500 or so. Try to buy local as shipping these is expensive. If you can find a pair - grab 'em. You might even consider removing the socks as I did. With the socks on they are monolithic and draw no attention to themselves. Without the socks they make a bold statement - either good or bad, depending on your taste and that of your spouse :)

Have anything to add? Please leave a comment or shoot me an email - hificollector88 [at] gmail.com