Super high end sound system...sounds bad?

[Industrial Toys]

You could use GOLD plugs, but the component RCA sockets are usually tin. I can't tell you how much trouble I have had over the years. I have a XLR connector going into a wall with low level audio and despite being TIN, it has never given me any grief.

Personally. I would buy a cheaper bottle of whatever to drink and buy some unfortunate person a meal before I paid $500.00 for a bottle of something. To each his own. Where do you draw the line?

 

[dmccarty]

I use my old Radio Shack Mach Ones with the 15" Woofers. ...

:laughing::laughing::laughing: REALLY? Mach One speakers from Radio Shack? Those things have to be close to 40 years old! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

I worked for Radio Shack back in the day and those speakers could kick a....s! After closing, when I was doing the books, I would crank up the stereo attached to the Mach Ones. The pizza place next door would pound on the wall or come over and tell me to turn it down! :confused3::shocked: What kinda pizza place tells you to turn down The Who or Pink Floyd? :confused3::shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[Industrial Toys]

I bought them as demos in the mid 70s. I can't believe the diaphrams and other components are still capable of withstanding the vibration. I never really was such a fan of BASS and liked those speakers with the built in mid range horn. Some of the best money I ever spent in hind sight.

It's funny. When my lady friend shows up, I have already turned down the volume to almost nothing. Yet she either gives me a dirty look or asks me to turn it down more still.

If I had money, I'd buy some of those Vintage Northern Electric theater speakers.

I stand corrected. I am running a 12 channel (not six) X 80 WATT NAD distribution amp.

 

[radios1]

You could use GOLD plugs, but the component RCA sockets are usually tin. I can't tell you how much trouble I have had over the years. I have a XLR connector going into a wall with low level audio and despite being TIN, it has never given me any grief.

Personally. I would buy a cheaper bottle of whatever to drink and buy some unfortunate person a meal before I paid $500.00 for a bottle of something. To each his own. Where do you draw the line?

you could buy gold plated sockets and have a shop change to them for the old tin sockets.. a workaround is to get the plugs and sockets clean and use either silicone plumbers grease, or the NO-OX grease used for aluminum wiring connections.(electrical department of many stores). what that will do is keep the air and moisture from getting at the connections, that works too..

 

[N80]

Here is a follow up:

First, Moss Road, I bought a can of DeOxit. $20 for 5 oz. :shocked:. It also has the spray top like the new WD40 cans, and just like the new WD40 cans it doesn't work worth a darn. However, the chemical worked on my old Toshiba. I opened it up and dusted it out. Two whole insects in there. Then sprayed the DeOxit on all the pots and switches and the blades on the radio channel deally-thing. Now everything works great. And the funny things is is that I bought a new $150 100 wpc Sony amp/tuner combo to use for the radio and the pre-out as the phono pre-amp on this high end system I got. I hooked it up to my old Bose bookshelf speakers and it sounded like garbage. Really bad. So, I got the old 1980 Toshiba out and it still sounds fantastic on the same speakers! Then I remembered that this particular Toshiba was fairly pricey in its day. $350 in 1980. Thats about $1100 in today's dollars. (I got it from a friend of my dad who was a Toshiba sales rep. It was his demo and I got it for about $100...still a lot for a high school student). Anyway, the DeOxit fixed it and it sounds great and will stay down at my cabin where it has been for 15 years.

I sent the Sony right back to Amazon the next day.

I brought the hifi system home. I've been on internet forums all week figuring it out. It is, apparently, very high end. As it turns out, room placement is a big issue with these speakers. The room I put it in at home is 20' long and 10' wide. The speakers are on one short wall and my chair is on the other almost 20' away. Plus the floor is carpeted and there are drapes in the room. The speakers are now close to corners. I think the room shape, the added listening distance and the speaker position have all contributed because it sounds just amazing now.

The hifi experts also said the speakers probably needed a workout since they'd been sitting for several years and the pre-amp, according to the manual, sounds better after warming up for at least 10-15 minutes. Whether these things made a difference I don't know.

I ditched the Onkyo home theater unit and will purchase a low end phono-preamp so I can listen to vinyl. I'm not going to spend any money there since the turntable isn't anything great anyway.

I am going to get some sort of DAC so I can run uncompressed digital files through it. iTunes files sound okay through it but flac files do sound better. I'm researching how I can do this with an old iMac but it gets complicated.

Anyway, the system really does sound remarkable now. I'm very lucky.

 

[MossRoad]

Hey, I'm glad it worked out. :thumbsup:

Your iMac has a headphone jack, doesn't it?

 

[N80]

Your iMac has a headphone jack, doesn't it?

Yes. And I've been running my iPhone and my laptop through this system using an RCA to 3.5mm 'Y' cord. And to be honest it sounds pretty good to me even with regular iTunes files (mp3?). But, I also recently played a flac (or alac) file this way and it sounded noticeably better.

I'm told that if you run these lossless files through a DAC via USB from the computer then RCA cord to the pre-amp it will sound even better. How much better? Heck if I know. But, a reasonable DAC can be had for $100. Really good ones for those who care can cost thousands. So if I can run hi res files from an old unused iMac into this high end system and get quality commensurate with the rest of the system I might do it. Right now I have _zero_ dollars tied up in all this. The phone pre-amp will cost me another $50 and I'll get one set of decent RCA cables for the DAC for about $20. So all in I'm at about $170.

I have chronic ringing in both ears and high frequency hearing loss in my left ear (age, guns, rock concerts....and sadly, tractors) so as it sits this system can 'out resolve' my ears. I can't see any reason to spend more on it. Having said that, even with my old ears, this thing sounds wonderful and is quite enjoyable.

 

[MossRoad]

You know, a lot of that MP3 quality has to do with the bit rate it was ripped at. Not so long ago, when electronic storage space was expensive(hard drives, USB sticks, etc...), people ripped MP3s at lower bit rates to save space. It makes a very noticeable difference in listening quality.

See if you can find the same song ripped at different bit rates or do it yourself for an experiment.

If you're not familiar with the bit rate, read this wiki down in the BIT RATE section. It explains it pretty well.

MP3 - Wikipedia

 

[MossRoad]

.....
I have chronic ringing in both ears and high frequency hearing loss in my left ear (age, guns, rock concerts....and sadly, tractors) so as it sits this system can 'out resolve' my ears. I can't see any reason to spend more on it. Having said that, even with my old ears, this thing sounds wonderful and is quite enjoyable.

Me, too. Even though I always wear hearing protection now, the damage was done way back then.... If I listen, I can always hear the ringing. Some days its way more noticeable than others. At night, it reminds me of the locusts I used to hear in the trees outside my bedroom window. So, when I want to go to sleep, and the ringing is really loud, I just imagine myself as a little kid, tucked into my bed at home, not a care in the world, and let the insects sing me to sleep.

Works for me.

 

[N80]

You know, a lot of that MP3 quality has to do with the bit rate it was ripped at. Not so long ago, when electronic storage space was expensive(hard drives, USB sticks, etc...), people ripped MP3s at lower bit rates to save space. It makes a very noticeable difference in listening quality.

See if you can find the same song ripped at different bit rates or do it yourself for an experiment.

If you're not familiar with the bit rate, read this wiki down in the BIT RATE section. It explains it pretty well.

MP3 - Wikipedia

Thanks for the link. I'm learning about all that now. I downloaded some lossless high bit rate sample files from a site that sells flac and alac files. There is a difference. Not sure yet how important it is to me. Thanks for the link. I'll continue to do some reading.