[palmfish]

A $50 (or $70) receiver can very quickly turn into a $350 receiver if it needs servicing (and most do).

 

[BmWr75]

Very true.
 
Unless you can know how to work on your own stuff, vintage refurbishment is expensive due to the man-hours required.  Parts are typically not too expensive.
 
My Pioneer SX-1010 is sick now.  Need to make a big capacitor order tonight.

 

[ardgedee]

Old silver-face NAD equipment is more unusual in North America than in western Europe. If I was offered a healthy and good-sounding example for $70, I would consider it a steal, but this might not be true where you live.

 

[Coq de Combat]

Quote:

A $50 (or $70) receiver can very quickly turn into a $350 receiver if it needs servicing (and most do).

Ah, yes of course. That's an aspect I didn't really think ok - how much the service would cost if it turned out to be in worse shape than I thought. Of course, I can listen to it before buying, but then again, I don't know what to look for when trying to find faults. Because of this...
Quote:

Unless you can know how to work on your own stuff, vintage refurbishment 

Bang. First problem here. I don't know how to work on my own stuff. I'm no electrician and logic says if I would be all up in that amplifier with a multimeter and an soldering iron, I'd be fried before it sounded good.

 
Quote:

Old silver-face NAD equipment is more unusual in North America than in western Europe. If I was offered a healthy and good-sounding example for $70, I would consider it a steal, but this might not be true where you live.

 
I won't lie, I don't see old silver-faced NAD equipment often for sale over here. I do, however, see at least one vintage Marantz up for sale every month. Some yammies, technics, pioneer and so on.
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
My old AKAI works. It's not the most refined of equipment I reckon, but it get's the job done, and the headphone out (the most important part for me) is the "best sounding" of all the receivers and amplifiers I have at home right now, and I have a new Pioneer, Yamaha, the FiiOs and so on. I guess it will have to do for a while - until it breaks or I have a change of heart or something.

 

[cifani090]

Quote:

@cifani
i would describe it as a little U shaped.  and a bit sterile.  but its got nice detail for a 100$ amp.
def sounds best when fed from the woo's pre.  it warms up a bit without losing much of anything on the top and bottom
sounds surprisingly good with all of my cans, but they are all fairly high imp except the 80 ohm beyers.  and oddly enought those two mate excellently.
MUCH better HP jack than my A-S500 yam in the living room.
except for the funky cutting in and out for the first 30 seconds to a minute when i first plug cans into it.

Gotcha, sterile turns be off compared to neutral of say a Pioneer. The Yamaha isn't close to as good as the Woo... right?
 
Quote:

Thanks for the answer. These old amplifiers are surprisingly often up for sale, but never for $70, more like $150 (not this exact model, just retro and vintage amps in general seem priced somewhere around there). Even though it's not a lot of money, I'll really have to think this over, since I'm not loaded right now.. I had a little hope inside me that someone would say "OMG it's their flagship model, buy buy buy..." - but seeing as you'd pay $50 for it, it seems to be fair priced and in that case I might be better off saving my money for something better along the road.

 
Something like an entry level Marantz 2xxx series is better, but ive never seen a NAD Model 90 for sale, except for (i think) a broken one for $79.
 
Quote:

A $50 (or $70) receiver can very quickly turn into a $350 receiver if it needs servicing (and most do).

x2, and id hate for someone to buy an investment piece and to get the opposite.
 
Quote:

Old silver-face NAD equipment is more unusual in North America than in western Europe. If I was offered a healthy and good-sounding example for $70, I would consider it a steal, but this might not be true where you live.

x2, do you have any old NAD's?
 

 

[Rawrbington]

Quote:

Gotcha, sterile turns be off compared to neutral of say a Pioneer. The Yamaha isn't close to as good as the Woo... right?

 

i guess the U shape comment was a bit off.
its fairly flat in the mids and bass, but with a little bit of brightness.
just like my other yam.
 
and maybe its not bright, cause ive read other people say the s a500 isn't bright.
it may just be me being used to the tubey woo.
 
and no, its not as good.
the woo bests it pretty much everywhere. 
 
edit: i also wonder about the market for some of the vintages on ebay.  right now it seems like marantz has come down in the last week where as a month ago prices were freaking astronomic.
2215's going for 225$
and 2245s going for 450$

 

[wualta]

 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Rawrbington /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
its fairly flat in the mids and bass, but with a little bit of brightness. just like my other yam.
 
and maybe its not bright, ...it may just be me being used to the tubey woo.

This is exactly the way I'd describe the mid-'70s Yamaha receivers like my CR-620. They measured flat, but because of yet-undiscovered distortion mechanisms peculiar to the power transistors of the time, they sounded bright.
 
If I ever write a hardboiled detective novel, I'll name one of the heroes Tubey Woo.
 
 

 

[MohawkUS]

Anyone have any expiriance with Sherwood recievers? I just picked up a Sherwood S-721A from ebay for $50. I'm going to be using it pretty much just for its phono-stage.

 

[publicholiday]

Any owner of pioneer sx? I saw a small pioneer sx 440, wonder if anyone have experience with low powered pioneer sx line?

 

[jc9394]

Quote:

Probably not, unless you spend a LOT.  Try the one in the Marantz first.  That was the golden age of phono, and most better receivers had excellent phono stages.

You are right, I'm totally impressed even with the entry level Rega P1.  I did not remember my vinyl sound this good before.  Now I need to clean all the dusts of them.  Is spinclean any good?

 

[cifani090]

Quote:

Any owner of pioneer sx? I saw a small pioneer sx 440, wonder if anyone have experience with low powered pioneer sx line?

Me and Skylab both own SX-1250's and he also owns a SX-1980.
 

 

[AuralRelations]

Quote:

You are right, I'm totally impressed even with the entry level Rega P1.  I did not remember my vinyl sound this good before.  Now I need to clean all the dusts of them.  Is spinclean any good?

I have a Spin Clean and it works OK. For $80, I really expected more. There's a certain break-in time with it too. After cleaning about 30 records, it starts doing a better job. Right now, I use the Spin Clean as a preliminary wash to get most of the grit off. If it sounds good, I'll leave the record alone. If it still sounds noisy, I use Titebond II wood glue to clean the record. It takes forever to dry but the results are incredible.

 

[palmfish]

Quote:

I have a Spin Clean and it works OK. For $80, I really expected more. There's a certain break-in time with it too. After cleaning about 30 records, it starts doing a better job.

Why does everything audio related need to be burned in to work best?

 

[Rawrbington]

why are vintage so expensive right now??!?!?!
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PIONEER-SX-1250-JUST-GIVEN-PREMIUM-OVERHAUL-PERFECT-/330663933639?pt=Receivers_Tuners&hash=item4cfd1b36c7
 
WHY?
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pioneer-SX-1980-Monster-Receiver-Great-Condition-NEW-PICTURES-Original-Box-/330577898066?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item4cf7fa6a52
 
What???
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-YAMAHA-CR-3020-Stereo-Receiver-Very-Rare-80-lb-MONSTER-/290657899285?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item43ac8f9315
 
i mean don't get me wrong, visually stunning all of them, but poop, thats rediculous.

 

[cifani090]

You have to understand, people want to buy something that is guaranteed to work and with a warranty. These are also mint units, one with the original box.