Man...got kinda lit this evening on good beer here in Oklahoma and havin an awesome day so thought I'd catch up on Kevin and vintage gear. And as far as his dad.....God answers when prayers are spoken.
I purchased a Nikko NR-1219 'monster' receiver in the early 1990s. Still going good today. I did obtain the service manual for it a few years ago, but it hasn't needed any repairs to date. Kevin, good to find out your Dad is doing well.
A guy that does my major repairs recently bought a large cabinet of NOS Original parts from a lady who's husband died 20+ years ago, and she has all this stuff in storage units. When I went there a few weeks ago to pick up two receivers he worked on for me, he showed me the inventory stock in that cabinet. Brand new tape deck heads including vintage Pioneer and TEAC 3-headers, motors, tons of original Darlington and STK chips and wait for it.... I quart sized bag full of those Pioneer speaker connectors! All brand new and never opened.
Those Wharfedales are great speakers for their time. George Martin and David Gilmore had those as the speakers for their home systems back in the early 70's. I gave mine to my ex GF who played in a famous doom metal band along with a Fischer Tube receiver. I want the stereo gear back but not the girlfriend.
I love my ADS L570/2 and L780/2 speakers, I just wish that I had discovered them years ago instead of earlier this year. Prices for ADS are on the rise, and Richard So is the man for repairs.
Thanks for the mention. I found my Pioneer ES-2000 did sound a lot using an attenuated RCA cable when using a CD Player on AUX. Without cable seemed the sound was a bit all over the place. Though this might just be with the CD Player I used. Most of these vintage units were not made for CD Players as some do give out 2 or 3 volt peek to peek on the output. 4mm Banana plugs might just squeeze in for speaker connections, maybe just file a little
Great news about your Dad doing well. Nice shoutout to OldGuyHiFi. Like his content and he seems like a great guy. Cool to see the vintage gear. Always takes me back to putting together my first stereo rig in ‘72. 👍🏼🎶😎
Avid was a new company and got popular when Consumer Reports (very influential in audio in those days) rated the 103 the best speaker out of many tested.
Couldn't believe when you showed the AVID speaker. I had a pair, but it was the bookshelf size, maybe 101? I like them. And yes, mine came with brown cloth and after a few years I purchased the blue color and installed them. Had them for many years.
Thanks for this. I owned a pair of Avid 103 back in the late 70’s and really enjoyed them. Sold them to buy a pair of inferior Yamaha speakers, one of my many early hifi mid-steps. Hope your dad is doing well.
Good seeing you taking us through the shop and seeing all the unusual vintage pieces. Nice presentaion Kevin, Great to hear your Dad doing better. Keep up the great work.
Glad to hear your dad is doing well! I forgot about Avid speakers from the 70's. They used good drivers, some of which I employed in my own custom-made loudspeakers. Their cabinets were good. I had a Technics Pro Series Rack in my stereo shop. We sold very few but it was really cool. Even as an EE, I much prefer simplicity. I had the alternative Pro Series ST-9030 analog tuner in that rack, still considered as one of the best ever. Technics Pro Series also included their direct drive quartz lock reel-to-reel tape machines; I wish I kept my RS-1500US. I still have the official Technics dealer book with brochures and dealer pricing. Maybe something for eBay? Thanks for the good memories!
Hey Kevin. I used to own those Wharfdales. They were great during college long ago. Rescued them from a storage closet in my frat, no one wanted them, and fixed them up. I have no recollection of what happened to them. Great performers for sure.
Amazing, I log on to your site and am immediately faced my first ever speaker, the Wharfedale , W1 in my case. Could only afford one in 1962. Only went stereo few years later when I acquired a pair of Quad electrostatics. BTW it’s Wharf-Dale.
Have used Nikko equipment since the seventies. Their Pro Series is Very well made. All schematics are available. Not great but not as bad as others. Problem now is availability of replacement output FETs. Great specs. Great sound. 👍🏻
I owned the Technics gear you featured. The trade referred to it as the "Flat Group." There was a more conventional FM-only tuner option in that series, which I owned rather than the pieces you featured here. The equalizer was superb, as it had parametric capabilities where each slider also had adjustments for midpoint and bandwidth. I powered it with twin power amps each set to mono, running a variety of speakers ranging from Magnepans to Definitive Technology. I wish I still had that gear, as it does not pop up online very often. Thanks for sharing!
My father, a Technics executive, owned that system though I recall the tuner being a different one piece unit. The EQ was parametric as well as graphic. He had it together with a Miracord changer utilizing an Empire 888eee cartridge, an Ampex reel to reel and the biggest Dynaco speakers I'd ever seen. I don't recall the model. I would demo the Bee Gees "Lonely Days" for anyone who cared to listen. It was pure bliss.
Wharfedale W 60's had a sand filled (the cabinets were double walled) cabinet. They weighed a ton, but were actually quite good. I bet that Technic's amp sounds great. Those A/D/S speakers are absolutely outrageous! They are pretty inefficient, but you hit them with some REAL juice, let's say an Adcon GFA 555, and you will not believe how great they are. If you paid less than a grand, you got a world class deal on some world class speakers!!!!
Pioneer PL-518. My first turntable. Had it for years until it died. There's a RU-vid video out there where the actor Burgess Meredith does an ad for the PL-518. This is a cool vid. Takes me back to my back to my late teens to early 20's. The Technics kit is super nice stuff.
Love those old Technics, they look prety awsome. hearing about your dad doing well, I hope there is nothing wrong with him and you guys keep having fun together. Much love as always from your ol' pal in West Spain.
Thanks for bringing up the Avids!!! I bought a pair of Avid 103’s in high school from Alma’s (mentioned in the ad you showed at the end of the Avid segment). Loved them and used for years including for frat parties with a 50 watt Mac amp until I blew a tweeter. Just looked at the docs that came with them and they recommended stacking them like the Advents. Changed the grill to a white burlap. And really glad to hear your dad is doing well!!! 😊
The Avid 103 speakers sound fantastic! I own a mixed set ( 103/ 102) Combo found at a local Goodwill. Both include the famous sweet sounding Philips tweeters. As far as the Warfedale speakers. I have the W45's. 4 pairs of ads/ speakers L8e, L9e 520's and 880/2 found in the California and Arizona areas. Happy for the great news with your dad situation, Keep up with the great videos
Great to hear your Dad is doing well! Sure hope he is getting that dexterity working and hopefully working his way back into some tinkering! Great video as always!
I really like A/D/S speakers a great value and fantastic sound! That Nikko Alpha is a dual mono amp they had Alpha 1 And 2.Very well built Mid Fi gear. I had an Alpha 230 amp and Beta 30 pre amp for years in a back up system.
Another great video! Glad to hear about your Dad’s recovery. That ES-2000 makes me think about a pair of refurbished Pioneer XD-10 speakers that I picked up a few years ago. There is very little info out there about them but I’ve read that they were sold as part of a set with SA-6500/6800 and TX-6500/6800 in the 1979/80 time period. They look to be identical to Project 100A which were allegedly sold as stand-alone speakers. If anyone out there has any more info, I’d love to read more about them. Cheers!
Another great video,Kevin. Thank you, I learn something new each week. Wish I lived closer, would love to head to Des Moines next weekend to join your British Invasion. Really happy to hear that your Dad is doing okay as well. My Dad and I are close and I’d be a mess if something happened to him. Hope your Dad’s recovery continues to go well. Take care.
Nice to see those M12s. Those were the follow on to the “L” series towards the end of the ADS run as a company. They were different from the “L” series but still really great. No sticky domes from what I remember. I also love the big Nikko. My first receiver was a one. Always have a soft spot.
For the Pioneer speaker connections of those older units, I simply use electrical spade connectors as found in those electrical connector kits. Inexpensive and does the job.
Glad to hear your dad is doing well! I stopped in on Friday and bought an LP and another shirt. I asked Jon if you guys had any ADS speakers in stock. What a coincidence. I will say not all Wharfedale speakers are gems. I picked up a pair of nice looking W60Ds at a garage sale years ago. Still have them in storage. Unfortunately, that model just doesn't sound great to my ears. I would take a pair of Large Advents over those every time!
I had heard of Wharfedale speakers watching a UK youtube and never heard of them before. A couple weeks ago I walk through a local antique mall here in Ohio and there are a pair for sale for $600. They seemed overpriced to me and were obviously worn. That kind of stuff doesn't come with any guarantee that they work. I can't imagine those speakers can be very easily replaced in kind either.
Glad to hear the positive news on your father. I have a pair of the Avid 103 and interesting that you mentioned your want something like a 50 watt power source to drive them. Currently have a Nikko STA 6080 / Sony STR-V2 powering them and neither are rated for 50 watts. What is the math to know what wattage you should be using for any speaker. It seemed to revolve around ohms and efficiency.
I just bought a set of rare American made power amplifiers last week, I can't even find any documentation on them. 1983 VSP Labs Gold Edition amplifiers TM200 with a Straightwire II preamp. Manufactured in Ann Arbor Michigan, Juan Velazquez held the patent for the Transconductance "Trans Mos" amplifier circuit Steve Eberbach of DCM Loudspeakers helped design the units and shared the same address.
Had a pair of Wharfedale 70’s in 1968. Powered by a Scott LK150 with gold lion KT88 I still have a pair of of KT88 somewhere. The speakers were sand filled panels. Pre amp HK tube. Great sounding speakers
I had a pair of wharfedale linton XP 3 in the 70's 3 way linked to a dynatron with a Goldring lenco GL 75( It's pronounced Warfdale it's a village in Yorkshire England. Excellent sound. I currently have a Yamaha natural sound amp with a pair of Gale tower speakers and an active sub.
I had soft white LEDs put into my vintage Technics SA-505. They look exactly like the original incandescent lamps. Same color of soft white. No blue LED crap.
OK. This straight from an ENGLISH man. It's Wharf-dale, I know, because I used to live just down the road from one of their factories. I even had a mate who worked for them for a time. BUT, if you heard a Welsh man or a Scotsman say it, then it would sound completely different. Same as a New Yorker versus a Texan. "You get my drift?" Yep! that's an Americanism that you would never hear over in Britain. Hope I got that right... Great to hear your Dad is on the mend.
Not sure why cleaning the alps pot in that Technics preamp scared you so much. I am an engineer and tech with over 40 years experience and clean those all the time. All you have to do is drill a pin hole in the top of each section on the top and clean with the correct cleaner / lubricant. The while process takes about 30 minutes and I have a100% success rate of restoring those to like new operation. I think your skilled techs would have little issue with that. Cheers, Kelly.
In England, we don't pronounce the "e". Wharfedale is an area of Yorkshire. "dale" means a river valley and the river in question is the river Wharfe. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wharfedale The company is named after Wharfedale where the sand was mined for use in their early speakers which had sand filled cavities to reduce cabinet resonance.
2 things about ADS M12. 1) The tweeters in your unit may not be original. 2) When I tried to sand the veneer on an ADS speaker I had, I burned through the veneer very quickly, be careful.
What's the problem with led's in scale's/dials on 70's receivers? Especially in the blue ones? Okay it's not original I get that, but look at the result. Instead of that foggy green-blue color you get the most beautiful clear blue. It looks amazing.and I bet they would have gone for that back then had it been an option. The Avid's are cool. Three way closed construction is right up my alley. When it comes to turntables I prefer the walnut/silver ones. Looks a heck of a lot better next to the receivers than the grey or black. For instance Akai AP-003 is a total beaut. Of course the sound will always come first, but nothing beats the look of 70's vintage gear. Really cool stuff in this video. Thanks for showing.
Years ago I had a pair of Nikko Alpha VI amps, 300wpc dual mono. Paid $100 for em. Sold them shortly after for a dumb reason. Even had a full fold out schematic and original manuals. Good old days.
Hi If you don't like to read manuals, I can help. On the Technics gear, there is a little button on the front that says POWER. Push it in to turn the units on. Push it again to turn them off. But first plug the units in a power socket. Cheers.
I own a Nikko Alpha II amp and a Nikko Beta 20 along with a Nikko Gamma 20 tuner. The Alpha II and the Beta 20 were recapped and serviced from Austin Stereo. I hardly ever hear about the Nikko equipment. I was told they're very simple and very well built. I should have a good 20 years of life out of them.
Those tower speakers that were refinished on the top, it looks like whomever used a poly varnish, which gives you that yellow tone. I would either strip them to get rid of that and then maybe a water base varnish that doesn’t yellow, which could make it match the rest of the speaker. And I would probably go with a mat finish because that’s what the originals appear to have on it.
I have a set of speakers I picked up in Florida. There called Kanazawa speakers, built like a tank, I never heard of them before, can hardly find anything about them, there Japanese speakers that were not exported from the 60s, the only way the got here was owner service men where stationed there in the 60s from the Vietnam war, they look like early pioneer, 16 ohm three four and five way speakers, sound better than anything I’ve ever heard, not high powered, 25 to 40 watts, breath taking sound with them built in horns ❤️
Never hate on LEDs... they run cool and save power. Just use warm white for original factory look. Vintage electronics don't have to look tacky with 'cold white' or 'ice blue' illumination, with warm white LEDs being available.
I just restored an HK 330i. I used and amber LED for the dial lamp and a purplish blue for the dial pointer. I think it looks better than the original .
I purchased a ADC two shaper,for the life of me I couldn't find the replacement globe,ended up being a simple doorbell globe from the local electronics store,$2:50.
If you want to keep the original look, or damn close to it, get and install the warm white LEDs. They'll probably outlast you and they don't generate a bunch of heat.
Glad the news is upbeat on your Dad! I have a question for you: About forty years ago, I became acquainted with a guy who was into above-average audio, like myself. He did not use speakers, but "electro stats". I had not heard of them prior, and never knew anyone else who had them. If you know anything about them, would it be possible to mention them in a future upload? Thank you.
