Do any of you have any reel-to-reel, record players and etc from the old days?

This is a picture of a 72' Panasonic cassette carousal. Honestly I didn't even know they had audio cassettes back in the early 70's, but I guess they did.

I've got a turntable and several cassette decks. All in storage, for the moment. (We just moved. I plan to set at least some of that stuff back up. I've got 3-4 crates full of vinyl records.)
And yeah... I had cassettes back in the early 70s. I think I got into stereo cassettes in 1970 - 71 or so. Had a big-azz Panasonic portable stereo recorder.
Then I got into home hi-fi/stereo. Got my first "real" stereo in the late 70s.

With that said... I may have seen the cassette carousel, but those were expensive AF, back in the day.
Most people I knew who were into cassettes had a double (dubbing) cassette deck at the maximum. I knew a few people who were into R to R, but it was too fussy for me, since I did a lot of my listening in the car.

True story: back when I bought my first CD player, I thought I had to take the disk out and turn it over when it was half way done.

Stuffed in the back of a closet, I have a turntable, a cassette deck and three reel-to-reels, two Teacs and a Radio Shack. I also still have a Radio Shack quadrophonic amp and headphones, all just collecting dust.

Here is a pic of one of my Teac decks from a few years ago:



My boss gave me that deck about 30 years ago because he said it didn't work anymore. All it needed was an $8 drive belt.

[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 09-07-2020).]

This is one of my hobbies, buying broken old audio and video equipment and fixing them, gotten pretty good at fixing old tape decks. Always wanted a high-end stereo as a kid and of course couldn't afford one. Frequently easy fixes, replacing capacitors, belts, re-lubing mechanisms, adjusting tape speeds,etc.

-Have a large stack of Sony ES equipment from the late 80's/early 90's, most with the wood sides

Sony PS-X600 Turntable
Sony DTC-75ES DAT Tape
Sony MDP700 Laserdisc
Sony ST-S730ES Tuner
Sony TC-WR901ES Cassette Deck
Sony CDP-C85ES CD Changer
Sony TA-E9000ES
Sony TA-N9000ES Amplifier



-Re-bought the stereo my father bought in 1983 and gave it to him (I MIGHT have broken the original cassette deck when I was a kid...). He had slowly thrown out pieces over the years as they broke, but I was able to piece together what he had from old home movies and memory.

Sony STR-VX250 Receiver
Sony TC-FX25 Cassette Deck
Sony TC-FX44 Cassette Deck
Sony Turntable (can't remember the model off-hand)
Sony CDP-200 CD Player (He didn't buy a CD player until 1987, but this one matched the other components

Thought I had a good picture of it, apparently not, you can see the components here before I set them back up, ignore the large black receiver and black turntable



I have a bunch of other misc. components too, like a Sony TC-228 8 Track player, Sony PS-X6 Turntable serial number 7, Sony SLV-R1000 S-VHS deck, two Betamax decks, Sony SL-HF750 and SL-HF900, a Sony MDS-JE700 Minidisc player, etc.

Here is a question: I just replaced my ~15 year old Harman-Kardon receiver. It was a nice receiver, but it finally gave up the ghost. Is it worth donating to Goodwill? I was ready to toss it in the trash, but you got me thinking that maybe someone could fix it and make good use of it.

Goodwill absolutely puts broken stuff on the shelves for cheap. Got a turntable and my first Betamax that way, both broken, both easy fixes. In fact that was how I got my first flat screen TV: An older couple I was behind in the donation line were trying to donate a TV that didn't work, and the guy wouldn't take it. I told them I'd take it. Got it home and the power supply capacitors were all bad, thing looked like it overheated in the process. Replaced them all and a bunch on the main board with some good Panasonic caps, fired right up and still works 10+ years later, my little brother borrowed it for college for a few years.

Somewhere in a closet I have an 8-track home deck... not simply a playback deck, but an 8-track home recording deck. I bought it from a thrift store many years ago just so I could take it apart to see how it worked. After fixing it, I couldn't bear to throw it out.

quote Originally posted by Wichita: Do any of you have any reel-to-reel, record players and etc from the old days?

Nope



~Tyler

[This message has been edited by GT-X (edited 09-08-2020).]

I just took a bunch of 70's audio gear to a hi-fi shop for restoration.

The list included

- Sansui AU-7700 integrated amp (2)
- Sansui AU-7900 integrated amp
- Sansui TU-7900 tuner
- Marantz 1060 integrated amp
- Pioneer TX-6700 tuner

Hoping to end up with two AU-7700 and a TU-7700 tuner out of the project.
I'm tired of listening to the 90's Onkyo receiver I've been using - it just doesn't cut it.

[This message has been edited by olejoedad (edited 09-08-2020).]

My dad was a big reel-to-reel guy; he used to get brand new LPs from the library (so they weren't yet scratched and staticy) and he'd record them onto reel-to-reel. All classical music. At some point later, he switched over to cassette..... I'll have to check and see if any of the reel-to-reel stuff is still there. He had some junk and some good items but he pared down his collection at some point later, probably in the 80s.

I have these in storage (images of the net since mine are, well, in storage):









I still use the speakers on my main audio system and for watching movies (as part of a surround system). They are around 50 years old but still sound fantastic. Everybody who comes to my house and hears them are completely blown away by the sound quality.

I still have operational stereo equipment from the 70s and 80s. The current list included:

Dokoder four channel reel to real
Akai two channel reel to real with a built in 8 track tape
Marantz 4170 four channel receiver/amp (quantity 2)
Four Cerwin Vega three way speakers
Techniques turntable
Sony cassette deck with a dubbing head
Miscellaneous vinyl records, cassette tapes, reel to reel tapes (stereo and quad)

Nelson

Wow, weird timing. I just relocated my "Office" in our house and had to store away my old stereo:

Yamaha PL90 Turntable
Yamaha A-960 Integrated Amplifier
Kef 104aB Speakers - Currently out of service, probably need the crossovers re-capped.

Anybody want to buy any of it? I can't see setting it back up in any realistic time frame.

Define 'retro'........
My newest turntable is kinda old.

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum6/HTML/118888.html

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 09-09-2020).]

quote Originally posted by maryjane: Define 'retro'........ My newest turntable is kinda old.

Don, glad to see you've at least updated from wax cylinders.

Here's my Victrola portable 78 record player from back when Camden New Jersey ruled the audio world (100 Hundred years ago) ...

quote Originally posted by Patrick: Don, glad to see you've at least updated from wax cylinders.

Well he kinda had to...

Heh... kind of cool to see this thread.

I've never really given up on the old stuff. I just never really got interested in any of the newer stuff.
The newest "big" piece of equipment I own is an 85 watt per channel Kenwood AV receiver.


It's pretty cool, and has lots of "toys", but it has since been shelved. At least temporarily. Read on...

Back in the late 70s I worked at Olson Electronics. They were a rival to Radio Shack and (to a lesser extent) Lafayette Electronics.
They sold some real junk. (The only company I know that would ever be bold - or stupid - enough to "blister pack" an entire Electrophonic stereo chassis. It was hilarious.)
They also sold some decent stuff. They had a silver face 40 watt per channel receiver that I purchased, back in the day. I could actually afford it, with my employee discount.
What I could not afford were the much cooler "separates". A 40 watt stereo amp and a separate tuner. (The internal electronics were essentially identical. Just housed in separate cabinets.)
A little over a year ago, I found a set of them for sale on eBay. Jumped right on them.


When I first powered them up some of the pots were scratchy, and some of the switches were a little bit intermittent, but after working them a bit, they are much better. At some point, I plan to clean them with Deoxit, and I need to replace all of the lamps in the tuner, but even as-is they have become my "main" system.

My speakers also started out as Olson pieces, but I fried them in fairly short order. (They were way overrated.)
I rebuilt them in the image of Optimus T200s, even using T200 woofers. A friend recommended Peerless mids and Dynaco tweeters.
I have worn out several sets of woofers and mids (foam rot and dog teeth ) but the tweeters are still original, 35 years later.
This is what they look like now. (The speakers on top are Bose / Interaudio 4000XLs. I'm amazed at how good those things sound, too.)


I also have several pieces of old "black face" Kenwood stuff.
One of them is a 110 WPC integrated amp that had something spilled into it. Doesn't look too cooked - just a couple of resistors - but we shall see.
I also bought a separate preamp and power amp. Supposedly "non-working", but I suspect they were just purchased from an estate sale, not tested, and flipped for a quick sale.
They are covered with cigarette smoke residue, but otherwise look to be in good shape.
I just need time to get my shop set up again (we just moved) and and will dive in.

I won't even mention the old tube-type Sansui...

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 09-09-2020).]

quote Originally posted by RWDPLZ: Well he kinda had to...

When the "one of a kind" wax cylinder exploded into pieces... and the kid wisecracked "Are you done with that then?"... I was hoping the devastated old guy would kick the smart-ass kid square in the balls.