Looking for some old hi-fi

[bambam]

Hi

My daughter is interested in getting a turntable for her room, so naturally I'm supportive as I love a bit of vinyl and am pleased that she's shown an interest. Might just be a fad, who knows??

Anyway, at the moment she has a Sony unit that I picked up from Argos years ago and she uses it to listen to the radio and plug her iPhone into via a dock. There are no connections to add anything else, and anyway, I'm pretty sure that adding something like a turntable to it wouldn't get the best out of a vinyl.

So, I'm thinking of going down the road of getting her an old hifi set-up. Something like a receiver would be good as she'll get FM at least without having to have another unit as well as am amp. Thing is, been having a look on places like Ebay and there is so much choice I'm a bit lost. My mum used to have a nice Akai system but no-one knows where that's gone!

So, any advice or pointers as to a few units that may be worth checking out? Like I said, a receiver would be ideal, but just an amp would be good too. Not looking to spend much in case it is a fad.

Or, if anyone knows anyone that has an old hifi knocking about that they'd like to get rid off, that might be a place to start??

Thanks

[Analogue]

Deleted

[bambam]

Being a product of my time, i.e., old, my suggestion is to get your daughter some cheap 1990s kit - NAD 3020i amp (or equivalent receiver) and a Dual 4nnn turntable and get a new cartridge, if needed.

After several hundred years of ownership of a similar setup, in the dining room, a commend such a setup. I imagine it would be very inexpensive but would please her.

Thanks - that is exactly the kind of suggestion/advice I was after. Will see what they go for.

[Analogue]

Deleted

[Kevin Glover]

As mentioned earlier some 90's kit would be perfect. Just looked on eBay and you could get an arcam alpha amp with phono stage, denon tuner and rega turntable (all top kit in its day) for £300.
I'd pair that with some inexpensive speakers from the likes of tannoy, kef, or mission and she would have a great little system that would last years and sound far better than any all in one system in my experience.

[Analogue]

Deleted

[keitht]

British Heart Foundation alway seems to have a good selection of 90s seperates and they have an Ebay shop.

Another nod towards a Dual turntable, my Dad has a 505 thats still going strong.
Lots of decent amps/receivers from that era, and decent units can be had very cheaply. Certain brands models now have a collectors premium but do abot of research and similar paired down versions slip under the radar.

[hoopsontoast]

I would certainly recommend a Rega Turntable. Plug and play, so simple there is nothing to go wrong and they sound great.
For the rest, just whatever you can find locally really.

[Robinsj]

Still using my Rega Planar 2 with Rotel RA-820 Amp. Oddly all the other separates have long since been updated but the Rega and Rotel still look good and both sound great.


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[Nuisance Value]

Being a product of my time, i.e., old, my suggestion is to get your daughter some cheap 1990s kit - NAD 3020i amp (or equivalent receiver) and a Dual 4nnn turntable and get a new cartridge, if needed.

After several hundred years of ownership of a similar setup, in the dining room, a commend such a setup. I imagine it would be very inexpensive but would please her.

This is a good shout, though I would swap the Dual for a Rega TT, it would be a better medium term investment in sound and longevity, and spend a little less on some 80's / 90's amp and speakers which are buttons now and fairly easily sourced. Worth remembering the cartridge is important and worth spending a portion of the budget on.

You could also look for an Audio Technica or anything from Project secondhand (some have bluetooth connections now, perfect for modern connectivity)

My very first turntable was a Dansette, and then a Rigonda which were in the family, they are not sought after and also cheap, though Dansette are popular now, I wouldn't bother though. My second was a Thorens TD160Bmk2 which are now going for a few hundred, that boat has sailed. Have a look on Gumtree but search for "record player" a lot of people selling of old ones would call them this rather than turntable and you might hit on a bargain.

Stay away from these Crosley things, they are not good.

[IAmATeaf]

I was going to suggest a Thorens turntable, I've still got my td166 mkii but never realised that prices for them had crept up.

[Tifa]

Linn Sondek LP12, SME3009II , Shure V15 III.

[bambam]

Thanks for all the tips to date. So far I've come across a Rotel RA-810A amp and a Garard 125SB turntable. Any opinions?? Think I'd prefer a direct drive turntable for some unknown reason.
Anyway, the search continues.
There is a place near me that sells vintage hifi, but everything starts at £150 per item and that is probably what I'd look to spend in total on the amp/receiver and turntable.

I have some old B&O speakers that she can use for now.

[bambam]

I second that Rega is the one to go for. And don't forget in order of priority it's Turntable 1, amp 2, speakers 3
the old maxime Rubbish in Rubbish out. Don;t for get to budget for a new cartridge as chances are on the used maket it will be knackered! Rega do good cheap ones & get it fitted by a professional!

Thanks. Thinking more about it now, I've realised that I also have an old B&O system - Beocenter 4000 - under a chest of drawers that she can use. That has a phono connection and I will just need to get a DIN to RCA adapter to connect a turntable. Going this route (presuming the Beocenter still fires up) I can focus on the turntable and I know that it will be a good match for the speakers.

Let's go and look for a Rega....any particular models to look out for in the £100 ish budget??

[hoopsontoast]

I second that Rega is the one to go for. And don't forget in order of priority it's Turntable 1, amp 2, speakers 3
the old maxime Rubbish in Rubbish out. Don;t for get to budget for a new cartridge as chances are on the used maket it will be knackered! Rega do good cheap ones & get it fitted by a professional!

The main advantages with the older Rega Planar is there are loads around (cheap too), easy to setup and use and hold their value well.

I have a P9 but I love the simplicity and ease of use. Used RP1s can be had for great prices on ebay.

[hoopsontoast]

Thanks. Thinking more about it now, I've realised that I also have an old B&O system - Beocenter 4000 - under a chest of drawers that she can use. That has a phono connection and I will just need to get a DIN to RCA adapter to connect a turntable. Going this route (presuming the Beocenter still fires up) I can focus on the turntable and I know that it will be a good match for the speakers.

Let's go and look for a Rega....any particular models to look out for in the £100 ish budget??

I'd say a Planar 1 or P1 should be easily doable, maybe check local Gumtree etc for a bargain.

[W124]

I bought myself a Linn Axis turntable just before I got married in August 1990, as I knew it would be frowned upon to spend £700 on such a fripperie after the big day.

At the time, it stacked up well against the Rega 3.

27 years on, the Linn is still delivering a very satisfying experience, unlike the wife.

[W124]

And you will need a phono stage powered amplifier to plug the turntable into a modern amp.

There are many options, I have the NAD PP-1 which is small and easy to hide away.

[Rod]

There's some good recommendations above particularly Rega, & Project turntables. The NAD and Rotel amps have a decent phono stage. Make sure the turntable is on a decent support and not near a speaker.

[SimonH]

I have a Rega Planar 3 of 80s vintage and a Thorens TD125 of 70s vintage and whilst the Rega is ok the Thorens is miles better. I think the "built like a battleship" designs will always be superior especially where siting the turntable ideally is difficult.

Something a bit left-field in the "built like a battleship" class is a (Goldring) Lenco GL75. These are idler driven and sound great as standard as long as they are in reasonable nick, but offer an upgrade path through re-plinthing and adding modern arms. There is a forum dedicated entirely to doing this! http://lencoheaven.net/

I have a nice one in the loft waiting for me to find the time to start a project on it. I think good ones are still available at reasonable prices on eBay.

[walkerwek1958]

Thanks for all the tips to date. So far I've come across a Rotel RA-810A amp and a Garard 125SB turntable. Any opinions?? Think I'd prefer a direct drive turntable for some unknown reason.
Anyway, the search continues.
There is a place near me that sells vintage hifi, but everything starts at £150 per item and that is probably what I'd look to spend in total on the amp/receiver and turntable.

I have some old B&O speakers that she can use for now.

Strongly recommend NOT going for direct drive! I had a Garrard direct drive turntable in the 80s and after a few years it died after being temperamental for a few months. If you get an old belt-driven one you can expect to change the drive belt but other than that they're more reliable. My direct drive turntable always seemed to need fine adjustments after around 20mins play.........I was disappointed with it back in the day.

Whatever you buy, get a decent cartridge and don't rely on something that's many years old. At the very least replace the stylus on a second-hand one. Avoid moving coil cartridges where the stylus can't be swapped; a MC cartridge also needs a different phono stage because the output is very low.

As for amplifiers etc I'd look for a second hand Sony with a phono stage, or possibly Marantz or NAD. Arcam kit is excellent (3 Arcam systems in my house) and there's a good chance an Arcam amp can be serviced at the factory if it goes faulty. The only downside is the price they tend to go for, and not all have a phono stage. There's risk involved buying any second-hand kit and you have to be careful not to pay too much.

Not sure about the current craze for vinyl, Could be a passing fad? A good quality CD set-up makes far more sense to me.......... but CD seems very out of favour these days.

Paul

[bambam]

Strongly recommend NOT going for direct drive! I had a Garrard direct drive turntable in the 80s and after a few years it died after being temperamental for a few months. If you get an old belt-driven one you can expect to change the drive belt but other than that they're more reliable. My direct drive turntable always seemed to need fine adjustments after around 20mins play.........I was disappointed with it back in the day.

Whatever you buy, get a decent cartridge and don't rely on something that's many years old. At the very least replace the stylus on a second-hand one. Avoid moving coil cartridges where the stylus can't be swapped; a MC cartridge also needs a different hono stage because the output is very low.

As for amplifiers etc I'd look for a second hand Sony with a phono stage, or possibly Marantz or NAD. Arcam kit is excellent (3 Arcam systems in my house) and there's a good chance an Arcam amp can be serviced at the factory if it goes faulty. The only downside is the price they tend to go for, and not all have a phono stage.

Not sure about the current craze for vinyl, Could be a passing fad? A good quality CD set-up makes far more sense to me.......... but CD seems very out of favour these days.

Paul

Thanks for that insight. Makes sense in terms of being able to change the belt. I have a direct drive Akai which has been really good, but then I did buy it from a dealer so it was reconditioned. Last thing I'd want to do is set this all up for her and then have to pay to get the t/table fixed. Re MM and MC - are the MM ones the more common ones? I've been taking a look at some Arcam stuff but think its out of budget for her at the moment.

It might well be a fad (with her anyway) which is why I'm trying to limit the budget and re-use stuff I have already, hence putting the Beocenter into action. Will still keep an eye out for an older Nad / Rotel / Sony / Marantz amp though. I have some experience with Nad and Rotel and they've always given good service. I quite like some of the Marantz stuff as well and there are a few Sony amps that have caught my eye.

If anyone sees anything that would be worth a look then do let me know, especially on the turntable side.

Cheers

[Plug]

I bought a TEAC reference 500 system from SC a couple of years back, the quality is superb. I can honestly say it's transformed my listening and re-invigorated my interest in music.

Prices at the time were in the doldrums, but actually seem to be rising now. I've got a separate amp and tuner (the amp in particular got rave reviews back in the day) but there is an integrated one for sale on eBay.de -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Champagner...-/142493082445

Early days yet auction wise but it might be worth following and sticking a cheeky last minute bid on if it's not gone too mental. That and some Wharfedale Diamond 9.0s from Richer Sounds (£39 new) would make a very decent basis for a system.

Can't help too much with the turntable side of things (I have one gathering dust in a cupboard somewhere but it hasn't seen the light of day for many years) but HTH.

Cheers,

Plug

[rincewind]

Have you thought about an av receiver? Reason being a lot of the cheapies have ok amplification and network streaming built in so a bit of additional future proofing. I've recently dug out an old denon avr2113 that I briefly used in an av setup five years or so ago and it sounds very nice indeed streaming in 'pure direct' stereo mode. I do have an old systemdek somewhere but I suspect outside your budget @ a couple of hundred quid.


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[SimonH]

I bought a TEAC reference 500 system from SC a couple of years back, the quality is superb. I can honestly say it's transformed my listening and re-invigorated my interest in music.

In the mid 90s I finally woke up to the fact that much hi-fi stuff is snake oil, and under a bit of of pressure from my partner at the time to buy something that worked better aesthetically than what I had bought a reference 500 system as something that was good quality and looked nice.

Still got it, still sounds fantastic and if it did stop working I think I would do all I could to keep it going.

[PipPip]

Funnily enough I recently found a box of old hifi in the loft. Our TV was connected to a Sony surround sound system that I think came with it. The DVD player (an old Cambridge Audio machine) and Apple TV were going through it. The old hifi was a Musical Fidelity B1 amplifier, a Musical Fidelity DAC and a pair of Wharfedale Diamond speakers. I connected it all up and just couldn't believe my ears. No idea why this had ended up in the loft. The sound is incredible, even Netflix via Apple TV sounds great. The crappy Sony surround sound system is now relegated to my kids playroom.

[speedypro1111]

Years ago I was into half decent hifi including audiolab/arcam/ micromega/quad including a pair of electrostatics to name a few ,But these days I find an av system amp does what i need,and it streams music also.
Doesn't sound quiet as good though
I've had some cracking hifi buys from carboot sales over the years including 2 rega planar 11 turntables one with the RB300 arm and the other with an SME 3009 arm for the total sum of £9
Also had a pair of linn kann mk 1 for £4

[julian2002]

I'm rather partial to old technics kit, the class aa amplifiers punch well above their weight being of a similar design to quads current dumping amplification designs but for a lot less money. I picked up an amp, cassette deck, tuner and 2 sets of (rubbish) speakers from a local facebook marketplace ad for £40 a few years back. I run this amplifier with a cambridge audio streamer and an audio synthesis dac through a pair of transmission line speakers and it doesn't embarrass itself.
You do have to be a bit careful as there are some chancers out there asking ridiculous money for technics amps but there are some bargains about still. The obvious partner for this would be a technics 12xx series turntable but, due to being the preference of DJ's, they can be quite expensive.

[bambam]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions so far - some really interesting ideas and options to go an explore. I will take a look on the local Facebook groups as you never know. But Gumtree etc haven't thrown up anything so far.

The TEAC ref 500 seems like an interesting option as do the AV amps. Just as an aside, we have Sonos in a few rooms and while that sounds good, it gets blown away when I fire up my Rotel RA system that is now about 14 years old. It sounds incredible even through some cheap Tannoys that I got given for free.

Our son has my old Realistic receiver - which must be over 30 years old - and that is still pumping out music well and really is built like a tank. The abuse that thing got when I was much younger and first got it!

Any other suggestions/ideas/opinions please keep 'em coming...

[rincewind]

Out of interest what model are the cheap tannoys you mention? I ask as if they were cheap because they are old you may find that old very often actually means expensive in tannoy land and you may have something a lot better / valuable than you suspect.


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[bambam]

Out of interest what model are the cheap tannoys you mention? I ask as if they were cheap because they are old you may find that old very often actually means expensive in tannoy land and you may have something a lot better / valuable than you suspect.


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They are Mercury Mx2.

[bambam]

Have you thought about an av receiver? Reason being a lot of the cheapies have ok amplification and network streaming built in so a bit of additional future proofing. I've recently dug out an old denon avr2113 that I briefly used in an av setup five years or so ago and it sounds very nice indeed streaming in 'pure direct' stereo mode. I do have an old systemdek somewhere but I suspect outside your budget @ a couple of hundred quid.


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Forgot to say - feel free to send over some details of the Systemdek...

Cheers

[rincewind]

They are Mercury Mx2.

Ok thanks, in that case ignore my comments above re: value


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[bambam]

Ok thanks, in that case ignore my comments above re: value


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Thought so!!

[gunner]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions so far - some really interesting ideas and options to go an explore. I will take a look on the local Facebook groups as you never know. But Gumtree etc haven't thrown up anything so far.

The TEAC ref 500 seems like an interesting option as do the AV amps. Just as an aside, we have Sonos in a few rooms and while that sounds good, it gets blown away when I fire up my Rotel RA system that is now about 14 years old. It sounds incredible even through some cheap Tannoys that I got given for free.

Our son has my old Realistic receiver - which must be over 30 years old - and that is still pumping out music well and really is built like a tank. The abuse that thing got when I was much younger and first got it!

Any other suggestions/ideas/opinions please keep 'em coming...

Another vote for the TEAC here. Sometimes written off as 'designer hifi' as it wasn't standard rack width and black, the AH500i amp is actually a nice piece of kit. The CD player died and the tuner is a bit redundant but the amp sounds as good now as when I bought it.

Regarding sonos, no reason you can't use both, a sonos connect makes a great source for any amp.

[bambam]

Quick update:

I managed to get a Denon system - the amp is a 355UK. Needs some work to get it working properly so is being looked at right now.

I also managed to a Teac AG-500 receiver (got a bit carried away!). The Teac is a lovely bit of kit and is far too nice to be stuck in her bedroom so I will find a new place to use that.

For both of these, they didn't come with a remote so does anybody know what the remote controls are for these?? I'd like to be able to get some original remotes for both units but there does seem to be a lot of different ones out there. Can anyone help me with the codes for the remote controls?

Thanks

[jools]

It's worth checking Remote Central for the remote codes.

[gunner]

Quick update:

I managed to get a Denon system - the amp is a 355UK. Needs some work to get it working properly so is being looked at right now.

I also managed to a Teac AG-500 receiver (got a bit carried away!). The Teac is a lovely bit of kit and is far too nice to be stuck in her bedroom so I will find a new place to use that.

For both of these, they didn't come with a remote so does anybody know what the remote controls are for these?? I'd like to be able to get some original remotes for both units but there does seem to be a lot of different ones out there. Can anyone help me with the codes for the remote controls?

Thanks

I'm sure I have a spare TEAC ref500 remote at home that you could have. Will check tonight.

[bambam]

I'm sure I have a spare TEAC ref500 remote at home that you could have. Will check tonight.

That would be amazing!