My journey - from home-theatre to modern stereo to vintage stereo, with more changes on the horizon...
Or, I now ?get? Family_Dog's predilection for his hoarding of vintage stereo equipment, not that I want to hoard, but if a special piece of equipment, say a Sansui AU5500 and its matching tuner does come my way, I may not be able to resist investing.
But, let's not get ahead of ourselves and start with my journey many, many moons ago; my wife says I'm old.
As a small kid, I remember listening to the radio in the late afternoons, serials such as Staal Burger and Jet Jungle and a few years later Squad Cars and Men from the Ministry was centre to our family's evening entertainment; TV was nowhere to be found in our parent's home.
Having become accustomed to listening to serials, I guess the progression to music was natural as I started learning to enjoy music in my early teens.
A watershed was reached when my younger brother ?split? on me and told my father that I had played some of his records on the family music centre whilst they were out shopping one Saturday morning; eish, siblings! Fearing a lecture, my father grinned and instead gave me permission to listen to his record collection, showing me how to correctly operate the turntable on what would have been a Blaupunkt or Telefunken music centre (because in his mind those brands stood for quality and in my mind it amplified recorded sounds to a level that I could appreciate.) High fidelity? Who cared, it was enjoyable and I quickly learnt that rock and roll certainly had feet tapping and me singing along...
Well the bug had bitten, but my father's collection did not include any of the modern releases; he was stuck in the 50s and 60s and whilst I enjoyed the sounds of Cliff Richard, The Shadows and strangely enough, The Seekers; listening to music radio highlighted the fact that I needed ?new? experiences.
Off to Hillbrow by train with my best bud from school, saw me procuring my first records - Duran Duran's first release, as well as Loverboy's ?Get Lucky?.
Those were given plenty airtime during weekday late afternoons; so much so, that my mother started appreciating some of the songs as well, who knew mothers could appreciate rock!
The collection grew slightly as more weekend jaunts to Hillbrow were approved by loving parents; I think they were happy that their first-born was enjoying music rather than alcohol and cigarettes.
These LP's are still in my collection, though I haven't listened to them for years, for the simple reason that I don?t have a record player...
Fast forward many years, by that time I had finished 4 years of military service, completed my studies, got married and introduced 2 kids into this crazy world; had been employed for a number of years, reached fame and fortune (in my dreams yes) when suddenly, a new craze was thrust upon the unsuspecting world ? that of home theatre...
Had to have it!
I convinced the wife that we needed entertainment at home, so we went looking; HiFi Corruption being our destination, sorry aficionados, we did not know any better. Nevertheless, we walked out as proud owners of a Sansui AV receiver, Sansui DVD player
and a Tannoy FX 5.1 satellite speaker system.
Many movies were acquired over a short period, including a few music DVD's - memorable ones being Fleetwood Mac ?The Dance? (stunning)
and The Eagles ?When Hell Freezes Over? (gorgeous).
These live concert recordings were turning points, suddenly music was part of my life again, wonderful feelings and memories came flooding back...music CD's were next on the list and that collection too grew quickly, of course there was rock, but my wife had different tastes and these too were catered for...and the collection grew.
Yet, something seemed lacking...
A family evening out at an acquaintance?s house introduced us to the virtues of a high end AV system, Marc was running a top end Denon and TACT solution with a projector throwing large images onto a screen...can't recall which B&W speakers he had deployed, the bass literally kicked you in the stomach! Wow!!!
Now I knew something was lacking...
On a business trip to Cape Town, Marc introduced me to an even higher end AV system using only 2-speakers; what kind of voodoo was this? This voodoo was a Mark Levinson-based solution running ATC-active speakers, ohhhh my worrrd, this system was in a different league altogether! The ability to steer surround sound around the room using only 2 speakers was well, surreal!
Lacking something was definitely the answer...
Of course the perceived lack fuelled Upgraditis, a most insidious plague most enthusiasts will have been affected with at some stage during their audio journey ...
I also learnt something important ? you had to read and research, I now started buying audio-related magazines, What Hi-Fi and HiFi Choice being the main source of impartial information (ok, What Hi-Fi not so much.)
First it was new front left and right speakers, my choice of shop was a high-end outlet in Sandton City at the time, for the life of me I cannot remember its name. They stocked Onkyo, Primare and Krell, Polk Audio and Dynaudio, plus Sonus Faber, the latter made no sense price wise. I had numerous listening sessions during the course of a few weeks and eventually walked out with a set of cherry veneer Polk Rti 28 speakers, the Dynaudio 42s didn't sound right to my ears.
Music sounded better, I started listening sessions again...and yet...
Yip, you guessed it, something was still missing...
Or, something was present and it was affecting something...
Of course the AV receiver was the culprit! It needed replacing, the Sansui just didn't cut it any more in this world of searching for that elusive musical something and somehow, somewhere (ok, it was an AltaVista search, Google had not yet made it into my vocabulary) Ultravision popped its neck out of the Pineslopes centre. Michael and Jimmy were all too happy to introduce me to Rotel and after a few listening sessions and having to twist my significant other's arm (hard), I was the proud owner of a Rotel RSX1055 and RDV1040.
Suddenly the world of high fidelity creaked its door open very slightly, stereo sounded ?better?, yet somehow I couldn't listen to music for extended periods of time...
This was becoming perplexing, I continued listening, but the old feeling and emotions of my teen years were somehow lacking...
The RSX1055 eventually developed an irritating ?pop? at power-on affecting the surrounds and rears and this became louder as time progressed. Fearing for the health of the small Tannoy membranes, I took the device into Ultrasound who confirmed the ?pop? and this was sent to the distributors who of course said that the ?pop? was normal. Yeah right!
Anyway, Michael unrelentingly fought and convinced them that the ?pop? was not a value-added feature and that they should replace the device even though it was out of warranty. I walked away with a RSX1056. Thank you Michael.
The RSX1056 had the ability to redirect the 2 front channels to a dedicated amp.
You guessed it...if it had that ability, it had to be the answer to the lack. The addition of a Rotel RB1050 provided ?clean and dedicated? power to the Polks. Surely this was the resolution to the lack?
It wasn't...
It had to be the speakers, they just weren't up to the task of converting clean and dedicated signal power to beguiling sound, reviews concluded that whilst the Polks were good, there were better alternatives. I convinced myself and my long-suffering wife that South African designed and built speakers were the correct evolutionary step to undertake. Cue Roy Wittelson, he of Sonor Audio fame, who happily lent me a set of stand-mount Sonors. A few weeks listening left me impressed, I confirmed to the gentleman that I would like to invest in a set of new Sonors. Roy informed me that I could have one of the first pairs of his new design ? a set of Sirius in my favourite stain.
Oh, and a new Sonor centre.
Sound was subjectively better, but by no means left me convinced that I had reached happiness, yet alone nirvana...
It was round about here that I had a small epiphany when I encountered a number of music lovers experiencing the same experiences I was having...they too could not listen and enjoy music for extended periods of time...
Suddenly I wasn't alone, my ears were not toying with me...
I lost interest in home-theater and reconfigured the Rotels for stereo only. Bye-bye bulky centre and all those darned surround and rear speakers...real estate in my lounge was liberated.
Made no difference to my ears though...
Every now and again I would sit down to enjoy the music, but found that after a while my ears became sensitive and I would stop...
Life moved on, divorce happened, I kept the house, systems and the kids...
Kids grew up, left the nest...
It was time to listen to music again. However, it soon became apparent that Eskom had pulled a nasty when I wanted to use the digital out of the RDV1040 and employ the internal DAC of the RSX1056 to perform the necessary magic. The whole digital world of the RSX1056 was FUBAR thanks to what I believe to be a power surge. Only the stereo portion still worked...aag nee man!
On a more positive note, I had also met a new lady who I am happy to report has become my wife. I sold the house and moved in with her and the RSX1056 was given to my son who uses it with my old Polks and connected to his gaming PC. He is happy with it and that is what counts!
Having settled in with the new love of my life, it was also time to see if I could ignite the old love of music!
In late 2019 Audio Exchange was browsed and a Krell KAV400 looked like a good investment; old HiFi Choice copies were consulted and yes, these amps came highly rated.
Francois answered the call and asked if I would rather consider a Valve Audio Predator. I said of course I would, Schalk and his equipment had become legends in my mind (thanks to this forum), but I told Francois that none had popped up in the AVForums classifieds in a while. He happily told me that one had arrived that very morning. I am convinced the world responds in simply awesome ways!
Please keep it, I will swing by to pick it up I told Francois.
I swung by, he had it hooked up to his mighty B&W 801s and after listening, I was convinced that I had arrived...not sure where, but I had arrived...
I walked out with a Predator, an Audiolab 8000 CD player, as well as an old Sony ES Tuner, rather than a Pioneer tuner of the same vintage.
System was installed and speakers placed, listening ensued, but it soon became apparent that the Sony tuner was a tad bright; no, very bright. Francois was happy to swap Sony with Pioneer. The Pioneer TX-608 is one sweet little tuner ? a little fiddling at the back of the unit compensated for the broadcasters accentuating higher frequencies, nice!
Suddenly, memories of my brother's silver Pioneer system in its glass fronted rack from the 80s came flooding back. I would listen to that system at really quiet volumes early in the morning on the weekends I went home during my years in the SA Navy. I don't recall my ears hurting when listening to his system...
The Predator had some challenges and was missing a a remote. Schalk of course said I must feel free to bring the unit around so that he could breathe onto and whisper sweet nothings to his offspring and convince the old girl to behave in a way that any elegant lady should. The Predator was breathed on and whispered to by Schalk who confirmed that I could pick up the lady on 31 December, with an old-style new remote. Woohoo! Dankie Schalk!
Schalk took my wife and I up to his loft where he demoed my revitalised Predator. Two things happened during that session ? firstly, my wife nonchalantly informed me that we should consider larger floor-standing speakers and secondly, Schalk imparted many words of wisdom, confirming my epiphany of many years previously that my ears were not deceiving me ? digital recordings contained noise artefacts that also affected his ears and that he prefers listening to vinyl. Aaahhh, now the audio sensory challenges are starting to make sense...
Schalk also has this old turntable sitting quietly in a corner, I take note that it appears to be vintage...
During the infamous lockdown of 2020, lots of reading is quietly accomplished and the call of vintage audio components is becoming more alluring. I did not previously know about the ?Receiver Wars of the late 70s and early 80s?, but in my mind it would imply that a certain level of quality was built into these behemoths that battled for music lovers hearts.
To my surprise, the vintage equipment of that era has loyal followings throughout the world, plus, a number of YouTube channels exist that happily share sound bytes as well as lengthy refurbishment videos of vintage equipment. There must be something here...
Further jumping down this rabbit hole ends in an inevitable outcome ? time to seriously consider the vintage side of audio!
Logically this is starting to make sense to my small mind...
In the days of analogue source equipment, music was listened to for extended periods of time at various volume levels, no sense of listening fatigue...
I never adopted CD when it first became available and it now makes sense ? listening fatigue only became a reality in my world when I started listening to digital copies of music!
Time to visit Francois again and it turns out that Francois also has this ?thing? for vintage audio equipment. He listens to me wanting to find a vintage ?receiver wars? receiver and promptly shows me his recent acquisitions, I salivate at what is presented to me! I won't mention what he presents, but suffice to say that these works of art are right up my alley. Ask him to be on the lookout for some specific models of Pioneer, Kenwood and Sansui equipment. No luck as yet...
Until...
Out of the blue 2 weeks ago, my son sends me a Whatsapp photo of a piece of equipment that was donated to the non-profit company he works for - ?Hi Dad, is this worth anything?? Zooming into the accompanying image sends my heart into overdrive ? a Pioneer SA-9800 integrated amp has somehow found its way into my small world.
?Yes, please keep that machine, I will pick it up and pay you for it!? A quick look at the electronic copies of the old Pioneer catalogue in my archives show a SA-9900 in the 1976/77 edition but not the SA-9800, not that this matters.
A trip is arranged to take ownership of this masterpiece of engineering and design, the detail is sublime, surely the agents of the minimalist camp of design has done us a disservice ? I truly appreciate the attention to detail.
However, I was under no illusion that this unit was working perfectly, the unit was grimy and the function selector switch felt like it had seized. Powering up with nothing attached indicated an unhealthy machine, plus my heart sank a little when the fluorescent panel only dimly lit up a part of itself. A look underneath its metal skirt confirmed that someone with lack of appreciation for Japanese engineering had done some abysmal soldering of wires onto pins instead of wirewrapping. Jislaaik mense, why the hell would you do this?! Mygoggie's Colchester Brutish Butcher had obviously had a hand in this ?repair? somewhere in the past.
Time to call Nilam...
Nilam performed his magic, words to the tune of ?she is singing beautifully? filled my expectant ears when his phone call arrived ahead of schedule. Spending time with this humble technician and all-round amazing man (trained at one stage by the master Schalk) quickly reaffirms that my decision to follow the vintage path is the correct one.
Nilam is impressed with the level of attention to detail of the workmanship and quality of the components, he says it reminds him of almost military-grade components. Turns out that there is a specific model of the SA-9800 that was listed as Military, though I'm not sure what that specification implies.
Get home and out comes the Predator, in goes the SA-9800. The speaker binding mechanisms are terrible, but I get the cables secured, though not safely enough for peace of mind. Must find a satisfactory solution to this problem as I don't want a cable dislodged by a cleaning lady accident. Switch on and select the Tuner, the selector switch is functioning like new; Nilam degunked it.
The fluoroscan display panel also works perfectly, I am over the moon! It visually confirms what my ears were hearing during early morning listening sessions under lockdown ? Mix 93.8's channels are imbalanced. Seriously? Techs can't be bothered to fix this?
A certain deja vu presents itself ? I'm listening and nothing bad jumps out at me...
Later that evening my wife listens and quietly says ?Please don't tell Schalk, but this Pioneer sounds better than the Predator? with a certain trepidation I concur, I don't want to, but my ears are confirming her opinion...to my ears the vibrations emanating from the Sonor's cones are just that little less piercing.
Something(s) in the world of audio components has definitely changed during the past few decades, though what that is I guess I will never figure out.
Further tweaking of the multitude of switches confirms that I now have the ability to fine tune music to an extent that I only ever had using the graphic equaliser in the car. Sublime!
The lack has been fulfilled by vintage equipment, who knew?
I can see a number of hands being raised by a few esteemed members of this forum who does indeed know, but it really is up to each of us (our ears) to reach our own conclusion...
So, what's next on the must-have list?
Yip, you guessed correctly! A turntable. Can't wait to spin those old records again and actually listen to the music...
Not sure whether I want a vintage turntable or a modern one. Agaton Sax's comments regarding a couple of modern spinners has me wondering. Ears will have to make the final call...
The Sonor Sirius are still on duty. I keep looking at floorstanders, but I'm not convinced. Vivid Audio has a new stand-mount in the making and that design appeals to me, the engineering solution is revolutionary. Availability is about 8-weeks out. Ears will need to make that call as well...
Or, I now ?get? Family_Dog's predilection for his hoarding of vintage stereo equipment, not that I want to hoard, but if a special piece of equipment, say a Sansui AU5500 and its matching tuner does come my way, I may not be able to resist investing.
But, let's not get ahead of ourselves and start with my journey many, many moons ago; my wife says I'm old.
As a small kid, I remember listening to the radio in the late afternoons, serials such as Staal Burger and Jet Jungle and a few years later Squad Cars and Men from the Ministry was centre to our family's evening entertainment; TV was nowhere to be found in our parent's home.
Having become accustomed to listening to serials, I guess the progression to music was natural as I started learning to enjoy music in my early teens.
A watershed was reached when my younger brother ?split? on me and told my father that I had played some of his records on the family music centre whilst they were out shopping one Saturday morning; eish, siblings! Fearing a lecture, my father grinned and instead gave me permission to listen to his record collection, showing me how to correctly operate the turntable on what would have been a Blaupunkt or Telefunken music centre (because in his mind those brands stood for quality and in my mind it amplified recorded sounds to a level that I could appreciate.) High fidelity? Who cared, it was enjoyable and I quickly learnt that rock and roll certainly had feet tapping and me singing along...
Well the bug had bitten, but my father's collection did not include any of the modern releases; he was stuck in the 50s and 60s and whilst I enjoyed the sounds of Cliff Richard, The Shadows and strangely enough, The Seekers; listening to music radio highlighted the fact that I needed ?new? experiences.
Off to Hillbrow by train with my best bud from school, saw me procuring my first records - Duran Duran's first release, as well as Loverboy's ?Get Lucky?.
Those were given plenty airtime during weekday late afternoons; so much so, that my mother started appreciating some of the songs as well, who knew mothers could appreciate rock!
The collection grew slightly as more weekend jaunts to Hillbrow were approved by loving parents; I think they were happy that their first-born was enjoying music rather than alcohol and cigarettes.
These LP's are still in my collection, though I haven't listened to them for years, for the simple reason that I don?t have a record player...
Fast forward many years, by that time I had finished 4 years of military service, completed my studies, got married and introduced 2 kids into this crazy world; had been employed for a number of years, reached fame and fortune (in my dreams yes) when suddenly, a new craze was thrust upon the unsuspecting world ? that of home theatre...
Had to have it!
I convinced the wife that we needed entertainment at home, so we went looking; HiFi Corruption being our destination, sorry aficionados, we did not know any better. Nevertheless, we walked out as proud owners of a Sansui AV receiver, Sansui DVD player
and a Tannoy FX 5.1 satellite speaker system.
Many movies were acquired over a short period, including a few music DVD's - memorable ones being Fleetwood Mac ?The Dance? (stunning)
and The Eagles ?When Hell Freezes Over? (gorgeous).
These live concert recordings were turning points, suddenly music was part of my life again, wonderful feelings and memories came flooding back...music CD's were next on the list and that collection too grew quickly, of course there was rock, but my wife had different tastes and these too were catered for...and the collection grew.
Yet, something seemed lacking...
A family evening out at an acquaintance?s house introduced us to the virtues of a high end AV system, Marc was running a top end Denon and TACT solution with a projector throwing large images onto a screen...can't recall which B&W speakers he had deployed, the bass literally kicked you in the stomach! Wow!!!
Now I knew something was lacking...
On a business trip to Cape Town, Marc introduced me to an even higher end AV system using only 2-speakers; what kind of voodoo was this? This voodoo was a Mark Levinson-based solution running ATC-active speakers, ohhhh my worrrd, this system was in a different league altogether! The ability to steer surround sound around the room using only 2 speakers was well, surreal!
Lacking something was definitely the answer...
Of course the perceived lack fuelled Upgraditis, a most insidious plague most enthusiasts will have been affected with at some stage during their audio journey ...
I also learnt something important ? you had to read and research, I now started buying audio-related magazines, What Hi-Fi and HiFi Choice being the main source of impartial information (ok, What Hi-Fi not so much.)
First it was new front left and right speakers, my choice of shop was a high-end outlet in Sandton City at the time, for the life of me I cannot remember its name. They stocked Onkyo, Primare and Krell, Polk Audio and Dynaudio, plus Sonus Faber, the latter made no sense price wise. I had numerous listening sessions during the course of a few weeks and eventually walked out with a set of cherry veneer Polk Rti 28 speakers, the Dynaudio 42s didn't sound right to my ears.
Music sounded better, I started listening sessions again...and yet...
Yip, you guessed it, something was still missing...
Or, something was present and it was affecting something...
Of course the AV receiver was the culprit! It needed replacing, the Sansui just didn't cut it any more in this world of searching for that elusive musical something and somehow, somewhere (ok, it was an AltaVista search, Google had not yet made it into my vocabulary) Ultravision popped its neck out of the Pineslopes centre. Michael and Jimmy were all too happy to introduce me to Rotel and after a few listening sessions and having to twist my significant other's arm (hard), I was the proud owner of a Rotel RSX1055 and RDV1040.
Suddenly the world of high fidelity creaked its door open very slightly, stereo sounded ?better?, yet somehow I couldn't listen to music for extended periods of time...
This was becoming perplexing, I continued listening, but the old feeling and emotions of my teen years were somehow lacking...
The RSX1055 eventually developed an irritating ?pop? at power-on affecting the surrounds and rears and this became louder as time progressed. Fearing for the health of the small Tannoy membranes, I took the device into Ultrasound who confirmed the ?pop? and this was sent to the distributors who of course said that the ?pop? was normal. Yeah right!
Anyway, Michael unrelentingly fought and convinced them that the ?pop? was not a value-added feature and that they should replace the device even though it was out of warranty. I walked away with a RSX1056. Thank you Michael.
The RSX1056 had the ability to redirect the 2 front channels to a dedicated amp.
You guessed it...if it had that ability, it had to be the answer to the lack. The addition of a Rotel RB1050 provided ?clean and dedicated? power to the Polks. Surely this was the resolution to the lack?
It wasn't...
It had to be the speakers, they just weren't up to the task of converting clean and dedicated signal power to beguiling sound, reviews concluded that whilst the Polks were good, there were better alternatives. I convinced myself and my long-suffering wife that South African designed and built speakers were the correct evolutionary step to undertake. Cue Roy Wittelson, he of Sonor Audio fame, who happily lent me a set of stand-mount Sonors. A few weeks listening left me impressed, I confirmed to the gentleman that I would like to invest in a set of new Sonors. Roy informed me that I could have one of the first pairs of his new design ? a set of Sirius in my favourite stain.
Oh, and a new Sonor centre.
Sound was subjectively better, but by no means left me convinced that I had reached happiness, yet alone nirvana...
It was round about here that I had a small epiphany when I encountered a number of music lovers experiencing the same experiences I was having...they too could not listen and enjoy music for extended periods of time...
Suddenly I wasn't alone, my ears were not toying with me...
I lost interest in home-theater and reconfigured the Rotels for stereo only. Bye-bye bulky centre and all those darned surround and rear speakers...real estate in my lounge was liberated.
Made no difference to my ears though...
Every now and again I would sit down to enjoy the music, but found that after a while my ears became sensitive and I would stop...
Life moved on, divorce happened, I kept the house, systems and the kids...
Kids grew up, left the nest...
It was time to listen to music again. However, it soon became apparent that Eskom had pulled a nasty when I wanted to use the digital out of the RDV1040 and employ the internal DAC of the RSX1056 to perform the necessary magic. The whole digital world of the RSX1056 was FUBAR thanks to what I believe to be a power surge. Only the stereo portion still worked...aag nee man!
On a more positive note, I had also met a new lady who I am happy to report has become my wife. I sold the house and moved in with her and the RSX1056 was given to my son who uses it with my old Polks and connected to his gaming PC. He is happy with it and that is what counts!
Having settled in with the new love of my life, it was also time to see if I could ignite the old love of music!
In late 2019 Audio Exchange was browsed and a Krell KAV400 looked like a good investment; old HiFi Choice copies were consulted and yes, these amps came highly rated.
Francois answered the call and asked if I would rather consider a Valve Audio Predator. I said of course I would, Schalk and his equipment had become legends in my mind (thanks to this forum), but I told Francois that none had popped up in the AVForums classifieds in a while. He happily told me that one had arrived that very morning. I am convinced the world responds in simply awesome ways!
Please keep it, I will swing by to pick it up I told Francois.
I swung by, he had it hooked up to his mighty B&W 801s and after listening, I was convinced that I had arrived...not sure where, but I had arrived...
I walked out with a Predator, an Audiolab 8000 CD player, as well as an old Sony ES Tuner, rather than a Pioneer tuner of the same vintage.
System was installed and speakers placed, listening ensued, but it soon became apparent that the Sony tuner was a tad bright; no, very bright. Francois was happy to swap Sony with Pioneer. The Pioneer TX-608 is one sweet little tuner ? a little fiddling at the back of the unit compensated for the broadcasters accentuating higher frequencies, nice!
Suddenly, memories of my brother's silver Pioneer system in its glass fronted rack from the 80s came flooding back. I would listen to that system at really quiet volumes early in the morning on the weekends I went home during my years in the SA Navy. I don't recall my ears hurting when listening to his system...
The Predator had some challenges and was missing a a remote. Schalk of course said I must feel free to bring the unit around so that he could breathe onto and whisper sweet nothings to his offspring and convince the old girl to behave in a way that any elegant lady should. The Predator was breathed on and whispered to by Schalk who confirmed that I could pick up the lady on 31 December, with an old-style new remote. Woohoo! Dankie Schalk!
Schalk took my wife and I up to his loft where he demoed my revitalised Predator. Two things happened during that session ? firstly, my wife nonchalantly informed me that we should consider larger floor-standing speakers and secondly, Schalk imparted many words of wisdom, confirming my epiphany of many years previously that my ears were not deceiving me ? digital recordings contained noise artefacts that also affected his ears and that he prefers listening to vinyl. Aaahhh, now the audio sensory challenges are starting to make sense...
Schalk also has this old turntable sitting quietly in a corner, I take note that it appears to be vintage...
During the infamous lockdown of 2020, lots of reading is quietly accomplished and the call of vintage audio components is becoming more alluring. I did not previously know about the ?Receiver Wars of the late 70s and early 80s?, but in my mind it would imply that a certain level of quality was built into these behemoths that battled for music lovers hearts.
To my surprise, the vintage equipment of that era has loyal followings throughout the world, plus, a number of YouTube channels exist that happily share sound bytes as well as lengthy refurbishment videos of vintage equipment. There must be something here...
Further jumping down this rabbit hole ends in an inevitable outcome ? time to seriously consider the vintage side of audio!
Logically this is starting to make sense to my small mind...
In the days of analogue source equipment, music was listened to for extended periods of time at various volume levels, no sense of listening fatigue...
I never adopted CD when it first became available and it now makes sense ? listening fatigue only became a reality in my world when I started listening to digital copies of music!
Time to visit Francois again and it turns out that Francois also has this ?thing? for vintage audio equipment. He listens to me wanting to find a vintage ?receiver wars? receiver and promptly shows me his recent acquisitions, I salivate at what is presented to me! I won't mention what he presents, but suffice to say that these works of art are right up my alley. Ask him to be on the lookout for some specific models of Pioneer, Kenwood and Sansui equipment. No luck as yet...
Until...
Out of the blue 2 weeks ago, my son sends me a Whatsapp photo of a piece of equipment that was donated to the non-profit company he works for - ?Hi Dad, is this worth anything?? Zooming into the accompanying image sends my heart into overdrive ? a Pioneer SA-9800 integrated amp has somehow found its way into my small world.
?Yes, please keep that machine, I will pick it up and pay you for it!? A quick look at the electronic copies of the old Pioneer catalogue in my archives show a SA-9900 in the 1976/77 edition but not the SA-9800, not that this matters.
A trip is arranged to take ownership of this masterpiece of engineering and design, the detail is sublime, surely the agents of the minimalist camp of design has done us a disservice ? I truly appreciate the attention to detail.
However, I was under no illusion that this unit was working perfectly, the unit was grimy and the function selector switch felt like it had seized. Powering up with nothing attached indicated an unhealthy machine, plus my heart sank a little when the fluorescent panel only dimly lit up a part of itself. A look underneath its metal skirt confirmed that someone with lack of appreciation for Japanese engineering had done some abysmal soldering of wires onto pins instead of wirewrapping. Jislaaik mense, why the hell would you do this?! Mygoggie's Colchester Brutish Butcher had obviously had a hand in this ?repair? somewhere in the past.
Time to call Nilam...
Nilam performed his magic, words to the tune of ?she is singing beautifully? filled my expectant ears when his phone call arrived ahead of schedule. Spending time with this humble technician and all-round amazing man (trained at one stage by the master Schalk) quickly reaffirms that my decision to follow the vintage path is the correct one.
Nilam is impressed with the level of attention to detail of the workmanship and quality of the components, he says it reminds him of almost military-grade components. Turns out that there is a specific model of the SA-9800 that was listed as Military, though I'm not sure what that specification implies.
Get home and out comes the Predator, in goes the SA-9800. The speaker binding mechanisms are terrible, but I get the cables secured, though not safely enough for peace of mind. Must find a satisfactory solution to this problem as I don't want a cable dislodged by a cleaning lady accident. Switch on and select the Tuner, the selector switch is functioning like new; Nilam degunked it.
The fluoroscan display panel also works perfectly, I am over the moon! It visually confirms what my ears were hearing during early morning listening sessions under lockdown ? Mix 93.8's channels are imbalanced. Seriously? Techs can't be bothered to fix this?
A certain deja vu presents itself ? I'm listening and nothing bad jumps out at me...
Later that evening my wife listens and quietly says ?Please don't tell Schalk, but this Pioneer sounds better than the Predator? with a certain trepidation I concur, I don't want to, but my ears are confirming her opinion...to my ears the vibrations emanating from the Sonor's cones are just that little less piercing.
Something(s) in the world of audio components has definitely changed during the past few decades, though what that is I guess I will never figure out.
Further tweaking of the multitude of switches confirms that I now have the ability to fine tune music to an extent that I only ever had using the graphic equaliser in the car. Sublime!
The lack has been fulfilled by vintage equipment, who knew?
I can see a number of hands being raised by a few esteemed members of this forum who does indeed know, but it really is up to each of us (our ears) to reach our own conclusion...
So, what's next on the must-have list?
Yip, you guessed correctly! A turntable. Can't wait to spin those old records again and actually listen to the music...
Not sure whether I want a vintage turntable or a modern one. Agaton Sax's comments regarding a couple of modern spinners has me wondering. Ears will have to make the final call...
The Sonor Sirius are still on duty. I keep looking at floorstanders, but I'm not convinced. Vivid Audio has a new stand-mount in the making and that design appeals to me, the engineering solution is revolutionary. Availability is about 8-weeks out. Ears will need to make that call as well...
