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Revisiting an old hobby


AndyHull

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10 hours ago, grsnovi said:

You're going to need an 8-Track deck to go with that cassette deck and turn table.

.. and maybe an amp, and a tuner ... and the record deck cartridge will need upgrading and .... that way madness lies. Pretty soon you are buying oxygen free copper speaker cables, mumbling incoherently about signal to noise ratios and wow and flutter and wearing a Paisley pattern cravat and a green felt fedora in public.  😋

I did toy with the idea of getting a big reel to reel tape deck, mainly because they look cool, but then I thought about the possible marital consequences of "filling the house with yet more junk", and I came to my senses before I bankrupted myself.

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Oooh... nice.. shiny... lots of blinkenlights... wow... free delivery ...  maybe if I don't eat for two or three months I could save up and ...

I'd need some matching speakers, perhaps a pair of Estelons.... I'd only need to starve for another six months. 

Edited by AndyHull
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5 hours ago, grsnovi said:

Be sure it's a valve amp...

... and it has to go up to 11

I also bid on another Denon HiFi separate, this time a tuner. To be specific, a Denon TU-260L II AM/FM tuner, which I picked up for eight quit. I wonder if I can build a complete "Audiophile grade" system from the bargain lots on ebay.

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Sticking for the time being with the late eighties early nineties HiFi theme, I did indeed pick up a matching amplifier.
It calls itself the "Yamaha DSP-A970 digital sound field processing amplifier".

image.thumb.png.325c5a59b3d091192b825c6ae2cd9627.png

This was quite a pricey unit back in 1993 when it was introduced, retailing at 1,959.00 DM (around £800 which translates to about £1,512.99 in 2022).

Naturally it has issues, hence the low ebay price of £15 plus shipping.

I was going to go for just a basic amplifier, but the low price and the large number of inputs and acoustic tricks this one can perform naturally had me intrigued.

Well that and the fact that the volume appears to go up to infinity.

In good cosmetic working condition, they still sell for a lot more than I paid for it. 

The story so far.

One Dual CS503-1 HiFi Turntable.

("Untested" Probably working, or needs belts etc..)

One Memorex SCT-88 (a rebadged Aiwa AD-R470 ) tape deck.

("Untested" Probably working, or needs belts etc..)

One DENON DRW-650 dual cassette tape deck.

("Untested" Probably working, or needs belts etc..)

One Denon TU-260L II AM/FM Tuner.

(Allegedly working.)

One Yamaha Natural Sound Digital Field Processing Amplifier DSP-A970.

(Allegedly working, but "display not lighting up".)

Average price per unit including shipping, around seventeen pounds.

Original retail price per unit. Lots.

Of course now I need to see if I can get all of this audiophile extravaganza working, or will I have to quietly drop all this "junk" off at the local charity shop ... I did manage to find service manuals online for all of them, so I have a reasonable chance of success. I'll keep you all posted.

In the meantime.. back to our usual scheduled watch related programming.

Edited by AndyHull
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51 minutes ago, AndyHull said:

 

One Yamaha Natural Sound Digital Field Processing Amplifier DSP-A970.

(Allegedly working, but "display not lighting up".)

 

I’m guessing that vintage has those fluorescent tube displays. You may be lucky and the heater supply gave up the ghost (I think those were ‘always on’ if memory serves) or the actual display has faded to the point of being unreadable. I’m holding thumbs for the former!

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2 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

I’m guessing that vintage has those fluorescent tube displays. You may be lucky and the heater supply gave up the ghost (I think those were ‘always on’ if memory serves) or the actual display has faded to the point of being unreadable. I’m holding thumbs for the former!

That was my though too. There is often also a CFL driver board which may have failed.
I'll need to dig in to the manual. It is highly likely that I can replace the backlight with LEDs or even replace the entire display as it looks like a generic two line dot matrix LCD, which were common around that time.

It is also possible that the thing is actually dead, and only the power light is coming on. However, armed with the full service manual, I feel my chances of success are reasonable.

EDIT:

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@gbyleveldt I was curious to know what the display was, so I looked it up in the Service manual. It turns out they have used a Hitachi HD44780A00 which is good to know, as I can almost certainly replace the whole thing if needs be, or hopefully I can take it apart and fix the backlight.

It may even use a filament bulb, since the display is relatively small, so a fluorescent backlight might be overkill.

However since they are ubiquitous and cheap as chips, I picked up a generic "cheap from China" replacement, just in case. I'll need to check the backlight voltage (Pins 15 and 16, not shown in diagram above) as if it uses an EL or CFL light, or a 12v filament I may need to improvise. 

 

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I'm sure I can use it for some other project if I don't need it for this.

Edited by AndyHull
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8 hours ago, AndyHull said:

Sticking for the time being with the late eighties early nineties HiFi theme, I did indeed pick up a matching amplifier.
It calls itself the "Yamaha DSP-A970 digital sound field processing amplifier".

image.thumb.png.325c5a59b3d091192b825c6ae2cd9627.png

This was quite a pricey unit back in 1993 when it was introduced, retailing at 1,959.00 DM (around £800 which translates to about £1,512.99 in 2022).

Naturally it has issues, hence the low ebay price of £15 plus shipping.

I was going to go for just a basic amplifier, but the low price and the large number of inputs and acoustic tricks this one can perform naturally had me intrigued.

Well that and the fact that the volume appears to go up to infinity.

In good cosmetic working condition, they still sell for a lot more than I paid for it. 

The story so far.

One Dual CS503-1 HiFi Turntable.

("Untested" Probably working, or needs belts etc..)

One Memorex SCT-88 (a rebadged Aiwa AD-R470 ) tape deck.

("Untested" Probably working, or needs belts etc..)

One DENON DRW-650 dual cassette tape deck.

("Untested" Probably working, or needs belts etc..)

One Denon TU-260L II AM/FM Tuner.

(Allegedly working.)

One Yamaha Natural Sound Digital Field Processing Amplifier DSP-A970.

(Allegedly working, but "display not lighting up".)

Average price per unit including shipping, around seventeen pounds.

Original retail price per unit. Lots.

Of course now I need to see if I can get all of this audiophile extravaganza working, or will I have to quietly drop all this "junk" off at the local charity shop ... I did manage to find service manuals online for all of them, so I have a reasonable chance of success. I'll keep you all posted.

In the meantime.. back to our usual scheduled watch related programming.

Times have moved on for sure.. I am now known as a audio file.. Hi res streaming is now a must.. I have a hi end streamer (Cambridge Azure) and subscribe to Tidal for £20 per month giving me access to millions of songs and albums. 

Edited by clockboy
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  • 2 weeks later...

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A few more pictures of the blue dialled  Limit International with the 1970s Tissot 2030 quartz mechanism, that I posted in the Watch of Today  thread earlier.

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As you can see, I was a little wide of the mark with the date. It is not from the early 1970s as I suggested. The warranty is from 1979, so this particular mechanism was about six years into its production run by then, assuming the watch had not been sitting unsold at the jewellers for any length of time of course.

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I've included the instructions for setting the hands as they are somewhat unique.

 

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On 6/12/2022 at 5:41 AM, clockboy said:

giving me access to millions of songs and albums

I used to listen to whole LP's when I was younger. When I had an hour commute to/from work, I'd listen to CD's but the truth is there's not really any new music that I know that would entice me to buy a new CD. For a while I had satellite radio in a new car that got totaled after 6 months and it was nice but not nice enough to pay for.

These days I'm happy with local live music (with a beer or cider) or finding old live shows on YouTube. Even new live shows! The current Robert Plant/Allison Krause tour is getting regular full concert shows posted to YouTube. 

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I'm a King Crimson fan I particularly like Robet Fripp and his music. This is them doing David Bowie's Heroes, Robert played on the original version. Fripp's playing on this is just perfect, he's the guy sitting on a stool on the right with all his equipment. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, grsnovi said:

I used to listen to whole LP's when I was younger. When I had an hour commute to/from work, I'd listen to CD's but the truth is there's not really any new music that I know that would entice me to buy a new CD. For a while I had satellite radio in a new car that got totaled after 6 months and it was nice but not nice enough to pay for.

These days I'm happy with local live music (with a beer or cider) or finding old live shows on YouTube. Even new live shows! The current Robert Plant/Allison Krause tour is getting regular full concert shows posted to YouTube. 

I have a lot of CDS but nothing to play them on. I stream these days. 

 just replied to @grsnovithat although I have plenty of CDs, I no longer have a player, I stream. I have an up to date smatt phone and a modern car, I believe that modern things are better than old things.  Yes my go to watch is modern but mechanical which is old technology but we all know that it will never be as accurate as a digital.  

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1 hour ago, oldhippy said:

I particularly like Robet Fripp

Well, that would indeed make you an old hippy... 🙂 Fripp is a crazy-good player.

I still have a CD player in the house. From time to time I think about going back to analog but that raises the question of HQ records. My ears are shot anyway, from standing in front of guitar amps turned up to 11. I'm in the process of getting hearing aids so I can hear my wife (although she'll still try talking to me from 3 rooms away). So, the left eye is shot, my ears ring all the time and I got a cortisone shot in my right shoulder this morning. Going to h*ll in a handbag...

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25 minutes ago, grsnovi said:

Well, that would indeed make you an old hippy... 🙂 Fripp is a crazy-good player.

I still have a CD player in the house. From time to time I think about going back to analog but that raises the question of HQ records. My ears are shot anyway, from standing in front of guitar amps turned up to 11. I'm in the process of getting hearing aids so I can hear my wife (although she'll still try talking to me from 3 rooms away). So, the left eye is shot, my ears ring all the time and I got a cortisone shot in my right shoulder this morning. Going to h*ll in a handbag...

Just be grateful you're not a horse.  Hehe. 

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The 404 club "probably Le Coultre" pocket watch got a little attention yesterday.

It arrived stone dead, fully wound,  with a half gallon of wd40 on the surface, so I cleaned as much of that off as possible, let down the mainspring and gave it a few clicks of wind and off it went.

It will need a full strip down, clean and service, which I will do when I have time to relax and tackle it with no interruptions. Since parts for this are probably completely unobtainable, I want to take a little extra care with it.

This is obviously a quality movement and hopefully once I have it apart, there will be a serial number or some way of identifying its manufacturer with certainty.

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The case appears to be silver, but so far I haven't found any hallmarks or stamps to prove this.

Edited by AndyHull
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11 hours ago, RichardHarris123 said:

I have a lot of CDS but nothing to play them on. I stream these days. 

 just replied to @grsnovithat although I have plenty of CDs, I no longer have a player, I stream. I have an up to date smatt phone and a modern car, I believe that modern things are better than old things.  Yes my go to watch is modern but mechanical which is old technology but we all know that it will never be as accurate as a digital.  

I am a audio file and the strange thing is yes cds are more accurate but vinyl often just sounds better..  However to hear the benefits of high end music you need high end systems and in particular better quality DAC,s.. (A DAC, or digital to analogue converter, is the device that translates digitally stored information from a laptop, iPod or other such device into the analogue sound that we can hear.) 

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I fixed up a couple of Casios recently.

Cleaning the battery contacts, and performing a factory reset is usually sufficient to bring them back to life. I have a few more. A FX-602P, complete, as new (but actually well used), boxed with cassette interface and instructions from back in my University days, a couple of 3600Ps also looking almost new, and another PB-100 in box with instructions etc. These have become quite collectible and can sell for  as much as, or more than I paid for my FX-602P when I bought it all those years ago.  

They are fun things to program, as their limited memory of only a few kilobytes means you have to be pretty succinct in your code, or it wont fit in the memory. You can save programs to cassette tape too if you are a complete masochist. I also have a small thermal printer for them. Really they are just fun toys, but then you could say the same about many of the watches I've fixed too. 

I wonder if I can squeeze a game of Hunt the Wumpus into the 1.5K of Casio memory on the PB-100.

Edited by AndyHull
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16 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

A Led Zep fan

I only ever had the first two LP's but in the last 50 years I've become more familiar with them. Page and Plant were quite a pair. Plant and Krauss have been finishing there shows with 3 Zep tunes. Plant still has that voice.

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On 6/23/2022 at 12:33 AM, clockboy said:

However to hear the benefits of high end music you need high end systems

Actually, you need the ears of a 20 year-old. The ones I have now require behind the ear amplification. Having stood in front of guitar amplifiers (both as a player and in the front row of really loud concerts) my ears are shot. No point in me paying through the nose for a "hi-fidelity" system.

21 minutes ago, Nucejoe said:

PM sent.

Nothing received...

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