Vintage suggestion

[Toga]

Ok, so lately I've rediscovered the Technics SU-V9. I have to admit I ogled the thing when I was a kid in the little pamphlets they gave out at audio shows. Its possible I never laid eyes on one. One might scoff at a mere $800 in 1981, but when you are a 14 year old kid, that is more lawn mowing pain than you can drag out of your folks in a lifetime of summers.

Anyone else have one? Heard one lately? Japanese amps get picked on, especially mid fi stuff, but not all these creatures were created equally. Pioneer Series 20 amps, and Sony Ring Fets; makes it worth haunting eBay for cheap thrills and a shot at audio magic with build quality approaching truly high end stuff.

I now have an SU-V9 at the office, and at home! Oh dear, do I ever abuse the one at work. Peavey 15" with a rubbing voice coil, free air at 5HZ, full power (around 110W). It WON'T DIE... hehe

BTW I fixed the Black Widow unit. The 3 magnet bolts were loose, and tapping the pole piece back in place with the 5Hz tone playing realigned things. A little super glue, and them bolts aren't going anywhere!

[dean_martin]

Ok, so lately I've rediscovered the Technics SU-V9. I have to admit I ogled the thing when I was a kid in the little pamphlets they gave out at audio shows. Its possible I never laid eyes on one. One might scoff at a mere $800 in 1981, but when you are a 14 year old kid, that is more lawn mowing pain than you can drag out of your folks in a lifetime of summers.

Anyone else have one? Heard one lately? Japanese amps get picked on, especially mid fi stuff, but not all these creatures were created equally. Pioneer Series 20 amps, and Sony Ring Fets; makes it worth haunting eBay for cheap thrills and a shot at audio magic with build quality approaching truly high end stuff.

I now have an SU-V9 at the office, and at home! Oh dear, do I ever abuse the one at work. Peavey 15" with a rubbing voice coil, free air at 5HZ, full power (around 110W). It WON'T DIE... hehe

BTW I fixed the Black Widow unit. The 3 magnet bolts were loose, and tapping the pole piece back in place with the 5Hz tone playing realigned things. A little super glue, and them bolts aren't going anywhere!

Toga - you should upload a picture of your gear in the gallery (or post a link to a pic in this thread). I have a couple of vintage pieces I enjoy listening to regularly, but it's always interesting to discover new old stuff.

[Toga]

Toga - you should upload a picture of your gear in the gallery (or post a link to a pic in this thread). I have a couple of vintage pieces I enjoy listening to regularly, but it's always interesting to discover new old stuff.

Ooh, all the pretty pictures...

Thanks dean_martin for the invite to post mine. It's a tad premature. My previous house had an aging Runco 750 NTSC projector aimed at 80" of Stewart Studiotek 130. A rack of Proton D1200s fed subwoofers based on thirty two (!!!) Audax Bextrene woofer drivers. A Carver 705X handled the multichannel role, which drove variously satellites based on either Seas MP14s + Morel MDT30s, Focal 5N412DBLs + JVC Ribbons, or Accuton C77s and Panasonic EA400 Ribbons. Main stereo duty was fulfilled by a pair of Maggies driven by a veritable who's who in review samples. Source equipment was a Sony DVP-S7700 DVD, SDP-EP9ES processor, pair of Pioneer 3070 laser disc players, and game systems. Seating was a lovely cream leather LAZBOY recliner love seat. Remote control Lutron lighting, HK remote, in the basement surrounded on 3 walls and a floor made of concrete, with live-end/dead-end acoustic control. All gear was in an inwall cabinet, flush with the surrounding wall surface. Complete light control was excercised.

All ripped out when I had to move. Really took the wind out of my sails. I'm happy to announce that tonight, I'm making new cables from Phoenix Gold bulk RCA + Neutrik Pro-Fi connectors and Mogami Neglex microphone wire (industry standard). I've acquired a second EP9ES processor, and intend on doing a fiber optic multiroom system in my new house, each room having another ES processor for local control. Since I don't have enough SU-V9s to do 6 channels yet, I'm going to use three Technics SU-V5s. Same topology, just reduced power supply rails, and some nifty VFD meters that will make setup a breeze. To me this whole family of amps sound lean, clean, a tad forward, with a slightly emphasized but goose bump silky treble that I keep switching back to, every time I try another amp.

I've been saving my pennies the last couple of weeks, not buying any more stupid crap on eBay. I'm getting a Sony DSC-W1 digital camera for myself, late Xmas present. As soon as I see one go on sale around here!

[Toga]

Just so you aren't completely cheated, here is a link for a picture of what I'm collecting (I lost the bid on a black one last week on eBay):

http://www.vintagetechnics.com/integrated/suv9.htm

[dean_martin]

Just so you aren't completely cheated, here is a link for a picture of what I'm collecting (I lost the bid on a black one last week on eBay):

http://www.vintagetechnics.com/integrated/suv9.htm

Ooooh, that's nice. What time period is this from? Do you know how it would compare soundwise to Marantz and Sansui integrateds from the 70s? I have a Sansui AU-5900 I use primarily for headphone listening with a Marantz 112 tuner and Akai GXC 730D cassette deck. (I had to put together a system to listen to all those tapes I made back in the day.) I was thinking of getting a Marantz 1060 or 1060B integrated too. If you already have a tuner, they're a slightly better bargain than the Marantz receivers from the same era.

[Toga]

The manufacture date is 1981. Its a little slicker, cleaner, "newer" than some of the gear you mentioned. It seems to be one of the last pieces from Technics worth a darn. Right after this series, things turned black, and soon after that, plastic. I'm not going to claim that a plastic front panel has sonic disadvantages. But it is a barometer of quality minded thinking. Once the machined knobs go, once the oversized transformer wimps out, once the caps become garden variety, once the circuits inside transition from discretes to ICs... Each little chisel mark is a death knell to overall sound quality. Eventually you end up with $149 dollar plastic 6 channel x 100Watt amps that sound like sand sifting through a sieve full of pennies; gritty, harsh, and lifeless.

[squeegy200]

...I fixed the Black Widow unit. The 3 magnet bolts were loose, and tapping the pole piece back in place with the 5Hz tone playing realigned things. A little super glue, and them bolts aren't going anywhere!

What is the "Black Widow"?

[dean_martin]

What is the "Black Widow"?

I'm wondering whether Toga's referring to the "Black Widow" tonearm which I think was made by Infinity. I've run across it while doing some online research on old turntables/carts/tonearms. According to what I remember reading, it was an excellent tonearm considered "high-end" or specialty after-market gear. It seems likely based on context, but then again it could be something else.

I'll do what I should have done before responding and see if he's posted his system somewhere.

[dean_martin]

I'm wondering whether Toga's referring to the "Black Widow" tonearm which I think was made by Infinity. I've run across it while doing some online research on old turntables/carts/tonearms. According to what I remember reading, it was an excellent tonearm considered "high-end" or specialty after-market gear. It seems likely based on context, but then again it could be something else.

I'll do what I should have done before responding and see if he's posted his system somewhere.

Even if Toga's talking about something else, it's still a cool piece:


http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/al...php?pic_id=526

http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/al...=526&mode=next

[Toga]

Even if Toga's talking about something else, it's still a cool piece:


http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/al...php?pic_id=526

http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/al...=526&mode=next

So sorry Dean Martin!

I was talking about a Black Widow 15" pro driver out of a Peavey bass guitar cabinet.

For spinning Vinyl I have a Sony PS-X555ES with the Biotracer tonearm. Talk about neato pieces...

http://digilander.libero.it/bellocad...y_psx555es.jpg

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

Mine has the Grado MT+ on it currently, but I'm going to swap to a Shure V15 type5 micro ridge.

[djdave]

nice to see someone else appreciating the old school stuff that you couldn't part with or better yet replace with anything of the same quality today........... I have one of these integrated amps, bought it new when i was 16 and I am 43 now... i used it to do dances with believe it or not....... i used 4 audiosphere research 18L's and 4 sound dymanic 1500 concert monitors set up in a 4 ohm load. one 18L with a 1500 stacked on top in each corner of the rooms, the two together sounded excellent one replacing what the other did not have as far as sound reproduction went. The 18L's at 98db 1watt/meter and the 1500's at 102db 1watt/meter are extremely efficient and are capable of total sound volumes comparable to using multiple bryston 4B's powering PA type bass bins and horns and of course the sound reproduction was incredible compared and uncomparable to playing music on speakers designed for individual music instruments only .....PA types ....... I have run the amp with 2ohm loads over a couple of hours at a time when i needed a little extra volume and it does and never has not complain too much, if you overload it, it simply shuts off its output circuitry.... you shut it down and repower up with only slight complaining from patrons at the time.......I use a denon avr 3805 for surround in our family room theater powering the stacks of speakers, it does movies well, but does lack the outright power of the old SU-V9, for good music, i use a switch box to output sound from the SU-V9 taking its aux input from an audio output of the denon. I had always wanted a technics SE-A3/SU-A4 power/preamp setup with 350rms/channel , but $2400 at the time was pricey compared to the $850 i paid for the suv9 (120rms/channel with high current capability)and my uncle had only approved $7500 for me to get into the dj business with.........the SU-V9 is still a great amp today, still capable of supplying large current amounts to the speakers......

[Feanor]

Welcome to AR Forums,

I've always found the Technics vintage equipment appealing, and perhaps a bit under rated compared to, e.g. Marantz or Pioneer.

I see that the SU-V9 is poweful, 120 wpc, integrated from the early '80s. I did find a basic reference to it at the Vintage Technics site.