What's vintage in your system?

[bba5757]

I just sold a David Hafler 110 pre-amp this weekend (for someone else, wasn't mine) but I personally never attached an amp or speakers to it to see how it did -- what does anybody else think about the DH 110?

[JoeE SP9]

I keep a DH-110 in a closet as a spare in case my ARC SP-9 gets sick. The couple of times my ARC was at the factory getting tuned up or upgraded the Hafler served very well in its place.
I built the Hafler from a kit in the early 80's. It's a nice very quiet preamp. I think it sounds better than most of the ones from Adcom. Plus, it has 2 tape monitors, 2 phono inputs, EPL loop and defeatable tone controls.

Very underrated IMO.

[lgench]

Just wondering if there is any interest on this forum on equipment manufactured by Weathers Industries of New Jersey. I'm a former employee, now an old man!

[thekid]

Just wondering if there is any interest on this forum on equipment manufactured by Weathers Industries of New Jersey. I'm a former employee, now an old man!

Welcome to AR!

Not familiar with it.
Can you give us a brief history of the company and products?

[lgench]

Weathers Industries was a small hi-fi company that invented and manufactured an assortment of highly regarded components. The company was founded by Paul Weathers, a fine gentleman who was a very accomplished inventor AND businessman. His first product, in the early fifties, was an FM capacitance cartridge system, that came with a lightweight wood tonearm and oscillator box. Mono, of course. Performance was outstanding, finest at the time. It's main advantage was that it tracked at 1 gram! Competitors at the time tracked around 10 grams. No hum pickup from turntable motor. I still have my system, purchased in the mid-fifties. He then went into speakers and turntables.

I don't want to make this too long, but if there is any interest in further information, I will provide what I remember. As I was in my early twenties at the time, I don't believe there are many former employees left. I was the service department, repairs, phone calls, letters and handling customers that would come to the factory.

PS: Thanx for welcome!

[dakatabg]

I have never heard of this company but you can post some pictures here so everyone can see it!

[velo_road]

Here's the old stuff (operational definition of vintage: anything before 1990) I've accumulated over the years:

Pioneer RT701 Open Reel
Concord DB10 Dolby B processor
Kenwood KD550 Turntable
SME Series IIIS tonearm
Shure V15 Type V-MR cartridge
Pioneer RG-2 dynamic expansion processor
Mitsubishi DAF-20 FM Tuner
...all of the above hooked up to a...
Hafler DH110 preamp
(...feeding into a HK AVR635 and a pair of Maggies MMG)

My Dynaco SCA80 integated amp, Lafayette Criterion 2XB speakers, and Magnavox CDB582 CD player still works and seeing use in my daughter's room.

The Dynaco Stereo 80 amp I built still works too and is used to drive a pair of Radio Shack Minimus 7s for desktop PC use.

The AudioControl C101 used to see action, but with the Texas Instruments DSP chip in the HK AVR635 working its magic for room acoustics, it's mothballed. Two AudioControl Octave EQs are used to equalize 4 of the 5.1 signals from the DVD-A/SACD player, before it goes into the AVR635. (All the EQs were sent over to AudioControl for cleaning and recalibration.)

[bradshawsa8]

Just got a Garrard Lab 80 MKII from EBay.

[poppachubby]

Just got a Garrard Lab 80 MKII from EBay.

Nice table, check the analog room for a Garrard "shrine"...

[rakeford]

I have two vintage systems, 1975 and 1978, a vintage CD and a vintage CD/ Casstte DECK. I just pulled the GA312 from the attic last month. It seems to be in good working order. The GA312 and the Sharp DX-650 CDP are only components I'm using now. But I'm thinking about hooking up the Realistic Optimus 2B to the "B" side of my new Yamaha RX-797 Receiver and comparing them to my Klipsch RF-7. All the rest except the Realistic Optimus 2B are misbehaven.

Using now
Phillips GA312/ Stanton 681 EEE
Sharp DX-650 CDP


circa 1990-2001
BSR MCD8050 CD/Cassette <<=== Monster M STANDARD THX i100 ===>> |

1978
Phillips GA312/ Stanton 681 EEE/ == OEM RCA analog cables ===>> |
Onkyo A-5 Integrated Amp -------------------------------------- +
Bose 501 SERIES II <<L######### AWG 1x speaker wire ########L>> |
Bose 501 SERIES II <<R######### AWG 1x speaker wire ########R>> |

1975
Realistic TT?/ Cart.?/ ==== OEM RCA analog cables ===========>> |
Realistic STA-80 Receiver ------------------------------------- +
Realistic Optimus 2B <<L# AWG 1x speaker wire ##############L>> |
Realistic Optimus 2B <<R# AWG 1x speaker wire ##############R>> |

[thekid]

Just got a Garrard Lab 80 MKII from EBay.

Nice TT!!
Nice to see someone on AR lives within shouting distance....

[dakatabg]

It seems that this add is falling asleep so time to wake it up!

I just got Fisher CA-7000 Amplifier in mint condition!

Does anyone know the watts?

[thekid]

It seems that this add is falling asleep so time to wake it up!

I just got Fisher CA-7000 Amplifier in mint condition!

Does anyone know the watts?

Dak

Not alot out there on the web but some things I saw indicate this might have been part of a rack system. I saw a photo of one on E-Bay and it lists a 170 watts on the back label so a good rule of thumb is to take that number and divide by 3 to figure what the WPC it produces. In this case my guess is that it probably produces 50-55wpc.

Looks like a nice little piece-it is always hard to walk away from that shiny silver.......Congrats!

[02audionoob]

I saw an eBay listing that said the Fisher produces 46 watts into 4 Ohms at 0.3% THD. I don't know why they chose 4 Ohms, or for that matter, 0.3% for this measurement, but that's what I saw.

[Poultrygeist]

I still have my ADS L710's from the late 70's with the famous cat proof metal grills.

[dakatabg]

I just organized some of the gears and I took a picture! Here it is:


On the left side:

Kenwood KC-105 Preamplifier
Kenwood KM-106 Amplifier
Sansui 9090DB Receiver
Marantz 2250B Receiver
Fisher CA-7000 Amplifier
Fisher CA-880 Amplifier
Fisher FM-660 Tuner
Fisher CR-125 Cassette Deck


On the right side:

Kenwood Basic M1 Amplifier
Kenwood Basic C1 Preamplifier
Kenwood KC-106 Preamplifier
Kenwood KM-209 Amplifier
Kenwood VR-616 Surround Receiver
Kenwood DV-605 DVD Player
Kenwood DP-M98 CD Changer
Kenwood KX-68W Cassette Deck
Kenwood KT-75 Tuner
Kenwood GE-76 Graphic Equalizer
Teac EQA-20 Equalizer
Yamaha EQ-60 Equalizer


Here is the picture:

[Feanor]

I just organized some of the gears and I took a picture! Here it is:


On the left side:

Kenwood KC-105 Preamplifier
Kenwood KM-106 Amplifier
Sansui 9090DB Receiver
Marantz 2250B Receiver
Fisher CA-7000 Amplifier
Fisher CA-880 Amplifier
Fisher FM-660 Tuner
Fisher CR-125 Cassette Deck


On the right side:

Kenwood Basic M1 Amplifier
Kenwood Basic C1 Preamplifier
Kenwood KC-106 Preamplifier
Kenwood KM-209 Amplifier
Kenwood VR-616 Surround Receiver
Kenwood DV-605 DVD Player
Kenwood DP-M98 CD Changer
Kenwood KX-68W Cassette Deck
Kenwood KT-75 Tuner
Kenwood GE-76 Graphic Equalizer
Teac EQA-20 Equalizer
Yamaha EQ-60 Equalizer
...

All nice, but I'll admit I most the "silver" components for the '70s, viz.

• Sansui 9090DB Receiver
• Marantz 2250B Receiver

[thekid]

Daks

Nice pics of some nice gear. what speakers are you running that gear with?

Feanor

I echo your love of Silver. There is something to be said about pieces with meters and glowing lights.......

[dakatabg]

The kenwood amplifier I am running with 4 kenwood 3 way tower speakers and they sound amazing! The sansui and marantz I have hooked up to cerwin vega! Nothing special but not enough space in the room!

[thekid]

The kenwood amplifier I am running with 4 kenwood 3 way tower speakers and they sound amazing! The sansui and marantz I have hooked up to cerwin vega! Nothing special but not enough space in the room!

If you like them that is all that counts......

[scrivens]

mission cyrus 2+PSX with linn sondek for listening to serious music
Yamaha A-320 amp with marantz cd 65 for listening to pop

I have a marantz cd54 somewhere in the loft...those "cast-iron" marantz players of the 80's jst refuse to lie down

[BallinWithNash]

Marantz 2240 ... see my profile pics to see it .. love that thing haha

[Cu-Melter]

Realistic STA-2080
Realistic STA-2100
Realistic LAB-395
Realistic Mach Ones (4029)
Realistic Mach Twos (4032/a)
Realistic 12 Band EQ

[BigD]

I have Thorens 126 MKIIIC in the original double box that I purchased direct from ELPA Marketing (the US importer of Thorens products in the 70's). I have 2 arms and all the original paperwork. Adcom crosscoil cartridge and other stuff. I was a salesman at Tech Hifi then. We didn't sell Thorens at the time but they took care of me anyway. I was wondering if anyone could give me an Idea what it would be worth today. It's been in storage for over 15 years.

[RGA]

I have no vintage gear anymore. My oldest piece is a Cambridge Audio CD 6 CD player - listening to it now. Bought it in 1996 and it was a demo CD player. They had the top off and a glass case to show off the internals. It was a very well built (still is ) $800ish CD player.

It owes me zero. It was under heavy all day use in that store for over a year. I have used it pretty much everyday since (couple years it sat in a box while overseas) but sitting a unit can be problematic too apparently).

It still works perfectly! The remote has no troubles, I usually push the buttons on the machine while I am up. It has been moved so many times.

15 years old now - the average life of a CD player is 7 years according to consumer reports. My Sony - 3 years old and giving me problems. I had three Pioneer CD players - all never made it past 4 years. Though the 100 disc changer was pretty good sounding and it's problem was the LCD screen was beginning to go - but it worked.

I have not generally been impressed with the transport mechanisms I have used lately, Audio Note's CD 2.1 which I reviewed is the part that keeps me from buying it(same transport that is in the new Bryston, a Mark Levinson I used which was over $10k was just lousy and buggy, and Sim Audio and Classe don't inspire much confidence.

I am tempted to buy a DAC - even on a ~15 year old CD Player. I can only find a few players that used this Sanyo transport (I was told it was a TEAC - oh well it's strong like bull either way).

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO CD6;
NAKAMICHI DRAGON CD/DAC 4
PINK TRIANGLE CARDINAL, PINK TRIANGLE CORDINAL 2

I guess we can start putting vintage on CD players now that they are being slowly replaced.