I purchased a Nikko NR-1219 'monster' receiver in the early 1990s. Still going good today. I did obtain the service manual for it a few years ago, but it hasn't needed any repairs to date. Kevin, good to find out your Dad is doing well.
That pioneer was sold at pacific stereo and a friend of mine owned the package. What was kind of cool about pacific stereo was they would deal a little and sometimes you could get them to throw in upgrades or cables.
Man...got kinda lit this evening on good beer here in Oklahoma and havin an awesome day so thought I'd catch up on Kevin and vintage gear. And as far as his dad.....God answers when prayers are spoken.
Great news about your Dad doing well. Nice shoutout to OldGuyHiFi. Like his content and he seems like a great guy. Cool to see the vintage gear. Always takes me back to putting together my first stereo rig in ‘72. 👍🏼🎶😎
Thanks for the mention. I found my Pioneer ES-2000 did sound a lot using an attenuated RCA cable when using a CD Player on AUX. Without cable seemed the sound was a bit all over the place. Though this might just be with the CD Player I used. Most of these vintage units were not made for CD Players as some do give out 2 or 3 volt peek to peek on the output. 4mm Banana plugs might just squeeze in for speaker connections, maybe just file a little
Good seeing you taking us through the shop and seeing all the unusual vintage pieces. Nice presentaion Kevin, Great to hear your Dad doing better. Keep up the great work.
Another great video,Kevin. Thank you, I learn something new each week. Wish I lived closer, would love to head to Des Moines next weekend to join your British Invasion. Really happy to hear that your Dad is doing okay as well. My Dad and I are close and I’d be a mess if something happened to him. Hope your Dad’s recovery continues to go well. Take care.
Avid was a new company and got popular when Consumer Reports (very influential in audio in those days) rated the 103 the best speaker out of many tested.
Those Wharfedales are great speakers for their time. George Martin and David Gilmore had those as the speakers for their home systems back in the early 70's. I gave mine to my ex GF who played in a famous doom metal band along with a Fischer Tube receiver. I want the stereo gear back but not the girlfriend.
I love my ADS L570/2 and L780/2 speakers, I just wish that I had discovered them years ago instead of earlier this year. Prices for ADS are on the rise, and Richard So is the man for repairs.
Thanks for this. I owned a pair of Avid 103 back in the late 70’s and really enjoyed them. Sold them to buy a pair of inferior Yamaha speakers, one of my many early hifi mid-steps. Hope your dad is doing well.
Couldn't believe when you showed the AVID speaker. I had a pair, but it was the bookshelf size, maybe 101? I like them. And yes, mine came with brown cloth and after a few years I purchased the blue color and installed them. Had them for many years.
Have used Nikko equipment since the seventies. Their Pro Series is Very well made. All schematics are available. Not great but not as bad as others. Problem now is availability of replacement output FETs. Great specs. Great sound. 👍🏻
Glad to hear your dad is doing well! I forgot about Avid speakers from the 70's. They used good drivers, some of which I employed in my own custom-made loudspeakers. Their cabinets were good. I had a Technics Pro Series Rack in my stereo shop. We sold very few but it was really cool. Even as an EE, I much prefer simplicity. I had the alternative Pro Series ST-9030 analog tuner in that rack, still considered as one of the best ever. Technics Pro Series also included their direct drive quartz lock reel-to-reel tape machines; I wish I kept my RS-1500US. I still have the official Technics dealer book with brochures and dealer pricing. Maybe something for eBay? Thanks for the good memories!
Love those old Technics, they look prety awsome. hearing about your dad doing well, I hope there is nothing wrong with him and you guys keep having fun together. Much love as always from your ol' pal in West Spain.
Hey Kevin. I used to own those Wharfdales. They were great during college long ago. Rescued them from a storage closet in my frat, no one wanted them, and fixed them up. I have no recollection of what happened to them. Great performers for sure.
Thanks for bringing up the Avids!!! I bought a pair of Avid 103’s in high school from Alma’s (mentioned in the ad you showed at the end of the Avid segment). Loved them and used for years including for frat parties with a 50 watt Mac amp until I blew a tweeter. Just looked at the docs that came with them and they recommended stacking them like the Advents. Changed the grill to a white burlap. And really glad to hear your dad is doing well!!! 😊
Great to hear your Dad is doing well! Sure hope he is getting that dexterity working and hopefully working his way back into some tinkering! Great video as always!
I owned the Technics gear you featured. The trade referred to it as the "Flat Group." There was a more conventional FM-only tuner option in that series, which I owned rather than the pieces you featured here. The equalizer was superb, as it had parametric capabilities where each slider also had adjustments for midpoint and bandwidth. I powered it with twin power amps each set to mono, running a variety of speakers ranging from Magnepans to Definitive Technology. I wish I still had that gear, as it does not pop up online very often. Thanks for sharing!
People who own A/D/S speakers tend to keep them. Pretty much, everything they made was excellent build quality, and sounds fantastic. To this day, they rival many modern speakers that are often two, three or four times the price. Worth every penny.
A guy that does my major repairs recently bought a large cabinet of NOS Original parts from a lady who's husband died 20+ years ago, and she has all this stuff in storage units. When I went there a few weeks ago to pick up two receivers he worked on for me, he showed me the inventory stock in that cabinet. Brand new tape deck heads including vintage Pioneer and TEAC 3-headers, motors, tons of original Darlington and STK chips and wait for it.... I quart sized bag full of those Pioneer speaker connectors! All brand new and never opened.
I have a pair of Wharfedale W90 speakers. These are from the 60's and the drivers are amazingly well built. I remember those Technics separates. They were very well built and If I saw them today, I would grab them. I'm sure I could find something to replace the Alps pots. They were considered very good back in the day! You are correct that they are very rare. They weren't the "in" thing to buy at the time. Dixi Hifi used them to demo speakers. The Avids were popular at the time so they are out there. I've seen them in thrift stores over the years, but went another direction. Pioneer made some great turntables that go often under the radar. I alway loved ADS and sold them when I was in audio. They will sound great with any kind of music! The Nikko Alpha I was my first transistor power amp.
Amazing, I log on to your site and am immediately faced my first ever speaker, the Wharfedale , W1 in my case. Could only afford one in 1962. Only went stereo few years later when I acquired a pair of Quad electrostatics. BTW it’s Wharf-Dale.
The Avid 103 speakers sound fantastic! I own a mixed set ( 103/ 102) Combo found at a local Goodwill. Both include the famous sweet sounding Philips tweeters. As far as the Warfedale speakers. I have the W45's. 4 pairs of ads/ speakers L8e, L9e 520's and 880/2 found in the California and Arizona areas. Happy for the great news with your dad situation, Keep up with the great videos
I love old Wharfedale Speakers. I have some 1965 Wharfedale W60s with sand filled cabinets and cast frame woofers ( the date is written on the woofers). I put new linen grill cloth on and rebuilt the crossovers. They sound fantastic and are so well built. Beautiful cabinets. I am not surprised the W25s sound great.
I worked at the AVID Corporation from 1978-1981 when they left the home audio business due to competition. They were located at 10 Tripps Lane in East Providence, RI. The building is a bank now. I have photos. They pioneered Minimum Diffraction and had a cool Q-SPAN testing anechoic chamber on the production floor. I always liked sealed cabinet design better than ported which is great for nightclubs and concert/live music venues. Sealed cabinets don't bottom out and the bass sounds more natural.
Maaan, do I love the fact Nikko is completely forgotten and overlooked! I still have my Dads 1019 I grew up around, and you know what? The quality exceeds that of Marantz from the same era. I do plan at some point on down the road to grab up a discrete Nikko power amp to go with the 1019 and have somewhat of a hot rod vintage rig.
Pioneer PL-518. My first turntable. Had it for years until it died. There's a UA-cam video out there where the actor Burgess Meredith does an ad for the PL-518. This is a cool vid. Takes me back to my back to my late teens to early 20's. The Technics kit is super nice stuff.
Wharfedale W 60's had a sand filled (the cabinets were double walled) cabinet. They weighed a ton, but were actually quite good. I bet that Technic's amp sounds great. Those A/D/S speakers are absolutely outrageous! They are pretty inefficient, but you hit them with some REAL juice, let's say an Adcon GFA 555, and you will not believe how great they are. If you paid less than a grand, you got a world class deal on some world class speakers!!!!
I just lucked out on a free pair of Avid 100s, the 2 way little brothers of the 103s. They sound great. Glad I saw this video when I did because my new grill fabric just came in. Thanks!
Good stuff !!!! I did military sales in the 80's and to change the voltage of a certain equalizer before they back stateside. Learned how to solder, lol
I like that old Warf(e)dale, but i LOVED the Electro Voice Seven! talkin about vintage bookshelf loudspeakers, nice also the Avids, looks like they have Philips drivers for mid and tweets. Nikko Alpha II very cool gear.
I love LED for their low power consumption and decent range of "color" in the white spectrum. You should be able to find some warm LED's to put in place of those. It isn't like you are physically modifying the board that wouldn't allow you to go back to incandescent. As you said, preserving a vintage piece
I just found out i live close by the panasonic museum in osaka jp. I've seen their main factory from the train and it takes up a couple blocks so i'm hoping their museum will have lots of cool vintage electronics. I visit the recycle shops and its rare to see old electronics here. I think maybe they're mostly sold in more expensive specialty vintage shops like yours. I had a tube amp/reciever in the 80's and that sounded so crisp and clean but my god it used so much electricity. It made a good heater
That's really cool. Possibly you could post pics or a video of the Panasonic Museum? Back in the day of the Pro Series equipment when I was a Technics dealer, it was fairly common for our Panasonic rep to do a presentation that included photos of the factory, along with history and even their vision statement. By far, Technics turntables were best sellers. I probably set up more than I could count!
Another great video! Glad to hear about your Dad’s recovery. That ES-2000 makes me think about a pair of refurbished Pioneer XD-10 speakers that I picked up a few years ago. There is very little info out there about them but I’ve read that they were sold as part of a set with SA-6500/6800 and TX-6500/6800 in the 1979/80 time period. They look to be identical to Project 100A which were allegedly sold as stand-alone speakers. If anyone out there has any more info, I’d love to read more about them. Cheers!
Had a pair of Avid SR22s back in the mid-70s. Appear to have the same tweeter as the 103. Just discovered this summer they've been in my brother's storage unit unit for oh, 40 years. Looking forward to being able to hook them up and see how they sound when the opportunity arises.
Hi just found you! I have a whole recording studio which was set up in 1968 ny mu uncle. It had everything you’d need in a recording audio from the ampex reel to speakers, recording equipment & amplifier, tape recorders etc. I have no idea what to do with it all or its value! I know some is worth money! I’ll be watching with eyes open!
I see those Avids have the Philips "eyeball" tweeters, the same ones in the ESS Tempests, they sounded great. I used to have a pair of the Avid 101 mini-towers with the front AND side firing tweeters, they were also quite heavy and sounded really good.
I’ve got 2 pair of Wharfedale Mach 9 speakers. Have you seen/reviewed these? They sound GREAT to me, folks comment on how good they sound. If you ever get a chance check ‘em out! Quite rare, little info in them 2:50
Glad to hear the positive news on your father. I have a pair of the Avid 103 and interesting that you mentioned your want something like a 50 watt power source to drive them. Currently have a Nikko STA 6080 / Sony STR-V2 powering them and neither are rated for 50 watts. What is the math to know what wattage you should be using for any speaker. It seemed to revolve around ohms and efficiency.
I have the Professional Series stereos, and I have had mine for 45 years. The only difference is I have the analog tuner and a meter bridge. I have always enjoyed mine.
My father, a Technics executive, owned that system though I recall the tuner being a different one piece unit. The EQ was parametric as well as graphic. He had it together with a Miracord changer utilizing an Empire 888eee cartridge, an Ampex reel to reel and the biggest Dynaco speakers I'd ever seen. I don't recall the model. I would demo the Bee Gees "Lonely Days" for anyone who cared to listen. It was pure bliss.
I bought a Pioneer PL518 Direct Drive turntable back in 1978 or 1979 I still have it though I haven’t used it in many years after I left my old Pioneer SX9000 receiver at my old house. The turntable is in great shape but of course it needs new feet 🤔 I left the box for it at the old house also. I have two Boston Acoustic A60 speakers though the woofers need to be re-coned.
I really like A/D/S speakers a great value and fantastic sound! That Nikko Alpha is a dual mono amp they had Alpha 1 And 2.Very well built Mid Fi gear. I had an Alpha 230 amp and Beta 30 pre amp for years in a back up system.
Nice to see those M12s. Those were the follow on to the “L” series towards the end of the ADS run as a company. They were different from the “L” series but still really great. No sticky domes from what I remember. I also love the big Nikko. My first receiver was a one. Always have a soft spot.
Well, I believe those tweeters are made by Philips. I utilized several of these (as well as KEF drivers) in my custom-manufactured loudspeakers. They were good performers but needed to be crossed over fairly high, most reliable in 3-way systems, like that Avid. The tweeters went down low enough for a 2-way speaker, but their tinsel leads to the voice coil tended to flex and break.
6:00 Speaking of LEDs for the backlighting, I heard that on the Pioneer SX - 1250, Pioneer designed those incandescent lamps to not only provide lighting, but it was also a type of noise filter. I further heard that if you put LEDs in, you lose that filtering. What do you know about this? Thanks!
I had a pair of these wharfedale w25s back in the early 90s pick them up at a yard sale for $20 I think they were great sounding little speakers in great shape wish I hadn't sold them
Kung Fu Tap and Taco's building started life as Giuseppe's Italian Restaurant in the 70s. It was on my paper route and was one of the first places in town that had a Pong machine.
Enjoy the old man! Mines in rehab after a stroke. Slowly but surely I'll get him home. Your video's and Frankensteins lab are keeping me happy and sane.
Glad to hear your dad is doing well! I stopped in on Friday and bought an LP and another shirt. I asked Jon if you guys had any ADS speakers in stock. What a coincidence. I will say not all Wharfedale speakers are gems. I picked up a pair of nice looking W60Ds at a garage sale years ago. Still have them in storage. Unfortunately, that model just doesn't sound great to my ears. I would take a pair of Large Advents over those every time!
For the Pioneer speaker connections of those older units, I simply use electrical spade connectors as found in those electrical connector kits. Inexpensive and does the job.
I had a pair of wharfedale linton XP 3 in the 70's 3 way linked to a dynatron with a Goldring lenco GL 75( It's pronounced Warfdale it's a village in Yorkshire England. Excellent sound. I currently have a Yamaha natural sound amp with a pair of Gale tower speakers and an active sub.
Had a pair of Wharfedale 70’s in 1968. Powered by a Scott LK150 with gold lion KT88 I still have a pair of of KT88 somewhere. The speakers were sand filled panels. Pre amp HK tube. Great sounding speakers
Pretty sure the Avid speaker you showed had the CTS midrange which is the same driver used in the Auratone studio monitor. You should open it up and if it has a very large magnet on the back it is. Thats worth more than the speaker itself. The technics pro stuff is bulletproof. Way better than anything pioneer ever did.
I just bought a set of rare American made power amplifiers last week, I can't even find any documentation on them. 1983 VSP Labs Gold Edition amplifiers TM200 with a Straightwire II preamp. Manufactured in Ann Arbor Michigan, Juan Velazquez held the patent for the Transconductance "Trans Mos" amplifier circuit Steve Eberbach of DCM Loudspeakers helped design the units and shared the same address.
I had soft white LEDs put into my vintage Technics SA-505. They look exactly like the original incandescent lamps. Same color of soft white. No blue LED crap.
I had heard of Wharfedale speakers watching a UK youtube and never heard of them before. A couple weeks ago I walk through a local antique mall here in Ohio and there are a pair for sale for $600. They seemed overpriced to me and were obviously worn. That kind of stuff doesn't come with any guarantee that they work. I can't imagine those speakers can be very easily replaced in kind either.
Do you ever see any Bozak speakers in the shop? I've just recapped a set of Bozak b 401 Rhapsody's that I bought from the original owners son. I think they are fantastic speakers and I've never seen another set.
Glad to hear your dad is doing well.
Wharfedale - a village just north west of Leeds in Yorkshire, England. The "E" in the middle is silent.
"Where's my fishing rod, Joe?"
"It's over there, on the wharf, Dale." 😊
Lol! Love it
@@skylabsaudio As a Brit, I can confirm that that gives you the corret pronunciation too!
@@skylabsaudio I have a Nikko NA 850 with a schematics sheet somewhere. It's a model from 1977(8) ish.
I purchased a Nikko NR-1219 'monster' receiver in the early 1990s. Still going good today. I did obtain the service manual for it a few years ago, but it hasn't needed any repairs to date.
Kevin, good to find out your Dad is doing well.
That pioneer was sold at pacific stereo and a friend of mine owned the package. What was kind of cool about pacific stereo was they would deal a little and sometimes you could get them to throw in upgrades or cables.
Man...got kinda lit this evening on good beer here in Oklahoma and havin an awesome day so thought I'd catch up on Kevin and vintage gear. And as far as his dad.....God answers when prayers are spoken.
Great news about your Dad doing well. Nice shoutout to OldGuyHiFi. Like his content and he seems like a great guy. Cool to see the vintage gear. Always takes me back to putting together my first stereo rig in ‘72. 👍🏼🎶😎
Thanks for the mention. I found my Pioneer ES-2000 did sound a lot using an attenuated RCA cable when using a CD Player on AUX. Without cable seemed the sound was a bit all over the place. Though this might just be with the CD Player I used. Most of these vintage units were not made for CD Players as some do give out 2 or 3 volt peek to peek on the output. 4mm Banana plugs might just squeeze in for speaker connections, maybe just file a little
Good seeing you taking us through the shop and seeing all the unusual vintage pieces. Nice presentaion Kevin, Great to hear your Dad doing better. Keep up the great work.
Another great video,Kevin. Thank you, I learn something new each week. Wish I lived closer, would love to head to Des Moines next weekend to join your British Invasion.
Really happy to hear that your Dad is doing okay as well. My Dad and I are close and I’d be a mess if something happened to him. Hope your Dad’s recovery continues to go well. Take care.
Avid was a new company and got popular when Consumer Reports (very influential in audio in those days) rated the 103 the best speaker out of many tested.
Those Wharfedales are great speakers for their time. George Martin and David Gilmore had those as the speakers for their home systems back in the early 70's. I gave mine to my ex GF who played in a famous doom metal band along with a Fischer Tube receiver. I want the stereo gear back but not the girlfriend.
I had those Avid speakers as a kid. My dad was into HiFi gear and when he upgraded, I got those Avids. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I love my ADS L570/2 and L780/2 speakers, I just wish that I had discovered them years ago instead of earlier this year. Prices for ADS are on the rise, and Richard So is the man for repairs.
*Richard in AZ is the only A/D/S man I trust. Years ago bought two pair of L310s for our boat from him. No regrets.*
Thanks for this. I owned a pair of Avid 103 back in the late 70’s and really enjoyed them. Sold them to buy a pair of inferior Yamaha speakers, one of my many early hifi mid-steps. Hope your dad is doing well.
God bless you, your family and your business. You are a good man! All the best!!!
Couldn't believe when you showed the AVID speaker. I had a pair, but it was the bookshelf size, maybe 101? I like them. And yes, mine came with brown cloth and after a few years I purchased the blue color and installed them. Had them for many years.
Have used Nikko equipment since the seventies. Their Pro Series is Very well made. All schematics are available. Not great but not as bad as others. Problem now is availability of replacement output FETs. Great specs. Great sound. 👍🏻
Glad to hear your dad is doing well! I forgot about Avid speakers from the 70's. They used good drivers, some of which I employed in my own custom-made loudspeakers. Their cabinets were good. I had a Technics Pro Series Rack in my stereo shop. We sold very few but it was really cool. Even as an EE, I much prefer simplicity. I had the alternative Pro Series ST-9030 analog tuner in that rack, still considered as one of the best ever. Technics Pro Series also included their direct drive quartz lock reel-to-reel tape machines; I wish I kept my RS-1500US. I still have the official Technics dealer book with brochures and dealer pricing. Maybe something for eBay? Thanks for the good memories!
Love those old Technics, they look prety awsome. hearing about your dad doing well, I hope there is nothing wrong with him and you guys keep having fun together. Much love as always from your ol' pal in West Spain.
Hey Kevin. I used to own those Wharfdales. They were great during college long ago. Rescued them from a storage closet in my frat, no one wanted them, and fixed them up. I have no recollection of what happened to them. Great performers for sure.
Thanks for bringing up the Avids!!! I bought a pair of Avid 103’s in high school from Alma’s (mentioned in the ad you showed at the end of the Avid segment). Loved them and used for years including for frat parties with a 50 watt Mac amp until I blew a tweeter. Just looked at the docs that came with them and they recommended stacking them like the Advents. Changed the grill to a white burlap. And really glad to hear your dad is doing well!!! 😊
Glad to hear your pap is doing well. Stay strong for him! Have a good one.
I appreciate the blast from the past! I owned a pair of 2 way Avids in the late 70s, early 80s. They were great speakers for the money.
Great to hear your Dad is doing well! Sure hope he is getting that dexterity working and hopefully working his way back into some tinkering! Great video as always!
I owned the Technics gear you featured. The trade referred to it as the "Flat Group." There was a more conventional FM-only tuner option in that series, which I owned rather than the pieces you featured here. The equalizer was superb, as it had parametric capabilities where each slider also had adjustments for midpoint and bandwidth. I powered it with twin power amps each set to mono, running a variety of speakers ranging from Magnepans to Definitive Technology. I wish I still had that gear, as it does not pop up online very often. Thanks for sharing!
Ty for the Michael Yates shout out. He has done a ton of videos on vintage HiFi and has taught alot on maintaining gear. Bless your Dad!
People who own A/D/S speakers tend to keep them. Pretty much, everything they made was excellent build quality, and sounds fantastic. To this day, they rival many modern speakers that are often two, three or four times the price. Worth every penny.
A guy that does my major repairs recently bought a large cabinet of NOS Original parts from a lady who's husband died 20+ years ago, and she has all this stuff in storage units. When I went there a few weeks ago to pick up two receivers he worked on for me, he showed me the inventory stock in that cabinet. Brand new tape deck heads including vintage Pioneer and TEAC 3-headers, motors, tons of original Darlington and STK chips and wait for it.... I quart sized bag full of those Pioneer speaker connectors! All brand new and never opened.
Good golly.
I have a pair of Wharfedale W90 speakers. These are from the 60's and the drivers are amazingly well built. I remember those Technics separates. They were very well built and If I saw them today, I would grab them. I'm sure I could find something to replace the Alps pots. They were considered very good back in the day! You are correct that they are very rare. They weren't the "in" thing to buy at the time. Dixi Hifi used them to demo speakers. The Avids were popular at the time so they are out there. I've seen them in thrift stores over the years, but went another direction. Pioneer made some great turntables that go often under the radar. I alway loved ADS and sold them when I was in audio. They will sound great with any kind of music! The Nikko Alpha I was my first transistor power amp.
Good to hear your dad is doing better. All the best to you and your family.
Amazing, I log on to your site and am immediately faced my first ever speaker, the Wharfedale , W1 in my case. Could only afford one in 1962. Only went stereo few years later when I acquired a pair of Quad electrostatics. BTW it’s Wharf-Dale.
The Avid 103 speakers sound fantastic! I own a mixed set ( 103/ 102) Combo found at a local Goodwill. Both include the famous sweet sounding Philips tweeters. As far as the Warfedale speakers. I have the W45's. 4 pairs of ads/ speakers L8e, L9e 520's and 880/2 found in the California and Arizona areas. Happy for the great news with your dad situation, Keep up with the great videos
Thanks for this one, Kevin.
So glad to hear about your pop doing better.
The British Invasion is coming next Saturday!
Nice stuff, good video! Thanks for the update on your dad!
A new Skylabs Vid - it officially feels like Sunday!
I look forward to Sunday. I sit in my garage, lite a cigar and watch Kevin!
Good news about your dad!!!!! thanks very much for the great video "it was a fun one"
I love old Wharfedale Speakers. I have some 1965 Wharfedale W60s with sand filled cabinets and cast frame woofers ( the date is written on the woofers). I put new linen grill cloth on and rebuilt the crossovers. They sound fantastic and are so well built. Beautiful cabinets. I am not surprised the W25s sound great.
My Sherwood RD 6500, and Klipsch Synergy speakers, after more than thirty years, continue to serve me well. 🙏 for your Dad.
I worked at the AVID Corporation from 1978-1981 when they left the home audio business due to competition. They were located at 10 Tripps Lane in East Providence, RI. The building is a bank now. I have photos. They pioneered Minimum Diffraction and had a cool Q-SPAN testing anechoic chamber on the production floor. I always liked sealed cabinet design better than ported which is great for nightclubs and concert/live music venues. Sealed cabinets don't bottom out and the bass sounds more natural.
There is a similar Technics 9000 system for sale on Canuck audio Mart , some different components, though. Great to here your dad is improving.
Kevin, So glad to hear that your Dad is feeling better! Please give us all an update as he heals!
I had a pair of avid 103’s they were great. The only reason I got rid of them was for Magnepans
Maaan, do I love the fact Nikko is completely forgotten and overlooked! I still have my Dads 1019 I grew up around, and you know what? The quality exceeds that of Marantz from the same era. I do plan at some point on down the road to grab up a discrete Nikko power amp to go with the 1019 and have somewhat of a hot rod vintage rig.
Pioneer PL-518. My first turntable. Had it for years until it died. There's a UA-cam video out there where the actor Burgess Meredith does an ad for the PL-518. This is a cool vid. Takes me back to my back to my late teens to early 20's. The Technics kit is super nice stuff.
I had a PL-117D. Loved it. My last cartridge was an Ortofon.
Wharfedale W 60's had a sand filled (the cabinets were double walled) cabinet. They weighed a ton, but were actually quite good. I bet that Technic's amp sounds great. Those A/D/S speakers are absolutely outrageous! They are pretty inefficient, but you hit them with some REAL juice, let's say an Adcon GFA 555, and you will not believe how great they are. If you paid less than a grand, you got a world class deal on some world class speakers!!!!
I just lucked out on a free pair of Avid 100s, the 2 way little brothers of the 103s. They sound great. Glad I saw this video when I did because my new grill fabric just came in. Thanks!
Good stuff !!!! I did military sales in the 80's and to change the voltage of a certain equalizer before they back stateside. Learned how to solder, lol
Thanks!
WOW! Thank you so much! Really appreciate the support! Kevin
Those pioneer euro editions are pure beauty
I like that old Warf(e)dale, but i LOVED the Electro Voice Seven! talkin about vintage bookshelf loudspeakers, nice also the Avids, looks like they have Philips drivers for mid and tweets. Nikko Alpha II very cool gear.
I love LED for their low power consumption and decent range of "color" in the white spectrum. You should be able to find some warm LED's to put in place of those. It isn't like you are physically modifying the board that wouldn't allow you to go back to incandescent. As you said, preserving a vintage piece
"It's still Tech-neeks, tho"
You made me spit tea on my monitor with that one.
Lol!
I just found out i live close by the panasonic museum in osaka jp. I've seen their main factory from the train and it takes up a couple blocks so i'm hoping their museum will have lots of cool vintage electronics. I visit the recycle shops and its rare to see old electronics here. I think maybe they're mostly sold in more expensive specialty vintage shops like yours. I had a tube amp/reciever in the 80's and that sounded so crisp and clean but my god it used so much electricity. It made a good heater
That's really cool. Possibly you could post pics or a video of the Panasonic Museum? Back in the day of the Pro Series equipment when I was a Technics dealer, it was fairly common for our Panasonic rep to do a presentation that included photos of the factory, along with history and even their vision statement. By far, Technics turntables were best sellers. I probably set up more than I could count!
Thank you... this a huge improvement to recent uploads.
RIP to the victims and condolences to their families.
Another great video! Glad to hear about your Dad’s recovery.
That ES-2000 makes me think about a pair of refurbished Pioneer XD-10 speakers that I picked up a few years ago. There is very little info out there about them but I’ve read that they were sold as part of a set with SA-6500/6800 and TX-6500/6800 in the 1979/80 time period. They look to be identical to Project 100A which were allegedly sold as stand-alone speakers. If anyone out there has any more info, I’d love to read more about them. Cheers!
Had a pair of Avid SR22s back in the mid-70s. Appear to have the same tweeter as the 103. Just discovered this summer they've been in my brother's storage unit unit for oh, 40 years. Looking forward to being able to hook them up and see how they sound when the opportunity arises.
Hi just found you! I have a whole recording studio which was set up in 1968 ny mu uncle. It had everything you’d need in a recording audio from the ampex reel to speakers, recording equipment & amplifier, tape recorders etc. I have no idea what to do with it all or its value! I know some is worth money! I’ll be watching with eyes open!
I see those Avids have the Philips "eyeball" tweeters, the same ones in the ESS Tempests, they sounded great. I used to have a pair of the Avid 101 mini-towers with the front AND side firing tweeters, they were also quite heavy and sounded really good.
Ever run into a pair of Mission 780 Argonauts? When I was a kid I thought they were the greatest thing ever.
No E. Had Nikko in the 70s in College. Sounded great, better than my room mate’s Pioneer. He agreed
I’ve got 2 pair of Wharfedale Mach 9 speakers. Have you seen/reviewed these? They sound GREAT to me, folks comment on how good they sound. If you ever get a chance check ‘em out! Quite rare, little info in them 2:50
Those AVID speakers contain Phillips drivers.
Yes, I saw that too!
Your right. Which was pretty mass market crap.
Glad to hear the positive news on your father. I have a pair of the Avid 103 and interesting that you mentioned your want something like a 50 watt power source to drive them. Currently have a Nikko STA 6080 / Sony STR-V2 powering them and neither are rated for 50 watts. What is the math to know what wattage you should be using for any speaker. It seemed to revolve around ohms and efficiency.
I have the Professional Series stereos, and I have had mine for 45 years. The only difference is I have the analog tuner and a meter bridge.
I have always enjoyed mine.
My father, a Technics executive, owned that system though I recall the tuner being a different one piece unit. The EQ was parametric as well as graphic. He had it together with a Miracord changer utilizing an Empire 888eee cartridge, an Ampex reel to reel and the biggest Dynaco speakers I'd ever seen. I don't recall the model. I would demo the Bee Gees "Lonely Days" for anyone who cared to listen. It was pure bliss.
Great to hear that your dad is doing good!
Love that you mentioned the AVID 103's! Despite their 83db sensitivity, they really don't require a lot of power to sound good.
I bought a Pioneer PL518 Direct Drive turntable back in 1978 or 1979 I still have it though I haven’t used it in many years after I left my old Pioneer SX9000 receiver at my old house. The turntable is in great shape but of course it needs new feet 🤔 I left the box for it at the old house also. I have two Boston Acoustic A60 speakers though the woofers need to be
re-coned.
Excellent Sunday morning video ❗️Hope your Dad is doing well.
I really like A/D/S speakers a great value and fantastic sound! That Nikko Alpha is a dual mono amp they had Alpha 1 And 2.Very well built Mid Fi gear. I had an Alpha 230 amp and Beta 30 pre amp for years in a back up system.
Nice to see those M12s. Those were the follow on to the “L” series towards the end of the ADS run as a company. They were different from the “L” series but still really great. No sticky domes from what I remember. I also love the big Nikko. My first receiver was a one. Always have a soft spot.
I've been running a Nikko Alpha 2 & 3 bi-wired to a pair of Kef towers for 35+ years! People are always amazed at the sound and imaging.
The tweeters in those Avid look like early KEF units. A lot of other euro manufacturers used KEF raw drivers
Well, I believe those tweeters are made by Philips. I utilized several of these (as well as KEF drivers) in my custom-manufactured loudspeakers. They were good performers but needed to be crossed over fairly high, most reliable in 3-way systems, like that Avid. The tweeters went down low enough for a 2-way speaker, but their tinsel leads to the voice coil tended to flex and break.
6:00 Speaking of LEDs for the backlighting, I heard that on the Pioneer SX - 1250, Pioneer designed those incandescent lamps to not only provide lighting, but it was also a type of noise filter. I further heard that if you put LEDs in, you lose that filtering. What do you know about this? Thanks!
I had a pair of these wharfedale w25s back in the early 90s pick them up at a yard sale for $20 I think they were great sounding little speakers in great shape wish I hadn't sold them
Avids! I absolutely love these and you can find them for so cheap.
Kung Fu Tap and Taco's building started life as Giuseppe's Italian Restaurant in the 70s. It was on my paper route and was one of the first places in town that had a Pong machine.
15:55 I'm so glad your dad, Ken, is doing much better, Kevin. :)
Thank you
Enjoy the old man! Mines in rehab after a stroke. Slowly but surely I'll get him home. Your video's and Frankensteins lab are keeping me happy and sane.
10:26
Those are Phillips tweeters. They're great but somewhat fragile.
Glad to hear your dad is doing well! I stopped in on Friday and bought an LP and another shirt. I asked Jon if you guys had any ADS speakers in stock. What a coincidence.
I will say not all Wharfedale speakers are gems. I picked up a pair of nice looking W60Ds at a garage sale years ago. Still have them in storage. Unfortunately, that model just doesn't sound great to my ears. I would take a pair of Large Advents over those every time!
For the Pioneer speaker connections of those older units, I simply use electrical spade connectors as found in those electrical connector kits. Inexpensive and does the job.
The ADS line was very good, sadly yours do not have the original tweeters. Sweet spot was the ADS 810.
As always, very good video thank you
Love this I was into
The stereo system
Thanks for the video
I had a pair of wharfedale linton XP 3 in the 70's 3 way linked to a dynatron with a Goldring lenco GL 75( It's pronounced Warfdale it's a village in Yorkshire England. Excellent sound. I currently have a Yamaha natural sound amp with a pair of Gale tower speakers and an active sub.
Had a pair of Wharfedale 70’s in 1968. Powered by a Scott LK150 with gold lion KT88 I still have a pair of of KT88 somewhere. The speakers were sand filled panels. Pre amp HK tube. Great sounding speakers
Yup, the sx750 has a shelf in back and a voltage selectificator 110/ 220
So happy to hear your dad is doing good.
I remember Avid speakers, but I haven't heard the name for decades
Thanks, Kara
I used to own a Nikko Alpha 2. Doesn't like 4 ohm loads much, although its rated to drive such. Sturdy, pretty reliable.
Pretty sure the Avid speaker you showed had the CTS midrange which is the same driver used in the Auratone studio monitor. You should open it up and if it has a very large magnet on the back it is. Thats worth more than the speaker itself. The technics pro stuff is bulletproof. Way better than anything pioneer ever did.
Used to go to the Detroit Hi-Fi show in the 70s, lots of nice give-a-ways.
I just bought a set of rare American made power amplifiers last week, I can't even find any documentation on them.
1983 VSP Labs Gold Edition amplifiers TM200 with a Straightwire II preamp.
Manufactured in Ann Arbor Michigan, Juan Velazquez held the patent for the Transconductance "Trans Mos" amplifier circuit Steve Eberbach of DCM Loudspeakers helped design the units and shared the same address.
Very nice ambient lights
Thanks, I kind of have a thing for lamps too, lol
I had soft white LEDs put into my vintage Technics SA-505. They look exactly like the original incandescent lamps. Same color of soft white. No blue LED crap.
I have a Nikko Alpha 2..... its a powerhouse of an amp and still working to this day.
Kevin, great video as usual Glad your dad is doing fine.Hope everything good with your business neighbor
Thanks 👍
I had heard of Wharfedale speakers watching a UK youtube and never heard of them before. A couple weeks ago I walk through a local antique mall here in Ohio and there are a pair for sale for $600. They seemed overpriced to me and were obviously worn. That kind of stuff doesn't come with any guarantee that they work. I can't imagine those speakers can be very easily replaced in kind either.
Glad to hear your dad is better. Tell him we look forward to seeing him in his chair at the shop.
Another great video
Do you ever see any Bozak speakers in the shop? I've just recapped a set of Bozak b 401 Rhapsody's that I bought from the original owners son. I think they are fantastic speakers and I've never seen another set.