Guilty use of old equipment

[PsychMan]

Like many I love vintage audio gear, and use and work on it on a regular basis. I have generally quite high standards now, and dont like running equipment for any period of time unless Im happy its in tip top shape. There is one guilty exception.....


I bought for the sum of £5, a tatty Sony TA-73 IC (STK-439) based Amp nearly 3 years ago. It was built around 1976 and I saw it many times at a car bootsale and passed on it. One day I realised I needed a system for one of my upstairs rooms, so I took the plunge. Being busy with work and many projects, I thought s*d it, I'll just plug in it, see what the deal is. It worked absolutely fine, and produced decent sound out of some 1980s JVC SP-E22 speakers, which also cost me £5.

This little £10 system has now served me well over the 3 years Ive had it, and sees constant use all day every day without fail. After a little while I noticed some filter hum and a horrible squelch on switch off, and duly replaced both filter capacitors. After intermittent pot issues I did finally get round to spending 20 mins cleaning the controls. The little work I have given this loyal receiver took me months to get around to doing, and I feel overall quite guilty what little effort I've put into it. I must say if this was valve based I would not have done this.

Given its price and the lack of effort on my part, its simply amazing value.

Does anyone have any thing else they've just plugged in and despite neglect has given loyal service? In particular, the "i'll get round to it" stuff

[paulsherwin]

I do have a 90s JVC microsystem in the main bedroom which came from Freegle and which I just use. The original speakers sounded awful, so I bought a pair of Eltax sub-bookshelfs for £5 from a local eBay seller. The system has been in use for a couple of years without any attention from me and is fine. (The cassette deck capstan belt is probably shot but I never use that).

I also have a Sony microsystem of a similar age which I inherited from my dad and which lives in the kitchen. I've never had to do anything to it other than replace the remote with a Poundland universal.

When I acquire vintage hifi components I do give them a once-over (what eBay sellers describe as a 'service') and fix any serious or obvious faults. I don't change all the electrolytics though, or fit super-duper mains cables.

[MrBungle]

I've got a sony mini system as well. Lives in the back room. It has a copy of the Yellow pages (from about 1998 when it actually had some pages in it) that lives on the top to keep the CD lid closed as the clip broke off about 15 years ago

[terrybull]

I realise this is not audio or radio but hope you will forgive that. Some years ago I saw in a charity shop a Panasonic cf-27 toughbook laptop. It probably dates from the mid 1990's. It came with Windows 98 loaded. I paid a £8 for it. These were used for military and industrial work as their name implies they are really strong and splash proof. I knew nothing about them but I just love it's ruggigness and the clunky keyboard more like a manual typewriter than a computer keyboard. It's slow and now runs a very basic Linux. It is totally silent being passively cooled and the battery lasts for up to 3+ hours. I have learnt so much about Linux and have used it to transcribe letters that my grandfather wrote home in ww1. The best £8. I ever spent.

[Jon_G4MDC]

Guilty as charged m'lud.
And, worse, a bit off topic - I hope it will be forgiven.

Aladdin lamps burning paraffin, which give both light and heat.

Like Halogen / Tungsten + dimmer they possess a "colour+temperature" control.

[paulsherwin]

Bit smelly though!

Back on topic please.

[Lloyd 1985]

Here's one for you, I bought an Ekco AC85 at the NVCF in 2005, it's 99% original internally, even the cardboard box smoothing cap is still in circuit (and yes, I've checked to see if it's been re-stuffed, it hasn't!). The only things I did to make sure it would be safe were to fit a mains lead, and replace the wire to the speaker, as it had perished. The set has worked fine like this for the time I've had it, it has recently started to play up though, so I think it's probably time to have it to bits!

I have a collection of 80's Sony mini hi-fi systems which have all needed extensive work to make them useable, the FH-7 needing the most in-depth repairs with multiple silicon failures! It is now one of my favourite little hi-fi's and sees a lot of use in the workshop, even the cassette deck gets lots of use.

I do find that 80's TV's never need much other than a good clean, they always just work, unless you're really unlucky.

Regards,
Lloyd

[Wellington]

I have a Decca 66 that I purchased from a local saleroom many years ago (approximately 30!).

It worked well and made a nice sound, the only apparent defect being a dead tuning indicator (EM34). This was pre-internet, so my Dad suggested I buy a copy of 'Practical Wireless' and send off for a new valve, which I did. I think I got it from Colomor.

I knew about the audio coupling capacitor, but as the set seemed to work well I never investigated it. It gave sterling service for many years - I even remember taking it to university for year! I don't remember feeling particularly guilty for using it, at the time.

Eventually, a wirewound resistor in the HT supply line went O/C, so it was consigned to the roundtuit pile, where it remains to this day.

[unitaudio]

On the day Michael Jackson died, I fished a Trio KR-6400 stereo receiver out of a skip. I took it home (had to carry it clear across town, nearly killed me!), dragged a damp cloth over it and plugged in. It's been my main amp ever since and sounds magnificent but the inevitable crackly controls reared their ugly heads after about a year of use.

I was using it last night. The controls are horribly noisy now and woe betide anyone who even considers touching the volume pot! When I first got it, all the dial lamps worked. We're now down to one and it's hard to tell if it's switched on just by looking. And still I haven't done any work on the poor old thing. I could give all manner of excuses for my inactivity but none that would hold water upon close scrutiny. And yet, as long as the volume control is avoided, it just keeps on going. I know, I don't deserve such loyalty! I'll resolve it's issues this year. Probably.

Regards,
Paul

[Paul_RK]

Plenty of neglected equipment here, from the Pioneer SX-D5000 I'm listening to as I type this - £10 from a tip stall about ten years ago, I brought it home, connected speakers and there it's sat ever since, to a 1935 Bush SAC25 I paid £0.10 for in 1969. Used it quite a lot in the early years, now I just give it some exercise every five years or so, and all it's had from me is a touch of emery paper once on the wavechange switch contacts. (Not a wafer switch, I hasten to add). I love the old thing really, maybe I'll give it a new capacitor when it's 90.

Paul

[unitaudio]

Some of us might be a bit lazy with some of these items but at least they fell into our hands and therefore still exist!

Regards,
Paul

[threeseven]

All my electronic equipment is old! Except my phone and laptop, but even they aren't the latest stuff. I like to extract my monies worth!
The most recent item of audio equipment is over 20 years old, the amp and pre-amp dates back to 1977.
My daily driver radio's are a late 50's Philips valve and Hacker RP35. The Philips is used most mornings and the Hacker is on all day, both on R4. Surprisingly, after about 5 years of continuous use, the Hacker died yesterday! It was playing normally, I left the room for about an hour, went back in and it was silent. Still haven't had time to discover the fault. I power it with a multiple voltage PSU, those dual PP9's aren't cheap! The PSU is fine so something has had enough in the set.
My CD player is a Denon, bought brand new in 1986 and has been faultless, despite an estimated 9000 hours use in that time, probably alot more.
Not much new stuff has a satisfying build quality, beyond all the flash and sparkle most of it is flimsy junk with rapid built in obsolescence.
I like to see a diecast chassis, with real metal outer!

['LIVEWIRE?']

Most, if not all, of my gear is old, the newst being a Ferguson FRG -R116D DAB/FM radio which is over 10 years old. My Sony HiFi Setup iis pushing 20 years old, TEAC PX-300 DD T/T maybe 25 years, and Technics CD player 28years old. All are working well so why change any of them for newer kit? In my workshop I also have a 40-years old Wharfedale Receiver, which admittedly doesn't get much use, but works well after I replaced faulty o/p transistors in one channel.

[Craig Sawyers]

Our kitchen audio system is a Quad 33/303 fed by a Quad FM4.

That feeds a pair of ceiling speakers, with all the wiring hidden in the walls.

The only downside is that the four and five pin DIN leads work loose with the cables hanging down on the back of the 33, and need to be pushed home every now and again. DIN plugs and sockets really were a daft idea.

[Duke_Nukem]

A few Harpendens ago, a chap was so desperate to get rid of stuff he was giving it away. I picked up the remains of a outwardly-tidy-but-handleless Grundig RR400 - I knew bits were missing from the cassette player part of it, but thought it might provide other spares I might ever need for the RR400 I've had since I was a lad. Anyhow, this "bitser" RR400 is now the main radio in my front room and is used each weekday morning. Sounds real good on VHF. No work done, just plugged it in, it didn't go bang, good enough for me !

TTFN,
Jon

[PsychMan]

Some interesting replies, nice to see it's just me

I'ts a fair point about this stuff ending up at the tip if it wasn't for us, so we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves.

As much as we might try, we can't save everything, and like many I'm at the stage now where I have so many projects in the queue that I can't take any more kit for a little while

the four and five pin DIN leads work loose with the cables hanging down on the back of the 33

Give the outside metal shell a tweak with pliers, they will remain in then.

[mark_in_manc]

Alright, I'll post something that will look like 'trolling', but it's true

Because of the unusual job in acoustics I used to have, 3 Quad IIs fell into my hands for nothing, about 20 years ago (goodness, time flies). A fourth followed when I swapped it for something else, with the guy who found the 4th in the bin when I had missed it. All had a wild collection of mismatched valves and gaffa tape all over them.

I plugged in two and used them until the anodes on one started glowing red. Then I joined this forum and folks helped me sort the cathode bias problems.

Then I peeled off some gaffa tape and plugged them back in. Oh, and given the size of my investment so far, I bought some Russian 6L6-alikes when the valves flashed over in one, rather than nos gec kt66s!

They live upstairs and now and again I use them - but usually I listen through a 70s Akai receiver in the front room, whose pre-amp transistors went odd and were bodged back into something like linearity by fudging their bias. It sounds so much better than my Cossor 501 / minimod, which I probably use most, I can't imagine getting round to fixing it 'properly'

[cmjones01]

Our kitchen radio here is two thirds of an Akai mini hi-fi system, dated 1980: the UC-U2 amplifier and UC-K2 tuner. The corresponding UC-M2 cassette deck is on the shelf in the workshop next to me. I think my brother found it abandoned outside a charity shop in about 1994 and gave it to me. Ever since then it's been in more or less continuous use in student digs and kitchens in various places I've lived. The only concessions to maintenance have been necessary repairs (the tuning drive got damaged in transit to Poland) and the replacement of the incandescent indicators with white LEDs. It's funny to think that its life in 'retirement' is now considerably longer than its original tenure before abandonment! It's built incredibly solidly, like good quality 1970s hifi separates but scaled down, so the cases are very strong. The amplifier (an honest-to-goodness 23W per channel) is amazingly heavy. It feeds a pair of Wharfedale Diamond speakers, again passed on from someone for free.

Chris

[ToneArm]

I listen to an unlovely brown plastic Grundig concert boy radio in my workshop, it has a broken and floppy aerial and a volume control so crackly it's best just not to touch it. It's covered in dust to add to the abuse, but sounds very nice.