Home Stereo Rigs

[JiveTurkey]

Been in a rabbit hole of a different stripe as of late. I have been wanting a home stereo forever and have let myself hem haw and never get anything. Too many OCD criteria to list between old and new gear. Not to even mention on how expensive it can be.

Picked up a basic rig at a local-ish "vintage" hifi store over the weekend.

Boston Acoustics HS10
Pioneer PL-512 Turntable
NAD 7020 Receiver/Power amp

These were my initial startup rig. Then went uber cheap on Sunday and grabbed 6 disc JVC cd changer for $16 at Goodwill and a $20 Optimus tape deck.

I was surprised on how NICE my vinyl sounded through the NAD preamp. I bought it blindly based on visual appeal and a precursory spat of good word of mouth on the internet. First album up was Turbo. Because I wanted to hear how deep and rich those guitar synths would be. Then proceeded to jam some Plant solo stuff, some Zeppelin, some Police. Everything sounded gorgeous on the vinyl end of things.

The CD player and tape deck (especially) are more throwaway tech. Played some Floyd stuff, some Anthrax, some NWA. All sounded good but not sure if I would benefit from a modern cd player and/or external higher quality DAC. It's a rabbit hole already

Cassette player works but I can tell that that experience is going to rely HEAVILY on the quality of cassettes you are playing. With my huge pile of old school stuff that I've kept in a climate controlled 104 degree dormer for two decades; we'll see how that one shakes out. I am not convinced that upgrading that piece of hardware is going to be a "change my mind!" situation. Maybe I would be pleasantly surprised?

My one other hmmm is wondering if I want to eventually go for a higher wattage power amp. The volume this puts out is surprisingly loud but for when no one is in the house and I am doing Risky Business moves to Deicide records; I feel like a little more oomph could be good. Either way; I am glad I ripped this bandaid off and picked something up to get this party started

 

[newholland]

oof. thats a rabbit hole.

will get back.

 

[Chocol8]

External higher quality DAC's are pretty cheap, and could allow you to add streaming of digital sources including local files or streaming services. That to me is worth it. Personally, I don't use my CD's at all anymore. I have ripped most of them to FLAC files (lossless) and then put them in storage (not even sure why I need to keep them!).

 

[JiveTurkey]

External higher quality DAC's are pretty cheap, and could allow you to add streaming of digital sources including local files or streaming services. That to me is worth it. Personally, I don't use my CD's at all anymore. I have ripped most of them to FLAC files (lossless) and then put them in storage (not even sure why I need to keep them!).

I was hoping you'd chime in! I have a lot of thoughts on this. Back like NH once this walkthrough is done

 

[BFRaid]

That reminds me of my setup in my sunroom. I also got my CD player at Goodwill. I put JBL speakers in the wall and added older components I had moved on from over the years.

My basement setup is even more stitched together. It is some older components I had, my Dad's old receiver, and a very old semi-retired Macbook for streaming. Both systems sound great.

 

[mbenigni]

I was surprised on how NICE my vinyl sounded through the NAD preamp. I bought it blindly based on visual appeal and a precursory spat of good word of mouth on the internet. First album up was Turbo. Because I wanted to hear how deep and rich those guitar synths would be. Then proceeded to jam some Plant solo stuff, some Zeppelin, some Police. Everything sounded gorgeous on the vinyl end of things.
...

My one other hmmm is wondering if I want to eventually go for a higher wattage power amp. The volume this puts out is surprisingly loud but for when no one is in the house and I am doing Risky Business moves to Deicide records; I feel like a little more oomph could be good. Either way; I am glad I ripped this bandaid off and picked something up to get this party started

I love NAD stuff. I still have a 3240PE integrated amp in my basement, but sadly, one of the channels is dead. That PE tech was pretty cool: a mere 40W but loud when it needed to be.

I used to run that into a pair of EV MS802s. Compact, loud, and very "warm".

 

[JiveTurkey]

External higher quality DAC's are pretty cheap, and could allow you to add streaming of digital sources including local files or streaming services. That to me is worth it. Personally, I don't use my CD's at all anymore. I have ripped most of them to FLAC files (lossless) and then put them in storage (not even sure why I need to keep them!).

I am going to let the dust settle and see how much I listen to this rig before building out other pieces. I get you 100% on your stance on CDs but I don't feel like doing anything with the pile of discs I have. For now at least? I subbed to a couple of YT hifi channels (oh lord). cheapaudioman (who seems cool and knowledgeable), skylabs audio (who owns a localish store here in the midwest). There's another guy who looks like Robert Duvall's cork sniffing son and whose vids definitely give off that vibe.

The DAC discussion (and really available cheap gear that's regarded as really good on Amazon discussion) seems pretty deep. Some brands I have never heard of prior to now that really seems to punch above it's weight?

That reminds me of my setup in my sunroom. I also got my CD player at Goodwill. I put JBL speakers in the wall and added older components I had moved on from over the years.

My basement setup is even more stitched together. It is some older components I had, my Dad's old receiver, and a very old semi-retired Macbook for streaming. Both systems sound great.

Nice! One of the biggest things I had to get over was needing it to all "match". Getting past that hurdle was paramoount.

I love NAD stuff. I still have a 3240PE integrated amp in my basement, but sadly, one of the channels is dead. That PE tech was pretty cool: a mere 40W but loud when it needed to be.

I used to run that into a pair of EV MS802s. Compact, loud, and very "warm".

Yeah they still make stuff. Pretty cashy at that! I was going to say this preamp is "warm" but I couldn't bring myself to use the buzzwords I might end up grabbing a higher power power amp down the road and just using the NAD preamp section. You know how the slipperly slopes go

 

[FuzzyAce]

Very cool! Vinyls are awesome, love the sound. There's a 3D quality to them.

Here's mine. Have a small pair of powered JBLs behind the doors. The old cabinet is an early 1900's Harmograph that used to have the windup arm on the side! The Stanton record player fit perfectly in the old spot and lid closes with just enough space.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Very cool! Vinyls are awesome, love the sound. There's a 3D quality to them.

Here's mine. Have a small pair of powered JBLs behind the doors. The old cabinet is an early 1900's Harmograph that used to have the windup arm on the side! The Stanton record player fit perfectly in the old spot and lid closes with just enough space.

View attachment 61019

Aesthetics are about 75% of the draw in these vintage systems and I am definitely here for it!

 

[newholland]

dacs, while i think theyre important, are typically really good nowadays- and id say are unlikely to be the biggest bottleneck in your system.

id say, at this point, if you want to optimize stuff- speaker placement on stands is gonna be 1000x more important.. but im with chocol8- a cheap ifi dac and a $49 tablet can set you up for great hd streaming setups with minimum fuss.

ill hit ya back when i roll home!

 

[JiveTurkey]

dacs, while i think theyre important, are typically really good nowadays- and id say are unlikely to be the biggest bottleneck in your system.

id say, at this point, if you want to optimize stuff- speaker placement on stands is gonna be 1000x more important.. but im with chocol8- a cheap ifi dac and a $49 tablet can set you up for great hd streaming setups with minimum fuss.

ill hit ya back when i roll home!

We're still in the "let's use these rando, similar height footstools as stands" phase. Obviously

 

[newholland]

that be me living room rig.

its an audio research ls2b preamp and a classe ca150 amp, a rotel phono preamp, a rega planar 2 with an rb300 arm and a grado gold cartridge. the cdp is an ancient marantz cd3000ose, and i have a cambridge audio mxn10 for streaming. the speakers are b&w 805s and a b&w 8" sub thats probably not really that necessary


its taken thirty years to get here, and this is my zero maintenance system.. my tube gear is mothballed, and i have a little NAD streaming rig in my bedroom.

i have audio problems

 

[JiveTurkey]

View attachment 61020

that be me living room rig.

its an audio research ls2b preamp and a classe ca150 amp, a rotel phono preamp, a rega planar 2 with an rb300 arm and a grado gold cartridge. the cdp is an ancient marantz cd3000ose, and i have a cambridge audio mxn10 for streaming. the speakers are b&w 805s and a b&w 8" sub thats probably not really that necessary


its taken thirty years to get here, and this is my zero maintenance system.. my tube gear is mothballed, and i have a little NAD streaming rig in my bedroom.

i have audio problems

Verrrrrrrrrry nice! Marantz and Macintosh started this whole thing for me but I didn't have the heart or the money to commit that high up the ladder!

 

[newholland]

Verrrrrrrrrry nice! Marantz and Macintosh started this whole thing for me but I didn't have the heart or the money to commit that high up the ladder!

Every scrap of that is used and purchased probably 30 years after it was made so I didn't really have the money for it either. If you know where to look you can do okay on the used market and that's always been where I purchased gear. It's all a function of time and you slowly build towards something you really love anyway just like guitar gear!