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What stereo(s) do you listen to? What do you want?

chobochobo

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And for something completely different. I put together a cheap, quick and 'cool' 78 rpm station (my Lenco is currently connected to a valve preamp and valve preamp, which can get quite toasty). I picked up a used Numark TT200 (DJ table), hooked up to an end of line Klipsch One Phono speaker - a new shellac stylus for a Stanton 680 cartridge. For about 200usd, I'm quite impressed.
 

chobochobo

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After playing a dozen or two records - jazz, classical and opera - I'm still impressed with this setup. The turntable is like a tank and goes rock steady, with pitch control if needed. The stylus is new and has one of those funky brushes at the front to push away gunk. And the speaker takes the output directly from the turntable without need for phono, preamp or amp. It's perfect for mono. I'm going to get more Stanton carts, and maybe even another Numark. They're very cheap on the auction site.
 

Biggskip

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Looking for some advice. Sold an amp on US Audiomart last week. The previous owner of the amp had it serviced by the manufacturer (Pass Labs). I thought the amp sounded great and performed just fine, but I recently chose to use Magnepan speakers that require more power than than amp can provide (25W), hence my decision to sell.

Right away I could tell the buyer was going to be a PITA. Got the amp and immediately is sending me e-mails about how it doesn't sound quite right. He contacts Pass Labs and asks them to take a look at it. He wants me to pay to have the amp shipped to Pass Labs. My initial reaction, is GFY. I'm also of the the mindset that if you give a mouse a cookie...he's gonna ask for a glass of milk.

OTOH, the buyer could file a complaint with PayPal and I could end up having to refund all the money.

What would you do?
 

chobochobo

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That's one of the problems with paypal, and selling in general. In your situation, how paypal will react will depend on partly how you described the item and how much of a PITA the buyer is. I was thinking of selling off a couple of 'spare' cassette decks but a guy was asking a million questions and asking to demo it in my home, in the midst of a COVID wave. I just told him they were no longer for sale.

Short answer is, I wouldn't pay for the inspection.
 

chobochobo

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Back to the Numark, if I may. It did/ does have one fault. When I got it, the black plastic had the 'stickiness' disease and I scrubbed it down with rags and alcohol. I put it back in the box for several months and when I tried the deck again a couple of days ago, the stickiness hadn't returned, yet.
 

double00

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Finally got the behemoth 'fixed' sufficiently to play tapes to a reasonable standard.

View attachment 1803764

how are you liking cassettes ?

i'd thrifted a sony tc-k777 and was pumped to get back into analog but they need to be reconditioned , moving parts etc ( so i flipped it ) ... still would like to have a tape deck at some point ...
 

chobochobo

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Fine, it's mostly nostalgia. Even Nakamichis like this won't win a war against most other formats eg reel to reel, vinyl, hi res digital etc. When I was a student in the 1980s, a Nakamichi Dragon was on top of my wish list (I got an Aiwa 810 instead). Somehow about 10-15 years ago (after surviving mostly on CDs and MP3s) I got a bit of the old vintage hifi bug and got a Dragon from the states. Since then I have accumulated about a dozen different cassette decks including multiples of the 'walkman' that I was gifted back then - Aiwa HS JX101. These have all needed refurbishment courtesy of a guy in Romania, and I just got them back recently. Sometimes you can be impressed by the quality of playback in a cassette eg a recording from vinyl onto TDK metal of one of the Pavarotti and friends concerts was excellent. A lot of the time it's the music, and it's fine for background listening.

For pure sound quality, don't bother. For nostalgia, depends on you and your wallet.
 

chobochobo

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Okay, I'm playing an original prerecorded tape (Toris Amos Under the Pink) on my Revox B710, and it sounds good. If I could compare directly to the CD or vinyl, I'm sure there'd be obvious deficiencie, but as it is, it's good enough for me to enjoy the music.
 

Nader393

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Maybe it's my old ears, but I think tapes recorded off of good sources, using decent decks and decent cassettes, sound excellent. No difference from digital if it's not back to back. I think it's especially good when listened in a vintage car with period-correct audio equipment. Road, wind, and engine noise drown out what would normally bother audiophiles.

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chobochobo

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To be honest, I've never understood the fascination for 'high end' hifi in cars.
 

Omega Male

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Looking for some advice. Sold an amp on US Audiomart last week. The previous owner of the amp had it serviced by the manufacturer (Pass Labs). I thought the amp sounded great and performed just fine, but I recently chose to use Magnepan speakers that require more power than than amp can provide (25W), hence my decision to sell.

Right away I could tell the buyer was going to be a PITA. Got the amp and immediately is sending me e-mails about how it doesn't sound quite right. He contacts Pass Labs and asks them to take a look at it. He wants me to pay to have the amp shipped to Pass Labs. My initial reaction, is GFY. I'm also of the the mindset that if you give a mouse a cookie...he's gonna ask for a glass of milk.

OTOH, the buyer could file a complaint with PayPal and I could end up having to refund all the money.

What would you do?
I would tell him to ship the amp back to you for a full refund. Then sell it to someone else. Any third-party involvement is just going to lead to complexity and pain.
 

Nader393

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To be honest, I've never understood the fascination for 'high end' hifi in cars.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense on paper, but you're not going to put a $20 deck in an expensive car.
 

chobochobo

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Sure, but you're not getting 20usd decks in say a Alfa Romeo Giulia QV (my current car) or a Maserati Granturismo (my last car). I sometimes listen to the news on the radio, or some jazz/ blues whilst in slow traffic, but a lot of the time, I like to listen to the car. And when you are really revving it, you aren't going to be appreciating nuances in the music.
 

Nader393

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Sure, but you're not getting 20usd decks in say a Alfa Romeo Giulia QV (my current car) or a Maserati Granturismo (my last car). I sometimes listen to the news on the radio, or some jazz/ blues whilst in slow traffic, but a lot of the time, I like to listen to the car. And when you are really revving it, you aren't going to be appreciating nuances in the music.

Okay, are you willing to retrofit a reasonably good tape deck into you nice new car?
 

chobochobo

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Not if I have to remove the 8 track player to make room for it.
 

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