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Pastimes : Audio/Video Gearhead Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito who wrote (139)	10/24/2011 8:45:20 PM
From: Doren	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 172

Those are pretty. I guess I'm gonna have to start researching. I just stayed with a friend. In the old days we would listen to his stereo sitting on the couch, drink home brew and smoke exotic buds, while watching unrelated B movies on the TV. This visit we just huddled around his computer with a low end stereo and watched the youtube. I came to the conclusion I'm gonna have to change my systems. I have Altec Lansing ACS54s on my iMac which I scored brand new at a garage sale for $20 years ago. I would love to find some backups they really sound great, 3.1 stereo. My brother is running a similar Altec system with 2 channel stereo on my old dual gig and he's happy with it. I hate mp3s or low budget compression systems. But I'm in love with 24bit flac files. I really wish all the retailers would start outputting these as I see them as the future. They are good enough for me to replace all that vinyl I never listen to anymore. I can't hear the difference between 16 bit flac files and CDs but there is a small difference with the 24bit files. I'm thinking that I need to shrink my mediocre, garage sale component stereo in the future. Problem is I still have 3000 records, many out of print. Most can be replaced but the out of print records need to be digitized at 24 bit before I can off them. I have a few out of print cassettes I need to digitize. I wish there was an easy way on all of them. I don't have a large house, currently remodeling it, but can't add to it. So my only option is to shrink my stuff. The stereo and TV and records take up a lot of room so I'm thinking Japanese. Really would like to get rid of my old gear, extra speakers, LPs and simplify. Same with books. I'm not sure what I want yet. You can't shrink a turntable very much. I can get rid of my CD player though, and just have one optical disk reader, and I very rarely listen to cassettes anymore. I don't need Allen quality speakers or amps. I'm thinking that my 27" iMac now belongs in the living room rather than my office with a couple of components and some small tight speakers up on the walls with a small subwoofer under a desk like my Altecs. But I'm also aware that I may go for some kind of flat screen in the future to replace my hulking Wega TVs. Really I have no idea where to start, just the vague notion of getting rid of a mountain of gear, and LPs and a clean house. I see a future where 24 bit is the norm. The only media I need to keep are really rare and exotic examples, unusual packaging, and the occasional LP with a cover that stands out or has some kind of historic value. My buddy is way worse off though. He added a room to house his LP collection. Its worth a pile of money all stacked up on Gorilla Shelve systems. Plus he's hoarded a ton of high end audio gear. His main speakers cost over $3000. He's in Marin where you can score all sorts of stuff like that pretty easily at garage sales. Unfortunately he's going through an ugly divorce, the wife of course is getting the house. And the kicker is he's just into owning, not listening very much anymore. I am and always have been a total listener. I'm still finding bands and recordings to love. I constantly listen to stuff on youtube and download from archive.org and I'll admit pirate bay. I use pirate but more and more youtube to eliminate stuff. I still buy, in fact I'm buying 10 copies of a rare CD from an obsure artist this week. He's having some problems so I'm trying to help out, and I'll probably profit on the deal eventually. They're all signed. I always think of Jerry Helper's component stereo on the Dick Van Dyke show when I think of component audio gear. I bought an RCA multi-45rpm player at a garage sale for $20. It was the competitor to the LP system. It lost the war but it's beautiful. Flame mahogany with a slide out 45rpm player made out of golden swirl plastic. Tubes of course with a 12" speaker. Came with several 45box sets all on clear ruby plastic. To play a symphony you stack 3 or 4 disks on the turn table. I'll take a pix one of these days.

To: Cogito who wrote (139)	10/24/2011 9:41:23 PM
From: Doren	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 172

> servo-controlled ?

To: Cogito who wrote (139)	10/24/2011 10:08:21 PM
From: HerbVic	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 172

Yep. The depth of field in the photo is compromised by the curvy box and multi source lighting. They look great, however. I'll bet they sound fantastic! Is the SP-1200 the 8" or 10"? What kind of amp for the Paradigm? Pretty pricy too, I might add? The Altec Lansing was a compromise in price/performance. At the time, around $200 got you the whole setup. The clarity was unmatched in that price range, even though the bass was a tad muddy. I was so impressed with them, I started bidding them on eBay and gave a few away to family. Had a brother who was listening to music every day for hours at a time on a single speaker table top radio. It was torture to my ears! I bought him a cheap CD player boom box and plugged it into Altec Lansing 621s. His world changed! Then he wanted to do the same thing for his friend in Dallas, so he gave the guy his AL then called me wanting to know where he could buy another set, "just like the one you gave me!" Long story short, after sending back the Logitechs that was all we could find at the time, he waited about 3 months, until someone put a set on eBay, before getting his replacements. He still uses them. My house has a poor sound stage, anyway. Backwards L shaped living room with a fat foot and the TV in the big toe. 15 ft computer desk I cobbled together out of butcher block tabletop and half height file cabinets runs the backside of the vertical L. One computer is speaker enhanced by Altec Lansing, but the other is plain iMac. So, right now I have 3 points of origin for music with the potential for 2 more. I also have an Airport that could feed a room music if I got another 2/1 setup. What I really want is to feed some high powered, high quality outside speakers through the Airport. Haven't started looking yet, but I suspect it is going to be a challenge.