A Complete Vintage Stereo System for Under $600? Is It Possible?

[Music] Hey Kevin here skylabs bringing the another video definitely going to be a fun one you knew I was going to say it this one's going to be fun in this video we're going to find out if it's possible to build an entire vintage stereo system for around 600 bucks you're not going to want to miss it it's going to be a lot of fun and working with customers and their budget is something we do on a daily basis and while a $600 budget is pretty low for all three pieces I was actually able to put together three complete systems including receiver turntable and speakers all on eBay all on the same day all active listings and I don't feel like I compromised anything at all I would be very happy with any one of these setups and we got to go over the rules real quick number one all these items have to be working correctly I'm not looking at Parts units or speed up units they need to be functioning correctly as intended so that rules out any speakers that need refoamed that rules out any turntables that don't have a good stylus or a cartridge on them any of those types of things those are all deal breakers we want these items to be functioning as intended number two everything has to be at least displayable no broken dust covers no cracks no missing knobs no big gouges across a face plate or broke glass I'm looking for units that look nice that you don't have to be embarrassed about if your friends or family comes over and sees it in your living room rule number three it has to be vintage and while there is no technical definition of vintage most people think anything over 40 years can be considered vintage and everything on our list Falls in that category so with my picks we got 7s and early 80s and a couple more things super quick I compiled this list off of eBay that is where I went shopping for several reasons eBay is kind of the Vintage audio Blue Book it's where everybody goes to get price references for what things are worth the other nice thing about it is we all have access to it while some of these items you could find most likely cheaper we all have access to eBay I did not include shipping into the cost of these items as it will be different for each each one of us depending on where we live a lot of them I think all of them offered local pickup which would eliminate the shipping cost all together so first I'll go over each one of my picks from turntables speakers and receivers after we go through that I'll show you how I put all three of these systems together and I'll tell you why I grouped them the way I did and we'll give you the prices for each one of those systems it's going to be fun here we go let's do it right now and I'm going to go from my least favorite to my favorite pick of each group and the first one is a Pioneer SX 535 the Pioneer SX 535 is an entrylevel receiver these are awesome receivers the SX 535 is around 20 watts per channel it's got plenty of inputs and outputs it's got a great look to it it's got that nice vintage look to it it's got the nice blue lights everybody likes it also has a nice wood cabinet it's not real wood this is a vinyl wrap but it's an entrylevel receiver and unless somebody's a woodworker they're probably not going to notice anyway and the SX 535 that I picked is the most expensive receiver of the receivers and this particular listing was at $364 for a Buy It Now it looked to be in really good condition the owner claimed it was working as intended and that's what we're looking for my next pick for receivers was a Yamaha cr400 this is an 18 wat per Channel receiver again same amount of bells and whistles as far as inputs and outputs go unless you're planning on hooking up a ton of sources you know if you're just using a streamer and a turntable any one of these receivers will be just fine for you including the Yamaha cr400 again the cr400 has a nice wood cabinet vinyl wrap as well but that wood cabinet definitely adds to that vintage Vibe of this receiver and the cr400 listing I picked the seller was asking $179 this unit looks like it's in really good shape they say it's working good 179 bucks um it's one of those I almost bought myself definitely the cheapest receiver on my list and my favorite receiver on this list this probably isn't a big surprise this would be the Harmon Cardon 330c and the 330c is really no different than the others as far as inputs and outputs go this is another 20 W per Channel receiver and the listing that I picked the seller was asking asking $239 for which again is really really cheap it looks to be in really good shape says everything's working good this to me is a win-win and just to give you a little idea about how I think these three receivers sound in my opinion I think the Pioneer the 535 would be your pick if you wanted kind of a warm and vintage sounding receiver I think the Harmon Cardon would be right in the middle it's it's definitely not warm but it's definitely not clinical uh it's a really good balance I think that's why I like this receiver so much and then with the Yamaha the cr400 I think we're definitely getting over into the clinical side so polar opposite in my opinion of the pioneer um definitely not as warm you know some people might say they are a little bit too sterile but that's up to you but just as a general impression of how they sound to me every time we get one of these that would be it and the first speakers on my list these are a little bit more difficult for me to put in order from least favorite to favorite uh they're really close the bang and Olsen s 45s are my first pick and I found a listing for a pair of these for 150 bucks this is the most expensive speaker that I did pick out but these are really well-made speakers they're really nice and they sound really good they also have rubber surrounds at least all the ones we have had so there's no need to refoam these like the other two on the list and the next pair on the list is the Boston A40 and the listing for the Boston Acoustics a40s that I picked they were asking $99 for the pair they had been recently refoamed they look to be in really good shape not perfect but definitely not bad and definitely presentable in my opinion and at 99 bucks once again for a pair that's pretty crazy I really think you'd be hardpressed to find a $99 new set of speakers that would even come close to how good these sound and my last pick for speakers baby advents the listing I grabbed for baby advents they were $75 just recently been reamed really nice condition 75 bucks that's crazy there's absolutely no way you could buy a new speaker that would even come close to that for $75 with the baby advents you've got a really neutral speaker there not fatiguing they're a little bit laidback for a bookshelf speaker I'd be happy with these all day long the Boston Acoustic a40s a little bit more high-end in there um definitely not ere exaggerated it's still a really well balanced speaker in my opinion it'd be a tough struggle for me to pick between the baby advents and the Boston a40s but from Personal Taste I'd probably give the nudge to the a40s just for my personal taste and then lastly the bang and Olson the s45 they're definitely a little bit more exaggerated than both both of those but not in a bad way I think the bnos 45s those are fun to listen to especially if you're the type of person that likes to leave the loudness button on and you're not so much worried about a flat response Monitor and don't think that you know we've got miles apart here we're not talking about huge gaps between these speakers these are all really good speakers especially for vintage bookshelf speakers if I had to describe them and kind of highlight some of their nuances that would be it so don't take it as you know that bang and olsson's going to rip your head off and the baby Advent is going to leave you sleeping and bored that's not this at all and with the turntables my third pick would be the Pioneer pl1 15D this is a belt drive manual turntable it's got a really nice wood vintage look to it if you're wanting to Brand match with other pioneers or you're just looking for a good working vintage belt drive turntable these are great we get a lot of these I mean a lot they don't need a lot of work maybe just a little bit of new grease and oil here and there and besides that they just keep on running and the listing I picked the seller was asking $150 for and even claimed it to have been serviced which I don't doubt because a lot of times until you do get new grease and oil and those they can be a little on the sluggish side but that is a very easy maintenance and for 150 bucks this is a no-brainer purchase if you're looking for a vintage turntable from a nice reputable brand Pioneer PL 15D cannot go wrong and my second choice for turntable is an aai AP 206 and the listing I picked the seller was asking $196 claimed it to be service and working perfectly and I believe it because these are just a Workhorse turntable I don't think we we've ever had one of these with an issue we haven't had a ton of them not like you know some techniques and Pioneer models out there that are really popular however you we've had a good half a dozen over the years and every one of them spins like a top these are really wellb built they're really overlooked that's kind of why I wanted to pick this one it hasn't been brought up in any of our other videos to this point and they needed to be because this is a really good turntable and the 206 is a direct drive turntable and it also has auto return one other thing to note with a turntable um I I do think there's a level of Engagement and the way that you interact with a turntable that might sway you as to whether you like the turntable or not and the aai the functions the knobs the switches they feel great these don't feel clunky or like they're going to break Everything feels nice and solid switches are nice and ACC accurate so engaging with this turntable uh it's pretty enjoyable and my first pick for the list and can't be a surprise at least the manufacturer I picked a techniques sd2 and the listing I picked the seller was asking $160 this is an auto return turntable and the seller claimed it had just been serviced these don't need a lot done to them again maybe a little bit of grease and oil but nothing major this is also an auto return turntable in my opinion if you ask me entry level turntable from the late 70s um Workhorse can't kill it what is it and this might be my go-to pick that are a 518 um from Pioneer but this turntable we've had a lot of them there are a lot of them out there um an sd2 for 160 bucks that looks good and it's performing good again that's really tough to beat and for those of you out there that have never purchased anything on eBay before as far as vintage electronics go stick around to the end cuz I do have a couple tips for you if you haven't seen previous videos where I talk about this after we go over the three systems I'll go over those tips again cuz there are some things you definitely want to know before purchasing something on eBay so now that we have all of our equipment I'm going to put them together into three different systems and I'll tell you why I did and we'll do these from my least favorite to my favorite system even though once again this Gap is really narrow it's not a huge gap here the first one is the Pioneer 535 receiver with the baby advents and the Pioneer pl1 15D I really just put the turntable with this just to Brand match I put the advents with the Pioneer receiver because in my opinion that 535s got a little bit of a laid-back warm vintagey sound and those Advent are really neutral on themselves which in my opinion is just going to help warm things up even a little bit more this would be the system I would pick for somebody that wants vintage they want the Vintage sound they want the Vintage look they want vintage this would be the system I'd pick and that system came to $589 for all three pieces that to me is a solid pick that's my number three system the SX 535 baby advents Pioneer PL 15D and my second system and looking at it it's really tough not to make it a first system cuz there's really cool things here we got the Yamaha cr400 put in the Boston a40s with the Yamaha and then the aai turn table is going to top that one off yeah and that's tough to put this second cuz that that Yamaha has got a really good natural sound or you know it's it's uh it's clean and those Boston a 40s it's going to do a good job of really getting a lot of good punch and Dynamics out of those speakers and then the aai turntable is just so cool I don't really get into the sound of turntables especially at this level to me 90% of the sound of a turntable is going to come from the cartridge when you're talking about a $150 turntable the only concern really should be is it quiet and is it turning at 33 and A3 RPM or 45 RPM anything more than that you might be asking too much it's $150 turntable and this system is actually the cheapest system that I picked out and this one came in at $474 that is crazy that you can get a receiver a turntable and a set of speakers at that caliber for $474 and probably my favorite system that I put together would be the the Harmon Cardon 330c uh with the bno s45 and the techniques sd2 and the reason I did that well I I love the 330c you know they are just absolute workhorses we just rarely have issues with them and when we do it's really minor they sound great they look great you know but then you put it with those B Ando speakers man that is going to be a good sounding system and then you got the reliability of that techniques turntable in there uh this system came to $549 and again that is going to be tough to beat all three of these systems at that price point I don't know if it gets much better than that just going off what was available this last Black Friday when I was shopping on eBay uh these were the standouts to me I think anybody would honestly really be happy with any one of those systems unless you kind of have unreal expectations for the sound quality and the build quality you should be getting for $5 to $600 that's pretty tough to beat this was definitely fun to do so if you've got an hour maybe want to do a little bit of browsing eBay um see what you can come up with around 5 600 bucks post it up there I'd love to see it definitely not saying this is a definitive list this would just be what I would be buying if this was my budget and I was looking on eBay it's nothing more than that okay so everybody knows how much I love vintage equipment I think it's pretty obvious you have to draw a line somewhere I'm always shocked at how many times people come in and they'll say I'm still using my headphones from the 70s and these things are they are heavy they get hot they sweat all these volume controls and tone control pots are dirty and they're really hard to get in there and clean these are great for display headphone technology has really come a long ways enjoy looking at them and remembering those times but it's definitely time to upgrade these headphones and I love Gro headphones I love selling Gro headphones because they stand behind their products at $99 a pair of Sr 60s is criminal that is so cheap for how good those Sr 60s sound and being that the holidays are coming up you might want to get yourself a gift definitely head over to skylabs audio.com check out the gro headphones through the end of December we've got free shipping on orders over $99 which means the SR 60s you get free shipping on those if you do order a pair I've never had anybody buy a set of Gro headphones and not say anything other than these are amazing amazing I'm so glad I bought them and for any of you out there that are looking to purchase something on eBay just let me give you a couple really quick tips first thing is when you purchase something obviously make sure they're claiming it to be working you don't want to buy a parts of repair unit unless you know how to fix it first thing you do when you receive it plug it in let it play for 8 10 hours don't just turn it on try it for 15 minutes 20 minutes you really want to let that piece of equipment warm up because you have 30 days to find out if something's wrong with it and return it and get your money back once that 30 days is up you own it so make sure you run it a while and if there is something wrong with it immediately return it I'm not saying you should go through and be ultra picky we do have to realize these are vintage pieces of equipment but if they do say it's working correctly and a Channel's dropping out on you or an input doesn't work or the turntable is not Auto returning when it's supposed to be those types of things those are the things you want to send back because the problem is the seller knows you have 30 days to return it and if you go to them and you say hey something's not working and their reply is well take it to a a vintage stereo repair shop and I'll pay the repair or I'll pay half the repair and you say okay what happens is you go to take it to a vintage stereo repair shop and they say you know we're so backed up we won't be able to even look at that piece for another you you know 2 3 months uh you're past your warranty unfortunately it's just the way it is you know there is a risk when you're buying vintage electronics if you paid for something that's advertised as working as intended just make sure it is because a lot of people I don't even know if they test the equipment you know they might just plug it in put some speaker wires on it tune in a station and say it's working where it takes 45 minutes for that amplifier source to warm up for the grins to start coming out and that's something you want to figure out in those first 30 days so that's just my real quick tip for you we seen it so many times where people bring something in and they say that the seller is going to pay for the repair thank you for everybody that tuned to the live stream last night I'm feeling a lot better I mean I was pretty down and out yesterday I must have got some good sleep or something I'm still a little under the weather but nowhere near as bad as I was last night so thank you for everybody that tuned into that stream I know I missed a couple people's super chats and if you sent a Super Chat I'm very sorry I was like a deer in headlights I literally had no idea what was going on I think I sat in my chair for a good 15 minutes after we hit stop live stream like this anyway thank you all for those that attended that we got our first snow here in De Moine it's cold it is cold already and the sun's going down early and it's going to get funky just like every year so go ahead over to skylabs audio.com shop grab yourself a t-shirt should be able to get it to you before Christmas if you're buying it as a gift we'll do our best and we'll see you in the next video [Music] thanks

Channel: Skylabs Audio

Views: 36,296

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Id: oQT5Ol9pwew

Length: 20min 57sec (1257 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 03 2023