Vintage Stereo: 6 Things I Had Completely Wrong!

I was wrong I admit it I was wrong I'm going to talk about some of the things that I've definitely changed my mind on in the last 8 10 years or so that looking back in retrospect we're just wrong you know it's just the way it is I think we all go through this I'm going to share mine it's going to be a lot of fun here we go cables maybe one of the things I was the most wrong about I would say things like you know copper is copper you don't need to buy expensive cables they're not going to make a difference especially if you're like me and you're really into vintage stereo equipment I don't think there's anything more important than really good reliable cables and let's face it with vintage stereo equipment because there are lots of quirks and bugs the last thing you want to worry about is whether or not it's possibly a cable that's causing a Dropout in one of your channels or a hum or anything like that having expensive cables is one of those things I used to kind of laugh at people for how much did you spend for your cables again you know do you really think you're getting that better sound buying a really expensive cable I would kind of laugh and think that you know they were just buying snake oil after doing this day in and day out and taking phone calls from people that are struggling to find the problem with their vintage stereo system I don't think anything could be more important than having a a good set of speaker cables and a good set of interconnects just to rule that out so you can actually try and figure out what the problem actually is you know you don't have to spend a fortune I'll put some links down in the description for some RCA cables and speaker cable that I've used I think are really nice for the money I don't think they're overpriced and I don't think they're trying to sell you hype that it's going to change the sound of your stereo system that's not my goal with cables I just want something reliable something that's not going to cause issues in my system with speaker cables my goal is to get a decent gauge maybe 16 or 14 gauge and make sure it's pure copper you don't want Copper clad wire copper clad wire really shouldn't be used for anything you know it rusts over time it gets brakes it's brittle get yourself some good solid copper oxygen free preferred and with your rcas just make sure you're getting something with some good shielding in it I mean that is so important that outside frequencies and interference and all the other things we've got going on in house aren't able to get into that audio cable and get into your amplifier there's nothing worse than a noisy RCA cable it's causing you trouble we had a customer a couple weeks ago he bought a turntable from us brand new and could not get the noise or the hum out of his system when he was using his brand new turntable after several phone calls and trying to isolate the problem we eventually said do you mind just bringing in your system let us do a little bit of testing see what's going on it just didn't make sense it all came down to the factory cable that was provided by the turntable manufacturer it just goes to show you those cheap rcas are exactly what they are they're cheap rcas and sometimes even brand new out of the box they can be bad having good cables is absolutely worth the peace of mind and my time not to have to dick with those things anymore I'm done with the old cables I'm only buying decent cables from now on and that's it Sansui is the best period hands down better build quality easy to repair sounds better looks better Sansui it's the best I was wrong over the years operating a repair shop we've seen a lot of gear and my mind has definitely changed on this I'm not saying Sansui is bad I'm not saying you shouldn't buy Sansui or you shouldn't like Sansui it's still my favorite brand but by no means do I think it is the best bu equipment or the most reliable or the most easy to work on they're far from being the worst but I do think there are other brands out there with amplifiers and receivers that are more reliable they're easier to work on they're easier to service from what I've seen from the repairs that come through here and we're excluding Macintosh Macintosh is a totally different ball game I'm talking about 7s consumer gear these Major Brands over a 10year span I would definitely give it to Mor's Pioneer and Harmon Carden you know maybe Sansui is fourth you know Sansui and Yamaha but nonetheless I used to tow that line pretty hard I definitely was a cheerleader for Sansui and I've definitely changed my mind on that I still love my Sansui I'm always going to collect Sansui I do think there were a few manufacturers that just did it just a little bit better over a wider range of models at least sansu is still better than Kenwood just kidding you make one video about Kenwood one video and I really tried to emphasize that it was not all the models and you never hear the end of it I'm so sorry to all you Kenwood fans out there they made some amazing products they just made a few more Duds than the top five that's all I still like Kenwood even if you don't believe me for a big portion of my life I was definitely in the vinyl analog beats everything it destroys digital I don't know why anybody even bothers with digital analog and vinyl records is where it's at end of story that was me that was my opinion I said it a lot and I've changed my mind 100% I definitely not on the digital destroys vinyl and analog and that type of thing either I am kind of right in the middle now I'm definitely hybrid even with advancements and digital I don't think it's ever going to end analog reproduction and that is definitely a a good thing I'm happy to just dream something that I might be into for you know 6 months or a year and then it kind of just goes away I definitely remember getting into some pretty heated arguments over this very topic and maybe 8 10 years ago it was a little bit more viable and that digital really hadn't evolved into what it is now and how good it sounds now you know with DSD files and high res and that type of thing you know you have to think 8 10 years ago we were kind of heavy in the MP3 era and it was horrible it those MP3s still sound terrible today but that that's a long time ago you know digital music has come a long ways I don't think it will ever replace uh analog playback but I like that I have a choice of owning the stuff that I really love and the stuff that I really want to hear on an analog format if I want to otherwise there's still the option of you know listening to music on a really good digital source and I'm I'm definitely okay with that at this point and I don't feel like I need to go into battle and try and convince people to try analog if you don't like the analog sound uh it's not convenient for you there's nothing wrong with the digital side of things and I've definitely changed my mind on that so guys I just bought a new stereo it sounds so good I got I got JBL speakers I got a techniques turntable oh what kind of receiver did you get it's a realistic it sounds really good it's heavy he's got a realistic if you've been in this hobby for any amount of time we know the shame that we put on our friends and people that bought realistic I don't think there's a brand out there that gets the baggage that realistic gets or the hate that realistic gets it's kind of like the yugos in the'80s I don't know if you remember the car company you know it get you from point A to point B it was cheap and you did not want to be caught in one of those things because people were going to make fun of you and that definitely happened with realistic and I used to think that going into this because that's what I remember you know from being a kid where when people said they had a realistic stereo they kind of Set It Off to the side you know it's realistic you know it's too bad it's not warranted you know there were some really good pieces of realistic equipment they're kind of just mixed in you kind of got to look at the details and figure out if it's a quality realistic or if it's one of the ones that you want to avoid Unfortunately they changed the name just because the stigma towards realistic was so bad they changed it to Optimus but you know these stereo systems that were sold at Radio Shack weren't made by Radio Shack they were made by a lot of different companies there's so much speculation online about who made what you'll hear every single brand mentioned when people talk about who actually made realistic but but the point is is that realistic didn't make products they bought products from other companies and then just rebranded them so some were really wellmade and some were just on the inexpensive side and cut a lot of corners and this is one of those I fought for so long and in my head I thought I'm not listening to super deep bass and Hip-Hop and I'm not watching movies my speakers are big enough and they have enough base there's just no reason to have a subwoofer I can't imagine having a stereo system without a subwoofer at this point there's so many benefits to it it's not going to turn you into a base head you're not going to be one of those guys that's rattling the windows it's not going to sound like those cars going down the street that is so loud that the trunk of the car is vibrating and seems to be moving it Forward more than the engine that's not going to happen if you dial in the subwoofer correctly and get it blended into your system it is absolutely going to be a game Cher for you you probably don't realize how much low information is in that music that you love and you've been listening to for so long the first time I hooked up a subwoofer I remember spending the afternoon really getting it dialed in and my wife coming home she sat on the couch and and she looks over at the subw and she goes what's that and I said oh this is amazing wait till you hear this and my wife she she plays along with my madness in this Hobby and she's really great about it I play her a song and I turn off the sub and I turn it back on and I turn it off and I turn it back on and I I'm like you know what you think and she goes I didn't hear a difference and I went perfect that's how subtle my subfer is my wife is not a critical listener she is just not that interested in music reproduction it's not that she doesn't like music it's just that studying nuances or hearing music at that level she just does doesn't care and that's fine I don't need her to I have friends for that it was a really good way for me to tell that I had that subwoofer set perfectly because to me it was night and day it was really just taking a big load off of my amplifier by letting that subwoofer produce those really deep notes that my speakers weren't able to hit and just adding that extra depth in the low end to my system since then I I don't know how many people I've talked into getting subwoofers and it's been the same thing and a lot of times when I'm going over a new system for a customer usually if the person is my age or older they kind of have the same reaction that I used to have which was I don't need a subwoofer I don't want a subwoofer and they really just kind of shut down the idea immediately it's really hard to break through and explain to them what I just said and that it's not going to turn you into a Bas head that's not what we're trying to achieve here and the people that have added a subwoofer to their system Eric included the video editor Eric that's been in a lot of our videos lately he is another person that has within the last two or three years has picked up a sub and he he feels the same way and for those of you out there that do kind of have that mindset where I don't even want to try a subwoofer there's no way I need it or no way I would like it you really should give it a shot with the beauty of the internet you could purchase one of these subwoofers on Amazon and if you don't like it you can return it now I'm not a big advocate for that because even Amazon any business that gets a lot of returns but in this case because you might not have a store that could show you the difference between a subwoofer in your system and one without that's still an option if you're local and you'd like to come in and hear a stereo system with or without a sub we've got several around here we can easily show that to you even if you have large speakers that you think are getting those low frequencies you might be surprised how much a subwoofer that is dedicated to those low frequencies what kind of a difference that can make especially in this hobby it seems few and far between that I get a piece of equipment that really elevates everything and a subwoofer is definitely one of those things so if you've got it in your head that you absolutely do not need one you do not want one and you will not like one I definitely implore you to change that thought and at least go experience it or try it for yourself we actually made a video not too long ago on how to hook up almost any subwoofer to your vintage receiver and if you haven't hooked up a subwoofer and you're thinking about it do yourself a favor buy a subwoofer with highlevel inputs and highle outputs make it easy on yourself and do it right but there is that video If you have a subwoofer that doesn't have highle ins and outs by dig why would anybody buy a new turntable when there are so many good vintage turntables out there that are built better and are cheaper why would you buy a new one I don't get it if somebody asked me advice on buying a turntable that was my response I've definitely changed my mind on this this is definitely situational I would be asking questions first about how techsavvy is the person does this person absolutely need a plug-and playay device something that is going to work right out of the box with no issues because turntables are completely different than any other piece of equipment in your system they are so fragile so delicate and if they are not perfectly tuned and performing at spec you are going to have issues and that's a problem this is one of those that I do not think vintage turntables are for everybody I would say most people out there should not buy vintage turntables and I sell vintage turntables there are a lot of people out there that really should be buying new turntables where the cartridge is new it's already set up it's kind of got training wheels on it and there's nothing wrong with that you know you have to think these turntables that are 40 or 50 years old you could buy one and it could last you 10 15 20 years no problems at all but after doing this for as long as I've been doing it there is a lot of potential for problems and issues a lot of these turntables the cables were soldered in so you can't just change them out there's a lot of problems with the 40 and 50y old feet or the isolation of the turntable there's just a lot of things that could potentially go wrong with a vintage turntable that unless you know what you're doing you could be buying a headache and a lot of people just want to play their records you know they're not in the hobby the way we are and before you recommend a new or vintage turntable to somebody I think you got to kind of assess the person that's buying it and there's something to be said about a brand new turntable with a brand new tone arm brand new gimbal that is fluid it's got a good strong motor so I I've honestly kind of changed my mind and I'm going to continue to sell vintage turntables because there are some amazing vintage turntables out there no question but they got to be for the right people and that's really all it comes down to you know before I was a a vintage all the way I wouldn't even consider buying a new turntable to wear I'm at now which is how deep do you want to get into this and are you willing to either learn how to deal with problems as they come up uh in order to have that vintage Vibe and that vintage turntable or are you better off just getting something brand new WorryFree trouble-free in the world of turntables I do not think vintage rules Supreme and I know a lot of you haven't subscribed out there that watch our videos almost on a weekly basis please do us a favor hit that subscribe button we're really close to that 50,000 subscriber Mark and I'd appreciate it if you'd help us get there thank you for watching another video hopefully you're having an excellent day and we'll see you in the next one thank you

Channel: Skylabs Audio

Views: 48,543

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Id: Penuxc6QSUw

Length: 17min 24sec (1044 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 21 2024