I had a Pioneer Spec-1 and Spec-2 amp and pre-amp forever. 500 watts per channel! I guess I never bought enough speaker because that setup loved to destroy speakers!! Talk about a heavy piece of equipment.... Have a modern Marantz amp driving my surround system now with a pair of Def Tech Bipolar powered towers, 8020 I think. I'm no audiophile but it sounds good to me, day in and day out.
I'm really kind of surprised at all the audio interest on here. Pretty cool. You guys have some very nice equipment. I remember the stacked Advent setup. That was really popular at one time. My stuff is really nothing great. I just don't have a lot of cash or room to put into it. I enjoy making stuff more than anything. I have a collection of junk that I cycle around the house for my kids and I to listen to. Lots of 70's receivers, for the most part. I'm still using an old Adcom power amp that I found cheap on Craigslist. Been thinking about building a tube preamp to warm things up a little. Anyone ever hear of RTR speakers? My first stereo (thanks, Mom and Dad) had a pair of RTR speakers. I finally found another pair a couple years ago. They have a 10" woofer and a tweeter. Nothing really special, but very listenable with nice bass. They are lacking in the mids and treble, but like a lot of classic stuff the bad is about what's missing more than what's annoyingly wrong. I recently took my main speaker system I built 20+ years ago out of commission. It was made up of 2- 6.5" Vifa woofers and Morel MDT-33 tweeters. Sounded pretty good, but I was bored with it. It might get rebuilt into another configuration at some point. I'm starting to get the itch to build something again.
The Aragon 8008 is an interesting design. I just had a look at the schematic. It's a solid amp, for sure. Dual differential cascoded input stage, buffered to the VAS. Dual drivers driving 6 pairs of output BJTs, and servo balanced, direct coupled. Not bad!
I buy vintage stuff....got this Sansui SP-Z99 speaker cheap as it was previously damaged in shipment. The guy tossed the other one ...it had more damage. This one just has chip out of corner of wood. All original...15in woofer...self powered by way of speaker wire current....the more you turn it up the more it powers itself. Great sound but...weird....
I was just a poor college student working part time in a grocery store when I started buying my stereo components. I saved up and bought a pair of Large Advent Utilities (couldn't afford the walnut veneer ones) first. I hooked those up to our console stereo until I could afford a receiver & turntable. Next I bought a Yamaha CR620 receiver and a Micro Seiki MB15 turntable. Later I added the Aiwa cassette deck and another pair of Advents. Then I realized the 35 watts per channel was not enough for four large Advents so I bought the Yamaha RX900U and later the BSR subwoofer. I sold the CR620 and one pair of Advents to a co-worker back in the 90's. Wish I hadn't... When the foam went bad on the Advents, he threw them away!
Low distortion is the key....I've got a Sansui with .01% and a Kenwood with .04%....only 40 watts but it is clear. As Cerwin Vegas motto....loud is beautiful...if it is clean
That's pretty true, mostly. The type of distortion produced also has a lot of effect. Lower harmonic orders tend to just sound warm and full, and the type of circuits that produce them typically don't produce higher order harmonics, which sound harsh and brittle. One of the biggest things in putting together a good system is finding components that work well together as a system. A component's flaws can be minimized by using it with the right connecting components, or a good component can sound bad if it's not in a system that works with it.
I love my music and cars loud, neighbours not so much LOL! Speakers are English made Mission towers M35i, 150wrms, 8ohm, 40hz-20khz. Amp is Denon AVC-A1SE 170wrms into all channels. Gets played max a few times. Built my own subwoofer from a 12" 400wrms Cerwin Vega twin rib sub that came out of one of our cars where I had 4 in there, destroyed 1, sold 2 and kept 1. Bought a 400wrms plate amp for the box but it has since given up and cant find a cost effective replacement
So, I think I have my next project... My stereo in my truck died. I'm thinking about building a Raspberry Pi based media server to use in the truck, and replacing the head unit with a custom made preamp and external power amps. I have a cool idea for the preamp, but I'm not going to give it away just yet. Let's just say it will be unique and somewhat retro.
So, went through the system and pulled the following model numbers: Amp # 1: Counterpoint SA-8 Amp# 2: BK Components ST-140 Pre-Amp: Counterpoint SA-3000 Tuner: Rotel RT850A Turntable: Rotel RP850, not sure of cartridge, need to check further but I know it is very good quality CD Player: Rotel RCD850 Speakers: Main Speakers JSE Infinite Slope model 2 Secondary Speakers JSE Infinite Slope model 1 All gold speaker cables and interconnects House is wired and Pre-Amp has capability to drive both amps and sets of speakers simultaneously. Main speakers are on main floor and secondary speakers are in basement/man cave. Checking further as to what schematics are available.
Just checked out the SA8 schematic. Interesting amplifier. Hybrid tube / mosfet. If you need output mosfets, I think it's not going to be an easy repair. I see some serious design issues with this amp that could lead to problems. I'm not surprised it's broken, to be honest.
Actually the amp is fine but could use a tube change, which I've done before and is no big deal. It could be upgraded, as could the pre amp but the original designer, Mr Elliot, is retired and no longer active. Even if it totally crapped out, I could use the BK amp which, not of the quality of the Counterpoint, is not too shabby either. The problem is really the speakers, the series 2 that is. The series 1's are fine.
Being capacitor coupled, you could roll tubes until your heart is content and not affect much of anything (which is fun). The problems I'm seeing are in the output stage and its bias circuit. Should work ok, until it doesn't, lol. There are many possibilities to improve this amp. How warm does it run? Mosfets typically like a heavy bias to sound their best. A better bias circuit and more heatsinking / bias would likely make the greatest improvements in sound and stability. But hey, if it works, it works. The speakers are going to be quite the project. I would love to hear this system. I bet it was amazing when it was all working well.
