Vintage Stereo
A little home project to get started with my vinyl collecting and at the same time have my self an epic vintage stereo with “retrofit”. Total money spent 2000 NOK’ish.
What I did
After some time reading about vintage stereos and watts vs. rms and all the different stereo terms, and several hours searching eBay, finn.no and several other marketplaces. I decided to go vintage, since old amplifiers are real solid engineering and is said to have that warm and comfy sound. Which I can confirm.
I investigated and searched for a while and found these; A TEAC BX-500 Silver Aluminium Stereo amplifier bought from FINN.no, 700 NOK
A JVC QL-F4 Fully Automatic turntable bought from FINN.no, 500 NOK
An old Pioneer Stereo cabinet to fit with the equipment, 300 NOK And I wanted something that could AirPlay and also function with Spotify Connect. So, after some more investigation I ended up buying a Müzo Cobblestone on 40%, 490 NOK at surround.no
I also did some research turning my Raspberry Pi into a Airplay thingy, but didn’t want to get more nerdy than I already was.
To top it all
My father gave me his old pair of Pioneer HPM-70 speakers which had been stashed away in a wareroom and had not seen daylight for almost 25 years. They still sound pretty damn audiophillic and woofy. This rig let’s me listen to music loud and silent and the sound quality does not distort at all. It sounds super crips and clear on both highs and lows.
Anyhow…
First I cleaned everything inside these babies up, especially the amplifier. As long as you know where to put every screw back, this is easy. Knobs and cables fully vacuumed, and electronically cleaned with Q-tips, alcohol and some other cleaning supplies – “baking soda” to brush the aluminium and some polishing compound to clean the clear acrylic . Totally dust free in every component and no crackling sounds when turning the knobs. I replaced the old bulbs with new led light bulbs which also generate less heat and the amplifier are kept more cool.
Now I can play my favourites on vinyl or use AirPlay, Radio streaming and/or Spotify Connect when being to lazy to turn the tables. I can access my Vintage Stereo from every device in my home, real neat. *Insert pic*
Look at the result 🙂 it’s awesomeness
