I have a SOTA star saphire with vacuum holdown and a Eminent tech air bearing arm with tangential tracking. I recently had the bearing on the platter checked and lubed by SOTA. It’s for sale to a local and being replaced with a SOTA cosmos with the roadrunner upgrade. I’m planning on mounting a Kuzma 4 point 9 inch arm on it eventually… I guess that digital streaming has gotten the best of me.
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The oldest piece of gear in use is just an accessory now, a Sansui AT20 Timer from 1983 that switched my first real system but is now just a clock.
I still have the Pioneer PL 707 turntable from that system but it’s not seen any use in 10 years. It was probably never a great turntable but it’s just too pretty to part with.
The oldest gear in a signal chain is a lovely sounding pair of Philharmonic Audio BMR in Salk boxes from 2018.
Garrard 301 with 12” SME, inherited (I’m old but not that old). There’s also a TD125 and a 401 with 9” SME.
The 301 has a modern Audio Technica ATOC9XSL MC cartridge (but I have other cartridges including a fantastic Decca). I’ve a good record collection from the 70s and 80s and a few modern records so that I can attempt to compare analogue to digital.
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My 25 year old Acoustic Signature Final Tool was the company’s first offering in the US market and it’s still going strong. I replaced the original Rega RB300 tonearm with an AudioMods Classic and also replaced the original belt drive motor with a new model about ten years ago. It was only $1995 when originally retailed. Hard to believe how much these things have gone up in price with the passing of time.
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Got to be my 1972 model Richard Allen Pavane speakers, just been using them now, in my “late at night” system so as not to shake the neighbours (semi-detached listening).
However if I still had them (obvious comment I suppose) I would still be using as my main amps my Beam Echo DL7-35 valve monoblocks. These were (are) the best valve monoblocks ever built*, and date from the very late 1950s.
* strong statement I know. True though 
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hi dan
we may have discussed this before, in which case apologies!
i know you run a very nice system with digital crossover and three dacs etc etc, how do you play analogues sources such as the TTs into that system?
Hi John, a fellow Brit. Because I use a DEQX crossover I have the benefits of lots of inputs, including a couple of analogue inputs. Those analogue inputs go via an internal ADC so that the PCM crossover and EQ logic can join the same processing that things like coax, optical, AES/EBU and USB go through The crossover I use is an old DEQX HDP5 which uses Burr Brown chips to do its ADC processing (it also has dac chips for the bass/mid/treble analogue outputs that I don’t use - I take the three 96/24 digital coax outputs into the three DS Seniors) (this old DEQX crossover processes internally at 96/24)..
One of those analogue inputs takes the RCA outputs from my Denon Atmos home cinema amp, the other analogue input is a pair of XLRs, the output of the ATOC9XLS goes into a PS Audio GCPH phono stage (which I’m very pleased with) and I take the balanced outs from the GCPH into the XLR inputs of the DEQX crossover.
I’m a beta tester for the new DEQX Pre8 crossover - that beta testing has been going on for 18 months as they improve the processing and pretty up the user interface - it’s still not finished and as of today the old crossover beats it hands down. The old DEQX crossover needed to be set up by a DEQX expert dialling in to do all the time alignment etc (I wouldn’t trust myself to do that correctly). The idea of the new DEQX crossover is that the ‘calibration and crossover’ is more automated than in the old crossover. The new processor uses the 8 channel ESS chips (and ESS ADC) and a more powerful processor than the old crossiver.
For digital input I use a pair of Melco N1As, one holds the music library which links, via an ethernet cable, to a second N1A for rendering - it outputs via USB to the DEQX crossover.
My system sounds amazing (to me) on some CDs - vinyl is ok and certainly retains that vinyl sound signature but vinyl purists would never have it. I have lots of bass trapping and absorption in a large room (by UK standards) so everything is very ‘tight’ (to the point that visitors don’t understand where the bass has gone, because they all are used to listening to room resonance rather than clean bass).
I loved my ADS L810’s! For the day they actually had DETAIL and dynamic response unlike anything else at the time.
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My Pass Labs XP-30 pre amp is the oldest, unless you count my college senior design project bandwidth control filter and bandwidth controlled equalizer that limited the BW based on the signal frequency to reduce noise. Great when FM was analog and not digital. No sound cuts the BW to zero so no noise.That was in 1983. Only records can use the filter now.
The College got rid of the project, said it was too hard. We had to invent and make everything except the individual components. Make the PC boards, design the traces, make the power supplie, build the cases, label it all and better, make it WORK. Some bit off more than they can chew, so we did get credit based on complexity. You learn a lot about how hard this stuff is to make. I made the BW controlled filter work as a seprarte box, then added it into the equalizer circuit. SAE had crazy names like ampzilla, so I named the BW controlled equalized the Mantis Mode Mixer. But, I made sure SOMETHING worked. And, they both still work. Today, looking at my design notebook and final exam paper (off to the left), I have no idea how I did it all!
Best, Galen
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Yes, numbers dwindling: someone has to stand up for “British Values” (i.e. proper fused mains plugs)
Thanks for the comprehensive answer, being on the beta for the new gadget is nice!
I’m all digital here too though not currently doing the electronic crossover thing, I may play again if I ever get around to modifying my old DCX2496, even though the digital input is also not ideal on that unit.
For my own recent vinyl resurgence I am going from the phono stage in to a “behringer mods” modified DEQ2496: with the replacement analogue stages (and a replacement digital IO board of mine own wangling) it sounds so much better. Not purist, as you say, but good enough to enjoy daily
That is a nice project, very impressive
Can you recall what technology / circuits it used?
When I built the house extension I moved my Leak 2075s (from the mid ‘70s, 4-way, and still capable of beating virtually any modern speaker) into the new room (they were made active with a DCX2496 for each side). However they weren’t able to safely get to the SPLs that I wanted in a big room which is why I went for massive PMC speakers (with the DCX2496s as crossovers). I spoke to Pete Thomas (the owner of PMC) and he said that the weakest link was the crossovers, that’s when I chose to go the DEQX route. I also changed the dacs and amplification with PS Audio gear (except for the bass amps which are Crown).
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No longer have the Infinity speakers and sub? Well this is a surprise.
A true beauty
To a point I miss my ADS L810 purchased in 1976 at the West Lafayette Good Vibes stereo shop. Fine speakers for the day. It came down to Dahlquist DQ-10 or the L810. As a college student the DQ-10 was completely impractical. The ADS L810 had a refined sound and were great with the acoustic music I preferred at the time. My amp was a GAS Son of Ampzilla driven by an AGI 5111a preamp. Turntable, B&o 4002, quickly replaced by a Linn LP12 Ittok LVII Grace F9e set-up. Sweet system for a college student and budding audiophile.
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Having owned one, Ampzilla was a nome touted about by GAS, Great American Sound. The SOn of Ampzilla was the sweet spot in the line-up. Ampzilla due to its power rating of 200WPC had certain reliability issues. My Sophmore project was a prototype high slew rate amplifier based on the Matti Otala amp of 1973.
Hello,
I don’t know which is older but I have a Sherwood S-3000 tube tuner and a Garrard 4HF turntable both circa late 50s or very early 60s that I actually got relatively recently. The oldest item that I purchased new, still have and use is a Dual 606 from 1980.
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Dude! You probably know me.
I worked at Good vibes from 1974 until 1983 whan I graduated form Purdue. Even stranger, I swapped the L810’s for DQ-10’s with the DQ-1W subs and the electronic cross-over. I drove the subs with Kenwood LO7-M’s and the mains with the APT-1 amplifier. APT pre-amp and ARISTON LP-II table with the DENON 103D. An AIWA AD6900 three head cassette deck on that side of things.
Prior to that I had the Phase Linear 400 and the Soundcraftsman PE2217 (still have the record) preamp. There was an HK preamp in there for a short while, number forgotten.
Who did you work with, remember? Me of course or; Jim Whitney, Bob Gassel, Wendle Good or the sometimes in W.L. crew from Champaign; Jim Chapman, Steve Sudeman, Steve Firszt or Pat Coin.
Those were so, so much fun days (schlock around the clock 24 hour sale!) and we never knew it. Here is my genuine ghost of the hi-fi past!
Best, Galen
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I still work with the designer of those ampzilla, SAE, Threshold and more products, Barry Thorton. He sells stuff under the Austion Audio Works name now. The head amp sounds GREAT too. I met him at Good Vibes during an SAE manufacturer’s demo day, remember those?
Galen
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I am sure we crossed paths at GV WL. I recall their infamous Dutch Auction, ha!
Don’t recall the sales person’s name other than he got dressed down for cutting too good of a deal on my L810’s when I traded in my current speakers at the time.
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